Need some input on What's the best speaker upgrade to be power by OEM HU?

I want to do a quality budget system without getting an Amp. I'm lazy. Once the upgrade is on the car, I would not pay have someone or take it out myself and after losing so much money on upgrades from my previous cars, I decide to do the upgrade economically. So, when I'm selling my car I can give it away alone with the car.

 

For good sounding speakers, you need to either add an amp or change out the HU to power aftermarket speakers. If not, changing out your speakers will do little to improve your sound and put more stress on your stock HU. Honestly, if your budget is less than $300, I'd stick with the stock setup whether it be Bose or not. If your budget is $400-500 though, you can get components, rear speakers and an amp with kit if you shop around. Of course, you'll have to install it yourself to stay within budget.

 

Well, actually, I'm told that a number of people have had good response replacing the speakers with higher quality ones and leaving everything else alone.

I can say from experience that the stock speakers are ****ty paper speakers. I actually tore one when I was removing it, without much force, I might add.

Dave

 

That's going to be a tough one, since I'm going to guess that there have been very few members that have listened to and compared more than one aftermarket speaker with the stock system. Maybe some of the installers....? And most are going to (correctly) recommend that it will sound better with an amp. And then you get into the 'what sounds best' question...

You don't mention the year / sound system option, but I would guess that if you replace a stock 4 ohm speaker with something that fits in the stock location, it's going to be an upgrade that you will be able to hear.

 

I replaced my driverside door speaker with a pioneer 3-way speaker and i can hear a difference, the highs are a lot better on that side now.

 

Do you have Bose or not? If you have Bose and you ONLY want to change the speakers, then get some 2 ohm speakers. Image Dynamics (Chameleons) makes some 2 ohm speakers that are VERY good. Otherwise, if you put in 4ohm speakers, you probably won't get the effect you are looking for.

 

I have the BOSE system and from what my installer told me since I'm running with a low power 4 ohm speaker that do not require a lot of power to push it'll be less strain for my 2 ohm HU to powered the speakers. He indicate the improvement is well worth the money for just a cheap speaker upgrade.

I'm trying to keep the budget including labor to be under $300.00, my old budget was $1000.00 for front & Rear. So far my installer recommended the PEGASUS 6.5" alumum cone separate installed for $150.00 and $210.00 installed for the Carbon fiber cone separate from the same brand.

 

Pegasus? Hmmm....never heard of them. Is that the model or the brand? You really should be putting some low power 2ohm speakers in there, as we are talking about resistance not power handling....
Install them yourself...it is not hard at all, and it will save you money.

 

The front door (woofer) Bose speakers in my 2003.5 coupe measured at 4.1 ohms. I admit to not searching....how does this vary between years and base/Bose systems?

 

Hmmm....interesting. The Bose systems use 2ohm speakers. Did you measure with a multimeter? I believe the Bose speakers even say 2ohms on the back of them. The Base system should have 4ohm speakers.

 

Correctioncorrectioncorrection I just remeasured to make sure, I was working on another car at the same time. 2.2 ohms on the DMM. Sorry to contribute to misinformation!!!

Just looking at this thing while I have it out. How do they make a speaker with so little metal in it??

 

What would happen when I installed a 4 ohm speaker to 2 ohm output?

For home system, if you have a 2 ohm out put Amp you'll be able to power almost any speaker out on the market. Due to 2 ohm amp will have no problem power any speaker rate at 4/6/8//16 ohm effort lessly. The only draw back is you might blown the speaker when playing too loud as 2 ohm output could be too much for it. But if you do the reverse to hook up a 2 ohm speaker to a 4 ohm amp then you'll running the risk of over heating your amp as now your amp will need to work twice as hard to push a 2 ohm speaker.

So, apply this logic from my experience with Home system I sort of want to go with what my intaller recommended.

Anyone done it with your car that can give me more convincing reason of why I should not do it?

 

Any speaker will work. if you buy the very high end components, they will work, but you won't be getting the max performance out of them.

I just put in diamond audio components in the front and precision power coaxial's in the back, running off the stock amp. It is a world of difference in clarity. All the boominess is gone. It won't play louder than stock though, since these speakers aren't super efficient. If you want it to play louder, you need to get 92 or 93db / 2.83v efficiency speakers.

At the shops, they all try to talk you into putting in an amp, saying you won't be able to hear a difference with expensive speakers. There is a diminishing return, but anything will be better than the stock speakers.

I did weeks of research on speakers for the stock HU, it comes down to how much you want to spend

 

Sure. If voltage remains constant, and resistance of the speaker increases, the output is reduced in half (watts). Essentially half the output that you would be getting with a 2 ohm speaker. Meaning that you will have to turn your system up louder to reproduce the same volume effect that you would get with the 2ohm speaker, thus increasing distortion (clipping), because we all know that the Blose amp can't handle much power.

 

Infinity has a line of 2 Ohm speakers that are a direct replacemtn for our Bose equipped cars. Both sedan and coupe. These speakers will not affect volume level since they are 2 ohm. I'd give you an opinion on sound, but I'm still waiting on the 30 pairs I ordered to arrive.