First....Now why I reallt made this thread.

[2fnloud]

My passion is car audio, and I have been racking my brain on different levels of audio upgrades ranging from simple speaker replacement to complete upgrades.

I have found and a member from another site pick out a dash replacement speaker and had great things to say about it.

The person left this message on my visitor page:

"Hey , we just got the two W2-852SH 2" Shielded Drivers mounted and they sound great! We did not have to alter the speakers at all. Just had to make a plastic ring for both of them to mount to the speaker grill to hold them on. Of the 4 bending clips on the grill, two of them matched up perfect with 2 corners of the new speakers. For the plastic ring my wife came up with the idea of cutting a ice breaker mint box, which is round, to make a ring and other than the green color which cant be seen, it made a good mounting ring for the speaker. I will upload pics and post it one day this week. Thanks man, you are the greatest!"

So if anyone would like my input / help / advise on car audio, let me know I love to help.

[sublime_whatigo]

2nd, lol. I know your joking Steve, I absolutely cant stand when people post a reply only to say 1st, 2nd...etc.

Remind me at the bbq for you to tell my buddy Long about those dash speakers, he bought some weird brand and they actually started melting from the sun.

So what are they best bang for you buck speakers these days? Back 8-10 years ago when I was into car audio it was Soundstream and Adire audio for me. I haven't heard many systems to this day with that kind of quality.

[mb7050]

he bought some weird brand and they actually started melting from the sun.

thats funny.

[2fnloud]

2nd, lol. I know your joking Steve, I absolutely cant stand when people post a reply only to say 1st, 2nd...etc.

Remind me at the bbq for you to tell my buddy Long about those dash speakers, he bought some weird brand and they actually started melting from the sun.

So what are they best bang for you buck speakers these days? Back 8-10 years ago when I was into car audio it was Soundstream and Adire audio for me. I haven't heard many systems to this day with that kind of quality.

That will not be a problem. Good brands that can be so subjective and opinion based. With that dash speaker I recommended, it was something I never heard. The specs of the speaker (freq. range, wattage, Ohms) was about a perfect match to use with the factory amp.

I am working with a set of Eclipse 3-ways to be installed in my Stealth. I have the 1.5" mid installed in the dash just not powered. The tweeter will be in the "A" piller and mid-bass in the door (duh right). Problem is Fujistu ten pulled thier funding from Eclipse so once the stock is gone, it's done.

I would look at RF in about a year or two. They recently hired the lead engineer from Diamond Audio, so expect great speakers from them soon.

IF I wasn't so hell bent of 3-way, I would of bought all my speakers from PartsExpress.com.

[mk_]

Tang Band is more of that of a DIY type speaker. Meaning, instead of buying a component set (mid-range/tweeter package) you could kinda put together your own mid-range/high's speakers. I have no experience with Tang Band unfortunately, but haven't necessarily heard anything bad about them. If the specs match what you're looking for, I say go for it.. Doesn't look like they break the bank!

[x2percentmilk]

Tang band is great for the price (so I've heard). Any of you hardcore DIY's should check out Zaph's website http://www.zaphaudio.com
He has MULTIPLE pages ranking drivers and tweeters in the cost/performance area. Not to mention a ton of other good info.

[reallyxxxxxxloud]

Hahahahaha 2fnloud you know me well enough for me to laugh at you

You do know the lead engineer of Diamond Audio was the lead engineer from JBL (company of Harman Kardon). They wouldn't let him design the kind of speaker he wanted on the market.

Here's the funny part... His name is Bob Diamond (um actual owner of said "Diamond Audio"). Maybe RF got an employee but I doubt they hired Bob

And with the Eclipse 3 ways I have always found them very harsh.

Good brands that can be so subjective and opinion based.

But to quote you anyhow!!!!

Good to see you here to 2fnloud

[2fnloud]

Thanks reallyxxxxxxloud,

Glad to see you hear too, will keep my from unintentionally giving bad advice.

I totally agree on the "Good Brands" I would always tell a person to listen to them on a soundboard. Granted, that is not how they will sound in the car, but you pick what sounds best to you on the sound board and go from there.

OK, I agree, maybe "A Top Engineer" then.

About the Eclipse 3 ways. Thanks for the heads up. however, I will be using the tweeters from a set of SP6900's and the SC8365's tweeter in the SP6900's. I have more installation options on my "A" pillars with the tweeter pod and tweeter from the SP6900's.

In you professional opinion, would 200 watts continuous be too much for the SC8365's? They are rated at 150 watts continuous, I think I will be safe. Also do you think that 65 watts RMS to the SP6900's will be enough? They are rated at 90 continuous.

[reallyxxxxxxloud]

Not not too much at all. I run 300wrms per side to my fronts in my Hilux and they are only rated at 120wrms. I use this theory:

If I was running a sign-wave at 120wrms then yes 300wrms is overkill. But music is not a sign-wave its made up of peaks - this is called a complex wave. In reality a speaker should be rated on the peak watts before it blows or as it should be called "DYNAMIC RANGE" (problem is companies lie about such ratings as there is no true rating system to keep them in check). Imagine a snare drum being hit for a peak of only a split second at 300wrms on a speaker rated at 120wrms - there's not enough time to create serious heat (comparison is a burp of 20,000wrms on a 2000wrms sub in SPL, same thing).

Now its heat that kills a V/C not clipping or overpowering as some think. Its just that hard clipping will produce a heated V/C faster. I always over power all my speakers in any system as this will give nice headroom and nice clean sound in any massive dynamic peak, without clipping the signal (limitations come down to motor and suspension).

As far as the tweeters go you will have a strong up front presence anyhow I'd still be careful because a tweeter is more efficient. Clipping means that the tops of the signal are "clipped off" or "flat-topped" when the signal level is exceeding the maximum capability of the power amplifier or some other piece of equipment in the system.

During the times when a signal is flat-topped, loudspeaker cones are not being "instructed" to move as it is receiving essentially a DC signal. This means all power goes into heating up their voice coils instead of producing sound. In other words, during the times the signal is flat-topped a loudspeaker is 100 percent efficient at converting power into heat.

Ironically, the more efficient the driver, the worse the problem. A horn tweeter (-25 percent efficient) normally converts 75 percent of its input power to heat. During clipping it must convert 25 percent more power to heat.

A cone woofer (-3 percent efficiency) normally converts 97 percent of its input power to heat. During clipping, it has to convert a mere 3 percent more to heat. Now you know why tweeters burn out much more easily.

Hope this helps...

[2fnloud]

Helps Allot, I knew the basics of what you explained. This also makes me feel better about feeding 1200 watt RMS to the four 8" subs that I plan on using. They are the Tang Band W8-1363SB. They are rated at 120 watts RMS/240 watts max, and in my set up they will be getting 300 watts RMS.

By chance do you use the BassBox6 Pro program?