I just stumble upon Alpine's new 6.5 inch compenent. The Alpine SPX-177R. I've been looking at the MB Quarts PCE-216. I like how the MB set have the plug options, it's a great speaker for the rear doors. But I'm iffy on the metal tweeter bouncing off the glass. That'll hurt. I'd like to buy two set of the same speakers for the front and rear doors. Both are great speakers. Just cant really decide which one. Any review of the product through personal experisnce or opinion would be great.

Which is better .. the Alpine SPX-177R or the MB Quart pce216?

 

I would lean towards the 177R due to the tweeter issue... haven't heard the new ones but heard good things from others, including tuan.

How much are you looking at?

Remember, i run SPX-F13Ms...

 

they are both similar in price .. the spx 177r is aboute 20 bucks cheaper than the pce216. Also eld .. couple of question:

1. does the spx 177r can be set up as a coaxile?
2. whatss the difference between the spx f13m and spx 177r?
3. i know stock tsx hu have clean sound source going out of the hu to the amp. are those lines individually specific for each channel location? Like the lines coming from the hu to the amp have front right, front left, rear right, rear left, non fading sub left non fading sub right .. or is it just 2 lines coming out of the hu into the amp that has a left and right source and the amp determeines the surround sound aspect of it?

 

head unit Head unit
I I I I I I I I
FL FR RL RR SL SR OR L R
I I I I I I I I
Paper size amp Paper size amp

 

disregard the previous post .. stupid thing didnt come out right

 

The SPX-F13M was an x-series set with a 5" mid and a higher-end chambered tweeter... might still be available on onlinecarstereo...

Check the depth of the 6.5 of the 177, might be too deep.

The HU has 4 ch full range, F and R, and no non-fading OP.

For feedback, ask tuan209...

 

so the rear channel powers the rear door and rear 6x9 right?

 

so the SPX-F13M is concidered better than the SPX-177R? concidering the SPX-F13M is an older model of the two?

B/c the SPX-F13M is going for about 125 and the SPX-177r is going for nealry 250.

 

1) The 13M was a center channel 1-side set, you needed two to have L and R. You have to be clear on how you're buying them... I got mine for 125 per side (at dealer cost after the blowout - MSRP was around 700...)

2) Alpine had a lot and blew out the extras a while back creating an artifically low price.

3) The tweeter in the F13M and F17M was better than the 177R. Made by Scan Speak, basicaly a tweeter in a tuned aluminum cast sealed enclosure.

4) WHAT R doors? My system has no trunk sub at present - SPX-F13M playing 50 Hz and up, MB Quart 6x9 woofers from the RCE-269 kit playing 65 and down, on a JL Audio 300/4 amp. R doors suck ass. The tweets in the dash play so low that the R passengers hear F stage just great - I've had people try the R seat listening just for that. Read my sticky on SQ for Noobs to see what I'm talking about re: driver complement...

 

alpine

 

thanks eld .. great help i did actually read your post on sq for noobs. i'm still more into the surround sound thing. LIke to feel like i'm in a concert hall.

This is gonna be off of this topic .. and thred jackin but ehh here goes.

You said that the stock hu have 4 full range source, i am planing to have a Pioneer 7300dvd w/ a 9000R "brain", i want to use the pioneer and its brain as the main source. i want to use the stock hu like a cd changer and have an ipod connected to the stock hu so i can have the steering control feature from icelink. Here's my delima (sp?):

How do i get the source into the Pioneer dvd and brain if the HU have 4 fulll source, one for each channel (front left, front right, rear left, rear right). Since the brain only have a Left and Right input and an pioneer bus base input?

I was thinkin of using two of the full range, say the front left and right, and have female rca connected to it, which a male rca connects to that and the brain's input. Wouldnt that defeat the surround sound aspect or are the four full range are omni-directional?

 

Just use the F output of the OE HU, and avoid the OE HU fader, and you will be fine. You will want to ground the HU to the OE HU ground or the OE amp ground to prevent ground-loop noise in the OE HU, and you may still need a GLI on the connection.

If you are talking TSX OE HU, there is no surround-sound aspect to it... F and R are identical except for the fader setting. If you are using a newer HU with 5.1 (TL?) I don't know for sure, but I would suspect that there might be digital into the OE amp...

I installed the first ever digital surround processor for the car (the Yamaha YDSP-1) for Yamaha's CES demo car in like 1990. Created everything you hate about a bad concert hall. This is why multichannel surround is great for special effects but not for realistic musical reproduction! Part of what makes stereo work in so many venues is that the listening room becomes part of the playback system, supplying the reverberations - adding new ones sounds weird (listen in a nonreflective anechoic chamber?)

When you are in a concert hall you are facing the stage and the sound comes from in front of you, and what you hear from behind you are reflections (if the sound is good) or full-blown echoes (if the sound is bad). Surround sound in cars is good at creating echoes. Speakers in front are good at creating reflections... trust me, you get as much reverb in a car as anyone would ever want..

Oh, and it's dilemma... from the greek meaning two propositions...; )

 

To hook the factory HU to the Pioneer Ip bus input you'll need this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=38636

You might need a line driver too...I'm not sure....what do you think Eld?

 

No, if the OE HU is going into the input of the Pioneer, then no LD is needed... just make sure the volume setting on the OE HU is not too high or you will get clipping distortion as the signal won't "fit" into the Pioneer aux in...

 

hey duder......what did you have to do to put your tweets in the dash? does the type x just fit right in? reason is, i just ummmm aquired a set of type r tweeters, but it seems like the hole is about 1/8 too small..... we do have a set of SPX-F13M here, but i am too lazy to go mess w/ them.......do you like the sound of yours pretty well? i can get the same deal on them

 

There are a couple different Type X tweets... mine are a bit smaller than OE and will rattle around a bit unless you do something about it. The non-chambered Type X's I don't know, Tuan209 might know, he tested them...

 

i think we have the older ones, with the blue mids and really deep chambered tweeters.....did someone here put some r tweeters in factory holes? if i can get those in, i may be happy, at least for a week or 2......

 

You should probably just wait for the Pioneer---> Ipod unit that's coming out. It's has an MSRP or $140 so it's cheaper than the icelink. Also I think the interface for it will be way better, since you'll have a Flip out screen that you can control the Ipod from and which will probably be able to display ID3 tag info.

 

The blue mids and the deep chambered tweets and the REALLY BIX XOVER boxes are what I have and would use... forgot to mention those xovers are the shit.

CHeck my post on F door speaker spacers for pics of fitting the 5.25 mids...

 

the SPX-F13M is the older flagship set which uses scan speak tweets that cost 600 for the pair. its a pretty nice set, but IMHO the SPX-177R is better. the 177Rs are based upon the vifas XT line of speakers, and they are highly regarded in the audio community. you will get the 6.5 vifa xt mids along with xt19 tweets. the tweets are fairly small, the size of a quarter, but the sound is amazing. if i had to choose between the two, id opt for the newer models.

 

tuan, would you recommend that with the OE tweeter locations? Since the Vifas have a higher res freq, they won't play as low as the Scans, and with the TSX I would rather have as much midrange up in the OE tweeter locations as possible...