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Hifi Speakers for Car Audio

M

Mongeddavid

pfm Member
I recently purchased a new head unit for my Mazda MX5. Its a great bit of kit taking music from and control of either usb sticks or i pods , it also has a built in hands free phone kit. Sound wise its a definite improvement on the stock head unit with a more rounded sound however the existing stock speakers could do with changing.
There is a 200x200 mm hole for the main speaker and a smaller tweeter mounted further up. I was wondering do they usually put in a crossover on a car stereo? Has anyone ever put in say a modern full range driver into a car system or indeed the crossover and drive units from an old but good hifi speaker?
I appreciate the door will have a difference in volume and the effective construction will be metal rather than a wooden box but would it still sound better?
I could easily fit a couple a decent 5 inch driver and decent tweeter together with a crossover in the space available.
Any thoughts , am i going mad or is this a bit of fun and a possible goer.
 
ISTR that back in the late 70's or early 80's a couple of the magazines were promoting putting a pair of Videotone Minimax II's on the parcel shelf.

Good little speakers, but they did rather obscure the view out of the back of your Cortina.
 
Mongeddavid said:
I was wondering do they usually put in a crossover on a car stereo? Has anyone ever put in say a modern full range driver into a car system or indeed the crossover and drive units from an old but good hifi speaker?
I appreciate the door will have a difference in volume and the effective construction will be metal rather than a wooden box but would it still sound better?
I could easily fit a couple a decent 5 inch driver and decent tweeter together with a crossover in the space available.
Any thoughts , am i going mad or is this a bit of fun and a possible goer.
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I've had decent speakers in cars and my current system has crossovers and high pass filters on the satellites, low pass on the sub so the only full range are the 6.5" bass speakers.
Main limitation in a car is voltage but you used to be able to get 240V alternators, probably a safety issue today.
An inverter would also give you 240V ac reasonably cheaply but they're pretty inefficient so you migh have power management issues with a stock alternator.
 
Do remember that car speakers are usually made to be resistant to extremes of temperature, humidity, UV light etc, whereas domestic units need not be.
 
Focal do some nice two way car speakers (they come with a X-over) - I have a pair in my car.
 
Mongeddavid said:
I was wondering do they usually put in a crossover on a car stereo? Has anyone ever put in say a modern full range driver into a car system or indeed the crossover and drive units from an old but good hifi speaker?
Click to expand...

Stock speakers usually have a cap soldered onto them to limit their frequency range. A good two way speaker set will usually include an external crossover.

These are supposed to sound nice and don't require an external passive crossover.
http://store.12velectronics.com/imagine-i61-2-6-5-component-coaxial-speaker-set/

People do run home audio drivers in cars, but as mentioned, your speakers WILL get wet. An untreated paper cone would make me nervous.

I run a 2 way active system with sub in my car. The crossover points and levels are set on the head unit. The biggest advantage their is being able to manually control driver time alignment, which makes a big difference.
 
YNWOAN said:
Focal do some nice two way car speakers (they come with a X-over) - I have a pair in my car.
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I used to have some Focals, very nice - Halford have sole distribution nowadays, which means there's some pretty good deals available. As ever though, it's the installation! Find a good installer before you start. These things often need special tools for correct door-panel removal etc. I wouldn't use hi-fi speakers for some of the reasons already mentioned earlier in this thread.
 
In the 80s you had people with Linn Kans and a converted Naim stack in their car.

Allegedly.
 
Ill have a look at the focal speakers i dont wont to go too mad price wise as whilst the head unit is good its not stellar ( I did not want to put something likely to be nicked in a convertible. ). I have a pair of q acoustics 2020s sitting around that were used on my cinema setup so was thinking of bastardizing them to fit but they are paper cones so probably not a great idea.
 
I'm not embarrassed to say I'm running these right now:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=269-180

As pocketkitchen mentioned, there's no point in installing expensive speakers if the installation is mediocre.

Rest of my system is a 4 channel class a/b polk/momo amp for the front speakers and a jl 10w6 powered by a class d mb quart amp. The interconnects in my car cost more than my speakers. They're surprisingly good.
 
Mongeddavid said:
Ill have a look at the focal speakers i dont wont to go too mad price wise as whilst the head unit is good its not stellar ( I did not want to put something likely to be nicked in a convertible. ). I have a pair of q acoustics 2020s sitting around that were used on my cinema setup so was thinking of bastardizing them to fit but they are paper cones so probably not a great idea.
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When I installed some cheap Focals in my VW Bora a few years ago they improved the stock (really bad) head-unit no end. You'll probably be able to get a set installed (or something similar) for under £200. Depending on how much time you spend in the car, it could end up as the cheapest audio upgrade you ever undertake.
 
I'm using Tannoy 8 inch DC's in my car, I need more power than the stock unit can put out though.Also as mentioned, humidity, shock etc could see them off at some point.
 
go with cheap two way speakers, preferably coaxial as it will be easier to install. then put the remaining money into an amp.
 
Unless you have a Roller or a Bentley you're unlikely to get anything close to HiFi in a car. Tyre noise alone kills any chance of that.

Unless, of course, you take the M25 to go to work, in which case you'll be able to listen for hours on end since you won't be moving.
 
Many years ago I had a mate who worked for B&W. He had a pair of their speakers in the back of his car.
 
A few cars previously I had Boston Acoustics 2-way speakers (6.1 I think) installed by a local in-car shop. These had a small separate crossover. They were a vast improvement on the OEM fitted speakers, even allowing for all the environmental aspects that affect sound quality in a noisy (TVR) car. I recall that they were reassuringly expensive too.
 
My dodgy mate from a previous life used to lift B&W drivers from the bins at their R&D facility inn Steyning, and put them into his various GTIs. I think they got wise to this and started knifing the cones when they were disposed of!

My van makes a bit of road noise, so a decent setup is a waste of time and money. I have wondered about a battery powered set of noise reducing headphones though.
 
I made a custom baffle and mounted original Wharfedale Diamond drivers and x-overs into a car in the 80s (I got the parts free as we serviced Diamonds). Sounded dire :)

I used JLAudio component drivers in my 2000 Subaru along with an after-market head unit, had it installed by the dealer when I bought the car. Didn't sound great. Ripped it all out again after a few months and added some plywood strengthening around bass driver mounting to door panel, sound deadening material to the door skins and then re-assembled everything taking care no vibration areas (quelled with double sided carpet tape).

Sounded much better, so agreed on above about installation being as important as the product.

When I started racing it seriously, I was focused on stripping weight out of the car, so took all the sound deadening back out of the doors (saved about 3KG from memory :)). Sound quality decreased as a result - blurry bass notes.

Richard
 
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