5x7 speaker vs. a 6x9 speaker, will there be a difference?

HiJackZX1 · 10-12-2009, 04:36 PM

I am slowly starting to buy the speakers for my car. For the doors I went with 6 1/2 Coaxials, the Alpine SPR-17C to be exact.

Now for the front 2 speakers (one for center and the other for phone), I wanted to go with a 5x7 speaker, but I remember that someone mentioned it may not be any good. Do you guys agree? According to Alpine, the 5x7 and the 6x9 are the same power and what not. Reason I ask is because a 6x9 is pretty massive for a dash top speaker. So I want to go with the smallest I can go, but not sacrifice sound. Also I wanted to maybe go with 5x9 in the 3rd row seat. In the past I had 6 1/2s but the Alpine's are much much much bigger when it comes to the speaker magnet. and depth of the speaker. I figure if I go alittle smaller, I can fit them in there. What do you guys think?

trader007 · 10-12-2009, 05:04 PM

i rock 2 5x7's up front and thats it. nothing else besides a sub. if you buy good speakers, you dont need a lot of them or very big ones.

PhilG · 10-12-2009, 05:14 PM

Anytime you can stick with round speakers, you should. They will reproduce sound more accurately than oval speakers. If you have to go small, then spend more on them and improve the quality of them. I would pick 5-1/4 rounds over 5x9' all day long. My truck came with 4 6x8" and now has 4- 6-1/2" rounds, they came with adapter plates to mount.

trader007 · 10-12-2009, 06:00 PM

????? ...... cone shape has little to do with sound quality. kicker is proof of that with their sqaure subs. its all about the design. if theyre made properly with quality components, they will sound good.

PhilG · 10-12-2009, 07:12 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by trader007

????? ...... cone shape has little to do with sound quality. kicker is proof of that with their sqaure subs. its all about the design. if theyre made properly with quality components, they will sound good.

This has been an age old debate since I was putting systems in my cars in the 80's. Most people would probably say that there is no difference. However, my experience has proven to me that oval speakers are more prone to distortion at lower bass frequencies. My preference wouldbe to stick with round speakers.
The question was asked about oval so I did not give thought to square speakers, I have no experience with them. It would make sense to me that they would perform better than oval as the cone is balanced on all sides.
It also depends on the cone area and materials being used. You can certainly buy high end oval speakers too that are less likely to distort given the higher quality materials that are used to combat distortion.

soundman98 · 10-12-2009, 11:36 PM

I agree with philG. I have heard L5's and L7's, and well, they are loud, but not clear or articulate as their round competition. My parents ford ranger has 5x7's in the doors and they suffer from cone edge distortion, like any other oval (or square

) speaker- basically, the outside edge has more flex(and there is nothing that can be done about it), and so it can't move as quickly as the rest of the speaker cone, so it ends up messing with the sound the rest of the speaker cone is trying to reproduce. To be fair round speakers can also suffer from cone edge distortion, but it is much less likely because the cone is stressed the same all the way around the cone- most of time this happens at very high power levels- when the speaker is getting pushed to do things it's not supposed to.

Kickers line overall is more about spl than sq, so the square subs fit very well in the kicker lineup. But they are the kings of square subs- listen to the other brands and it will immediatly apparent

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