sg611

I replaced the stock speakers with Polk DB651s but they don't sound any better. If anything, maybe a little quieter. Why could this be? I'm not a big audio guy. Do I need a little amp to power the door speakers to sound better? Should I send them back?

Edit: I have a Pioneer DEH-X6600BT head unit.

Any suggestions would be awesome, thanks.

AE_Racer

Im assuming you still have the OEM headunit, so i'd start with upgrading that.

sg611

I was editing my post while you posted.
I have a Pioneer DEH-X6600BT.

sam_spider

Those speakers need an amp. They need more power.

sg611

The head unit says it has a built-in 50wx4 amplifier and the speakers say they are 55w (max 165) speakers. What do you recommend I do? Telling me I need an amp doesn't lead me anywhere.

Fokker

The 50x4 rating is the peak output, that HU is most likely putting out 20-22 watts RMS per channel. Those speakers are rated 60RMS/180Peak and this JBL amp would fit the bill. I'm not sure why you downgraded to two ways though. It's going to sound better with the highs lifted off the floorboards.

oth

The OEM speakers, intended to be used with a low-power OEM headunit, are fairly efficient, so
aftermarket ones likely won't be louder, but hopefully will sound better.
The s2000 is noisy, so IMO it's not possible to have a good-sounding system without an external
amplifier - your headunit, per Crutchfield, puts out a whopping 14 watts RMS - you can see why they
like to talk about the meaningless "peak" number.
As for whether the you should keep the speakers - if they sound good to you sitting in the driveway,
then adding more power may work for driving, but if they don't sound good to you then, adding
more power will just make the crappy sound louder.
Early cars (00-01) used only speakers in the lower door, but newer cars used separate woofers and
(high-mounted) tweeters, and would normally be replaced with a 2-way component system such as
the Polk db 6501, but ultimately what matters is how it sounds to you, and how much you want to spend.

alSpeed2k

I'm in a similar situation to the OP. Except I went with JL-Audio-TR650-CSi speakers and an Alpine deck. Would that JBL amp work with my set-up, any idea how would it compare with Alpine's own KTP-445a? TIA!

Fokker

That JBL amp is too powerful for those speakers, the KTP-445a's output would match those speakers really well. The main thing to keep in mind when selecting an amp in regards to power output is that you want to closely match the RMS output of the amp to the speakers' RMS rating without exceeding it or exceeding the Peak output rating of the speakers.

Pinky

It's harder to blow out a speaker by overpowering it vs under powering it.

Clean undistorted high power ...... you could far exceed the RMS without worry. Try and crank your head unit to max to try and move some big speakers and you are going to burn out that speaker in no time!