Where to get car rear-deck speakers (haven't bought speakers in decades)

Yeah. The dual-cone devices (per OEM) run a princely $8.25 for four and up. Splurge!

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

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pfjw
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harry newton posted for all of us...

I like the idea of hooking a guitar amp up to a transistor radio speaker to see how far the magnet flies.

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Tekkie
Reply to
Tekkie®

All the more reason to encourage them to learn to make and fix stuff. Geek girls rock!

Reply to
Clifford Heath

My youngest intimidated most of her boyfriends untill she met her now hiusband - a heavy truck mechanic. None of the others coulkd drive her car (standard) and she could change a flat - they had to call road service - - -

Reply to
Clare Snyder

He who is Scott Dorsey said on 5 Dec 2017 14:14:38 -0500:

Price is never an indication of quality - it's just an indication of what other people are willing to pay - which - marketing knows - is highly influenced by marketing garbage.

So, a 6x9" 20W $5 Parts Express speaker might or might not be as good as a

6x9" 20W $300 speaker at Toyota which itself might or might not be as good as a 6x9" 20W $25 speaker at Crutchfields.

How are we to know? Sure, in the days of yore, we pored over those 3db power:frequency curves, from 7KHz to 20KHz on each speaker box, and where, folks like Jeff Liebermann would know, they always find a way to lie a little bit.

While I doubt the $300 per speaker at Toyota is a fair price, how can I tell, a priori, if the $5 speaker at Parts Express will be as good (or bad) as the $25 speaker at Crutchfields?

Is there any way for a consumer to make an intelligent speaker decision?

Reply to
harry newton

A good indicator of quality is magnet mass. If it has a tiny little piddler of a magnet it will not handle any power - particularly bass. Then lookat the cone material, and the surround. The spider is also important- The basket is less critical - but in a large powerfull speaker the basket will be MUCH solider than on a cheap-ass speaker. If youfind a speaker with a cast aluminum basket you know you are looking at a higher quality speaker - and if it is stamped steel, the heavier the better.

Poor suspension spiders and surrounds will let the voice-coil scuff on the magnet core - which makes a speaker rattle. A flexible basket can do the same. The surround compliance is different on a speaker designed for an accoustic suspension box than for a bass reflex, or an open baffle like in the average auto rear deck. Toyota actually used accoustic suspension on some of the "premium" sound systems years ago.

LOTS of things you can look at.

I have a pair of OEM Toyota speakers from the eighties sitting here, as well as a pair of speakers from a Zenith TV of about the same period - virtually the same size - and the Toyota speaker is significantly heavier. Thicker cone, thicker basket metal, and more rigid design - as well as a MUCH larger and stronger magnet, The Zenith also uses an "m"formed paper surround, while the Toyota uses a rubber surround. I've got a "tin ear" but even I can tell the difference between the two.

The drivers in my AudioResearch towers are MUCH heavier than my no-name set too - and I replaced the foam surrounds that had totally "disolved" from age with new high-quality synthetic rubber surrounds - on both the active and passive 14 inch cones.

In automotive speakers the basket rigidity is more important because of the "G" forces experienced when driving on rough roads. The cheap speaker might sound good when installed - but it may be pretty auful two years later.

Reply to
Clare Snyder

Wait a second. The kid next door you're doing all this for is a girl.

Do we have another Roy Moore here?

Reply to
micky

That's pitiful.

Two stories. Before cellphones: A girl I met at a lecture -- not attractive and I wasn't interested in her -- calls me on a Friday or Saturday to change her tire. I say, Can it wait until Sunday. Yes. I'm there, doing it and she's not watching. I say, Why don't you watch so you can do it yourself next time. "I'll call someone" "What if you're out in the country?" "I never go there". I finished the job and left and I hope she thought that was why I never called her. If she'd been cute, I still can't imagine spending my life with someone like that. (Plus she didn't seem very appreciative to let me work while she wasn't keeping me company, at least)

Shopping for a car a couple months ago, guy had a beaufitul red Mustang, special black trim, special power chip for ignition, car 12 years old but interior (leather), exterior, engine compartment like new. etc. Stick shift. One of his teenage sons was sort of trying to learn to drive it and the other wsn't even learning to drive! The normal thing to do woudl be to give the car to his son, but neither could handle it.

Reply to
micky

If it is the speaker there is no way I would pay the dealer price for it. That is ridiculous. Almost anything you can get for about 20 % of that money would be an upgrade.

Reply to
jurb6006

They're all dreadful. It doesn't matter which one you buy, it will be dreadful. So buy the cheapest one or the most convenient one and don't worry about it.

No, because it's basically not possible to get decent sound in a car anyway. And even if it were, it wouldn't be possible to do it with the typical full-range whizzer-cone speakers that we're talking about. So buy the cheapest ones you can get and it won't sound any worse than it did when the car was new.

--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Reply to
Scott Dorsey

My wife, before we were married, installed a car stereo in her car. My daughter is very good with that kind of stuff. In the Americorp organization she joined after college, they do outdoor education and they train everyone in the use of power tools and in construction techniques. I helped out last weekend building garden beds. I pre-cut all the lumber and brought it. Her fellow volunteers were very good at putting the whole thing together, drilling, screwing pieces together, and understanding the whole design. I don't know if they could have planned the whole design and done it in a way that minimized lumber costs, and that did not depend on the fasteners for structural integrity. OTOH, my son was never into any of this kind of stuff.

My belief is that the lack of mechanical ability among many youth and adults is based on two things:

  1. Japanese cars. Far fewer mechanical breakdowns and less maintenance led to the end of dads spending time with their kids showing them how to change oil, plugs, points, rotors, and adjust timing on high-maintenance vehicles. The whole skill set of using tools and fixing cars was lost. Car maintenance teaches skills that are transferable to many other applications.
  2. Immigrants from countries with low-cost labor. My Indian friend told me that it took a lot of getting used to life in the U.S. because in India even middle class people have multiple servants to help out, i.e. cooks, cleaners, gardeners, drivers, etc.. In China, labor is so cheap that the middle class hires laborers and there is no "do-it-yourself" mentality, it is viewed as demeaning to do home improvements like painting or fixing plumbing problems. In the U.S., skilled and unskilled labor is expensive so the "do-it-yourself" mentality and infrastructure developed.
Reply to
sms

Better standard of living is part of that. We drove some really cheap cars that broke down frequently too. We had a part time job to buy a $50 car. Now daddy buys junior a fairly new more reliable car.

I could learn to like that.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

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