32 replies to this topic

[Chaos]

So I am looking at buying some splits and so far those two mentioned in the title are looking the goods. I can get them both for roughly the same price from MEA members. As I will not have an opportunity to listen to either speaker before I make my decision, I would like some opinions as to which speakers will provide the best SQ.

I am not trying to win any comps with the car. I do, however, plan on keeping it for a long time and while the stock speakers are frankly very impressive for a stock system, they aren't that great. So, the time has come to upgrade and I need some help with the decision. Now the speakers should be able to play well, at both low and high volumes, and sound smooth and warm.

The car is a MY06 Honda Euro Lux and I will be using the stock woofer and tweeter slots (I may make up a little rig to angle the tweeters on the dash if the current location (flush mounted, pointing straight up) doesn't sound great). I will be using an Alpine MRV-T420 (2x110W) to power them. There will also be Dynamat installed in the doors.

(there will be more installations going on in the car eventually, but that is for another day... )

So, without telling me "whichever one sounds the best to me", which speaker set do you reckon I should go with? Or, alternatively, for the money (~$400) is there another speaker that I would be better suited with?

(I don't think I've missed any info...? )

Cheers

Simon

[Tiger]

If you are mounting these behind existing speaker locations.... get the mounting depth of BOTH speakers first, THEN take a pick from there.

What's the mounting depth in the Euro doors?

[TEGBOY]

I would go the OZ's, I prefer them over the BA's. Great midbass and smooth tweeters.

[Chaos]

Tiger, on Jan 21 2010, 07:56 PM, said:

If you are mounting these behind existing speaker locations.... get the mounting depth of BOTH speakers first, THEN take a pick from there.

What's the mounting depth in the Euro doors?

Haha, good question... let me find out.

[Tiger]

Teg... you share the same view as I do on those Oz splits. Brilliant speakers.
I remember listening to them in Rob's Mazda 6. That sold me on Oz Audio gear.

[Surefire]

I'd take the Oz also. Excellent mid-bass in those babies.

[Chaos]

A bit of support for the Oz, and not much at all for the Bostons, this is interesting.

So I have found this info:

Quote

The stock speaker mounting needs to be cut out and a mounting ring attached so a non-slim speaker can fit (NB, the standard speaker grill should still fit on top, so it'll look factory).
Without this modification, the window will hit the magnet when it is wound down.

I cant remember the mounting depth of the stock speakers, but i think you only have about 60 - 65 mm using the stock position, which is too small for most speakers.

But that is for a 2003 model... and I don't have any idea if that is the same depth as the 06...? However, earlier in the post, a fellow with the same car as me claims to run "Boston splits" in the front doors. I PMed him asking which speakers he actually has. Still waiting out on a reply.

[muzzy66]

I'd go with the Oz over the Boston, but then I'd probably go the Focal 6K2P over both. Very nice midbass driver, those Focals. The Oz would be my second choice - also a very nice driver.



How are they going to be set up? Active, custom passive? If you're planning on chucking them straight into stock locations with existing wiring, then you'll probably find they sound terrible...as they won't match the existing crossover networks that are in place for the factory system.

Edited by muzzy66, 21 January 2010 - 10:06 PM.

[Chaos]

muzzy66, on Jan 21 2010, 11:06 PM, said:

I'd go with the Oz over the Boston, but then I'd probably go the Focal 6K2P over both. Very nice midbass driver, those Focals. The Oz would be my second choice - also a very nice driver.



How are they going to be set up? Active, custom passive? If you're planning on chucking them straight into stock locations with existing wiring, then you'll probably find they sound terrible...as they won't match the existing crossover networks that are in place for the factory system.

I'm going to install the proper crossovers as well, haha how dodgy would leaving the stockies in be? The speakers will go in the stock locations at this stage, and they will be run passively. Like I said, I'm not trying to win any comps!

And do you know of a set of 6K2Ps going for $400? Cos if so I'd like to hear about it!

[frogslapper]

Did i hear the word warm?
if thats the case the oz wins hands down,2 MY EARS

The bostons are a sharper,crisp,clinical sound mounting is more important.

[Chaos]

Well the crowd favourite certainly appears to be the Oz... still waiting out on the mounting depth. I will probably have a crack at removing the door trims tomorrow and see for myself.

[Tiger]

That'd definitely be the go.

OR... you could make Fudd an offer for his DDAs

[muzzy66]

Yeah, the Boston Pro's are definately not a 'warm' sounding speaker - about as far from it as I've heard.

They are uncomfortably bright for my ears, and bordering on harsh - never been a fan of those speakers. The Z6's are actually quite nice, but the Pro's are nasty!

The Matrix are a very 'easy going' speaker. Quite smooth and neutral, nothing really jumps out at you. They're a nicely ballanced speaker set, and while Boston's tend to be very 'love it or hate it', the Matrix seem to get pretty much universal approval. Sounded great in Marty's demo room, sounded great in Sierra's XR6.

The K2P's are also a very neutral speaker set and right up there with the Matrix, however they are a lot less flexible with the install. Like many French things, they are a little peculiar - they really need to be installed in a particular way to extract their best from them, and when they are they sound absolutely brilliant. When they aren't though, they're going to sound very average.

[Luke352]

muzzy66, on Jan 22 2010, 12:04 AM, said:

Yeah, the Boston Pro's are definately not a 'warm' sounding speaker - about as far from it as I've heard.

They are uncomfortably bright for my ears, and bordering on harsh - never been a fan of those speakers. The Z6's are actually quite nice, but the Pro's are nasty!

I believe the Pro's he is referrin gto are the older series that haven't been produced for a good 6+ years now, so they would sound quite different to the Pro's you most likely heard Muzzy.

Another thing to note is Boston designed the newer Pro's series to be listened to in an off axis position, so a rising response, so they were quite bright when listened to on a board a problem made even worse when you consider most boards do actually boost higher freq's quite significantly, so stand off to one side of the board a few feet and you would likely fins they don't sound too bad.

Edited by Luke352, 22 January 2010 - 10:17 AM.

[Chaos]

Tiger, on Jan 22 2010, 01:00 AM, said:

OR... you could make Fudd an offer for his DDAs

Yeah has a look - just a bit above what I was looking to spend! Do you reckon he'd take $400?

And thanks for your thoughts Muzzy, very good advice as usual. And I agree about the French peculiarity - my brother spent 2009 living in Paris and they do some strange things there...

Now I have another question - what do people know about the CDT Audio COM 626 (or any CDT for that matter)? I was offered this set (plus some coaxs, as shown in that link) brand new for a pretty damn good price. I understand the brand is quite new to Australia - hence why i have pretty much no idea about them. Anyway, what is the general opinion of similarly priced CDT Audio when compared to, say, the Oz set in question?