I have two brands of speakers in my 2 cars, and have been very pleased with both: Diamond Audio, and MB Quart. If you decide to add a subwoofer, I think that JL Audio's products feature good power and musicality.
Here are the web site addresses:
1. Diamond Audio: http://www.diamondaudio.com/
2. MQ Quart: http://www.mbquart.com/2003/en_US/home/
3. JL Audio: http://www.jlaudio.com/ |
Agree with JL Audio subs! For mids and tweets would highly recommend Eclipse by Fujitsu Ten. |
MB Quart without a doubt. Killer.. |
"Upper-end" car speakers are limited to a few brands, so shopping should be very easy. MB Quart and Boston Acoustics, and probably others have component lines with a tweeter that can be mounted coaxial with the woofer, which would be nice for your stock theme. I like the MB's Premium Line (which sounds identical to their much more expensive "Q" line) and currently enjoy BA's Pro Series, despite both of them being plagued with metal dome tweeters. Dynaudio is in a league of its own with price that reflects their greatness. JL Audio surprisingly makes nice components, although not very competitive with BA and MB. There are not a lot of brands I have not heard and these are the only good values I have come across, except maybe Focal. Just go visit a local store with good installation reputation - its shooting fish in a barrel. |
Replaced my van speakers with the Focal Access line. Also bought a Focal 13" sub. The sub comes in a factory box and sits behind my rear seat. This van replaced my old van which had top of the line Alpine speakers and is an improvement. I agree with the Alpine amp - very musical (for a car). |
In the Porsche forums, Focal component speakers are the only choice. Might check them out.
Gregg |
Definitely, MB Quart or Focals. The Quarts will sound a bit softer and the Focals a bit more harsh. |
Chevy Suburbans are equipped with a Bose system. I recently yanked the Bose out of our Suburban and replaced it with JL Audio amps and Sub, Alpine head unit, and MB Quart Speakers -- HUGE improvement. I also added XM radio. Alpine Head Units come with something called a "MEDIA EXPANDER"
which is meant to be used with MP3's and XM Radio to fill out the missing pieces. I am not into MP3, but I can say that the MEDIA EXPANDER works really well with XM radio. Here's another thing -- instead of a CD changer -- here's what you do; The new Alpine Head Units will interface with an i-pod, taking over its functions and keeping it charged -- THATS THE WAY TO GO!! With a 40 Gig i-pod, you can store about 150 CD's UNCOMPRESSED. That's better than any CD Changer -- PLUS -- the i-pod is portable. Don't bother with a CD Changer, use an ipod -- it is like having a 150 CD Changer. |
Go Dynaudio! I had Boston Acoustics and IMHO their tweeter was very harsh. Dynaudio uses a soft dome and is very smooth. As my car stereo has improved (Theta Basic IIIA, 9 jitter filters...) the Dynaudios have never been the weakest link. They are very reliable. I have a 3 way set that I have used for 8 years with no problems. |
Anybody know speakers that can be used in the BMW 3 series. My local installers have all told me you have to go back to the dealer to get replacements. I want to upgrade as long as I am replacing. I know nothing about it but the main rear speakers have this strange 3 wire connector. Help! please! sorry if this is a threadjack. |
Mechans, which year/version 3 series do you have (E36, E46, etc)? Check out roadfly.org, & do a search, &/or ask your question there.....I'd also like to know as I have a friend with a '93 318is who's looking for speakers. |
Mechans, I'm working on my 325i. It's a challenge... |
I have a '98 M3 (E36). My car stereo guy has proposed a set of MB Quart speakers. He has mentioned that there is a tricky situation where if he uses
one model, he will have to cut into something inside the door and build
something to hold it, but if he uses a different model, it will fit in there with no problem. I've read different things about the sound system in BMW's. Some say the speakers are fine and would sound a lot better with better amps and sub-woofer. |
I really appreciate the feedback thanks. I have the 1998 328i (E36). I was also told that the cutouts won't hold commercially available speaker baskets. I had a new crossovers and amp (50wpc x 4) using the same source CD player and preamp elements but bypassing the factory installed amp which was trick for the installer. He couldn't think of any speaker that would "fit" the cut outs. I looked and found this odd tri-ended Jack which makes no intuitive sense in terms of home audio unless it was simply a coaxial rig. Keep those suggestions coming if you know how to use the jack it would be a start. I think I could figure out a way to hold the speakers in the rear in place. The kick panels have very shallow set ins. With the door tweeters I may have to just say uncle and order new ones since the new amp blew them out.- Embarrasing but true that such a great car would be such a pain to change a tweeter and upgrade the rear main speakers. |
I'm not changing the speakers in my '92 325i. The new setup includes an Alpine 9801 head unit, Proton 271 Eq w/fader a Proton CA-212 amp for the front and and Orion CS100.2 amp for the rear speakers. Three separate noise filters are to be used plus small capacitors in each component's input lead to further enhance power delivery/noise control.
I didn't reallize there are woofers near the firewall until late this week! I never noticed them--they don't seem to do anything and as Meachans says, they're too shallow. my original game plan wasto use the slim line proton 212 with 500 Hz high pass plug in filters and feed only the door mids & tweeters. Rewiring those 'woofers' might be a real pain... |
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