Quality rather than Quantity of speakers

[Bull]

My unknowledged friend thinks the more watts in rms the better the speaker is.Well I know this is complete nonsense,because 4
of his awful Tornado 12 inch car speakers rated at 300w rms each
Is still not as good as my Eminence Beta 15 rated 150w rms.
But the Eminence Beta 15 is SPL 98 db 1w @ 1m,and his crappy Tornado speakers are SPL 89db 1w@1m,also his speakers have no vented pole piece,unlike mine.They have a 1 and half inch voice coil on a aluminium former,where as mine have a 2 inch voice coil on a kapton former.The magnet weight of his are a very poor 18 0z abs ferrite magnet,where mine are 38 0z abs ferrite magnet.
Apart from specs,i think a manufactor make 'makes or breaks a speaker'.

Good ones are Eminence,Fane,Peavey,AudioBahm,Pioneer,Alpine,Atom ic,Kenwood,Celestion,Jensen,Magnat,JBL,JL Audio,Kicker,Fusion,Rockford Fosgate.

very good ones are Precsion Devices,RCF Precision,EV [Electrovoice]

P.S what matters the most is the best sound for for buck,long life when driven cleanly without clipping,and good materials to withstand the thermal heat,and excersion of both the cone,surround,spider,frame,magnet,voice coil,voice coil former[bobbin].And also very good glues which don't melt or fall apart under normal long term use.

[Brett]

Agree, but move Fane and JBL to very good, esp the Pro and vintage drivers. Eminence and Peavey also make some really excellent Pro drivers. Every manufacturer you mention (and the one's I do below too), have some drivers that are exceptional, and some that are dogs. The 'very good' manufacturers produce far more good than bad speakers in their ranges.

Wander round these sites for a while.
http://www.jblpro.com/pages/components/componts.htm
http://www.jblpro.com/pages/obsolete.htm
http://www.mccauley.com (->components)

To very good add
Beyma, PHL, Mccauley, Altec (vintage), Focal, Audax (some), Radian, BMS, TAD, Tannoy (vintage), Fostex, Western Electric (vintage), RCA (vintage) and a few other's I'll no doubt remember later.

Your post reads to me like you're coming from a car audio perspective. IME, most car drivers suck. For quality like you describe, Pro audio drivers are the way to go.

Cheers