JL or alpine? Which would you prefer?

Debating between JL audio C2 door speakers or Alpine type-R door speakers? Which would you prefer and why? Recommend other speakers around same price range?

 

Rumor is the new ///Alpine's are junk compared to the old ones. There's a guy on CT who knows everything there is to know about them. daves50 I think his username is. My 4x4 has a Pioneer and my Taco has a old $400 alpine I got for $80 and a bunch of other stuff.

The Alpine seeems to have started not playing through the left side on AUX about a month ago, the Pioneer is going strong and it's about 21 years old, with remote control. It's seen it's share of offroad dust too. Plus it doesn't have those big square annoying button lights that blind you at night like the ///Alpine, and the remote doesn't have raised buttons for night like the Pioneer. It's harder to know what button your finger is on.

 

Both are extremely amazing drivers IMO. I have been in the industry many years and am a major fan of both these brands. It going to be a hard decision to make, so ill tell you my experience and hopefully it helps you decide.

Alpine: To me, every brand has a specialty area which surpasses other like products (as in pioneer makes great Head units but crappy speakers) Alpine though has been very impressive overall. The sound quality produced from Alpine products and the technology they use (such as "imprint") highly exceeds expectations. My original system design for my 09 DC Sport was going to be an Alpine Navi HU with Alpine Type R Speakers running off a JL Amp and another JL amp for the JL Stealthbox. Due to money constraints I opted to use products that I had from my previous vehicle, which I will get to in a minute. I dislike Alpine subs however. I feel they are to competition like and the sound they produce to me is not as crisp and accurate as my JL Subs, its just too thumpy for me. But, back to the door speakers... My ex had an 05 base model Tacoma. I installed a single Din Alpine HU, 6.5 Component Alpine Type R in front doors, and Alpine Amplifier. Ch 1+2 of the amp powered the speakers and ch 3+4 bridged to power the JL sub. I do not like setting up sytems this way, but since she already had a 4ch amp and no back speakers I figured it would save alot of money so why not. This setup performed better than any thing I ever imagined! Those 6.5 Type R components (when amplified - important!) sounded like she had a 7.1 system in that little truck. The bass they produced was incredible. Im sure it had alot to do with the fact that the cab space was very small being that it was a single cab, but considering she has no back speakers, it was very impressive. I would vouch for Alpine Type R Speakers anyday.

JL: JL Audio is a high end brand and honestly quite expensive. I have yet to find another brand amplifier or subwoofer that has surpassed the quality of my JL subs (I have owned many different models) They are a top notch brand and I would never purchase a different brand subwoofer. Their speakers however, I do not have any personal experience with, I have heard them before in a few vehicle and on display at CES, and I was pretty impressed. But it is hard for me to recommend them because of my lack of first hand experience with them. Like I said before, every brand seems to have a certain product that they excel in, so since i know for a fact that JL makes amazing subs, I am reluctant to try their speakers, although even a shitty JL speaker would be better than most brands im sure.

The important factor in both of these brands is that they are designed to be amplified. Speakers of this quality do not perform well running off a HU's RMS output. They will still sound great, but its like having a hybrid engine in your Tacoma... whats the point of having a truck then?? get it? If you plan on spending this much money on either brand, do it right and get an amp, you wont regret it!!

Now for other recommendations
I currently run Focal (Found Here)speakers in my truck.
Up front is the Polyglass 165-VRS retail $649.99
In back in the Polyglass PC-690 retail $349.99
I know this is more expensive than both Alpine and JL combined, but I would recommend you check out their Access SG Series. It is one step down from the Polyglass but will still blow your mind!!
The 165-AI SG are 6.5 components for $249.00 or IC 165 coaxial for only $199.00. These will far exceed that quality of Alpine or JL as far as door speakers is concerned, and just because the Access Series is their lowest model does not mean they are not good. Thier highest series, the Utobia Be 6.5 Componenets, known as N 6 retail for $4500.00 per pair. ANY company that can get away with charging $4500 for a pair of 6.5 speakers DOES NOT make cheap products, believe that! Be sure to check out FOCAL-AMERICA.COM for pricing. FOCAL.COM is their main website for all products including home theater, but does not list pricing info.

Overall, I recommend Focal Access SG to fit your budget, but if your still unsure and want to stick between Alpine or JL, I would vote Alpine!

Good Luck!! and be sure to post lots of pics!!!!!

 

Not bashing your post, but Head Unit quality is not comparable to speaker quality. OP was asking specifically about door speakers. Like I mentioned in my reply, every brand has its strong point like Pioneer makes AMAZING head units as you said, but pretty crappy speakers subs and amps! Just pointing out that you cant base your decision based off a completely different product.

 

Listen to both and decide by your ear and preference. Me I like hard metal tweeters so neither for me. My ears, music, setup will differ from yours so it's hard cause if I like this setup cause it fits me the best won't sound good to your ears. So go listen to both and decide then.

 

Personally, I wouldn't look to any car audio manufacturer for speakers other than high end Pioneer or JL Audio, and that's only because they make them in house. The mainstream brands mostly buy stuff from a build house and tack on a bunch of profit.

This page (Madisound) has 4 choices that will outperform any mainstream car audio brand at the same price point.

 

I have heard both, and personally I prefer JL audio. In my eyes JL is a speaker company and can put all focus into that. They do however also produce some awesome amps!

 

I went from Alpine coax to MB Quart Reference seperates with Titanium tweeters to JL Audio XR components to now JL Audio ZR components and of course I prefer the XR's and ZR's best.

 

Alpine components sound better to me than JL components. I heard them in a vehicle at a car audio show. JL amps and subs are great though.

I use old MB Quart components, but I think the Alpines have finally become comparable in sound quality.

 

shop around, much better for the price, maybe try something bestbuy dosent sell

 

infiniti kappa

 

For the price difference compared to sound quality difference, the Alpine is a much more valuable setup, JL is and always has been overpriced.

 

Focals FTW! I like Alpine products. I have the Shallow mount Type-R 12 which is awesome.

I have these in my rear doors
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/spr-60

They pump out the midbass but the highs are whack. Still its in the rear doors so I'm only worrying about the 80-200hz range. Still got them onsale for 99$, they are awesome.

JL is good stuff, but over priced for what you are getting.

 

I'm an alpine guy. Never had a problem with any of my alpine products, and to me they sound good at a decent price

 

Rainbow FTW.....

 

JL doesn't build ANY components in house. The only drivers they build in house are subs. They source the higher-end sets from Germany and the rest from either Korea or China (I can't remember which). Pioneer does build their own in-house as does JBL, whi btw the way make outstanding components. Their C608GTi is on sale for $300 shipped direct from JBLhttp://www.jbl.com/estore/jbl/us/product/productDetails.jsp?pid=C608GTI%20MKII and will walk all over the Pioneer and JL sets. Even the Pioneer Stage 4 stuff isn't quite up to par. You can also get their new MS-62c set http://www.jbl.com/estore/jbl/us/product/productDetails.jsp?pid=MS-62C for less than $200 on Amazon or eBay and, IMO, nothing you can buy in the $200-$300 range is even close.

 

That's because the guys that design them are the guys that used to design for PPI when PPI amps were good.

 

Oh man, that brings back memories... I used to have a PPI art series amp!

 

i've had the alpine type r's and also the type x's. I've also had c2's and c5's. I prefer the jl speakers and subs over alpine.

 

The tweeter material makes a huge difference. I have never heard a plastic dome tweeter that sounded good. Silk or metal domes can sound great.