Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Car Stereo Speakers

This hobby has finally taken over. After owning Axioms I'm on a new quest for great audio in my car. Like everyone here, I don't want to spend a fortune on revamping the speakers in my cars.

Does anyone recommend a good component type speaker? I'm looking for similar qualities that the Axiom's have. It’s a shame that Axiom doesn’t offer car stereo speakers.

Thanks,

Tom

I'm going to go out on a (relatively strong) limg here and say you'll NEVER have Axiom-like sound quality in your car. Cars are not very good environments for sound. That being said, you can definitely make it sounds a heck of a lot better than it does now. Just keep in mind that car speakers are like in-wall speakers: their sound quality depends greatly on the structure they are mounted to.

To make the biggest difference, you'll also need to put in sound and vibration damping.

Ok, I understand.
I guess I should've just asked what everyone here likes for car stereo speakers.

I've been installing my own (and friends) car stereo's for going on 15 years now. There is no such thing as *best*. Usually it depends on what you want to spend (IMO).

That said I've had good experiences with Boston Accoustics, Quart, Polk, Kicker among others.

This company is suppose to be pretty highly regarded:
http://www.cdtaudio.com

Thanks everyone. The car stereo world sure has changed...
I don't recognize the brands anymore. I have a friend that owns a custom car audio store. I listened to all sorts of brands and found that Focal sounded very good. However, the price tag is lofty $1099.99 + installation (retail). He would be willing to "hook" me up with cost, which He said is around $400.00 or so.
I’m definitely going to look at all of my options. The CDT audio stuff looks like good stuff. I need to find a dealer to hear these gems.

Tom

I have heard good things about Focal. Haven't heard em myself.

One other thing I'd like to note. You may never be able to match a well setup home theater for accuracy in a car, but a interior stereo setup will never match the intensity of a well setup car stereo. If you like those sort of things.

I'm just trying to make my windshield time as pleasant as possible. I'm not interested in over exaggerated bass or over bearing highs. I just want the best bang for the buck.
I think most of the "high end" car audio dealers over emphasize bass and SPL's.

Sounds like a good deal with the Focals, go with them. They are highly regarded and for that price, a steal.

Hi tleigh,

Though I don't write about car audio anymore or keep up to date on the car audio scene, I did cover the subject for many years when I was editor of Sound&Vision magazine in Canada up until the mid-'90s.

During that time, MB Quart car speakers had an excellent reputation but they were expensive. I served as a judge of sound quality (not SPLs, thank heavens!) for a competition in Toronto called "Northern Thunder". I heard some awful as well as very good sounding installations. Some of the latter used MBQuart or Alpine component setups. At the lower end price-wise, there were a series of surprisingly good-sounding Sony coaxial speakers that used titanium tweeters.

I don't know Focal but I would expect that MBQuart are likely still building good car speakers. The car interior and speaker mounting locations are huge determinants, but if you start out with reasonably well-designed drivers, you are ahead of the game. I was never impressed with Polk car drivers and Pioneer car drivers were pretty awful, although there head units and amplifiers were excellent.

Some car audio dealers used to car-interior mock-ups that let you get some idea of installed driver quality. If you can find a dealer like that, check out some of the good brands mentioned. I don't recommend doing your own installation unless you are young and flexible. It's a nightmare when you get inside doors, dashboards, and window mechanisms. Leave that part to a pro installer.

Regards,