Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners speaker sound quality problems

I'm guessing this is quite common, but was wondering how many other people have noticed this....

I bought the M22, VP150, QS8, SVS 20-39Pci. Everything sounds good, and I'm happy with all of them(expect for the sub being too big...still debating what to do about that). The sound quality problem actually doesn't relate to this system.

The problem is, music just doesn't sound nearly as good in my car anymore! These speakers are spoiling me. It is my first HT system, so I never had anything to compare to to fully realize the sound of my car stereo isn't all that great. It sounded just fine to me until these new speakers!

Join the club Zarak. We just purchased a 2003 Yukon this week and I'm trying to manipulate an Axiom setup into our new ride. Seriously, I'm having a hard time deciding what brand to buy. The stock speakers sound horrible. Are there any auto audio afficionados listening?

Throw a set of Dynaudio 6.5" components in your door and a set of 6x9's in the rear deck for fill, powered by a decent amp (don't need to break the bank, JL makes some fabulous amps that aren't expensive) and I guarantee you'll enjoy the music in your car again. Add a 10" JL sub in the trunk and you'll have an incredibly cool listening experience. You'll also be $4k lighter if you get it installed well...

aaackk!!! That price isn't an option. I didn't want to spend more than my Axioms. I was hoping for less than $800.

Hi jbzngowest,

Alas, semi_on is right. It costs plenty to get good sound in a car, although there are some cost savings mainly in the deep-bass department. Because the car interior volume is so small compared to a living room, you can get subwoofer performance to below 20 Hz for a few hundred dollars that would cost you thousands in a home system.

I'm sure the Dynaudio speakers are excellent, but of course they're expensive. During my years as an a/v mag editor in Canada, I dealt with car audio on a regular basis. I found some installations using MB Quart car speakers were quite fine. They aren't inexpensive, if indeed they're still available, but they're much less than Dynaudio stuff.

Regards,

MB Quarts are still available but I wasn't exactly pleased with their sound last I audiotioned them. I actually liked the Boston Accoustics better and the JL sounded comparable though both are much less. You can actually get MB Quarts way up there in price to with their Q series (around a grand for a set of components).

Obviously there are cheaper options out there that will still sound good than what I quoted. That also included about $1600 worth of install which may or may not be important to you. Boston Accoustics are a good place to look to minimize cost and you could do the install yourself if you wanted. The tricky part is getting the sub to look like a part of the car which you may not care about at all.

The Yukon actually has plenty of room on the rear drivers side in the wheel well for a sub. I'm going to try and do the install myself once I figure it all out. Thanks.

Hi,

If you're young and limber, you can save lots doing your own installation. I used to do my own but no longer. .

Semi, it doesn't surprise me that Boston might have decent car speakers. Boston had little or no presence in Canada when I was active but their strength has always been in designing inexpensive good-sounding compact speakers (not their big ones, however). Likewise, JL was an unfamiliar brand in Canada.

If you read a couple of the car books (Mobile Entertainment, etc.) there are still some competent editors with good ears and you may happen on some bargain items. Peter Mitchell occasionally wrote for me on car audio and in the course of testing speakers, he discovered a pair of Sony coaxial door speakers that were a bargain and remarkably neutral.

Such bargains may still exist, but it would take research to discover them. At the time (early 1990s) the Sonys were well under a $100 Canadian per pair.

Regards,

I want to make a simple upgrade to my car. Can I just replace the speakers? The cheap price range Alan mentions is right where I'm looking. Would it be worth it, or would I have to replace the deck too?

The ridiculous install quote I mentioned was on my new car. I have a tiny trunk so I was contemplating having them fiber glass an enclosure into the spair tire well for the 10" sub and a couple of amps. There aren't many places with the skill to do that well and those that can charge an arm and a leg.

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