Best drop-in speakers?

[Heggs550]

I just installed the Alpine under glove box "plug and play" sub and amp setup and I'm happy with it at times and disappointed at others. Looks like I need to do a little more research into ForScan'ing the bass roll off out, but I'm thinking upgrading the speakers will be worthwhile as well?

I've come across the Powerbass kit for about $130 and looks like alpine has one as well for the same price. For the same pricepoint or less, what easy-to-install speakers would you recommend?

I'm not trying to win any competitions here, just want something more clear with maybe some more mid range. The highs are actually kind of hurting my ears at times, even with the volume turned down a tad and treble dialed down. The sound definitely needs to be dialed in, but I can't seem to get it right with the base EQ and I just followed Alpine's recommendations for all the knobs and dials on their unit. I know I could mess with those a little, but I honestly don't have a clue what I'm doing with "gain" and all that jazz. I can work my way around the rest of a car pretty competently, but I've always just swapped head units and speakers and have been good to go. Can't seem to dial it in here.

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[FreePenguin]

I have powerbass myself, I like them. Can’t say if best but sound good to me

 

[Heggs550]

I have powerbass myself, I like them. Can’t say if best but sound good to me

You've got just the base system, right? Was there a noticeable improvement in clarity and/or overall performance over the stock ones.

 

[FreePenguin]

9 speaker. But my car had 4ohm 6.5’s in door.

I put an amp from 12 speaker car in mine, that car had 6.5 2ohm speakers

Only 2ohm replacements I could find and that wasn’t coaxial was powerbass.

Tossed it in my door. Sounds excellent, clean, real clean. Real loud too. No distortion.

Going from crappy 6.5 4ohm to nicer quality 6.5 2ohm it doubled its volume.
I also used stinger foam rings and such.

 

[FreePenguin]

Ignore my door. It worked Lol. No rattles of any kind.

 

[Heggs550]

Ignore my door. It worked Lol. No rattles of any kind.

Looks good and it works! Man that blue sure is bright haha

 

[FreePenguin]

Looks good and it works! Man that blue sure is bright haha

These are worth buying if you put in new speakers.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-hcq885Mi1cp/p_541FAST6/Stinger-Roadkill-RKFR6-FAST-Rings.html

goes on top, and under the speaker, and behind the speaker, I have it cushioning the door panel, so it isn't rattling, and the sound comes straight out. etc.

the mid 3.5 and tweeters, nah. but if you do toss these on 6.5's in the door, grab a set of those.

 

[bba37GT1]

Might not be the popular opinion on here, but I thinking a DSP might help you out with getting a foundation to build of off. I am using the Rockfords Fosgate DSP, with Morel speakers, and JL 12W6 sub, and had zero issues with sound quality. Everything comes out clean and loud, no ear pain when playing at loud volumes in residential neighborhoods.

 

[MegaG]

In addition to Powerbass you can check out https://www.focal-inside.com/ford/en/ford-mustang-vi-2015-2020-2/

Also, adding a DSP is one of the best things you can do, don't look at it as something only done on high end system or by people wanting to compete. Just like anything else, there are all sorts of price points. The Rockford DSR1 gives you lots of options a stock head unit does not and is reasonable. Even though some spend more on Audio Control, Helix, Ground Zero, and many more there are a few choices at the lower end that can make a difference. Lots of info on the site by members using the DSR1 which makes it a good choice for some if you want to lean on that info when you do your own install.

 

[Matthewstorm]

What do you guys think of this DSP?
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_13698101/JL-Audio-TwK-88-System-Tuning-Processor.html

 

[MegaG]

I haven't read much up on this unit but JL Audio in general has good quality. Quickly glancing at it this unit does not accept high level inputs, not a problem if integrating into premium system, coming from a base system you will want to get into Forscan and change the high level outputs to low level and solder in some RCAs.

8 channels is nice, some only have 6 so this is good, but can almost be short depending on on how many speakers you want to run or if you are running active or passive crossovers, decisions that need to be made upfront to select the right DSP.

Digital I/O is a plus but could also be a feature you are paying for that is not needed, again, goes back to design decisions. Are you using stock head unit, do you want to use a high end Media player wired directly to DSP/Amps versus going through head unit, etc

10 band equalizer may be on the light side but since you can set it up as a parametric equalizer its very manageable. What's important is that you have a parametric option. Has all the crossover slopes you could ever need.

In general, it has a lot of good features, you will want to research what the software is like to work with. Quality and features won't matter much if you can't get a good tune which will take some practice and patience if you plan to do it yourself.

I read one post of someone dumping the high quality Helix for a miniDSP, another good product, because the Helix software was not intuitive enough for him and seen other posts that were variations on that so look content sharing their tuning experience with this unit.

 

[Matthewstorm]

This will run with stock B&O head unit. I just want to drop in some better speakers and sub.

 

[Heggs550]

Thanks guys, but I'm barely motivated enough to spend $130 on new speakers to begin with lol. I'm really not interested in spending another $250 on a DSP and I wouldn't know what to do with it to boot haha.

Are the couple drop-in speaker options a worthwhile upgrade for $130 or should I just be happy with what I've got? I just really don't want to go down a rabbit hole or spend money for nothing. I have no problem dumping money into go fast bits, suspension, wheels, etc, I just have some strange aversion to dumping money into the sound system, can't even explain it lol.

 

[FreePenguin]

Crutchfield dawg. 30 day returns

Disable factory eq first, before you do anything. You won’t get the best sound until you do, stock or aftermarket speakers

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

Crutchfield dawg. 30 day returns

Disable factory eq first, before you do anything. You won’t get the best sound until you do, stock or aftermarket speakers

I keep seeing this about disabling the “factory EQ” and I would like to know more. What is disabling it actually doing? Specifically? Is there a before and after frequency curve I can look at? Can someone tell me what frequencies are boosted or cut on the factory EQ? Does disabling it alter the crossover points for the different speakers? Is there a change in time delay settings?

I have seen quite a few conflicting details about it and a lot of non-technical things like “it sounds better” but very little actual technical detail.

I would like to see some of that technical detail.

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