Grassroots Caraudiosports

Yup Yup.

Well, i've found myself with yet another car with 4" in-dash front speakers. Go figure.

Anyways, trying to get good/decent sound, but it doesn't have to win any SQL competitions or anything.

And this being GRM, i want CHEAP.

I've found some vintage Sansui car audio speakers that look intriguing, but i'm sure they aren't.... great.

Anyone used the Diamond Audio M-series components?

This will be paired with an interesting big bad double din head unit, and any speakers will be powered properly with an amp.

Suggestions? I would LOVE to get my main speakers (pair of 4s and pair of 6.5s) set for $200 or under.

Does anyone have a cheap/easy way to block high frequencies to coax speakers?

Infinity reference.

I don't think anything can match their sound quiality for the price.

High, or low frequency blocking?

Either a coil (to block high), or capacitor for lows.

Do a search for crossover calculator, and use 6db/octave numbers.

Infinity reference would be nice.... but they don't make 4inchers.

Ideally, i'm trying to avoid custom door panels because 1) I hate doing it, and 2) if i attempt it, it will inevitably look like crap, and i'll hate having done it.

I think the best i'll be able to do is get the tweets at ear level in front.

I'd look for some used speakers on a good car audio forum - that's how I end up buying most of my car audio gear and you get a lot more bang for the buck that way.

Try to keep the tweeters as far from the listener as possible so distances are more similar. Meaning, you aren't being beamed to death by the left tweeter while the right is so far away you don't notice it. Meaning, base of the windshield or sail panel opposite the mirror on the doors, that sort of thing.

I've purchased from this site before and my experience on that single sale was good, so here's some ideas;

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/p_19659_MB_Quart_FSA_216.aspx

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/p_21900_Infinity_Reference_4032cf.aspx

And a simple cap can be used to keep base out of a driver but the slope is going to be really shallow; a 2nd order electrical x-over using a cap & coil combination would probably be more useful so you don't have to start cutting the thing off at 200hz just to make sure it's rolled off "enough" by 80hz (as an example). Might be wise to get an amp with a built-in crossover section so you can tune the thing without buying parts since it sounds like you're going to have an outboard setup.

I also know that those are the speaker sizes used in Mazda MX-6/626 cars in the late 80's... I used Blaupunkt seperates up front in my 626 but they don't look available anymore. They were ok, not great, way too "bright" to really be enjoyable to listen to very loud.

Zomby woof wrote: Infinity reference. I don't think anything can match their sound quiality for the price.

Ugh. Infinty makes a good product, but you better like your highs high and harsh.

If you really want to go about it Grassroots style, use Dayton Audio drivers from Parts Express. While you're there, pick up a crossover kit.

Also, check out the forums @ www.diymobileaudio.com

The crossover kits they have at Parts Express aren't tailored to anything and can't really be expected to deliver accurate x-over slopes since impedance's aren't matched between the real T/S specs of each driver since they're off the shelf networks.

Could be tweaked with add-on hardware though but you're looking at hanging stuff out and making changes post-install. The forum link would probably be a better route.

There was a time that I wanted to use a Thiel mid/tweeter array in a car to give me some serious imaging but these days I am far more likely to rip out anything that the car doesn't need. This includes audio.

May be worth dropping them a note however and seeing if they will sell the arrays without the multi thousand dollar speakers, they just may.

PartsExpress is a good place to get individual speakers. Focal used to be a great product on a budget but as soon as folks found out how good they were... forget it.

93celicaGT2 wrote: Infinity reference would be nice.... but they don't make 4inchers.

Try one of these 59 pairs

The tweeters on many of them have adjustable output.

I don't know what you've heard, but I don't find them harsh at all. Quite well balanced for a car speaker, IMO.

The Diamond Audio stuff is pretty nice for the $, but it's not terribly efficient so if you want to get good volume out of it you need to add some decent amplification. I used to sell a lot of it though, and used it in my own stuff all the time as it was a great value at wholesale prices. The low buck installs I did the most frequently (low buck as in <$5k) were Diamond speakers and Memphis amps, with an appropriately featured head unit. More $ than that and we'd step up to much nicer parts.

For a price point I'd also recommend the mid to high level Eclipse stuff, whatever they are calling it these days. They were hard to beat for speakers if you wanted something better than off the shelf best buy stuff but didn't want to pay competition prices.

Zomby woof wrote:

93celicaGT2 wrote: Infinity reference would be nice.... but they don't make 4inchers.

Try one of these 59 pairs The tweeters on many of them have adjustable output. I don't know what you've heard, but I don't find them harsh at all. Quite well balanced for a car speaker, IMO.

Sorry, those are coaxs. Because the factory speakers are in the dash, which is a spectacular position if you happen to have your ears on your knees, i'm looking for components so i can at least have a semblance of correct imaging.

To be honest, the Infinitys can be EXTREMELY harsh depending on what you're powering them with. But set up well, yes, they're a great performance bargain. I can't set them up well.

oldopelguy wrote: The Diamond Audio stuff is pretty nice for the $, but it's not terribly efficient so if you want to get good volume out of it you need to add some decent amplification. I used to sell a lot of it though, and used it in my own stuff all the time as it was a great value at wholesale prices. The low buck installs I did the most frequently (low buck as in <$5k) were Diamond speakers and Memphis amps, with an appropriately featured head unit. More $ than that and we'd step up to much nicer parts. For a price point I'd also recommend the mid to high level Eclipse stuff, whatever they are calling it these days. They were hard to beat for speakers if you wanted something better than off the shelf best buy stuff but didn't want to pay competition prices.

Cool, that's what i was hoping to hear. I'm not going to be powering off the headunit, so i think i'll be fine in the power department, i've got a few options.