Looking for car speaker suggestions with a Klipsch sub

[MPTech]

Looking for some suggestions / guidance.

I just received my Klipsh ProMedia 2.1 System from an ebay auction.
Hooked it up and I must say it sounds pretty darn good, plenty of bass, and good volume, but since this is going in my"planned" wall mount Juke, I'd like a little better speakers and something that has more pizzaz than a flat mesh speaker grill.
I've seen some suggestions for using the Sony Xplod speakers and I'd like to hear some recommendations or other suggestions.
(I'm not an Audiophile, but from what I can gather, I'm assuming the Klipsh amp can provide 4ohms (although I couldn't find it mentioned in the specs) and this would be good for any 4ohm car speakers?? what should I look for? I've seen some car speakers that are 200W, would these work? (I know this amp couldn't provide the full 200w, but would it sound good at a normal level? I'm not looking for "Club" level volumes you can't talk over and the nieighbors are banging on my doors.  I'd like to be able to play it loud, but not LOUD.)
I've seen 2-way, 3-way, and 4-way car speakers, what should I look for?
I can go 6x9 or 5x7, but the smaller 5" round speakers would probably be better looking for this application.
Any personal favorites?  Other brands??

Is there a better brand than Sony, for the money? (I was looking for $50 - $75 range, or thereabouts)

o, btw, I'm not mounting the sub in the juke, it will be external (behind a couch actually).

Thanks, MPTech

[MPTech]

I'm a little confused by watts.

I'm seeing speakers for example:
  Watts MAX. Music Power 260 Watts
  Watts Nominal Power Handling 50 Watts
  Frequency Response 30Hz ~ 33kHz
  Sensitivity (1W/1m) 91dB
  Ohm Rating 4
  Mounting Depth 2-1/4" (57mm)
  Cut-out Dimensions 5" (128mm)
  Composite IMPP Cone Woofer Using Interlaced Dual Aramid Fiber
  Butyl Rubber for Smoother Response
  5/8" Film Cone Tweeter
  3/8" Dome supertweeter


And the sub/amp says:
  FTC Rated Per Satellite: 55 watts/channel @ ≤ 1% THD, 200Hz - 1KHz (Note: all channels driven)
  FTC Rated Subwoofer: 50 watts @ ≤ 7% THD, 40 - 100 Hz
  Max Burst Power*: 200 watts @ ≤ 1% THD (Note: all channels driven)[/li][/list]


is this a good combination?
  speaker = Watts Nominal Power Handling 50 Watts
  amp = 55 watts/channel


suggestions / recommendations would relly be appreciated

[4Aaron GE]

Xplod = garbage.  Sony's build quality went down the drain with that line.

[MPTech]

Good to know, i was taken in by the name and bling appeal.

Actually, after further research, I'm leaning to spending a bit more and getting the Pioneer TSA1781R 4-ways.
They look great and the review I did find gave them a 5-star rating with no cons.


Any other brands I should check out??

[4Aaron GE]

Depends on how far out of your budget you're willing to spend.  Alpine used to be high end, but i'm a little iffy about thier new stuff.  Kenwood is okay mid grade.  Kicker, MB Quart, Boston Acoustics, and Polk are usually good.  Basically, anything that you can find at your big box store usually isn't really anything special.  The more expensive stuff they have is okay, but I wouldn't pay the prices they're asking (but then again, I'm cheap that way).  If you can, check some of your local smaller stores.  But the Pioneers you've selected should suit your needs admirably.

Personally, I like the way these grilles look.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-s2y2IdDoi8I/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?wm=fp&I=107DB650&g=52000

[Xam]

Infinity makes good car speakers also. As mentioned previously...depends on budget...if you can Infinity Kappas are better than the Reference series. They do cost more though.

Best thing to do...try them in the store. Set all the tone controls to "flat" (in other words don't use them to modify the sound) and then listen.

Xam

[MaximRecoil]

First you should find out what the impedance is of the existing speakers in the Klipsh ProMedia 2.1 system. You can damage an amplifier if you run speakers that are a lower impedance than the amp is designed to be stable at, e.g., 4 ohm speakers with an 8 ohm stable stereo amplifier.

In any event, you probably won't notice much of a difference between car speakers and the speakers already in the setup. In fact, the speakers already in the setup will probably sound better given that they are in an enclosure that was specifically designed for them.

MB Quart is generally considered to make the best coaxial car speakers, but they tend to want a lot of power to drive them, or else they won't sound so great. A 100W x 2 @ 4 ohms amp would be good for a good set of MB Quart coaxials.

For better sound, you'd want component speakers, that is, a pair of [usually 6.5"] midrange drivers and a pair of separate tweeters, with a passive 2-way crossover (usually 12 or 24 dB per octave). But again, you need a lot of power for quality component speakers, with 100W x 2 @ 4 ohms being minimum (I prefer 400 to 500W x 2 @ 4ohms for a pair of quality component speakers).

I'm assuming the Klipsh amp can provide 4ohms (although I couldn't find it mentioned in the specs) and this would be good for any 4ohm car speakers??

It isn't a matter of the amp "providing" 4 ohms; it is a matter of the amp "seeing" 4 ohms. You can hook any amp up to 4 ohm speakers, and it will work, but some amps (typical home audio amps for example, which are usually designed for an 8 ohm load) won't like it -- it sends more current through them than they are designed to be stable at, and if the amp doesn't have a protection/limiting circuit built in, it could damage the amp sooner or later.

Anyway, PC speaker manufacturers are in the business of making their stuff sound good with limited space and power in mind; a lot of engineering/experience goes into this. If you can randomly swap out a component of the system such as the speakers and have it end up sounding better than what you already have, it will be freak luck. It would be easy to start from scratch and make it sound better though, just throw a lot of money at it. Or you could make it sound better by starting from scratch and doing a lot of research, which should result in having to throw far less money at it, but a lot more time. Or you could get lucky with the off-the-shelf coaxial car speakers.

[4Aaron GE]

Well, all documentation online says it the Klipsch runs a 4 ohm setup, so he should be okay with 4 ohm drivers.  And since these will be going into the jukebox, the drivers will have new, properly sized enclosures.  As long as the drivers aren't being too underpowered, everything should be okay.

[MaximRecoil]

Well, all documentation online says it the Klipsch runs a 4 ohm setup, so he should be okay with 4 ohm drivers. 

Yeah, that'll work then.

And since these will be going into the jukebox, the drivers will have new, properly sized enclosures.  As long as the drivers aren't being too underpowered, everything should be okay.

I'm still skeptical regarding him being able to improve on the sound he gets out of the system currently. The speakers already in the system are probably well-matched to the amp as it is. By choosing the right combination of sensitivity, cone area, and cone travel, as well as the right enclosure type/size, he *may* be able to improve on volume and/or SQ, but I have a feeling that Klipsh already put a pretty good combination of these elements into the system in the first place.

Now if he were to get a bigger amp, I'd suggest he get Madisound to hook him up with some nice 6" to 8" midrange drivers, a pair of tweeters, and have them design and build him a pair of passive crossovers for his particular application. This could net very high-end sound for relatively cheap.

His current amp claims 55W x 2, which is *okay* at best, but that is measured at 1% THD, which is right at the upper limit before distortion becomes audible (notice his subwoofer amp was measured at 7% (!) THD -- to claim 50 watts based on a ridiculously high 7% THD measurement borders on fraud IMO). A high quality 55W amp would be measured at more like .1% THD. In other words, it isn't what I'd consider to be a "true" 55W x 2 amp. Also, if I had to guess, it is probably an "amp on a chip" design, like you see in car audio head units; which doesn't have the headroom of a "real" amp using large toroidal transformers and the such.

[4Aaron GE]

Hmmm...  I never bother to check on those.  (Ick! 7%?)

MPTech, I think you're in a bit of a bind here.  I know you've already paid for the amp/sub/speaker setup, but you might have to end up spending more on this.

[MPTech]

I understand what MaximRecoil is saying about Klipsh designing good speakers to go with their system, but I think their investment / cost  probably went more into the amp / sub than the speakers.  Don't get me wrong, I do think they are OK. What I'm trying to do is make a reasonable improvement on the sound and also provide an easier way to mount the speakers and provide something that adds more pizzaz to the Juke than a square, flat, mesh speaker grill.  I'm not expecting Audiophyle quality, just improved. I've been looking at the Pioner TSA1781R and I would expect them to sound better than the much smaller (and probably cheaper) Klipsch.  I only paid $40 (including shipping!) for the Klipsh, with some cosmetic damage (they were going inside the Juke anyways).  As far as the 7% THD, I did notice distortion when I turn the bass WAY up, but I don't plan to play it at that level (I just wanted to see how it wounded). It can be LOUD. 

I've been looking at the Pioner TSA1781R and I would expect them to sound better than the much smaller (and probably cheaper) Klipsch.  I've been convinced that the Sony's are not a good choice.

[emerica]

a cheap solution would be to go down to the junkyard and pull some speakers from a car. I pulled a pair of 6" bose out of the back deck of an infinity for a cost of next to nothing.