coaxial or component speakers?

[172_dan]

I have a farty door speaker so im going to replace i understand it is 13cm i have a 02 reg clio sport.

whats the diff between coaxial and component speakers and which ones should i buy? im not looking to add loadsa stuff just sum new speakers to replace the old ones with better sound quality. dont want to buy amps etc etc.

Thanks

 

[g.simmons]

Component speakers need to be amp'ed, so unless your looking at going down that route, i would suggest a tidy set of Coaxile's

 

[MT AUDIO]

Component speakers need to be amp'ed, so unless your looking at going down that route, i would suggest a tidy set of Coaxile's

that comment is not true at all,you dont have to amp them but it will obviously benefit.your advantage of comps is that you havent got one speaker trying to do two jobs,components allow the two speakers to concentrate on what they do best

 

[lamborgini8]

that comment is not true at all,you dont have to amp them but it will obviously benefit.your advantage of comps is that you havent got one speaker trying to do two jobs,components allow the two speakers to concentrate on what they do best

Il add to that...

Coaxial have tweeters built into the center of them, components are single speakers on their own similarly to what should be in there as standard.

 

[hopkinsgm]

High frequencies (treble) are considerably more directional than low frequencies (bass). Positioning of a speaker is thus not all that critical in terms of overall sound. Positioning of tweeters is a different matter though. If you fit coaxials in the door (which have two speakers installed along the same axis, hence coaxial), all the high end detail will be firing under your knees. Most of us don't have ears down there (not when we're driving, anyway...). Tweeters in the dashboard will fire those high frequencies at your head - usually bouncing them off the windscreen. Thus the overall sound quality you hear in your normal seated position will be better - assuming you actually want to hear the high end detail.

 

[Dan R]

that comment is not true at all,you dont have to amp them but it will obviously benefit.your advantage of comps is that you havent got one speaker trying to do two jobs,components allow the two speakers to concentrate on what they do best

apart from a coaxial has two parts to it too. Both the tweeter and midbass driver so that comment is not totally true either.
It is impossible to say which is better. In some cars a coaxial will work better and in others a component system will work better.
U need to look at where the speakers are mounted etc and with knowledge from previous installations i would then make the decision as to what would work best.
As ive said before, putting the tweeter in the original position on a clio is not the best of ideas because u will suffer from reflections from the glass and putting the midbass and tweeter together (close to each other) provides much more cohearent sound.
When the tweeter is high up it CAN also sound more dominant and often sound too bright and aggressive.
In some big installations, yes the tweeter could work well on an A pillar mount but then we are talking about much higher quality tweeters which dont sound nasty and dont take your head off!
Lets put it this way, in my old 182 i used to use JL Audio C2 coaxials in the doors of it and most were adament that i had tweeters on the dash!!
I also would consider doing the small modifications to get a 17cm speaker in the door as u will gain almost double the cone area and will sound significantly better and offer u much better power handling and more midbass

 

[Dan R]

High frequencies (treble) are considerably more directional than low frequencies (bass). Positioning of a speaker is thus not all that critical in terms of overall sound. Positioning of tweeters is a different matter though. If you fit coaxials in the door (which have two speakers installed along the same axis, hence coaxial), all the high end detail will be firing under your knees. Most of us don't have ears down there (not when we're driving, anyway...). Tweeters in the dashboard will fire those high frequencies at your head - usually bouncing them off the windscreen. Thus the overall sound quality you hear in your normal seated position will be better - assuming you actually want to hear the high end detail.

Yes high frequencies are alot more directional however a GOOD coaxial speaker is made and designed with its typical mounting location in mind and will carefully control the high frequencies dispersion to sound correct when mounted low down in the door.

 

[ruffeo]

ez peezy, not too expensive, and they will clip right into the existing speaker wire clips.

http://www.pioneercaraudioonline.co.uk/products/24/368/Pioneer%20TS-Q131C/

 

[murcod]

Probably the biggest difference with coaxials is they usually only have a very simple crossover (a single capacitor in line with the tweeter.) There are exceptions in dearer models, but generally that is the norm. This means the woofer receives the full frequency range and the tweeter only the highs.

Most component speakers have a far more complex crossover which only feeds the low frequencies to the woofer and high to the tweeter. They usually also compensate for differences between the woofer and tweeter output by allowing user selection of the tweeter output level and use far higher quality components in the crossover which does make a huge difference to the sound quality.

There are also differences in the attenuation curve at the frequency cut off point, but that's getting a bit too technical. Basically generalising: coaixials- good cheap upgrade; components- better quality and should sound better (providing you don't buy a cheap set.)

Sensitivity is important if not using an amp. Look for something with 92dB or higher (eg. Focal and Polk make components that exceed these specs and sound very nice.) For every 3dB drop you will need TWICE the amplifier power for the same volume level. So an 89dB speaker will need twice the power of a 92dB speaker to produce the same volume level!

 

[hopkinsgm]

Ooops, just re-read what I posted yesterday, which should have said...

...Positioning of a midbass speaker is thus not all that critical in terms of overall sound...

 

[hopkinsgm]

...however a GOOD coaxial speaker is made and designed with its typical mounting location in mind and will carefully control the high frequencies dispersion to sound correct when mounted low down in the door...

If you mean the type of speaker that have a centrally mounted tweeter that is angled to fire off axis whilst the midbass fires straight, as the two drivers are each firing on a different axis, then strictly speaking it's not actually a coaxial speaker... Biaxial perhaps?

Lets face it, cars are far from ideal listening environments, and there are a great many factors at play - head unit, cabling, position of seats, type of music you like... And that's before you start to consider that different people have different hearing response (and tastes).