Choosing speakers blindly

Good day I have a 2019 Tacoma Offroad Access cab truck. I have soundproofed the interior floor, roof, doors and aft wall with silmat, accoustic foam and MLV.

I've replaced the headunit with a Kenwood Excelon DMX957X, the rear speakers with kicker 6.5 and the front tweeter and speakers with JL audio C1-690X. I'm running a 4 channel AudioControl ACM 4-300 amp.

I'm really not happy with the setup. There seems to be a lack of clarity in the sound. Elimination of the rear speaker doesn't help at all. It's not horrible sound but it just lacks crispness.

I've tried to adjust the sound via the equalizer and a few test tones but still am unhappy with the sound. It is much better than original but I'm looking for better.

So how does one choose speakers and tweeter without trying them? Can someone recommend a superior speaker/tweeter? I would like to upgrade those before going to DSP amp.

Thanks

 

What is your signal source? One of my best investments has been Amazon Music HD. I stream FLAC files.

 

I have a few. I have a few flac files from the Macintosh audiophile series and other music. I'm not worried about the source, the same songs or audio files played in my GTI without sound proofing sound much better.

In retrospect, the speakers are where I seemed to have cheaped out. I've had Polk Audio DB speakers that had more clarity but they were 2 way speakers cs the JL audio that are component speakers.

 

What's your budget?

Also, you'll get the biggest gains out of pairing this with an active setup with DSP. Correcting for the 'room' makes a massive difference.

 

Budget questions....

I would like to stay around 500-700 CAD.

I'm eyeing a used audio control D6-1200 to incorporate a DSP and add a bit of power but am not sure that is the proper order of things to add to improve the sound. It's also a bit more than I planned to spend.

Add money towards DSP amp or speakers I don't know which option gives me the better sound. Both can get very expensive and is probably overkill.

 

I generally read lots of reviews. And not the "sounds gr8!!1!" reviews.

The reviews that go through and categorically define the characteristics and tone of the speaker.

I also like using frequency response diagrams, as I have an offense to bright tweeters around the 12khz area, but many tweeters have a bump there.

 

Audiofrog GS components come to mind if staying with a passive set. They tend to be crowd pleasers.

SI components are really hard to beat for the coin (wait 'till they go on sale - it happens a lot): Component Speakers – StereoIntegrity.com

Going active gives you the most flexibility. I like to use raw drivers from vendors such as Madisound: Woofers: Madisound Speaker Components, Inc. (madisoundspeakerstore.com) .
Madisound gives you parameters for most drivers, which lets you predict how they'll perform. Also a great selection from multiple vendors. IMO, this is the greatest speaker store on the planet.

Yeah, DSP can get expensive, but it can be done cheaply as well. There are head units out there that can be had for a few hundred bucks that will do it. Feature sets are trimmed, but so is the price. DSP in the head unit is hard to beat as you don't have to mount any extra hardware and all controls can generally be accessed from the head unit.

 

Which head units run full featured DSP's?


Also, check parts-express.com for speakers as well. They currently have one of the cheapest DSP's on the market as well, but it doesn't have auto-eq

 

I'd have to look up the new stuff, but Pioneer makes a few. Seems like Kenwood may as well. Here's one example: Pioneer DMH-2000NEX Digital multimedia receiver (does not play discs) at Crutchfield

Full-featured may be a stretch, but with the one above, you get active 3-way crossovers, generous EQ, and time alignment for $300. That's enough to drastically improve the experience.

 

Another vote for choosing based upon budget and reviews.

How about Focal?

 

Now that I've had DSP, it would seem crazy to go w/o it. If you like the JL Audio family, the Twk88 would be a great add, I personally kept the factory head unit use a JL Audio Fix86. With a decent mic and a pink noise source I was able to get a pretty flat frequency response - listening to it with and without the equalization active is night and day. It's unrecognizable that it's the same system. But keep in mind that most "DSPs" are equalizers and expensive ones may have time alignment.

Also, are your gains set properly? If not, I've found that it can compress the dynamic range of the music a bit and music can lack what sounds like brightness or crispness. Also make sure you have consistent polarity on all your speakers or they will start working against each other.

Your JL Audio C1 series are decent speakers and should sound pretty good depending on what you listen to and how loud you listen.

There are no reviews that can tell you what speakers will sound to your ears. I've had many sets of speakers between $100 and $1000 per set. As a rule of thumb, you can tell the difference between $100 and $500 speakers, but not much between $500 and $1000 speakers. Find a car audio shop if you can.

 

I already have a decent head unit. The DMX958XR is working fine, I tried to adjust sound via the Kenwood equalizer with a USB microphone but it's certainly not as flexible as with a 30 band DSP. I should probably send a test tone to see where the sound is at now that the speakers are broken in, in case the sound drifted.

Re DSP, I am also trying to keep things tidy. Adding a separate DSP takes up space and adds significant amounts of wiring. The ACM 4-300 fits nicely under the driver seat. An integrated AMP-DSP would be ideal but I am having trouble justifying $$$. If I go the separate DSP route, what units give decent bang for the buck?

The present system plays so much better than stock... Its just a challenge knowing what avenue to go to improve the sound and my enjoyment of the system.

 

Yeah, a separate DSP does add complexity, which is why I recommended the head unit route. I did not look up this head unit's features previously, but it looks like you're already there - this one has time alignment, decent EQ and 3-way active crossovers. Which is DSP lite! 5V outputs too. Are you using the time-alignment and active crossover features? If not, you should be able to make improvements without spending any money.

 

How do you have the JL's setup? That model number is a coax but you said you have tweets and the 6x9 up front?

Are you running them as seperates?

 

You could get an amp rack to go under the front seat that would hold the AC D6.1200 I have the AC4.800 which is that same size and it fits under my front seat. Im running a Kenwood Exelon with Morels 6x9 components up front off the Audio Control amp. The radio is running deck power to the rear OEM speakers since they are just rear fill. I do have the doors treated along with the 6x9 brackets and im really pleased with the sound. If your JL's are coax, then your sound is really at your calves. If you still have the stock tweeter up front with the coax, you are still losing out. Go with a solid 6x9 component set up front. I think your amp is fine running the front speakers. You could bridge it to the fronts and just let the radio run the rears.

 

Im using time alignment on 958XR, for the crossovers I'm using the ones supplied by JL AUDIO.

The 6x9 JL I have isn't a 2 way speaker, it's a component set. I mounted the tweeters where the OEM ones were.

 

I have the amp mounted under the drivers seat much like your arrangement. The speakers are a component set but since I am not getting a sound that is refined to my taste, I'm looking at options.

How are the Morels working out for you? They are on my shortlist with Focal and Audiofrog GS.

 

Definitely room for improvement there. Time-aligning each driver individually (each driver gets its own amp channel) will be an improvement over now (you'll need to run a little more speaker wire). Even better if the head unit offers left & right EQ (drivers are all on a different axis, which means they have different frequency response).

 

something i was going to point out, but referencing both quoted posts..

i currently run a pioneer 80-prs in both my vehicles(one amped, one direct off the head unit--semi-permanent-temporarily), in 'full-active'/'network' mode. i'd still recommend a standalone DSP. main reason being that all but a few nearly unobtainable radio's(pioneer p88rs) have separate left/right eq's, but they still don't fix the issue. my 80-prs only has a single eq, which is extremely irritating once all the crossovers are implemented, and the eq affects things beyond the crossover.. so far, pioneer is one of the only brands that does this within the head unit. i know alpine does/did offer an add-on solution, and kenwood offered it for a little while, though i was just digging through their current offerings recently, and couldn't locate anything to indicate they still do.

just about all add-on DSP's will have independent eq's for each output. which is worth it's weight in gold for deep-dive system tuning. my last truck ran the pioneer 80prs, but also a dayton dsp408. i specifically used it to tune less-than-ideal speakers in ways that the pioneer could never do.

 

There's room for improvement in a lot of areas... A bit more amp power, active crossover, a check for sound drift (speakers must be broken in by now readjustment with pink noise might be in order), better speakers, full DSP, a better measurement microphone.

The soundproofing is good, and so is the new headunit.

I'll start with the low hanging fruit