Have you been able to compare them to other brands? I´m interested in your experience, thanks.
Which company makes the best car speakers?
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Have you been able to compare them to other brands? I´m interested in your experience, thanks.
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Briefly looked in into car audio not by choice but was due my front speakers dying. Swapped them out for some Focal PC165 and was happy with how they sound.
However I am glad that my car really doesn't allow for going deeper into another moneypit. No one with the right mind would add the weight back to a semi stripped out factory track ready car just to hear some music when stuck in traffic. Good for my wallet I guess.
However I am glad that my car really doesn't allow for going deeper into another moneypit. No one with the right mind would add the weight back to a semi stripped out factory track ready car just to hear some music when stuck in traffic. Good for my wallet I guess.
You just aren't hardcore enough! You need to add all that weight and offset it with MOAR horsepower.
johnsnowkornar
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Does this speaker has a combined maximum power handling capability of 420 Wattages??
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Focal ? 
The thing to think about is the cost though
The thing to think about is the cost thoughlpd2
100+ Head-Fier
anyone heard focal BE?Focal ?
IPodPJ
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Back in 2000, I put over $17K into a system in my 2000 Toyota Solara car (which was stupid, I’ll never do that again because the only time I could truly enjoy it was when I wasn’t driving). I had a custom built $1100 alternator from an older gentleman who did Alpine’s show cars. It put out 292 amps hot and 269 amps cold. It was a beast and needed new diodes every year.
I had Dynaudio 3-ways in the front (7” woofer handling up to 700W, 4” mid handling up to 300W, and a 1.1” tweeter handling up to 100W), Dynaudio 2-ways (7” woofer/mids and a 1.1” tweeter) in the rear doors, 2 Polk Audio Signature coaxial 3-way 6x9s by the main rear window, on the panel over the trunk (I forgot what model) that blended nicely, and 2 JL Audio W10 subs in the trunk along with three large Precision Power “Power Class Series” amps and 1 medium sized one of the same type; when all routed provided 4200W RMS into 4 ohms. Dynamat was in the doors, and I had very high quality wiring. I also had a very nice 16 channel active crossover (I forget the brand). I also had a huge capacitor. I only wanted 200W for each sub (which I ran in stereo) because I didn’t want a thumping car. I had dual Alpine head units in the double DIN dash of those days. The top controller unit was a retractable (7” or larger?) touch screen display (i didn’t add the CD navigation system) and CD player. The bottom unit (also a controller unit) was an awesome DSP/Parametric 16-band EQ/Time Alignment, etc. processor.
I wanted balanced sound which I actually tuned poorly and eventually led me to get back into my headphone journey (started in 1994 with the Sony MDR-CD3000) and retrain my brain to prefer a natural, balanced, neutral tonality. The Dynaudio right tweeter distorted on two occasions and I could feel my right eardrum tearing, and to this day I have 2 small scars on my eardrum (and a mild case of TTTS in my right ear, which I posted about a long time ago on this forum and got messages from over 40 people worldwide with the same symptoms, which finally led to a better understanding of the problem by ENT doctors, who previously said it was all in our imagination) which fortunately still gives me 95% of the frequency range as my left ear; just slightly less very high treble. (I can still distinguish a 0.25dB imbalance between channels.)
I had Dynaudio 3-ways in the front (7” woofer handling up to 700W, 4” mid handling up to 300W, and a 1.1” tweeter handling up to 100W), Dynaudio 2-ways (7” woofer/mids and a 1.1” tweeter) in the rear doors, 2 Polk Audio Signature coaxial 3-way 6x9s by the main rear window, on the panel over the trunk (I forgot what model) that blended nicely, and 2 JL Audio W10 subs in the trunk along with three large Precision Power “Power Class Series” amps and 1 medium sized one of the same type; when all routed provided 4200W RMS into 4 ohms. Dynamat was in the doors, and I had very high quality wiring. I also had a very nice 16 channel active crossover (I forget the brand). I also had a huge capacitor. I only wanted 200W for each sub (which I ran in stereo) because I didn’t want a thumping car. I had dual Alpine head units in the double DIN dash of those days. The top controller unit was a retractable (7” or larger?) touch screen display (i didn’t add the CD navigation system) and CD player. The bottom unit (also a controller unit) was an awesome DSP/Parametric 16-band EQ/Time Alignment, etc. processor.
I wanted balanced sound which I actually tuned poorly and eventually led me to get back into my headphone journey (started in 1994 with the Sony MDR-CD3000) and retrain my brain to prefer a natural, balanced, neutral tonality. The Dynaudio right tweeter distorted on two occasions and I could feel my right eardrum tearing, and to this day I have 2 small scars on my eardrum (and a mild case of TTTS in my right ear, which I posted about a long time ago on this forum and got messages from over 40 people worldwide with the same symptoms, which finally led to a better understanding of the problem by ENT doctors, who previously said it was all in our imagination) which fortunately still gives me 95% of the frequency range as my left ear; just slightly less very high treble. (I can still distinguish a 0.25dB imbalance between channels.)
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IPodPJ
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Yes. The Focal Be car audio speaker systems with their own passive crossovers are ever so slightly better than the Dynaudio system speakers (when volume matched) with their own passive crossovers, but Focal’s are 4-5x the price now; they used to be 3-4x the price.
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stephenlee2801
Head-Fier
I second Focal. I think spending that little extra to get a Focal system in your car is a worthwhile investment (I think turning to the second hand market is also an option). As an aside, I would also be sure to invest in some sound isolation depending on your car.
I have heard excellent things about Focal car speakers too.
I have Infinity Kappa speakers, Pioneer head unit, and 2 RF subwoofers in my 4Runner. I enjoy it. I also put a different brand of Dynamat ("Noico" I think) on my front doors to stop them from resonating, havent had the time to put theMLV or whatever its called Mass Loaded Vinyl and Closed Cell Foam over the Noico to dampen outside noise.
I have Infinity Kappa speakers, Pioneer head unit, and 2 RF subwoofers in my 4Runner. I enjoy it. I also put a different brand of Dynamat ("Noico" I think) on my front doors to stop them from resonating, havent had the time to put the
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RickWilson
New Head-Fier
Reviving this old thread a bit - I have significantly more experience in the high end car audio world than I do in the high end headphone world but with that said, choosing a "best" speaker for car audio is very difficult.
Set aside subjective tonality for a moment and think about the environment of a vehicle - asymmetrical listening position, reflections everywhere, cabin dimensional variances, speaker locations, etc.
Best means choosing the right speaker for the right application, not just based on price or brand reputation. Installation, application and DSP tuning are the corner stones to a quality high end system. Obviously there are some speakers that outperform others but understanding how to choose the correct speaker for the location and use is far more valuable.
With that said - if I was objectively ranking speaker brands in the automotive world (based on their high end line ups):
Accuton Automotive - Own and currently use
Microprecision Z Studio - ugly but amazing
Focal Utopia M - owned
ZR Labs (Ex Line) - have not heard
Dynaudio Esotar - the 110/430 are top of the heap, the 650 falls short as a midbass
Bliesma Be Line - probably 2nd fav set of tweeters
Morel Supremo - the Piccolo tweeter punches way above its price point
Set aside subjective tonality for a moment and think about the environment of a vehicle - asymmetrical listening position, reflections everywhere, cabin dimensional variances, speaker locations, etc.
Best means choosing the right speaker for the right application, not just based on price or brand reputation. Installation, application and DSP tuning are the corner stones to a quality high end system. Obviously there are some speakers that outperform others but understanding how to choose the correct speaker for the location and use is far more valuable.
With that said - if I was objectively ranking speaker brands in the automotive world (based on their high end line ups):
Accuton Automotive - Own and currently use
Microprecision Z Studio - ugly but amazing
Focal Utopia M - owned
ZR Labs (Ex Line) - have not heard
Dynaudio Esotar - the 110/430 are top of the heap, the 650 falls short as a midbass
Bliesma Be Line - probably 2nd fav set of tweeters
Morel Supremo - the Piccolo tweeter punches way above its price point
Hot take but newer factory Tesla speakers sound pretty good. They’re not Focal or B&W but pretty amazing for some OEM speakers.
I wonder who makes them?
I wonder who makes them?
Most people are probably not aware because they've never heard an aftermarket sound system in a car.
But almost all factory option sound systems are crap compared to what you can build aftermarket. Even the B&O, Mark Levinson, etc. The only one that looks promising is the macintosh system on the Jeep Wagoneer. Maybe on the ultra luxurious cars it might be a different story but I highly doubt it. I wouldn't know either way.
I think a few people mentioned the focal speakers, completely agree that they are really nice for car audio.
Its difficult to change out the factory audio systems in the modern cars as they have them linked to the headunit that also integrates controls for the car. It requires alot of effort and investment. In my particular case, it would cost me a minimum of about $1500 just for the headunit, dsp and amp alone and this would also cause me to lose some functionality and possibly some warning lights may pop up on the dash. Unfortunately, its not worth the time in money imo.
Its very unfortunate since alot of the newer cars have begun to migrate over to a 48v system which is awesome for audio. But at least it gives hope that they can offer much better audio systems on cars equipped with 48v electrical systems.
But almost all factory option sound systems are crap compared to what you can build aftermarket. Even the B&O, Mark Levinson, etc. The only one that looks promising is the macintosh system on the Jeep Wagoneer. Maybe on the ultra luxurious cars it might be a different story but I highly doubt it. I wouldn't know either way.
I think a few people mentioned the focal speakers, completely agree that they are really nice for car audio.
Its difficult to change out the factory audio systems in the modern cars as they have them linked to the headunit that also integrates controls for the car. It requires alot of effort and investment. In my particular case, it would cost me a minimum of about $1500 just for the headunit, dsp and amp alone and this would also cause me to lose some functionality and possibly some warning lights may pop up on the dash. Unfortunately, its not worth the time in money imo.
Its very unfortunate since alot of the newer cars have begun to migrate over to a 48v system which is awesome for audio. But at least it gives hope that they can offer much better audio systems on cars equipped with 48v electrical systems.
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