OT: Where to get Quality Affordable Auto Stereo Speakers

[J Miller]

Or is "Quality Affordable Automotive Stereo Speakers" an oxymoron?

Anyway my Pathfinder has 8 speakers. 4 6x7" I think, and 4 tiny ones. The 4 big ones are trashed. All my tones are just rattles creaks and squawks.
I have this terrible habit of playing my music loud with the bass and treble cranked to the max. I guess these 10 yo speakers just had a stroke and came unglued. Not only that I dub CD music onto cassettes and much of the music has some real strong bass. I think that is what did it. Actually a Cher tape did it, or at least started it.

The dealer wants $82.00 + bucks each. OUCH!!

Walmart had them for like 68.00 a pair, then suddenly the price jumped to over a C note per pair. I should a grabbed them when I could, but I didn't really want Chinese junque.

Any ideas? When I do road trips I keep that stereo running to keep me going. Nothing on the radio worth listening to.

Joe

[mescalero1]

Sirius satellite radio, no help on the speakers.

[J Miller]

Sirius satellite radio, no help on the speakers.

I prefer my tapes. That way I listen to exactly what I'm in the mood for.
Country , rock : , Kylie Minogue , elevator .


Joe

[Andrew]

Run 'car audio' thru your favorite search engine and you will find several online stores that should be able to beat those prices. If you have a Best Buy or a RadioShack near you they might have something for you as well.

[mescalero1]

Rock, Hard, Loud
ears blown out from gunfire and jet engines

[J Miller]

Rock, Hard, Loud
ears blown out from gunfire and jet engines

Yep, same here minus the jet engines.

Joe

[Nobody]

[Tycer]

Go to http://www.crutchfield.com and determine exactly what size you need. Look at what they offer and either buy from them or get the same stuff on fleabay.

I've been buying from Crutchfield since the '70s, they are first class. Returns are easy, adapters and instructions come with every purchase.

Soft tweeters give a richer smoother sound. Today's 5 1/4" rounds are way nicer than yesteryears 6x9s. Speaker technology has come a long way baby, I'd walk a mile for a Clarion.

Clarion only makes car audio.

[Blaine]

I consider myself a minor stereo-phile......trying to run great speakers on a factory stereo is a losing proposition. Not enough power. Get some replacements speakers that are factory equiv. and spend a little money on a bass tube. You can turn down the bass on the car speakers, turn up the bass tube: instant pretty good stereo.

[J Miller]

Did a google and one of the first to come up was Crutchfield. Pretty decent prices if they are for a pair of speakers. If they are per each, then I don't know.

One question I have though is how do you measure a speaker? Is it by the speaker cone itself, or the metal mounting frame?

I'm not gonna go nuts on this, I'd just like some speakers that will stand up to the pounding my tapes give them. With my hearing I couldn't really appreciate really great speakers.

Blaine, what's a bass tube?

Joe

[Tycer]

Just type in your 95 Pathfinder in the main car audio page on crutchfield, they will list only speakers that fit your truck.

It is per PAIR

Handy:

http://www.installdr.com/InstallDocs/Ni ... 647029.pdf

To Blaine's point, choose speakers that have a 40-75 max RMS rating if you have a factory head unit.

My 49 Chevy Stereo:

Clarion Pro Audio head unit, no internal amp
PPI OMX432 Signal Processor
Pair 4ohm Directed Audio 1" Silk Dome Tweeters driven by A/D/S Plate Amp 35wRMS@8ohm
Pair 4ohm JL Audio 5 1/4" Midrange driven by Orion 240SX 80wRMS@8ohm
Pair 4ohm Phillips Audio Flat Midbass driven by Orion 240GX 80wRMS@8ohm
Pair 3ohm JL Audio 8W6 Subwoofers in sealed enclosures driven by Orion 2150SX 300wRMS@8ohm
1.5 Farad Capacitors
Isolated deep cell battery

I love my tunes.

[mescalero1]

Tycer,
Are you speaking English?

[Tycer]

Tycer,
Are you speaking English?

[Blaine]

A bass tube is a little self enclosed/powered sub-woofer. Not the BOOM BOOM kind, but makes regular car speakers sound alot better because they are not trying to reproduce bass notes (which use about 95% of the power in an amp).I had a Kenwood 10" and it rocked... Here's just one example out of hundreds:

http://electronics.pricegrabber.com/car ... 25529.html


Tycer: Nice tunes.......

[J Miller]

Tycer,

I did type in the Pathfinder and still got a bunch of choices. But now that I know the price is per pair that makes a big difference.

What I would like to do is to get speakers that will allow me to use the factory grills. They blend in and look nice.

Blaine,

Thanks, I'll have to look into it.

Joe

[Tycer]

They should all let you use the factory grilles.

[madman4570]

Ya, Crutchfield is the way to go unless you have a local place that will sell you a good deal and install the stuff somtimes free! Go with Kenwood if replacing system! Usually only one speaker goes at a time and you will notice it other all going and now only have buzzing etc?

Make sure that your system(speakers etc really is trashed and not just a bad ground or one of your pots on the control needs just cleaning! With your stereo going I am sure you checked all the accessiable wires like under the dash for loose/bad contacts.
This just happened to my friends 2001 Toyota Highlander.All of a sudden it just sounded like everything was on the radio setting and not getting a good signal.I went underneath the dash and he had a loose ground.I replaced it in like 5 mins.He was going to put in a new system the following week.Anyway once you determine your stereo or the speakers are blown its almost more practical to just put in a new system.My daughters Nissan Altimas stereo bit the dust last December(she also cranks it.even at startup at 10 below )so anyway I found this killer Kenwood system that Crutchfield had on special and included 2 JBL killer HD speakers that fit her panels.Installed it in about 2 hrs.You should hear that system with 2(yes 2 "good JBLs")great hi/low sound and it will blow you out of the car.Sounds about as good as my BOSE system in my Nissan Maxima w/like 10 speakers?.I think I gave $269 for it shipped.(retailed $350) Good Luck! (you dont need "all those speakers" if you have a couple of the right ones! (2-4 will do) Just make sure you dont get refurbished stuff/tell them you want "NEW not REFURB" Whats cool is my daughter uses either her MP3 or her IPOD which she has music libraries that are unreal! There is a little work involved for this though! But its a great way to go! tiny and Plugs right in front panel to stereo.No DVDs/CDs/Tapes lying all over the place,just this 2'X4" 4 oz gadget. Also slips in shirt pocket to take with you out of car with earbuds!Somtimes Walmart here has their special a sony MP3 Walkman 8GIG===$75 Has enough memory to play 5 days worth of different songs /or 30hrs video!
Say I am driving 3 hrs.I go to the music library on the little gadget select from either Type/Group/Alphbitized in order etc.I have my choices in about 2-3 mins for the whole trip!Kinda what you like to do with your tapes but again there is some work involved to get the songs say on the MP3 you can download your CD music to your computer then to the MP3 player or IPOD etc.Like I said thats just a option! maybe you just want to replace say the 4 speakers if it is the speakers only??Your choice pal!
Example:http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113MP442U/ ... U.html?c=3 or http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KDCX493 ... wAll=N&c=3

[madman4570]

http://community.crutchfield.com/groups ... 15192.aspx

[wm]

I cultivated a relationship with a couple of junk yard managers over several years as a fleet manager and I was often able to get parts large and small from them at 1/4 of the price of replacement parts to keep the old warhorses we used going strong 7 years after they were supposed to be retired. I estimate I saved my company nearly a million dollars between cost of parts and stretching the useful life of our vehicles. Of course the company appreciated what I did so much they laid me off after 24 years!

Most of the time it was things like grills, doors, body panels, wheels, window glass, bumpers, drive train parts, etc but I have gotten interior panels, seats and speakers too.

Anyway.....just a thought.

Wm

[madman4570]

Great Thought!

[J Miller]

Of all the parts I try to avoid buying from wrecking yards, electrical parts are on the top of the list.
The first thing disabled on a car when it's retired to the yard is the electrical system. There is no way to really test anything until you stick it in your vehicle. If it don't work then you've gone through all that work for nothing.

Nope, no wrecking yard speakers for me.

Joe

[madman4570]

Valid point there too Joe!

[madman4570]

Joe, Just looked at Walmart.com and they have like 100 different auto speakers.They will ship them to your Walmart store for Free for you to pick there. There were two cool ones that run arround $40 each.One was a Pioneer 5X7 that had a cool total mounting capability around the whole speaker and also there was a 6X8 Bose that came with the screen and Bose grill cover (like $35 each)

Just a thought!