mikefyfe

Having upgraded my head unit, I now feel the (urgent!) need to replace the standard scooby front speakers.

In my local store they are having a sale and have the following on offer:

Audio Design GHK2.165 component £80
JBL GTX 630 full range £90
JBL GDC 604 component £100

I would appreciate your views as to their quality and ease of fit (I have no problem removing the door trims etc but would have trouble making bits of MDF as described in other posts!!!)

I found the Audio designs on Mr Banks excellent reference pages but could not find the JBLs (possibly USA imports?)

Intend to fit them this weekend when the wife's away so any advice would be gratefully received.

Cheers

Mike

john banks

Never heard of any of them and can't find any clear specs. You may get lucky and discover a speaker sensation. On the other hand...

Try and get some specs - mounting depth, power handling (in RMS/rated not peak), claimed freq response, material of tweeter, crossover slope etc etc.

Up to 64mm mounting depth should go in the door without a spacer. The two I have tried in my front door have been under 60mm.

If you are running off the headunit probably any aftermarket speaker of that price will take the power. If you are considering an amp look for something that will handle at the very minimum 50W RMS/rated, and preferably almost double that.

Freq response - a bit subjective as most manufacturers don't quote how it is measured - ie how many dB drop is the bottom cut off which is actually a roll off - its the bottom end you're interested in particularly if you are not running a sub. See if you can find a graph on the side of the box with frequency response curve. If it starts to drop in sensitivity by very much before you have got below 80Hz, it may not sound good sub or no sub. Believe it or not, this area of freq response is just as important if you are going to add a sub as otherwise you can get a nasty gap.

Tweeter material/type - usually all decent tweeters should be domes not cones for better dispersion characteristics. Silk will often sound softer and warmer than titanium which can sound harsh at high volumes and disappointing with classical/jazz/chill out stuff.

Crossover - undoubtedly the best is not to go for a component or coaxial with just a capacitor in line with the tweeter as its high pass filter. Much better is a separate crossover box.

I would advise avoiding coaxials in a Scoob as they don't image well. You need separate tweets.

In short at the price you mention, two seem to be favoured - Infinity 605CS (silk, external crossover) and JBL GT6.0c (titanium, in line cap). Neither are particularly loud off a headunit - even factory speakers can be louder. It is the price you pay for higher power handling and a pleasant surprise when you later hook them up to an amp which I would strongly recommend. Kenwood PS70P are about £125 and more sensitive than either of the above two if you must run off a headunit, but they are not quite as nice sounding as the Infinity, and only handle half the power. Infinity 605CS without peer at this price IMHO, but they need amping to come alive. They quote sensitivity of 92dB at 2.83V but you need the figure at 1 metre and 1 watt which is only 89. The JBL are not much better. The Kenwoods are 92dB/W/m which means they play twice as loud as the Infinity for the same power - and that is the case when you actually listen to them. But give them big power and they don't handle it. Horse for courses etc etc.

mikefyfe

John,

As always a more than comprehensive reply, many thanks.

I was going to go for your suggestions anyway when I spyed these on offer (reduced variously from £130-£150) and wanted to see if I might be getting more bangs for my buck.

I agree that where there is doubt to go for trusted advice so a set of Infinity 605CS or JBL GT6.0c will be getting installed this w/e.

Ta

Mike

Richiehash

just fitted the jbl components to my wifes legacy running off a rockford amp rated at 30 watts rms per channel.
would def. rec. them to anyone, only make sure to add extra sound deadening to the doors cos you'll need it.
had to use a 10 mm spacer to clear the window other than that easy fit and nice sound.plus the advantage that some halfords are selling them at about £60 a pair(last years stock) along with amps etc.
this is in south wales i dont know if it applies to the rest of the country.
cheers richie