Just spent most of this morning installing a new speaker in the front door of my 2006. I purchased Infiniti 6012 speakers as an "upgrade"...big mistake. Turns out the TL speakers are actually relatively high quality. When I got one out I compared it to the Infiniti:

Cone size: Infiniti is bigger, slightly
Cone material: OEM is poly, similar to Infiniti
Magnet: Stock is almost 2x the size

So I put one Infiniti in and started comparing. Taking into account the volume difference since the OEM is 2 ohm, I can say the OEM was much better, with a couple of caveats: since it had no tweater the high end was not as strong, and the bass was very strong but slighly boomy if the bass is set past "0" on the head unit. The Infiniti sounded weak and thin, could barely even produce a thump, however the lack of bass made it sound slighly cleaner.

So these speakers are going back. I'm not sure I want to pony up double the money to get high end speakers that would be better than the OEM, plus, I think there is still a risk of wasting money. It seems like the root cause boils down to Acura doing a lousy job of EQing the system - or NOT EQing the system!

At low/moderate volumne, my Olds Bose system sounds better with much cheaper drivers. Acura needs to figure out that a "smooth" system may be great, but 99.5% of people who spend a lot of money on car stereo want it to rock. Sure, be smooth with all controls at center, but when the base and treble are turned up it should still sound good, just in a different way. Solid bass, crystal clear highs. Not boomy, muddy bass and just slighly enhanced highs. Not everyone likes to listen to music with flat tone controls!

I thought about swapping the tweeters to brighten it up (I bought the 1011 tweeters), but figured just swapping one component would probably make things worse. I did read one post of someone who did it, but not sure its worth the effort since the install is difficult.

FYI, installing 6 1/2 in the door is also kind of difficult. I made a spacer of 3/4 wood and used the stock mounting holes to mount the spacer. Then attached the speaker to the spacer. I had to notch the spacer to allow the terminals to protrude, because Acura was so nice and made an irregular opening for the speaker. The other option was to use a hacksaw on the door, but I was trying to avoid permanent damage!

Also, would it kill Acura to add a couple of inches to the tweeter cable? It barely makes it out of the hole!

Oh well, live and learn. With the trebel at max, bass at -1, sw at max, its not toooo bad.

Matt

 

if u got a sub you wouldnt really need the boomy bass from interior speakers imo

 

Installing the 1011's is actually very simple. The center channel is also a good upgrade but a bit more difficult since getting the center channel grille out can be difficult and end up damaging it. It's arguable how much difference it makes. I put in 1011ts and one Boston S35 in the center. I think it was worth it. I was able to sell the other S35 over in the black market so the total cost ended up just a bit over $100.

Regarding the 6012s, they aren't bad but I'm not surprised they didn't make a huge difference. Acura actually did EQ the car for the OE dirivers. There is a pretty pronounced dip in the stock HU around 1K (see this https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/good-excuses-118874/). All I know is I think there is too little mid-range and a bad peak in the mid bass. The charts in the linked thread seem to confirm.

Really? Yikes. !! C=+1, T=0,B=-2, S=+2 or 3 is all I need. Something is way off for you if you need T=+6.

 

I like CLEAN music, i listen to mostly Rock, but i have my bass +3, Treb+6, Cent+2, SW+3 but i understand what he means. I like clean clear notes. The demo dvd is great but even thats misses all the lows... I mad a 7 hour DVD (with wavelab) sampled at 16bit that sounds much better then the DVD demo. I had a 05 now I got 07 but it seems like the volume doesnt have to be as loud for the 07 to achieve the same I had with 05 car. I had my 05 hovering around vol 32-34 lots.. now i havent went past 20.. and im pretty happy around 7 even..

 

On blind faith I just ordered the Boston S35 and Infiniti 1011t to upgrade my '06 TL system, but I hope somebody can confirm that they will fit--that there haven't been any changes to the '06 speaker enclosures/"holes" that might prevent them from fitting. Anybody done this upgrade to an '06? Thanks.