JL Audio speaker range? (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

I have an '02 Toyota MR2 Spyder with a bad rattle coming from the driver side woofer. I want to take my door panels off and fix it but I keep thinking while I'm there, I might as well replace the woofer/tweeter combo with something fairly decent.

On a MR2 forum, I'm told that the 6.5" JL Audio XR650CSis are great and I'm also told that they pretty much bolt right into stock woofer form and the tweeter box. However, they are also JL's top-o-the-line model and I'm not really thinking that I need that kind of speaker that's about ~$250. Do any of you know anything about the cheaper JL speakers. I'm more interested in value and ease of installation. I also hear a bunch about MB Quart 216s which are cheaper at around $150 per set.

I am going to try to reuse the existing wiring, hook up the crossover in the doorpanels and go from there. Everything else in my audio system is stock and will remain that way for now.

Jay

 

[VinhT]

I have the JL XR-650CSi's in my Camry. I have the woofers in the door and the tweeters in the window sails/A-pillar. Bass response is flat down to 50Hz (measured) and rapidly rolls off. Upper frequency response is smooth, though bright for my tastes, even with the crossover in the -4.5db tweeter attenuation configuration. The perceived brightness may be primarily due to the location of the tweeters. Members of the Car Audio Forum frequently describe the XR tweeters as one of the sweetest sounding tweeters in the car audio market.

I have my car equalized for flat response, so it may not necessarily represent the natural sound of the XR's. However, I am completely satisfied with the speakers and have to no plans to upgrade.

 

[Jeff_Krueger]

The XR line is excellent and you would not be dissapointed going with them, however you really should have an amp on them. Don't have any experience with the other lines but I would expect them to deliver good quality for the price and you may be able to get away with running them from the stock system. MB Quarts are also very good too. Really you just need to listen to both and decide which sound better to you, listen to them installed in a car they will sound very different than on a sound board. If you are going to start digging around in the door panels you will want to add some sound deadning, this can/will help to greatly improve the sound.

 

[Jay H]

Well, I know I should have an amp on them, but consider this an improvement by small steps. I hate dealing with wiring (you should see my home theater!!) and frankly, doing that stuff in a car scares me so someday when I get more confidence and more $$$ I may go ahead and install an amp in there...

Vinh: Is 50hz about the norm to expect car speakers to be flat to? How does that compare to others and I am not really planning on putting a sub in my car which as it is, already has one of the smallest storage spaces of ANY production car. I think I have more storage on my bike with 4 panniers on it.

Also, is the little "JL audio" thing on the grill removeable? Another requirement I want is complete stealth. I don't want any fancy tags on anything and want the grill to appear to be as stock as possible for theft reasons being a convertable.

What other brands should I be looking at for value. I've heard that Focals are nice but more expensive than the others. I am thinking about going to this store near me in NJ, these are the brands they carry:

http://www.mobiletoys.com/aboutus/br...&DNUM=D2012834

If anybody in the northern NJ area can recommend a good store to deal with, I'm all ears. I will most likely be doing my own installation.


Update! Ack, I found out that MB Quart has different speaker lines with the same model#, i.e. there is a QSD 216 and a PCE 216 and stuff... It turns out the $150 is for the cheap line and the QSD and PCE seems to actually be more than the JL Audio XR series....

Jay

 

[VinhT]

Jay,

Yes, 50Hz is pretty much normal, and you shouldn't really expect much more from the in-car bass extension of infinitely baffled 6.5" speakers. From my experience, most music will sound acceptable. However, rap bass will sound quite wimpy.

As for the grills, I do not use them, so I am not sure if the logo is removeable. Most likely not. However, if you are going for a stealth install (like mine), then the speakers will be mounted under the door trim anyways and the grills will not be used.

Another brand that you might want to take a look at is Alpine, specifically the Type-X line. Performance should be on par with the XR's. Furthermore, very few people own Type-X components, so it will give your system a bit of uniqueness. When I shopped for my speakers, I auditioned the XR's, Type-X, and Boston Pro's. On the board, the XR's were the least sibilant, so I went with them.

 

[Jay H]

I was able to check out and demo the following speakers today using a Rush CD:

JL TR - Didn't like them, sounded tinny and like I was in a can
JL VR - Much improved, more soundstage, not that bright or harsh
MB Quart Discus - Sounded aot brighter than the JLs, couldn't do a good demo though cause the speaker there was blown
Kenwood eXchelon - Sounded OK, similar to the VR.

Then I went into the room with the JL XR series, MBQ Q series
and a Focal speaker and another Kenwood line.

Same comparisons, the JL sound sounded more laid back and smooth, maybe too smooth for say Hard Rock whereas the MB Q series sounds brighter with sharper highs but perhaps too much for my taste. I figure a car might be harsher and you can attentuate the tweeter through the crossover but just an initial impression. I'm told the JL tweeter is easier to integrate into my car's tweeter box cause it's slightly smaller..

Overall, I think I liked the XR series the best and either the VR or the Kenwoods as a runner up.

I'd like to check out Infinity, Polk, BA too but I think I might just go with the used pair of XRs I know another MR2 owner is selling... Guess you can't beat a 1 year old set for $180 when I found out the XRs retail for $379!!!! My only price point I saw was online dealers selling for $249 but then I was also told that JL only authorizes non-internet sales so they were most likely unauthorized dealers...

Jay