That's what I meant lol. Pioneer's higher end stuff is great but a little pricey in IMO. I'm just not a Sony speaker fan. Home stuff yeah but not there mobile audio.

 

Oooops maybe should preview my posts before posting.

The 6 1/2 will be clearer sounding and have a more rigid cone

6x9 Will be louder and have more bass, a better idea if you dont plan on a sub.

 

I put aftermarket speakers in my 99 Durango, and I am getting nothing. Thoughts on what to check? Also wondering on proper way to replace antenna. I am not real mechanically savvy-I just take stuff apart and learn as I go.

 

This is true sometimes... however your usually comparing apples to oranges. See most name brand stuff sold at walmart has a different part # than what you would think is the same thing elsewhere.... Walmart actually gives specs to companies like sony and samsung to make things like say a flatscreen tv (or speakers) to their specs so they can sell it cheaper than the competitors... but those specs result in a lower quality cheaper to manufacture product... example in point was the remington 770 v2 the remington 700.. The one walmart speced Remington to make was soo cheap and got so many complaints Remington discontinued it against walmarts wishes because it was tarnishing Remington name. I almost bought a tv there once and after doing my homework on avsforum I found I would be better off with an off brand for less with the same guts..

I have 6x9's in the doors..slight bulge like others said not noticeable unless you look for it... 6 1/2 speakers can deliver less distortion because they are round and the sound wave they deliver is more true and even...the oval cone distorts and puts uneven resistance on the cone... but you really have to have optimum quality stuff and conditions to notice... certainly not what you find in the cab of an old dodge ram. My advice is if you dont plan on using an external amp, keep the speaker power range to around 100-120 max watts getting the beefed up 160+ watt speakers will just be underpowered by the 10-25 watts rms the head unit is putting out and it will distort at lower volumes and sound tinny...you have to match power output to recommended rms of the speaker to get the best range of sound quality without trade offs...

 

As far as the original question of fitting 6x9's...

I just went through fitting some aftermarket speakers that I got from Amazon. As with the original poster they were deep enough that they hit the window guide. I ended up taking the grille that is made on the OE speaker and, using my Dremel with the cutting bit, I cut the outer ring off of it to use as a spacer. If I hadn't done that I would have stacked washers under the speaker at each screw. My door panel did bulge a little but not enough to matter.

Two other things... I hate to cut up original wiring so I unclipped the connector from the OE speaker, desoldered the wires that were on it and soldered on the wiring that came with the new speakers. Worked great.

 

Absolutely right about the practice but I wasn't aware head units were examples. It's a constantly changing market, though and new contracts are signed all the time.

It's not just Wall-Mart ... Best Buy, Costco, lots of places do it. Usually when that happens with electronics they all get the same unit but with unique model #'s, while everybody else gets the standard unit with yet another model #, but at leas that model is sold in more than one store.

The typical Big Box variant has some obscure features absent ... they choose ones the consumer probably won't notice until they get it home or maybe not at all; for example on a Plasma TV there might be fewer HDMI inputs, or the computer input is missing.

I looked at one Panasonic Plasma where the Costco model didn't have the anti-glare screen the regular ones did.

Two reasons ... one is so they can sell it for $50 or whatever cheaper and still make the same profit margin; the other is it kills price matching because that model # can't possibly be advertised anywhere else since it's exclusive to the store.

Easiest way to check is to google the model number. You'll figure out soon enough if it's a unique model only sold in one chain.

If what you're buying is a product sold by weight or volume, maybe laundry soap, check to see the size is the same as the one you're used to buying at the grocery store. Wall-Mart is famous for that one.

I just bought some Rain-X windshield washer fluid yesterday ... price was great ... and when I went to fill the reservoir in the PT Cruiser, it took the whole jug, and it wasn't bone dry yet, just gasping. Normally I have a bit left over with that car, even if it's totally empty and won't even spit.

I'd even checked the label ... said 3.78L (1 us gallon). Thought it was fine. Got home, my other jug was 4 litres.

As far as the speakers go, I wouldn't worry about the 6x9s versus the 6.5's unless you are building a mid to high system. There is a difference but if the surround is good quality and the suspension is properly made it won't be the biggest compromise they've made to fit a price point. Even if there is higher cone breakup with the 6x9's they have a small advantage as well over a 6.5 round in cone area which should give a slight improvement in bass response and efficiency.

Neither difference is huge, especially considering there are other design criteria where the manufacturer has to compromise somewhere that will make a bigger difference anyway. Most 2 or 3-way car speakers at perhaps $150 a pair or under are going to use a 30 cent film cap for a crossover; that will introduce way more non-linearities than the cone shape. If they actually spend $3 or $4 on the crossover, well, the money's got to come out of something, so maybe the voice coil isn't centred in the gap very well.

Speakers are heavy and bulky and need somewhat elaborate packaging just to stay in one piece in transit and have been made offshore for decades. Manufactured cost is probably way below the 25% electronics industry norm. The retailer is used to earning 40% margins on speakers (= 60% markup from cost); if you don't price yours like that he'll just take another line instead.

So right off the bat a $150 pair you know that the wholesale was no more than $90 including shipping from a warehouse in the states; there's 10% for the importer, there's shipping on the boat from China, there's the box and the styrofoam. We haven't even got to the making of the speakers yet; in fact they're on a dock somewhere and not at the factory door yet, and I can see about $100 worth of non-speaker stuff coming out of that retail price.

It doesn't help that they have to be made out of magnets (expensive, probably not mined in China; shipped from Africa is pretty common) copper (expensive) and are supposed to look fancy in the store, so somebody will actually buy them, even though you're going to cover them up in the truck. There's a whole lot of non-sound quality money in that box you take home from Wall-Mart.

Not trying to burst anyone's bubble, just laying the case that the shape isn't a big part of the picture overall. Car speakers are incredibly cheaply made, and there's no way around it. I can't buy the argument that the round $6 speaker is going to inherently sound better than the 6x9 $6 speaker; there's too much to compromise there that has a bigger influence on the sound quality than the shape. There's more diesel fuel in that box than manufacturing.

KEF made an oval woofer in the 70's and 80's that went into some very good sounding, high end home speakers. It's all about how you execute it.

Bring some music with you; the kind you like to listen to and someone you know well ... CDs if anyone actually owns them anymore, not mp3s ... and buy the ones that sound the best to you and fit your budget. You're buying sound, so make your decision on sound, just like you would choose art for your house on how it looks and whether you like it, not on the kind of paint that went in it.

Last time I bought speakers in a store for my truck ... about 15 years ago ... I listened to some expensive ones I had no intention of buying, then compared them to the ones at and under my budget. I was prepared to spend $150 or whatever it took to get out of the crappy sounding ones, but ended up choosing some 2-way Boston Acoustics ones for half that. At the price point I was willing to spend, they sounded better than the three-ways which actually cost a bit more. But you should just buy what you like. It's your truck and you have to listen to them.

The numbers? In another life I owned a specialty audio retail store, we owned a speaker manufacturing company that you might have heard of, we were the North American importer of a line of drivers made in England. No, it wasn't KEF ... our stuff was used by other manufacturers and never had a retail presence, but we bought tweeters from KEF for our own designs. I rounded things off a bit and I might be high on the cost of the drivers at the factory gate in Shenzen.

 

I'm a field engineer for a company that has farmed out thier manufacturing to what used to be a competitor so I know all to well name brands mean little its all about distributors and markups these days....
I,ve seen xerox charge $2,100. for a stepper motor they bought from vidar for $400 and vidar paid $40 for from the manufactuer..
I recently repaired a samsung lcd tv and found that same model tv came from the factory with one of three completely different sets of boards in it.... depending on what month it was made.. the joke is on the uneducated consumer.

 

rismith.....I think everyone between your post and here may not have realized that you bumped an OLD thread....and that is why your question was not answered.

Check the wiring on the speakers. Did you connect them to correctly? If so, one of the speaker wires may be grounded OR something is loose at the back of headunit.

 

Or perhaps he has the infinity sound system and one of his amps are bad?

 

Did the infinity sound system come in Durangos? I am not certain, but that could be it if it is also. Didn't think of that!