Can this be right?

http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/2611

http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/2610

http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/4448

Any clue what the story is on how they are so cheap. I know Quart quality has reportedly gone down a bit since being purchased. I also know that they are unauthorized so there's no warranty. I have bought from these people before and have been very happy. I was hoping to buy something with a silk tweet and stay in the $300. I know this has the metal tweet, but may be too cheap to pass up.

 

First off, I too have bought from ikesound before, as long ago as 2000. I'd buy from there again too.

From another thread:
Since the products you linked to appear to be in the C and D generation I'd say they fall under the old, or good, production lines.

I don't know this next part for sure, but I read that the Qs are technically 6 3/4" speakers, often represented as 6 1/2" on sites. I know uncald4 warns against these for other reasons, but both Kappa speaker sets I have installed are 6 3/4" speakers mounted on the generic brackets. I had a slight trouble getting the driver's door speaker to fit and had to slightly bend a piece of metal (on the door) to get it 100% in, but the rest fit no problem and I have no noise / rattling issues with any of them.

 

Yeah. Am guessing I can make the 6.75's fit with spacers (so the diameter is smaller at metal. Just thinking price may be too good to not give it a shot. I have Mercman's harness and a 300/4 waiting for new speakers. Just can;t make up my mind and (more importantly) get the boss to let me spend the $$$.

 

QSD.....

There was some debate in the car audio world in 1999 when the Q series had hit their 4th generation. The QSD-213 actually sounded better (to me and my co-workers) than the QSD-218. The QSD-213 are oversized 5 1/4" seperates that produce an amazing sound when powered by about 150 watts (EACH SIDE) (The Q Series crossovers have Bi-Amp capablities. This means that you would use a 4 channel amp just for your mid and tweet. Two channels mid. Two channels tweet).

However. Running the component set off the front half of a JL Audio 300/4 would not even wake them up.

Picture this....

A Ferrari F430. A beautiful car with superhero powers.

An F430 with a B18C5 (Acura Integra Type-R motor). Great car. Great motor. Not so great together.

Sorry if I lost anyone in that analogy. You need to dedicate a medium sized 2 channel amp to MB Quart "Q" Series Components. Any other way and it's a waste of German perfection.

Oh.... and the 5 1/4 will actually fit in an Acura. Good luck with those 8" QSD218 drivers!

 

i used to have QSD's but i had an amp to run them 100watts per channel RMS... They sounded fine...

 

I don't think that was MB Quarts goal. If you wanted a speaker to sound FINE, you could have bought some $120 Alpine speakers.

MB Quart Q's should sound far better than any speaker that you've ever heard. When I said.... .... this was a suggestion of minimum power. When we installed Q's on a regular basis it was rare that we used a 2 channel amp under 500 watts RMS.

 

I can only imagine what those sounds like

 

Like BUTTA.... QSD213 and QSD218 are the most musical speaker you'll ever hear. The only thing that comes close is a $1300 pair of Morel components. Sorry Focal.... this is the truth..... thanks be to GOSH.

 

So, did you buy them?

I have been thiking about them-but am also worried about the saying-if it's too good to be true . . . they just seem way too cheap.

 

didn't buy them yet. still debating whether to spend the money. my oldest son is playing on 2 travel hockey teams and a high school team, and my youngest son is starting travel soccer. that's where all my play money seems to be going these days.

also taking uncald's adice into account as I only have the 75 watts per.

that being said, I trust IKE sound. I have bought from them before and have been happy. (Now, they are not factory authorized, so you aren't getting then factory warranty. that's the compromise you make to save a lot of money)

 

I trust Ikesound too. They've had an eBay store since 1999 with amazing prices, and i've never heard of a bad experience with them. Parts from there are "as-is" but you get what they advertise for, and at a great price.

 

Don't let the warranty stop you. MB Quart and most "high end" car audio manufacturers will not honor warranties from product purchased online.

 

Let me ask you this. You seem to be familiar with the car. What would you recommend in the TSX that, in your opinion, would work well with the 300/4. I have a 250/1 on a 10w3 now for a sub. I still plan to listen to everything I can, but were it your car and you were looking to not spend more than $350 - $400, what would you do for the front? I certainly do not mind buying online and saving some cash, even if I do lose the warranty.

Really only concerned about front speakers right now. I already have some decent co-ax's for the rear that I'll use. Will keep it faded way to the front when no one is in the back of the car anyway.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hmmm, seems like Ikesound is a trust-worthy place . . . just might have to jump on these then . . .

 

yeah, i have ordered a handful of stuff rom them, as have some friends of mine. have been very happy.

 

I would not buy the Q's unless you had more money to throw at them. I would buy a cheaper set of 6 1/2 components. Use the 300/4 on your front and rear. I recommend the MB Quart DSD-216, Alpine Type-S components or the JL Audio XR or VR components. They will still give you outstanding performance and you'll be able to power all you speakers evenly. The Q's are awesome, but if you don't have everything else in line then you're not going to benefit from their glorious sound.

That's just my-

 

Appreciate it. By more money to throw at them, do you mean on an amp? Everything else is in line. The sub and sub amp have been in the car for a little over a year.






The 300/4, Mercman's amp harness, and the rear co-ax's are sitting here in my office. Front components are the last part. Definitely planned to use the 300/4 in 4 channel mode as I do have people in the back seat quite often. The reason I mentioned the Q's is because at that Ikesound price, a speaker that was out of my $300-$400 budget was now below it (around $250).

I actually have a coworker with the JL XRs in his truck. I was initially drawn to them because they fit the stock locations nicely and the JL reputation. (I test fit his tweeter in my car and couldn't have fit more perfect) Then I heard them and was immediately taken back by how bad they sounded. That being said, his preferences in music are not the same as mine. He's also a quantity over quality guy so god knows where he had his levels on the amp and head unit set. Ears were damn near bleeding. (also, the install is awful. $30k truck, some decent equipment, and he takes it to some fly by night shop to save $150 on the install. doesn't make sense to me. One of his amps died the day after he got it back and he's afraid to take it back to them. So much for the few $$$ saved. He asked me to install it for him and I politely refused. Lots of other factors involved, but glad I did.)

After typing that, realized just how many factors there were that probably affected the sound. Maybe I'll take a few of my CD's and ask him for another listen (preferably without him in the truck)

Thanks again for the advice.

 

You hit the nail right on the head, when it comes to what sounds good “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. I hear cars go by with the system cranking and it sounds like an 18 inch woofer and a bull horn. Not my cup of tea.

If you will take some advice from a wise old man I’ll give it.

Buy speakers that sound good to you not some magazine reviewer, your buddy, or the guy at the audio store.

When comparing speakers the number one rule is always compare at the same sound level. This is almost impossible at most car audio shops (most home audio shops lately) but it is critical. You ear is not linear so an increase in sound level is easily mistaken for better sound.

If you are spending “big bucks” on that golden set of speakers then be prepared to spend the time listening to them with different music and different sound levels.

The power rating on speakers is the amount of power the speaker is likely to handle without damage. It is not an indication of what size amp you need to drive them. If you want to know how much power you need you need to know what SPL you are looking for and the speaker’s efficiency. From there you can calculate how much power is required to drive the speakers to that level. I should also mention that a speakers efficiency and power handling for that matter, give no clear indication of sound quality and should not be used as such.

The volume control is the watt control; your speakers don’t know if you are driving them with a 500 watt amp or a 50 watt amp as long as the amps are operating in their linear region (low distortion). To say that a speaker requires x hundred watts to sound good is just plan wrong. To say that to reach a certain SPL with a certain speaker you would need x number of watts is correct.

Now a word about amps. Amps do matter and have a big impact on sound quality not because of the rated output but because of a combination of several factors. I won’t cover the details here but I will say that I have come across a lot of amps over the years, bipolar, mosfet, tube, all sorts. Some sounded great others not so great, in all cases, the sound quality was never reflected in the power output of the amp but in the other parameters that go unadvertised in the car audio world.

To sum it up, buy the speaker you like and don’t worry about the JL having enough power to “drive” them. The chances are you won’t be able to run the JL to the full 75 watts without damaging your hearing anyway. I got out of the car this morning after cranking the tunes and my ears were ringing with that anemic JL 300/4. Ears ringing=too loud=I should know better at my age.

Also remember that JL is 75 watts is at 11-14.4 volts into 4 ohms. That’s a lot different then 75 watts and 14.4 volts into 4 ohms.

The JL is also a low distortion wide bandwidth amp and that’s just what you need for quality speakers.

Remember that watts do not equal sound quality. Watts equals SPL.

jeff

 

Just like to add that I have bought TONS of Audio parts back in the day from IkeSound (all new, none refurbished) and have never had a problem (amps, subs, and components)

 

Autoworks, thanks for the heads up.