Best $200 speakers?

KrazyMofo24

Which pair would be best I have a Sony Xplod cd player I am not getting an amp anytime soon so the one that sounds best using the cd player's amp is the one i want.

I narrowed it down to 3 choices Infinity kappa 6.7 or infinity ref6010?
they are both the same price I like the kappa's because they have a much higher sensitivity. They are also 3 way speakers.
The 6010's are component speakers, but as far component prices go thats about as cheap as they go.

the kappa's are 2 ohms would i be able to run 2 ohms on my reciever?
I love polk's for home theater, but aren't infinity's better in car audio? If not what would be the best polk set for $200?

audiobliss

Oh my. Lemme see if I have enough time here before I hafta go...

You won't be able to run anything decent off your HU, much less a nice $200 component set. Even if you were buying some cheap coaxial speakers it wouldn't be ideal, especially because you have a Sony Xplod HU (very bad; I won't even go there). However, talking about running a component set (not to mention a 3-way set-up :eek:) off an HU (any HU) is really crazy. You're HU will by straining and distorting out the wazoo, making for bad, bad, bad sound, and probably pretty effectively shortening the lifespan of your speakers (distortion kills speakers).

So, if you're going to go with a set of component speakers (which I would recommend), you most definitely need an amp. I have some component speakers, but I'm not using them yet since I don't have an amp. If you can't afford both speakers and an amp, just go ahead and get one and listen to the stock system while you save up for the other - like I'm doing. (However, I'd also highly recommend replacing you HU sometime in the not-too-distant future.)

As far as what brand/set of component speakers to go with, that's hard to say. You pretty much have to go listen to them yourself to decided that. However, I'll say that whoever told you Infinity's CA stuff is better than Polk's CA stuff had no clue what he was talking about. Polk (especially the MOMO line and not to mention the SR series) has some GREAT CA stuff.

Infinity stuff is usually pretty bright due to their aluminum tweeters and crossovers and such. Given that they're in a small 'room' and surrounded by glass, this could be very bad. However, you may like the 'bright' sound. Polk stuff is usually a lot less bright, but is also very detailed/accurate at the same time.

I would really recommend the Polk MOMO MMC6500 component set ($300). You can probably find them cheaper than that, but I'm not sure by how much. If you can't swing that, the db6500 component set is also a great choice at $230.

Just go out and listen and decide for yourself what you like. I'd also recommend you listening to something from Boston Acoustics, Focal, MB Quartz, Memphis Car Audio, JL Audio, and Alpine. All great stuff.

And like I said before, any set of component speakers will require an external amplifier.

Hope this helps!
audiobliss

MacLeod

Infinity is a horrible car speaker. They are extremely bright and thin sounding which can be overcome in the home environment but with all that glass and hard plastic to reflect off of, Infinitys can be painful, I know cause Ive used them.

Still if youre sold on them Id recommend the components. Not only will they sound better than the coaxials but a 3 way only means you get a super tweeter which is the most worthless thing to ever come out in car audio next to the capacitor and $500 RCA cables.

The Polk DB compoents are cheaper than $200 right now and will mop the floor with anything comparable from Infinity.

KrazyMofo24

Distortion kills speakers? I had a feeling thats what happend to my infinities 6002i i only had them running for about 2 months and now they distort BAD which is why i'm buying new speakers. I didn't pick the xplod cd player it came with it when I bought it I am definantly going to upgrade everything. I prefer Polks over infinity any day in home theater. It just seems like all my friends like infinity. Any suggestions on hu, and amp?

exalted512

pioneer head unit, hifonics amp(www.onlinecarstereo.com)
-Cody

audiobliss

I would second the recommendation on Pioner Premier HUs. They're of good quality, are reliable, and offer good performance. I also like Alpine, though they seem to have lesser DACs. However, that's a pretty minor quibble unless you're a real stickler about things. You can also look at Kenwood's Excelon series; seems a lot of people are pleased with them.

As far as amps, there are quite a few options you can take. Look at something from Memphis Car Audio (the MClass offers a great performance to price ratio), MTX (reliable and underrated), Alpine (good stuff; kinda pricey). If you're looking to spend more, you can look into Eclipse, Diamond Audio, Kicker, JL Audio, Polk.

audiobliss

Oh, and HiFonics has some great amps at great prices. Only available online, though.

exalted512

JL is teh suck
-Cody

audiobliss

*sigh*

They're good stuff. Good quality, reliable, sound good. I just don't like their voltage regulation or whatever and they're WAAAAAY overpriced.

KrazyMofo24

Man it sucks being broke I can get the mmc6500 for $147 tax included. and the db6500 for around $90 I could get the mmc6500 right now, but I dont have enough for an amp would running them be ok for a couple of weeks before I get an amp?

KrazyMofo24

would playing momos at low volumes for a few weeks be ok? I know they won't sound as good as they should without an amp, but I just want to be sure they wont damage the speakers atleast for a couple of weeks.

audiobliss

Nope. I wouldn't hook them up to an HU without an amp for any period of time. It's conceivable that they might not get damaged, but it's also pretty probable that they will. If you can avoid it, I'd wait until you get an amp.

It'd be a shame to mess-up something as nice as the MMC6500s!!

CrBoy

^ i'm pretty sure you can run the speakers without an amp for a few weeks, I don't see any problem as long as you don't put the volume to the max

But then again I might be wrong

KrazyMofo24

Or buy the warranty

KrazyMofo24

It says in the manual all it needs is 25watts rms mine is 23rms.

audiobliss

Hahahaha....yeah, it's rated at 23watts rms, but it's not making that. I saw on a head unit today that the 50x4 was rated at less than 5 percent distortion!!!! So it's probably doing 23 watts at about 2 percent distortion, which is horrible. An amp will do it with .05 percent distortion! Yeah, it probably says it'll do 23, but it won't, cleanly. Don't bank on that. I'd count on more like around 10 watts, if that even.

VR3

is 5%... like...

5.0 ?

You don't want distortion higher than .9 (which is fairly high)...

I personally like equipment in the .05 range (and lower)... some gear is in the triple, quad digits...

5% is horrible...

Humans can detect 10% distortion in BASS... Id hate to see what you could detect in the upper/mid frequencies.

MacLeod

You can absolutely run those Momos off of the head unit, it will never make enough power to hurt them.

THD is only a measurement of how hard the amp is working to produce a rated wattage. So your h/u makes 50 watts at 5% THD, it would also make 9 watts at .05% and so on. You get the idea. 5% is nearly clipping. The MMC6500 handles 120 watts and your head unit, even fully clipped, will never make enough power to hurt those speakers.

So hook em up to your h/u and play til your hearts content. Youll just never have enough power to bring out their full potential without an amp.

And distortion has no effect on speakers other than how they sound. Hell, a typical Metallica CD is 80% distortion and yet your speakers can play them fine. As long as your signal is within the speakers power handling ability it doesnt matter how distorted the signal is. 200 watts of pure distortion will kill a 100 watt speaker and 200 watts of pure clean signal will kill a 100 watt speaker.

VR3

Your telling me... CA measures stuff in 1%+ distortion? .... *speechless*

MacLeod

Well, virtually all quality amps are underrated to the THD rating is pretty much just a token number. Take mine, theyre rated 50x4 at 1% THD. Well they make about 80 at a lot less. But usually tho, 1% is kinda the standard. But like I said, just because its making 1% THD at 100 watts doesnt mean it makes 1% all the time. It would be making somewhere around .02% at 40 watts and .006% at 30 watts and so on. Hell, Pioneer amps used to be rated at .004%.

Basically, you can ignore the THD rating on pretty much all amps. If you need a 100 watt amp just get one rated at 100 watts and you can be assured youre getting at least the rating and cleanly.

VR3

This is where HA and CA really, really differ.

You wont see receivers above .9%, most of the time .5%..

Most amps are rated at .04% (mid line)...

However there are many other factors and other distortions.

Look up the older Adcom manuals (Adcom GFA-545) www.adcom.com and check out their distortion ratings. You will see what I mean... very clean amps.

MacLeod

Yeah, but you wont see receiver making anywhere near their rated power either. You can bet any CA gear you get will exceed its rating pretty handily.

What good is a low THD if youll never hit the "100x7" youre expecting?

Adcom rules!!

audiobliss

Hmm. I've never seen *any* CA amp rated at over 1% distortion. I just happened to run across the specs on a HU today, and it specified that it was tested from 20Hz - 15kHz at 5% THD. And yes, that's 5.0%. Amazing, huh?

But every amp I've seen is rated at around .1% or better.

VR3

Eh... that is most mainstream receivers, except Harmon Kardon - which sometimes put out more power.

Companies like NAD, Outlaw, B&K, Rotel all put out their rated power and more in their receivers.

Seperate amps are a completely different story thankfully... low distortion, high power. Love it!

MacLeod

Again, the THD rating ONLY tells you how hard the amp is working to make that rated power. Thats why ratings always are like "100x2 @ .9% THD". That same amp would be at about .09% at 50 watts and .009% at 25 watts (just a guess at the numbers).

Dont assoiciate the THD with how clean the amp is. That would be more a measurement like Signal to Noise Ratio.

MacLeod

I want a NAD just because its a cool **** name. "Having the nads to name our company NAD!"

*eidt* oops, double post.

VR3

There are all kinds of distortion. Adcom measures like 4 different kinds on their older amps, dont know about the newer ones...

I usually just ignore THD ratings... I mean who cares what an amp can do at 1khz...for 1 second at max output at ****% thd?

NAD is good stuff, but its ugly as sin.

There use to be a company called GAS. They are actually some of the founders behind Outlaw Audio.

audiobliss

This cheap $150 Clarion amp is rated at .1% THD.

This $180 HiFonics is rated at .03% THD.

This $120 Infinity amp is rated at <1% THD.

This $150 JBL is rated at <1% THD.

As you can see, most CA amps are also rated at low THDs. Just HUs are so ridiculously rated.

MacLeod

I like Rotel too. Ive never seen or heard any of their stuff but from what I can gather, they are high quality and arent really high priced.

VR3

You know... I dont really have a favorite amp/preamp brand... the only reason I bought the B&K stuff... was because it was in the Flea market for like half off... mint condition from a long time member... original boxes... less than a year old. I would be crazy not to buy it.

Best decision I ever made.

I think I have heard Rotel one time... never really had a reason to search them out... but they are high quality stuff by specs atleast. They have a nice following.

Outlaw is possibly one of the best performance/dollar company out right now. You can get some massive amps for little money from them, thats for sure.

My favorite receiver brand is Pioneer Elite... they look so darned sexy... who couldnt like them?? But the VSX-41 I owned a while back ran so hot... I couldnt stand that fact. But it had a KILLER preamp stage.

MacLeod

Im a pretty big fan of Pioneer Elite as well. Hell my lowly Pioneer reciever is quite stout and is plenty capably of cleanly getting loud enough to get me evicted!