All car drivers are not created equal.

[bastek]

Some time ago, i checked on car speaker threads, cause i wanted to use two six inchers, on a home monitor project. Everyone said that they can only be used on open baffle enclosures.
Well here they are, in a 0.5 cft PE sealed box, sounding so good, that almost overshadow my $800 seas excel diy monitors.
Type R Alpines, with soft surround-spiders, and a lot of work with the crossovers. Anyone with car drivers in the house?

[Geek]

Yay for heresy!

Looks pretty sharp!

I was bit by the DIY speaker bug as a young lad by boxing up car speeks.

[MJL21193]

Nice work. I bet they do sound good.
I used a Pioneer 6"x9" as a center speaker in my HT. The crossover included on most car speakers is garbage, I removed it and built my own. Sounds good.

[ocool_15]

I have used my Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 component set in ~.33 cu ft sealed cabinets. I used the T/s parameters to design the box so there was no boominess. I used the infinity crossovers at the time but I have't hooked them up in over a year and I've never installed them in a car.

As far as drivers go how would you rate their value versus drivers you have used from the diy market?

[peter_m]

How about these speakers? Anyone tried them?

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/pro...oducts_id=1587

[Scioneer]

Using Car Speakers for DIY projects certainly is an interesting idea. I've used Linear Research 4 inch Full Range car speakers in my "Philco 222k on steroids" project until i found a supply of the 4 inch DIY Radio Shack Woofers. The LRs sounded quite good, but I didn't want to run 4 ohm speakers for too long on a 8 ohm setup, and the Whizzers looked too obvious, and part of the parameters for my Philco project was to look as stock as possible.

Car drivers definately have one huge advantage over conventional DIY drivers, availability. Ever since Radio Shack changed their priorities from DIY electronics to cell phones , DIY speakers have mostly become a Internet only item, since RS was the only retail chain that sold DIY speakers. ( and some damn good ones too)

The only offline ways to get DIY speakers are Flea Markets, Radio Shack Franchise stores that may still have a few left, or, use car speaker drivers. Just about every retailer that sells electronics like Circuit City sells car audio. Not to mention what i like to call the "Local Woofer Shops" can be a great source. Also, I've even seen some nice car speakers at Wally World from time to time.

[bastek]

Only problem is, the only specs available are wattage and impedance, so you have to look and listen carefully.
Usually, stiff cone spiders and narrow baskets, are not a good sign, and i would avoid those. Also listening without c/o and box, can tell you if you have a quality driver.
Those component Alpines were $60 (from $180) on clearance at BB, how often you see top Seas or SS on clearance?
With a little luck and a lot of c/o work, you can have a great set of hi-fi - audiophile quality speakers.
Next i should try those component dome tweeters. We might have something here.

[MJL21193]

Originally posted by bastek
Only problem is, the only specs available are wattage and impedance,

I determined the T/S specs and frequency response with Speaker Workshop. Tailored the enclosure and crossover to suit.
The fact that I used mine for a centre speaker gives more flexibility in the sound quality requirements.

[Geek]

I built a "Vas box" and use this method:
http://sound.westhost.com/tsp.htm

The spreadsheet is easy to use

...."Local Woofer Shops" can be a great source.

Watch the efficiency of some of those car woofs. I was looking at some subs, questioning the sanity of a suspension that had more foam roll than my bed. They were listed at 69dB/W

No wonder they were rated 5,000 watts - you needed that just to wake them up!

[Scioneer]

I was mostly referring to Woofer shops for the fact they do sell more conventional car speakers( or what Car Woofer heads would consider Auxiliary speakers) as well. You can get some nice 6x9s, 4 inchers, 6 1/2s, etc, from them.