General Question about HQ speakers

[tommymilan311]

I have a buddy. Basically rich. He saw my car and wants to basically do the same thing but way better. He enjoys the DIY stuff so he wants to go at it with some of my help.

He was wanting to go with the same Alpine SPR-60C. But I told him to hold of a bit before buying anything. As money doesn't seem as though its going to be much of an issue I was wondering what some of the highest quality component speakers some of you have had?

We are also going to be doing some pretty thorough deadening and processing.

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[C1500martin 10+ year member]

If hes rich go with Focal Ultima...

 

[blazeplacid 10+ year member]

Expensive doesnt always mean "best"

 

[tommymilan311]

If hes rich go with Focal Ultima...

HAHAHAHA. Not that rich! I mean. I still want the best quality for the buck. But lets say a 200$ pair is about twice as good as a 100$ pair, we will go with the 200$ pair. Price still has to match quality.

Expensive doesnt always mean "best"

I understand. When I say there isn't much of a budget it doesn't mean I want to find him the most expensive system I can. I want to compile some of the highest quality speakers, perhaps 3 to 4 brands, to go back to him with to choose from. Hertz, JL, JBL are some that I know of, but I know there are many more experienced users who have personally heard plenty of different brands. I also understand that it is subjective, but I think I can compile a few really good speakers that most can agree upon.

 

[blazeplacid 10+ year member]

Take him to an audio store or go to a local show.

Some people like bright tweeters and some like laid back.

It all depends on the listener

 

[tommymilan311]

Take him to an audio store or go to a local show.
Some people like bright tweeters and some like laid back.

It all depends on the listener

Local HQ speaker shops are hard to come by, best buy and a few Alpine/JL dealers are about my limitations. There is a DD subs dealer on the other side of the river, and the closest show I know is in Chicago. Which we could do that, and further push our hoped for deadline back, would just have to find a time when we can go.

If I had to guess. I'd say he likes things to be a bit more bright, and probably a wider stage than my setup can produce. We aren't trying to go crazy with fabricating new speaker spots for midbass woofers or anything like that. Just a component set for the back and for the front with subs. He also just got the 2016 model of my car.

Music of Choice is mostly along the Metal/Hardcore genres, if that helps. But there is some hip-hop/rap thrown in and D&B/Electronic and even classical (orchestra).

 

[tommymilan311]

Also. Like most things you also hear talk like "JL makes the best equipment" but that generally tends to not be the Case.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

You could get a lot of suggestions here and you're likely to be told over and over to put a lot of effort into the installation and vehicle acoustics. "Get a DSP" is very common advice here as well. The speakers really do matter, but it all matters.

 

[tommymilan311]

You could get a lot of suggestions here and you're likely to be told over and over to put a lot of effort into the installation and vehicle acoustics. "Get a DSP" is very common advice here as well. The speakers really do matter, but it all matters.

"you're likely to be told over and over to put a lot of effort into the installation and vehicle acoustics"

This. And I know to do this. We have over a grand budgeted just on treating the car before installation. This was one of the thing I told my buddy was a must if he wanted to upgrade because he'd spend a whole lot of money... and not get a lot of better quality sound. I tried talking him into keeping the HK set up that was stock and just treating the car and adding some subs if he wanted more bass output, but at the point the car would be stripped and he doesn't wanna have to tear it down twice if he still isn't satisfied with the HK.

He thinks we should just do all JL. Which I do know has quality sounds. And we are going to do our best to try and find a DD, Sundown, and a Hertz set up to listen in. But as you said, a lot is going to depend on the speaker environment. A JL setup could sound better than a DD setup just because the speakers are in a better environment, not because the JL were actually better.

I personally have not installed a plethora of speakers in my single sound environment, but I know many on here have, which is the only real way to get a firm opinion. My opinion of my speakers is I wanna try something new haha.

Edit:

I'm going to be selling him my JL MS-8... funny.. its a Harmon Karden device

 

[JohnBauder]

JL is always good stuff and always overpriced. You can get equal quality for less $. These are a BEST BUY IMO - CTX65CS - Image Dynamics 6.5" Component Speaker System

 

[tommymilan311]

JL is always good stuff and always overpriced. You can get equal quality for less $. These are a BEST BUY IMO - CTX65CS - Image Dynamics 6.5" Component Speaker System

Will be added to the list of things to look into. We are trying to find as many high quality builds and car audio shops within a reasonable distance to sample to see what he really really likes. I fear he's going to just say "JL everything" because of the price (some people think more money = more quality, sometimes you can't talk em out of it) and brand familiarity. Everyone has heard of JL, not everyone has heard of Image Dynamics. I'm hoping showing him some of these other brands that aren't exactly staples, like JL, are just as good, if not better.

There is a DD shop local, but they don't sell the component speakers, just subs. Hard finding the component speaker shops for DD.