robindee

Hello, My passenger door speaker was blown. Took it to a car audio installation place and they replaced the speakers with Pioneer TS-A 1675R 6 1/2 2 way speakers for $95 plus $65 installation. The sound quality is not as good. Some of the sounds (such as horns and strings) sound harsh and irritating. Also when I play my iphone through a cassette adapter the speaker on the passenger side is so much louder. When I move the speaker selection to the driver side, I get a lot less sound and can't hear some of the voices in the songs. Now the installation people say I need another part to make listening to my iphone better (says going through a cassette adapter that is not digital is causing the problem). I did not have this problem before the speakers were replaced. This is hard to explain when I know nothing about car speakers except I know what sounds good and this doesn't. Do I have a leg to stand on if I tell the guy the speakers aren't right for my car?
I am a female and am afraid I am getting taken advantage of.
Can any of you enthusiasts help me out.

Gil'sUA5

Wow $65 for installation of 2 door speakers is expensive, not to mention the speakers themselves are worth about $50 online so that was supposed to be a $100 job max.... something also tells me they didn't replace both speakers just the passenger speaker, if i was you id take the driver side door panel off and see if it was replaced. Sorry to say but its to late to be worried about getting taken advantage of because those idiots did already, any who they are correct about the way you are playing your iPhone's music. You need a full iPod adapter for your car which will make a big difference in sound over that cheap cassette player adapter. Here's an example of one for your car...

MarcoNorthPolo

Here are my observations. I admit I don't know THAT much about audio, but those Pioneer speakers are 4 ohm and the ones you took out were 2 ohm. I'll bet the installer didn't check that. That means that using the stock amplifier, 4 ohm speakers may sound quieter than your stock speakers did.

These new Pioneers are also 3 way speakers, meaning they have a tweeter in them. If I remember correctly, the stock speaker works in conjunction with your tweeters on your dash by the windshield. Having two tweeters that close may be where your harsh sound is coming from.

Those Pioneer speakers take 50 watts of power to run them and the stock speakers had 15 watts going to them from the amp. You may be underpowering those new speakers, causing bad sound as well.

The speakers that came in the ELS sound system (your stock stereo system) were chosen specifically to work together. It doesn't seem to me that it's very easy to just put in any ole' replacement speaker and have them perform the same as stock unless the specs are somewhere near the same.

Anyone who knows more than I do, feel free to comment or refute my observations.

I hate cars

You're right about them being 3-way and that is not what you want. It looks like a tweeter and a super tweeter in those. Plus the dash tweeters so you've got 6 tweeters up front instead of 2 and 2 is all you need or want. Plus the stock setup runs no low pass filter on the mids which can contribute to harshness. They used the wrong speakers for the application period. You can get stock speakers for $16 which would probably sound better.

You don't have to worry about under powering speakers, that's a myth. At regular listening volumes they likely have 2-3 watts going to them, that's it so if under powering was bad you could never turn the volume down from maxed out.

You don't have to match the rms rating of the speaker to the amp. I'm running nearly double what my midbass speakers are rated at and a total of 1200w on the fronts. Music is dynamic and even with double the power available for peaks, average power will be way below the speakers long term rating. This gives a very clean system at any volume with more realism due to dynamics allowed by having lots of power available. I know some top SQ guys that have triple the speakers long term rating available for short term transient use.

As for matching a speaker to the stock system, we know the stock tweeters are high passed around 12khz which is far from ideal. They're basically adding a little sparkle up top and bringing the stage up higher. The mid has to cover a huge range. The best thing would be to buy a comp set that replaces the mid and tweeter and has its own crossover with a more reasonable crossover point. If not you need a 6.5" mid with no tweeter but the ability to play higher than a normal 6.5" plays. Looking in the T/S parameters, inductance (Le) is one of the more important specs for playing high.

To the OP, I would get rid of those Pioneers and get your money back. You are not supposed to have coaxials in the doors, especially not a 3-way. I would pull both door panels off to see what kind of damage is done as there is likely damage to the stock plastic basket between the speaker and door. Make sure they installed the speakers they were supposed to install in both doors.

If you're just wanting to replace the bad speakers and you're not looking for an upgrade you can get a stock speaker at oemacuraparts for $16 each. This would have been a simple bolt in that you could probably do yourself but odds are the shop has "modified" the door for those speakers. If the basket is damaged or missing, they're pretty cheap too. If by some chance they didn't screw it up, it's a very simple installation process that we can all help with.