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Thread: Thoughts on speaker "upgrades"

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    Thoughts on speaker "upgrades"

    I've been slowly stocking up on some "higher-end" speakers as I see good deals on them. When I say "higher-end", I just mean higher-end to *me* - as in a step above most of your Pioneers, Kenwoods, Infinity, etc.

    I now have the following that I could use in my vehicle (2018 Dodge Challenger - stock speakers sizes are 3.5" in dash, 6x9 in door and 6.5" in rear-deck):

    - A full set of AudioFrog G60S speakers (6.5" mid bass, tweeters and passive x-overs)
    - A pair of Focal 690AC coaxial 6x9's
    - A pair of Focal TN43 tweeters
    - A pair of Focal passive crossovers

    I wouldn't be using any of the standalone tweeters or any of the passive crossovers for anything - but I've been considering putting the G60S 6.5" speakers in my rear deck for my rear-fill speakers (band-passed, attenuated and delayed) and maybe putting the Focal 6x9 coaxials in my doors to use as midbass speakers (wouldn't use the tweeter). But honestly, I'm not so sure any of that would actually result in better sound quality compared to what I already have (Kenwood Excelon 6x9 midbass speaker in doors and Kenwood Excelon 6.5" coaxial in rear-deck). Also not so sure it's worth "wasting" the Audiofrog 6.5" for rear speaker duty. I want keep a 6x9 in the doors for the extra midbass they provide over a 6.5" - especially since i don't have any "real" subs - just an 8" under-seat, self-amplified sub (JBL BassPro SL) - which is why I'm not considering the AudioFrog 6.5" for my door midbass speakers at all.

    Thoughts on using either of these speakers as replacements for what I already have? Like I said, I currently have Kenwood Excelon 6.5" in my rear-deck, and the Excelon 6x9 midbass in my doors (also just purchased some Illusion Audio C3CX speakers for the dash - if I can fit them - they will replace my Kenwood Excelon 3.5" coaxials that came as a set with the 6x9 midbass speakers).

    Just trying to squeeze as much sound quality out of my system as I can. I'm not "unhappy" with the Kenwood Excelon speakers, but I also now that I can do better... This is my first venture into more expensive speakers...

    Any and all opinions/thoughts are appreciated! :-)

  2. Back To Top    #2

    Re: Thoughts on speaker "upgrades"

    Audiofrog tweets, 6 1/2" upfront Excelon midbass in rear.

  3. Back To Top    #3

    Re: Thoughts on speaker "upgrades"

    I've never heard Focals and don't know what "level" of speakers you are listing, but I'd be a bit surprised if the ones you've been collecting aren't an upgrade from Excelon. Although I respect Kenwood I just automatically assume any co-ax or 6*9 is a price engineered speaker.
    If its not much effort I'd try the Focal's in the doors. But none of us can really tell you the answer to your questions - you will need to demo every possible combination !
    That's what makes this a hobby vs just installing a stereo. For example I just build myself some new dash pods, and went to great effort to make them sealed. But I now suspect they don't have enough volume after all, so I'm drilling some holes in them and doing some measuring. If you're hanging out on this forum then the journey is greater than the destination.

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    Re: Thoughts on speaker "upgrades"

    I had the G60S and ran them passively. With the passive crossover they are set at 4 kHz. When I asked Andy at Audiofrog of where to cross them if i were to run the woofers and tweets active he said 3kHz. They sound great but the Fs on the tweet is 1.5 kHz so I’m not sure you’ll be able to cross them much lower than 3 kHz which Andy recommended against doing so you’re likely to run into some issues with beaming if you use that tweeter.

    I’ll say that it’s really nice you can fit a larger “oversized” tweet in the dash (3.5”?) as that may open the door for you to acquire some awesome raw drivers which should be fine in the dash (as opposed to being exposed to the elements in the doors) where you’ll be able to cross them much lower and avoid these issues.

    I am currently running a pair of SB29RDNC and they can be crossed fairly low (2200 definitely and I have them at 2k and they handle it very well) and they aren’t too expensive.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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    Noob Jdunk54nl's Avatar
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    Re: Thoughts on speaker "upgrades"

    Quote Originally Posted by mauian View Post
    I had the G60S and ran them passively. With the passive crossover they are set at 4 kHz. When I asked Andy at Audiofrog of where to cross them if i were to run the woofers and tweets active he said 3kHz. They sound great but the Fs on the tweet is 1.5 kHz so I’m not sure you’ll be able to cross them much lower than 3 kHz which Andy recommended against doing so you’re likely to run into some issues with beaming if you use that tweeter.
    Edit* I realized I may have misread that. Your probably meant the g60s beaming, That would definitely happen if you went with a 3khz crossover with a 6" speaker in a 2 way setup. One of the reasons why 2 ways are usually harder to tune and speaker choice really matters.

    Beaming doesn't happen at a speakers lower frequency range. It happens at the upper range of the speaker due to the size of the cone area in relation to the frequency being played.

    Here is a good chart for beaming (From Andy's Tuning Guide)
    Click image for larger version. 

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    2014 F150 Limited -> Kenwood DDX-9907xr -> Helix DSP.2 -> Alpine PDX-V9 -> SI M25 mki in Valicar Stuttgart Pods, Rear SB17's, Sub SI BM MKV's in MTI BOX. Alpine PDX-F6 -> SI Tm65 mkIV, SI M3 mkI in Valicar Stuttgart Pods

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    Re: Thoughts on speaker "upgrades"

    Quote Originally Posted by Jdunk54nl View Post
    Edit* I realized I may have misread that. Your probably meant the g60s beaming, That would definitely happen if you went with a 3khz crossover with a 6" speaker in a 2 way setup. One of the reasons why 2 ways are usually harder to tune and speaker choice really matters.

    Beaming doesn't happen at a speakers lower frequency range. It happens at the upper range of the speaker due to the size of the cone area in relation to the frequency being played.

    Here is a good chart for beaming (From Andy's Tuning Guide)
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Yep. I was referring to the woofer - no worries.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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