FlyingPig: Speaker Questions revisited
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From: Sheridan
Dented,
I'm convinced by this thread to go ahead with the Kenwood KFC XR600's. They are the same price from Crutchfield and from my local stereo shop. In fact, I think the local shop will be a few dollars less. Here's a couple more questions:
(1) Is the Crutchfield adaptor worth it? I'm not intimidated by crimping/soldering but I like the "idea" of being able to return it to full stock.
(2) Is it worth $40 to have the stereo shop do the install (ie..do it with me)?
(3) Am I right in summary: You didn't lose bass. You gained less distortion especially in midrange/highs and you didn't lose volume?
(4) Are you "satisfied" that is is your finished stereo or do you desire more? (I'm not worried about high speed top down--that is stereo OFF time for me.)
Barry
I'm convinced by this thread to go ahead with the Kenwood KFC XR600's. They are the same price from Crutchfield and from my local stereo shop. In fact, I think the local shop will be a few dollars less. Here's a couple more questions:
(1) Is the Crutchfield adaptor worth it? I'm not intimidated by crimping/soldering but I like the "idea" of being able to return it to full stock.
(2) Is it worth $40 to have the stereo shop do the install (ie..do it with me)?
(3) Am I right in summary: You didn't lose bass. You gained less distortion especially in midrange/highs and you didn't lose volume?
(4) Are you "satisfied" that is is your finished stereo or do you desire more? (I'm not worried about high speed top down--that is stereo OFF time for me.)
Barry
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From: Royal Oak (used to be Austin)
Barry-
1. The Crutchfield adaptor is not worth it. It does not address the biamp issue ( it only has one set of speaker connectors). The speakers have two places for connection (one for woofer, one for tweeter, if you were to choose to use two amps to power the speaker)
2. It is probably worth it to have them do the install. It took me over 4 hours, and should only take a stereo shop 45 minutes or so. If you are pretty good in the shop, you could do it in an hour or two. Then ask yourself, is two hours of my time worth $40? Are you willing to let a high-school student/drop-out car stereo installer tear apart your car doors? If the shop is mediocre or of the BestBuy/CircuitCity variety, I'd be wary...
3. You are right. You get much crisper midrange and highs. I could replicate the sound of the original speakers by stuffing my ears with cotton... You might lose a little bass "noise", but that's all it is, noise.
4. I am satisfied, for now. If I were to do any more, it would be a small amp and maybe a subwoofer. If I do that, I'll have a stereo shop do the install. Since they'll have the doors off anyways I'll have them clean up the work I did.
1. The Crutchfield adaptor is not worth it. It does not address the biamp issue ( it only has one set of speaker connectors). The speakers have two places for connection (one for woofer, one for tweeter, if you were to choose to use two amps to power the speaker)
2. It is probably worth it to have them do the install. It took me over 4 hours, and should only take a stereo shop 45 minutes or so. If you are pretty good in the shop, you could do it in an hour or two. Then ask yourself, is two hours of my time worth $40? Are you willing to let a high-school student/drop-out car stereo installer tear apart your car doors? If the shop is mediocre or of the BestBuy/CircuitCity variety, I'd be wary...
3. You are right. You get much crisper midrange and highs. I could replicate the sound of the original speakers by stuffing my ears with cotton... You might lose a little bass "noise", but that's all it is, noise.
4. I am satisfied, for now. If I were to do any more, it would be a small amp and maybe a subwoofer. If I do that, I'll have a stereo shop do the install. Since they'll have the doors off anyways I'll have them clean up the work I did.
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From: USR, NJ
Someone asked me this question when I was considering getting it installed in circuit city.
Do you want a 17 year old taking your car apart?
Anyway, it took me a total of 4 hours, (about 1.5 hour actual time....had to wait for my wife to come home with electric tape).
There is no replacement for the joy after installing those speakers yourself. I'm NOT a handy person at all. I am confident that I can get another pair installed in less than half an hour the second time around. I have much better understanding of what's behind those panels.....it strengthens our bond!
The worst that can happen is that you screw up and need either circuit city or honda dealer to finish it up for you. (just make sure you don't scratch your leather
Oh, and unless those new speakers are defective, don't even consider going back to stock....your plan B is for either Honda dealer or circuit city to bail you out.
In the last 2 weeks, I fell down the stairs, cut my finger with a steak knife and I branded myself with a burn mark on hot steam pipe...... A dummy like me was able to install the speakers.
Do you want a 17 year old taking your car apart?
Anyway, it took me a total of 4 hours, (about 1.5 hour actual time....had to wait for my wife to come home with electric tape).
There is no replacement for the joy after installing those speakers yourself. I'm NOT a handy person at all. I am confident that I can get another pair installed in less than half an hour the second time around. I have much better understanding of what's behind those panels.....it strengthens our bond!
The worst that can happen is that you screw up and need either circuit city or honda dealer to finish it up for you. (just make sure you don't scratch your leather
Oh, and unless those new speakers are defective, don't even consider going back to stock....your plan B is for either Honda dealer or circuit city to bail you out.
In the last 2 weeks, I fell down the stairs, cut my finger with a steak knife and I branded myself with a burn mark on hot steam pipe...... A dummy like me was able to install the speakers.
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From: Sheridan
FIVE MONTHS LATER .....
I drove with the stock speakers for about five months, and, to tell the truth, they were perfectly adequate for around town low speed use.
On the highway at legal speeds with the top down, either I had to turn the cd player off or tolerate everything turning to clipping and distortion.
So, yesterday, I had a few free hours, a warm sunny day, and a local stereo shop willing to sell me Kenwood KFC excelon xr600s for $160. I followed MacGyver's advice on removing the door. It was far easier than I thought. I ended up using in line crimps rather than crimp caps, because I forgot about this thread and didn't remember your advice, Flying Pig.
It took me about three hours but that was because I first took apart the stock plastic adapter to free up the spades and tried to buy connectors at Radio Shack to solder up some custom adapters. That didn't work and I wasted almost $1.58 on the connectors.
Then, the stereo shop where I bought the speakers bailed me out with some connectors and an adapter $0.00 additional.
If I had the wiring thing doped out before I got the speakers apart, the whole project would definitely have been under an hour.
The xr600s are much, much cleaner at any frequency and at any sound level. They have a bit less bass than the stock speakers, but tweaking the bass control 20 degrees clockwise fixed that. Just for fun today, I cranked the stock head up to full output with the car stopped and the hardtop on, and I over-filled the cabin with clean stereo. For me, these are more than I need.
I'll probably go for the Honda Kelton subwoofer anyway this summer, but that's just me and being a bit crazy.
Moderators, you probably should move this thread to the electronics forum. Back in October, 2000, the electronics forum didn't exist.
I drove with the stock speakers for about five months, and, to tell the truth, they were perfectly adequate for around town low speed use.
On the highway at legal speeds with the top down, either I had to turn the cd player off or tolerate everything turning to clipping and distortion.
So, yesterday, I had a few free hours, a warm sunny day, and a local stereo shop willing to sell me Kenwood KFC excelon xr600s for $160. I followed MacGyver's advice on removing the door. It was far easier than I thought. I ended up using in line crimps rather than crimp caps, because I forgot about this thread and didn't remember your advice, Flying Pig.
It took me about three hours but that was because I first took apart the stock plastic adapter to free up the spades and tried to buy connectors at Radio Shack to solder up some custom adapters. That didn't work and I wasted almost $1.58 on the connectors.
Then, the stereo shop where I bought the speakers bailed me out with some connectors and an adapter $0.00 additional.
If I had the wiring thing doped out before I got the speakers apart, the whole project would definitely have been under an hour.
The xr600s are much, much cleaner at any frequency and at any sound level. They have a bit less bass than the stock speakers, but tweaking the bass control 20 degrees clockwise fixed that. Just for fun today, I cranked the stock head up to full output with the car stopped and the hardtop on, and I over-filled the cabin with clean stereo. For me, these are more than I need.
I'll probably go for the Honda Kelton subwoofer anyway this summer, but that's just me and being a bit crazy.
Moderators, you probably should move this thread to the electronics forum. Back in October, 2000, the electronics forum didn't exist.
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From: San Jose
Hi Guys,
Figure I'd put my two cents in. I bought the Kenwood XR-600's at a local auio store for $140 + TAX... yepser $140..
I followed the net instructions for door panel removal. I drilled out the backs of the honda mounts and wired up the BI-AMPs in parallel (like it shows on the box). I was tempted to wire them in series, but figure volume was one of the reasons I bought these bad boys... For those who don't know wiring in parallel keeps volume the same, but doubles distortion. Wiring in series cuts volume in half but maintains distortion ... now these are just general rules of thumb, every speaker is different.
Anyways, I didn't have a multi-meter and didn't think to look at the wiring harness before cuting it off.... oops.. I ended up wiring reverse polarity according to the s2ki head unit install section. I looked up the wire colors on-line after I did the install
. The thing is the speakers sound AWSOME! No distorion, TOO MUCH bass... insane amounts... I had to turn down the bass two notches for CDs and one for radio...
Dunno, if this is bad for the speakers or what, but boy does it sound good. I've been running them like this for 10 days now (only had the car for 14). No problems, everything sounds great. I can even crank up the volume enough (without amp clipping) to hear while goin 80MPH with the top down. One of these days I'll get around to fixing the polarity to see if they still sound good. I'm just waiting till I have enough money for the Kenwood Z919 MP3 player.
-- Robert
01 Yellow
Figure I'd put my two cents in. I bought the Kenwood XR-600's at a local auio store for $140 + TAX... yepser $140..
I followed the net instructions for door panel removal. I drilled out the backs of the honda mounts and wired up the BI-AMPs in parallel (like it shows on the box). I was tempted to wire them in series, but figure volume was one of the reasons I bought these bad boys... For those who don't know wiring in parallel keeps volume the same, but doubles distortion. Wiring in series cuts volume in half but maintains distortion ... now these are just general rules of thumb, every speaker is different.
Anyways, I didn't have a multi-meter and didn't think to look at the wiring harness before cuting it off.... oops.. I ended up wiring reverse polarity according to the s2ki head unit install section. I looked up the wire colors on-line after I did the install
. The thing is the speakers sound AWSOME! No distorion, TOO MUCH bass... insane amounts... I had to turn down the bass two notches for CDs and one for radio... Dunno, if this is bad for the speakers or what, but boy does it sound good. I've been running them like this for 10 days now (only had the car for 14). No problems, everything sounds great. I can even crank up the volume enough (without amp clipping) to hear while goin 80MPH with the top down. One of these days I'll get around to fixing the polarity to see if they still sound good
. I'm just waiting till I have enough money for the Kenwood Z919 MP3 player. -- Robert
01 Yellow
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From: Sheridan
Robert,
The wiring included in the Kenwood box does parallel wiring rather than series. Right?
I "think" my two sides are wired in phase. My wife and I spent about ten minutes listening. I finished the left door installation and left the right side accessable and kept reversing the spades to go back and forth. We both think the bass is louder with our current wiring. I wasn't smart enough to look it up even though I've got the Helm manual.
The wiring included in the Kenwood box does parallel wiring rather than series. Right?
I "think" my two sides are wired in phase. My wife and I spent about ten minutes listening. I finished the left door installation and left the right side accessable and kept reversing the spades to go back and forth. We both think the bass is louder with our current wiring. I wasn't smart enough to look it up even though I've got the Helm manual.
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From: Jersey City
I was shopping for replacement speakers yesterday in lower manhattan and it was between the Kenwood XR600 and the Sony XS-V1621. The Kenwoods were 140 and the Sonys were 60. I went with the Sonys. A lot of shops had the Sonys but only one shop carried the Kenwoods. That same shop also had the Alpine SPS 1629 and they were going for 80. I couldn't justify spending that much for the Kenwoods, although they did look very nice. I am not a car stereo nut, figured the Sony would offer better performance than the stock speakers and that's all I am really looking for. Will put them in this coming weekend.
Paul
Paul