Speaker Upgrades

[pseudo]

Hey guys,

So I am a little disappointed by the stock audio system - which is fine considering how much car you get in other respects, but the highs on the car clip and rasp, the mid is nothing impressive and there is literally no bass.


So I went down to my local car audio shop, who is basically an alpine-exclusive dealer. He recommended the spr-60c for the 6" door speakers and tweeters:
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/spr-60c/


and he didn't really push for me to touch the 4" speakers in front or in the back, but if I did, I think that these are the best 4" speakers that alpine has:
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/sps-410/


I have a nice 2 channel setup at my home, and I realize that car audio can't come close to good home audio - but do any audiophiles out there have any experience with alpine? Will the sound quality justify the ~500 price tag? Is there a better brand out there for car audio?


Cheers!

[TRD_86]

I'm on the same boat and waiting for any good by this black Friday, but you need to get the new alpine HU to make it sound qood. Here is my choice in order.
1) A 6.5" component focal K2 front.
2) Infinity kappa
3) Alpine is the least pick.

[pseudo]

Amazon has the alpine R's for $155 right now. I think I might scoop up a pair and install them myself.

Shouldn't be too difficult, right?

[edit] Just started looking into car audio - damn there is a lot out there. Maybe I won't jump the gun and instead take my time with this...

[6-Shift]

The largest subwoofer you will need for balanced sound (like a home hi fi system) would be a 10" with correctly powered amplifier. A subwoofer is vital though.

Edit: I have an alpine type e 10" from a couple years ago in a truck box in my car currently and it completely satisfies my desire for bass. It doesn't take much for such a small cabin.

[MidnightRunner]

...Ok. Well the dash speakers are 3.5 and the doors run 6.5s. I know this because I just measured them. The doors also run at a 2ohm impedance, so if those alpines are 4 ohm, your doors would sound extremely tame. The door 6.5s actually aren't that bad, but I went with some jbls to fill. They're ehh. The real star of my setup were the pioneer 3.5s on the dash. The stock speakers are complete shit, and I promise you would hear the difference switching them out. You could buy the Metra harness and just cut and plug to wire them up. Also cut out the pass filter and put a new bass blocker for your dash mounts. If you have money to blow, the focal speakers are TOP NOTCH. I'm just too broke to afford them.

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[pseudo]

Okay, I have been researching car audio all day, and I am quite impressed with the level of engineering in these setups. The learning curve is steeper than I thought, but I think that I am catching up.

At this point, what I am looking for are $400ish step-upgrades that I can make every few months to keep building out my sound system to the point where I have a full active setup.


After a bit of reading, I am thinking that upgrading the factory amp to a 4 channel one might be a good first step - along with replacing the 6.5's in the doors. Any advice on selecting speakers, amps, wiring, etc?


I figure that will leave me room to remove the back 4" speakers and power the front components/tweeters with the remaining 2 channels from the amp. Is this setup possible with the stock head unit?


Some notes: I want to retain an OEM look to the system. Keeping the oem grill on the front component/tweeters is a must. I also will probably dynamat the car while I have everything teared up.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[MidnightRunner]

That's not a typical amp swap. Check the inputs on the stock amp and compare it to an aftermarket amp. If you're going through the trouble of swapping out the full speaker setup, then make your life easier and get a nice headunit to start.

Edit:

Actually upon doing a little more research, I found a nice little alpine amp that can run on the line outs provided through the stock wiring. You just need the Metra 70 1761 and you'll be good to go... I did my speakers last year October when I had limited info on the wiring, and now you've sold me into buying the alpine ktp455u! Damn you..

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[pseudo]

When I do get a head unit, I am going to want a top of the line model like the ine-w927hd. Unfortunately, I do not have the cash flow to drop on a head unit like that at this time. In 6 months or so that shouldn't be a problem, but for now my budget is about $400.

[MidnightRunner]

Originally Posted by pseudo

When I do get a head unit, I am going to want a top of the line model like the ine-w927hd. Unfortunately, I do not have the cash flow to drop on a head unit like that at this time. In 6 months or so that shouldn't be a problem, but for now my budget is about $400.

The alpine amp was about 110 on Amazon and the harness was about 10. Not a bad start. The 3.5 could just drop in, or maybe shallow 4s could fit instead.

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[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by pseudo

Hey guys,

So I am a little disappointed by the stock audio system - which is fine considering how much car you get in other respects, but the highs on the car clip and rasp, the mid is nothing impressive and there is literally no bass.


So I went down to my local car audio shop, who is basically an alpine-exclusive dealer. He recommended the spr-60c for the 6" door speakers and tweeters:
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/spr-60c/


and he didn't really push for me to touch the 4" speakers in front or in the back, but if I did, I think that these are the best 4" speakers that alpine has:
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/sps-410/


I have a nice 2 channel setup at my home, and I realize that car audio can't come close to good home audio - but do any audiophiles out there have any experience with alpine? Will the sound quality justify the ~500 price tag? Is there a better brand out there for car audio?


Cheers!

I ran Alpine Type-R components in all 4 doors in my STI, and each pair cost $300 for just the speaker pairs. It was absolutely worth every penny. Better than the Type-R coaxials with better highs, though both components and coax's have excellent mids and non-subwoofer bass.

If I wasn't pretty well sold on OEM Audio+, I'd be going with a Type-R solution for my BRZ. Probably go with components again, with woofers in the doors, and route the tweeters to the front deck and leave out the mid-range 3" speakers, replace the rear speakers with 4" Type-S's, and go with a JL Audio 8" sub in the rear (probably dual 4ohms wired in parallel), and run a 5 channel amp: 1 mono channel for the sub, and a channel for each speaker, and run the amp from the stock HU through an audio-control LC2 (and from the LC2 pre-outs to the amp), or use an aftermarket HU with good pre-outs (at least 4V) and run pre-outs from the HU to the amp.

I'm not a high-def audiophile (I won't spend $800 on a set of headphones and have a special 2-channel listening room or whatnot), but I am an audio-lover. I like GOOD audio.

The alpine type R's are very much worth their price tag, but you DO need to amp the speakers. The stock HU doesn't provide enough power to power aftermarket speakers, period, and doing so will not give you good quality, or at least not at the level which would justify the price tag. But with a good AMP, the speakers will really shine and prove their worth.

[MidnightRunner]

Originally Posted by SirBrass

I ran Alpine Type-R components in all 4 doors in my STI, and each pair cost $300 for just the speaker pairs. It was absolutely worth every penny. Better than the Type-R coaxials with better highs, though both components and coax's have excellent mids and non-subwoofer bass.

If I wasn't pretty well sold on OEM Audio+, I'd be going with a Type-R solution for my BRZ. Probably go with components again, with woofers in the doors, and route the tweeters to the front deck and leave out the mid-range 3" speakers, replace the rear speakers with 4" Type-S's, and go with a JL Audio 8" sub in the rear (probably dual 4ohms wired in parallel), and run a 5 channel amp: 1 mono channel for the sub, and a channel for each speaker, and run the amp from the stock HU through an audio-control LC2 (and from the LC2 pre-outs to the amp), or use an aftermarket HU with good pre-outs (at least 4V) and run pre-outs from the HU to the amp.

I'm not a high-def audiophile (I won't spend $800 on a set of headphones and have a special 2-channel listening room or whatnot), but I am an audio-lover. I like GOOD audio.

The alpine type R's are very much worth their price tag, but you DO need to amp the speakers. The stock HU doesn't provide enough power to power aftermarket speakers, period, and doing so will not give you good quality, or at least not at the level which would justify the price tag. But with a good AMP, the speakers will really shine and prove their worth.

I had the choice between the cleansweep or the lc2 and I went with the audiocontrol. I'm sure you'll like it.

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[SirBrass]

Only if I don't go with OEM Audio+'s Reference 400+ CF.

[MidnightRunner]

Probably the simplest solution.

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[pseudo]

Okay, a quick question about the R's - They have a 6.5" component speaker and a tweeter, which means that the component is going in my door and the tweeter is going on the dash. Since the dash's tweeter is already connected to the 3.5" component speaker, is there any wiring/fitment problems that will arise from having the door/tweeters paired instead of the tweeter/dash pairing? Should I just upgrade the 3.5" speakers while I am in there? Would the SPS-410's fit with the type R tweeters in the factory location and still have room for the OEM speaker cover?

[Edit] Also - what does the crossover that comes with the speakers actually do?