Using 4" car speakers?

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Is it possible to build decent quality FR systems using Dual-cone car drivers? They seem to have pretty decent low end grunt and smooth rolloff, and are cheap and easily available.

The new Coax ones with tiltable titanium dome tweeters also seem pretty good. Since they are optimised for small enclosures (door panels etc) seems they may work well on open or semi-open baffles as well.

Just thoughts. Any ideas to suggest why they won't work well or at all? We don't have easy access to the Tang Bands of the world, so this is an easy way out.
 
Don't restrict your search to just car speakers. There are all kinds of replacement speakers for radios, TV's, cars, etc. that can sound good. I have no idea what the 4" $1.50 drivers that I use in my line arrays are supposed to be used for, but they sound quite nice up to almost 11khz. It's a matter of going and listening to all the different ones you can find and pick what sounds best. Try to listen to them holding them in your hands on and off axis and specifically listen to the clarity and detail in the upper frequencies. You can solve the bass end with your enclosure. You need to listen to a lot of different drivers and that will train your ears to what sounds good and what doesn't.

The problem with many of the car audio coaxials is that the crossover or tweeter itself is of such poor quality that it just sizzles with no detail.
 
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Thanks, I have heard a lot of TV speakers that sound not bad, and also some (but not many) 6x9 speakers that are decent. Over here there is a local manufacturer caled Bolton that makes a 5" car speaker with a whizzer that sounds pretty good.

My car is fitted with the new Blaupunkt Overdrive series speakers, and actually have very good tweeters (I dare say better than my main speakers) and can be very shallow mounted (just 14 mm), which they are, and therefore bass response is poor but even in the car's door I get some useful response at 80 Hz. I am sure things will be better in an enclosure. The cone is some type of spun material like Kevlar, but it's not - it's blue/gray unlike normal Kevlar which is yellow, and the tweeter is a 3-position tiltable titanium dome that is very crisp. It actually sounds pretty good, better than the normal car speakers which usually have a piezo connected through a 1 uF bipolar cap. These guys cost about $60 a pair, roughly 5x the times of a regular car speaker. So I'm a little inspired...
 
Sangram,

You're really bringing back memories of the start of my speaker building a year and a half ago. Those Blaupunkt Overdrives became my first HT speakers. First in a car audio 8" woofer box with a new baffle. Then in a PVC pipe transmission line, where they still reside in use in my shop area. Those tweets are nice and some, but their lack of detail shows once you start listening to them side by side with other stuff.

You can get acceptable results with car audio speakers, but they are expensive in comparison to other drivers.
 
car and TV speakers

Hi Sangram,
I too wanna build a 2 way or 3 way speaker system for home use. But i couldnt get quality drivers here in delhi except the dome tweeter from philips and the boltons. I was thinking of using some imported drivers but i couldnt find them. Many a times i thought of using the car speakers like 4",5.5",6*9"or 12" and the TV speakers too for home enclosure.In my car i have used 4" boschmann tweeter as front and 6*9"pioneers with a subwoofer
(TSW 304c )pioneer with and amplifier and they are sounding pretty good. Car speakers are generally imported and far better than the locally made ones and i think they could be used for the home use .I have got many friends who sell car accessories including speakers,woofers and tweeters and its easy for me to get the good ones. Plz suggest me something in this regard.
Hope Navin bhai would also guide us !!!!!!!
 
johninCR,
Did you ever do a TS parameters check on the Blaupunkt Overdrives.
If so, I'd be glad if you could post your findings.
Don't you think the drivers(6 x 9s) such as Sangram mentions have high Qts, something like >0.6, if so these could be used in Inf.Baffle setup better than other types of enclosures.

Regards,
Francis
 
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