I recently aquired a 1995 Ford Escort and it came with two blown rear speakers I am looking to replace. The person who used it before me replaced with manufacturer speakers 3 times and had them all blow out on her. I need to buy a set of good speakers that have good sound quality as well as good resistance to blowouts.
I am using a Aiwa CD Player with everything else standard. No amplifiers or subwoofers. I am looking to buy Pioneer TS-A1665 A Series 3-Way speakers or Sony Xplod 3-ways. which is better? and would I need any special devices or anything to use them on my current setup?
and what is the difference between 2-way and 3-way speakers.
I am using a Aiwa CD Player with everything else standard. No amplifiers or subwoofers. I am looking to buy Pioneer TS-A1665 A Series 3-Way speakers or Sony Xplod 3-ways. which is better? and would I need any special devices or anything to use them on my current setup?
and what is the difference between 2-way and 3-way speakers.
2 or 3 way speakers
Two way speakers have 2 drive units (woofer & Tweeter), three way units hav an additional mid-range driver.
Don't be fooled into thinking that more is always better though as half of the art of making it all sound good is making the frequencies pass seamlessly from one driver to the next - not always done with enough care to work properly.
As for which ones to choose - listen to them and choose the ones that sound best to you - is there another way?
Two way speakers have 2 drive units (woofer & Tweeter), three way units hav an additional mid-range driver.
Don't be fooled into thinking that more is always better though as half of the art of making it all sound good is making the frequencies pass seamlessly from one driver to the next - not always done with enough care to work properly.
As for which ones to choose - listen to them and choose the ones that sound best to you - is there another way?
None of the above
Blown speakers are almost always because they were overdriven. Too much volume attempted from too little amp and speakers.
So decide what you want first. Do you want loud? Do you want bass? Then you need to start over. Take a big step back and plan. If this is what you want, we will be glad to help, just plan to spend some money. (My car is just reasonable, and I have well over $2,000 in it with a lot of DIY.) You can do it by steps.
If you are just looking to have reasonable sound, stick with the two ways assuming price being about the same. Why? Because a driver costs something. Three ways are not needed in cars until you get into mega bucks anyhow. Then the systems are more like 10 or 8" woofers, 6 or 5" midbasses and then tweeters. I doubt that this is the case - more likely it is just marketing, not sound quality. The headunit you are talking about is really only capable of about 15 real watts per channel (until you get to outboard amps with real powersupplys, thats it - no matter what ******** they print on the box). You try to get the 35 or 40 that they claim, and you will get blown speakers every time.
Hope this helps.
Blown speakers are almost always because they were overdriven. Too much volume attempted from too little amp and speakers.
So decide what you want first. Do you want loud? Do you want bass? Then you need to start over. Take a big step back and plan. If this is what you want, we will be glad to help, just plan to spend some money. (My car is just reasonable, and I have well over $2,000 in it with a lot of DIY.) You can do it by steps.
If you are just looking to have reasonable sound, stick with the two ways assuming price being about the same. Why? Because a driver costs something. Three ways are not needed in cars until you get into mega bucks anyhow. Then the systems are more like 10 or 8" woofers, 6 or 5" midbasses and then tweeters. I doubt that this is the case - more likely it is just marketing, not sound quality. The headunit you are talking about is really only capable of about 15 real watts per channel (until you get to outboard amps with real powersupplys, thats it - no matter what ******** they print on the box). You try to get the 35 or 40 that they claim, and you will get blown speakers every time.
Hope this helps.
by turning it up..
to the point of high distortion. By the time you hear distortion in a speaker, you are doing damage to it (excepting really big drivers like subs, but thats another story).
Wattage is not a straight line with sound pressure. 30 watts does not mean twice as loud as 15 watts. Thats only 3dB - an amount that you can barely hear the difference. To get 10 dB of change (twice as loud) you need a bunch more watts and a bunch more speaker if you are already 90 dB range - which is only somewhat louder than your car anyhow. Your car stereo out of the box might get you to 100 dB of average sound quality. No true bass to speak of here.
Now most folks are happy with this. It is what the "premium" system a car maker gives you. If you want more than that, you are going to have to go the harder route. To give you an idea, my car really maxes out at around 110 to 115 dB of "good" sound (it will go louder, but starts to sound like crap) . TO do that, it requires 4 sets of quality speakers at the corners, and two 10" subs. Along with three amps totalling about 500 watts. Really good design, with really good speakers, can do better, but not by much.
That should be the limit, since listening to volumes higher than that will damage your ears.
(this is getting long winded for here - if you want more, Email me at sawheeler@zdnetonebox.com)
to the point of high distortion. By the time you hear distortion in a speaker, you are doing damage to it (excepting really big drivers like subs, but thats another story).
Wattage is not a straight line with sound pressure. 30 watts does not mean twice as loud as 15 watts. Thats only 3dB - an amount that you can barely hear the difference. To get 10 dB of change (twice as loud) you need a bunch more watts and a bunch more speaker if you are already 90 dB range - which is only somewhat louder than your car anyhow. Your car stereo out of the box might get you to 100 dB of average sound quality. No true bass to speak of here.
Now most folks are happy with this. It is what the "premium" system a car maker gives you. If you want more than that, you are going to have to go the harder route. To give you an idea, my car really maxes out at around 110 to 115 dB of "good" sound (it will go louder, but starts to sound like crap) . TO do that, it requires 4 sets of quality speakers at the corners, and two 10" subs. Along with three amps totalling about 500 watts. Really good design, with really good speakers, can do better, but not by much.
That should be the limit, since listening to volumes higher than that will damage your ears.
(this is getting long winded for here - if you want more, Email me at sawheeler@zdnetonebox.com)
In my opinion, i would stay waaay far away from the sonys. Have you ever heard those beasts?! The metal "midrange" in them sounds worse than my clock radio. On the other hand, i really happen to like pioneer's 6.5" 2-way offereings. They will be half the price and sound twice as good, trust me. ;-)
Ah, Escort, I knew thee well!
Aren't your rear speakers 5x7s? Or the so called 6x8?
Check Crutchfield: LCD TV, Car Stereo, Home Theater, Speakers, Digital Cameras, they have an online fitter for your car.
Is your car a hatch or wagon?
What kind of music do you want to play and how loud? A lot of those Escort and Mustang rear applications have little air volume behind
--> forget about bass, it ain't happening.
OR the speakers are on a thin lip next to a parcel shelf, without much isolation between the front and back waves (and a big midrange peak due to the kind of horn loading effect of the triangular cavity they are back in the corner of)
--> forget about bass, it ain't happening.
If you have a hatch, I once re-made the parcel shelf out of wood with a box for a couple of 10s + tweeters hanging below it. Sounded great for those days.
You can also rebuild the doors and put a more serious woofer in. Bunch of work though.
A sub box in the trunk/hatch and highpass crossover for the stock locations is probably a must if you want any kind of bass. The stock sizes and locations just won't cut it, even if you get better speakers.
Aren't your rear speakers 5x7s? Or the so called 6x8?
Check Crutchfield: LCD TV, Car Stereo, Home Theater, Speakers, Digital Cameras, they have an online fitter for your car.
Is your car a hatch or wagon?
What kind of music do you want to play and how loud? A lot of those Escort and Mustang rear applications have little air volume behind
--> forget about bass, it ain't happening.
OR the speakers are on a thin lip next to a parcel shelf, without much isolation between the front and back waves (and a big midrange peak due to the kind of horn loading effect of the triangular cavity they are back in the corner of)
--> forget about bass, it ain't happening.
If you have a hatch, I once re-made the parcel shelf out of wood with a box for a couple of 10s + tweeters hanging below it. Sounded great for those days.
You can also rebuild the doors and put a more serious woofer in. Bunch of work though.
A sub box in the trunk/hatch and highpass crossover for the stock locations is probably a must if you want any kind of bass. The stock sizes and locations just won't cut it, even if you get better speakers.
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