How to choose the best car speakers | Articles | Audio and video equipment

An impor­tant ele­ment of the car inte­ri­or is a high-qual­i­ty audio sys­tem. Any­one who spends a lot of time behind the wheel will con­firm that dri­ving is eas­i­er with music. How­ev­er, the sound of reg­u­lar speak­ers is not always good — in this case, you should think about installing oth­er speak­ers. For those who are look­ing for the per­fect music trans­mis­sion, we have com­piled a list of the best car speak­ers.

The audio sys­tem is one of the main com­po­nents of a com­fort­able car ride. Pho­to: pixabay.com

Speak­er types
How much do car speak­ers cost
Pop­u­lar brands of car speak­ers
Broad­band acoustics
coax­i­al acoustics
Com­po­nent acoustics
ovals
Cab­i­net speak­ers
Do you need a sub­woofer
Which sub­woofer to choose
Results

Speaker types

There are sev­er­al types of speak­er sys­tems for cars. The sim­plest speak­ers are broad­band. This cat­e­go­ry includes reg­u­lar speak­ers and some inex­pen­sive mod­els that can be found in stores. Such acoustics will be enough to cre­ate a musi­cal back­ground in the cab­in or to lis­ten to the radio — if you do not need a deep sound with a wide fre­quen­cy range, you can stop at this option.

A sol­id and well-assem­bled speak­er cab­i­net will con­tribute to high-qual­i­ty sound. Pho­to: pixabay.com

Motorists who are more demand­ing on sound should take a clos­er look at coax­i­al speak­ers, which give out a deep and rich sound due to the design. Each of the speak­ers in the sys­tem is respon­si­ble for a spe­cif­ic fre­quen­cy range. In this way, sur­round sound is achieved. And so that speak­ers of dif­fer­ent fre­quen­cies do not inter­rupt each oth­er, the sys­tem uses crossovers — devices that fil­ter inter­sect­ing waves. Install coax­i­al speak­ers in reg­u­lar places — instead of fac­to­ry speak­ers. They can also be attached to spe­cial podi­ums in the doors if you are assem­bling an audio sys­tem accord­ing to your own project.

Speak­ers in the door cards will help build the required vol­ume of sound. Pho­to: pixabay.com

For music lovers who like to turn the inte­ri­or of the car into a cocoon of sounds, com­po­nent speak­ers will do. They are con­struct­ed in the same way as coax­i­al, but the sound waves in the com­po­nent sys­tem do not inter­sect. This fea­ture allows you to set a very high sound qual­i­ty, but this is not easy to achieve. If the speak­ers are installed incor­rect­ly, the sound may be flat. This can hap­pen if you fix the speak­ers so that the sound wave does not bounce off the ceil­ing. There­fore, the assem­bly of the com­po­nent sys­tem should be entrust­ed to a spe­cial­ist.

When choos­ing speak­ers, pay atten­tion to their dimen­sions so as not to buy speak­ers that will not fit in the pan­els of your car. First you need to clar­i­fy the dimen­sions of the reg­u­lar speak­ers of the car. There is noth­ing dif­fi­cult in choos­ing speak­ers — audio sys­tem man­u­fac­tur­ers use stan­dard diam­e­ters. The most com­mon sizes are 10 cm, 13 cm, 16.5 cm. There are also oval speak­ers with diam­e­ters of 13 by 18 cm and 15 by 23 cm — they are usu­al­ly installed in a shelf behind the rear seats. If you are build­ing your own audio sys­tem design, keep in mind that the small­er the diam­e­ter of the speak­er, the worse it repro­duces bass.

The speak­er range is the fre­quen­cy of the sound wave and is mea­sured in hertz (Hz). The human ear picks up sounds from 16–20 Hz to 15–20 thou­sand Hz. The fre­quen­cy is divid­ed into three steps:

• 20–150 Hz — low fre­quen­cies;
• 150‑7000 Hz — mid fre­quen­cies;
• 7–20,000 Hz — high fre­quen­cies.

Thus, the wider the range that the speak­ers cov­er, the greater the sound vari­ety at low and high fre­quen­cies you will hear.

How much do car speakers cost

The cheap­est speak­er sys­tems are broad­band. A set of such speak­ers costs an aver­age of about 2 thou­sand rubles. Of course, the net­work and options for which they ask for more than 10 thou­sand, but in this case you will have to pay extra only for the sound pow­er, but not for its qual­i­ty. No mat­ter how expen­sive a broad­band sys­tem is, it will most like­ly not be able to sat­is­fy the audio­phile.

Good coax­i­al speak­ers cost between 2 and 6 thou­sand rubles. At the same time, it is worth not­ing that it is not nec­es­sary to buy a more expen­sive option — the sound qual­i­ty of coax­i­als depends on the instal­la­tion meth­ods and the lev­el of the radio — if the radio is good, the sound will be all right with bud­get speak­ers.

Good com­po­nent speak­er sys­tems cost around 4–6 thou­sand rubles, there are more expen­sive options — in this case, the cost lev­el cor­re­sponds to the sound qual­i­ty. Expen­sive equip­ment will pro­vide the most volu­mi­nous and detailed sound in the cab­in, which can be dif­fi­cult to achieve even indoors — not in a car.

Popular brands of car speakers

Now let’s turn to the most pop­u­lar brands of car speak­ers that made up our top car speak­ers. Let’s start with the sim­plest — broad­band.

Broadband acoustics

Car own­ers speak pos­i­tive­ly about the Ural TT-165 speak­ers. The diam­e­ter of such a speak­er is 16.5 cm, the sound range is from 130 to 10,000 Hz. Among the advan­tages of the speak­ers, they note good sound and the abil­i­ty to pro­duce high vol­ume even with­out an ampli­fi­er. But there is also a minus — there are no pro­tec­tive nets in the kit that save the mem­brane from mechan­i­cal dam­age and pol­lu­tion. A set of two such speak­ers costs about 1,800 rubles.

Anoth­er pop­u­lar mod­el is the Ural AS-M165 MOLOT. Diam­e­ter — 16.5 cen­time­ters, fre­quen­cy range — from 75 to 15,000 Hz. Those who already use these speak­ers note the vol­ume and sound qual­i­ty, as well as good bass. The kit costs about 1,900 rubles.

EDGE EDPRO6B-E6 is a speak­er sys­tem with 16.5 cm dri­vers and a sound range from 150 to 10,000 Hz. The advan­tages of the speak­ers include a good clear sound and loud­ness, as well as the use of dense cel­lu­lose cones and a fab­ric sus­pen­sion in the design — this con­tributes to high-qual­i­ty medi­um fre­quen­cies. Such acoustics in stores can be found for 1,700 — 1,900 rubles.

Pio­neer TS-1301 is a full range speak­er that is easy to install instead of reg­u­lar speak­ers. Speak­er diam­e­ter — 13 cm, fre­quen­cy range — from 48 to 25,000 Hz. Buy­ers note the vol­ume and sound qual­i­ty. Acoustics costs about 1,700 rubles.

JVC CS-J510X — 13 cm speak­ers with a fre­quen­cy range from 40 to 20,000 Hz. Users note the excel­lent sound of low fre­quen­cies and good bass qual­i­ty for such a diam­e­ter, how­ev­er, they add that the capa­bil­i­ties of the radio and their instal­la­tion loca­tion affect the cor­rect oper­a­tion of these speak­ers. It costs from 1,100 rubles.

SWAT SP PRO-80 — 20 cm dri­vers with a fre­quen­cy range from 110 to 7,000 Hz. They play clean­ly and loud­ly, while the sound qual­i­ty strong­ly depends on the lev­el of the radio — the more expen­sive it is, the clear­er the sound is pro­duced by the speak­ers. Mid fre­quen­cies are well audi­ble even with­out an ampli­fi­er. Prices for acoustics start at 2,100 rubles.

coaxial acoustics

The Pio­neer TS-1639R is a loud­speak­er capa­ble of deliv­er­ing pow­er­ful bass while still deliv­er­ing clear sound even when the bass is punchy and punchy. The dri­vers are 16.5 cm in diam­e­ter and play in the range from 35 to 24,000 Hz — with the right set­tings, they sound equal­ly good both “low” and “high”. The price starts from 3,400 rubles.

JBL Stage3 637F is one of the best car speak­ers with a diam­e­ter of 16.5 cm with a sound range from 55 to 20,000 Hz. This speak­er sys­tem is suit­able for lis­ten­ing to music of any direc­tion, but it requires atten­tion to the details of the instal­la­tion. The sound qual­i­ty depends on the lev­el of the radio. So, car music lovers found out that in con­junc­tion with JVC, the sound will be excel­lent even with basic set­tings. The kit costs from 3,700 rubles.

Hertz Uno X 165 — acoustics with speak­ers with a diam­e­ter of 16.5 cm. Fre­quen­cy — from 60 to 21,000 Hz. The sys­tem pro­duces a rich sound with well-defined bass, plays well even with­out an ampli­fi­er. With well-known brand radios such as Sony, Pio­neer or JVC, the speak­ers offer a wide range of sound set­tings. Price: from 3,000 rubles.

Ural AS-S1647 is a domes­tic inex­pen­sive ver­sion of a coax­i­al audio sys­tem. Speak­ers with a diam­e­ter of 16.5 cm repro­duce sound in the range from 62 to 22,000 Hz. Acoustics are easy to install and con­nect — if every­thing is done exact­ly accord­ing to the instruc­tions, the speak­ers will sound no worse than their for­eign coun­ter­parts. Ural “gives out” a pleas­ant bass and good vol­ume, does not wheeze. It costs from 1,800 rubles.

Alpine SXE-0825S — com­pact acoustics with speak­ers with a diam­e­ter of only 9 cm pro­duces sound in the range from 120 to 16,000 Hz. Great for instal­la­tion in a pan­el under the wind­shield, in gen­er­al they play well, but some users do not have enough high fre­quen­cies. Prices start from 2,000 rubles.

Component acoustics

The rat­ing of car speak­ers among com­po­nent acoustics opens Pio­neer TS-A1600C — a sys­tem of speak­ers with a diam­e­ter of 16.5 cm with a range of 34 to 49,000 Hz. The speak­ers pro­duce a soft high-qual­i­ty sound, work­ing out low and high fre­quen­cies equal­ly well, there­by reveal­ing all the nuances of the musi­cal com­po­si­tion. Demand­ing music lovers note that the instal­la­tion of this acoustic sys­tem cre­ates some­thing like a musi­cal stage in the car inte­ri­or — the sound becomes very detailed. The kit costs from 5,600 rubles.

Morel Tempo‑6 — acoustics with speak­ers with a diam­e­ter of 16.5 cm and a range from 40 to 22,000 Hz. Give out rich bass, sound great at high fre­quen­cies. On forums devot­ed to car audio, opin­ions slip that this audio sys­tem is one of the best speak­ers on the mar­ket. Price: from 5,900 rubles.

Hertz Uno K 165 Kit is a 16.5 cm speak­er sys­tem that plays in the range from 55 to 23,000 Hz. The speak­ers give out sur­round sound, repro­duce low and medi­um fre­quen­cies well, car music lovers have com­plaints about high notes — the speak­ers are suit­able for lis­ten­ing to rap, but they may not pull out the sound of clas­si­cal musi­cal instru­ments. Price: from 5,000 rubles.

Hertz CK 165 L — a sys­tem with two speak­ers with a diam­e­ter of 16.5 cm, pro­duces sound in the range from 50 to 22,500 Hz. Acoustics pro­vides a high lev­el of sound with­out an ampli­fi­er. With an ampli­fi­er and the cor­rect set­tings, the speak­ers demon­strate a nat­ur­al tim­bre of fre­quen­cies, includ­ing high ones. The price cor­re­sponds: from 13,000 rubles.

Ural AK-74.S — a sys­tem with four speak­ers with a diam­e­ter of 16.5 cm. Good acoustics, but it is bet­ter not to use it with­out an ampli­fi­er — in this case, the speak­ers will not reveal their capa­bil­i­ties. If every­thing is installed and con­nect­ed cor­rect­ly, the sys­tem will play at a high lev­el — it works out sounds well both on the “bot­toms” and on the “tops”. Motorists who have installed such a mod­el also note a decent qual­i­ty of bass. It costs from 4,000 rubles.

ovals

An addi­tion­al ele­ment of the sound equip­ment of the car is the so-called ovals. Elon­gat­ed coax­i­al speak­ers installed behind the rear seat can even sur­pass the pow­er of a sub­woofer.

When con­nect­ing a speak­er, care­ful­ly study the wiring dia­grams. Pho­to: pixabay.com

JBL STAGE1 9631 — 15 by 23 cm oval, pro­duces a fre­quen­cy from 50 to 21,000 Hz. Car own­ers who use such ovals note the pow­er­ful bass giv­en out by the speak­ers. The speak­ers work well and high tones. Prices start at 2,200 rubles, for a set — from 3,700.

Alpine SXE-6925S is an oval with the same dimen­sions as the pre­vi­ous one. Many lovers of loud­ness and bass note that this col­umn “ham­mers as it should.” In addi­tion, car own­ers are pleased with the build qual­i­ty of the col­umn and the ease of instal­la­tion. Price: from 2,700 rubles.

Pio­neer TS-A6980F is an oval speak­er 16 by 24 cm. A mod­el with a good pow­er reserve can eas­i­ly replace a sub­woofer, as it repro­duces low fre­quen­cies very pow­er­ful­ly. The speak­er is eas­i­ly mount­ed in reg­u­lar “bas­kets” in the shelf. Price: from 5,000 rubles.

Cabinet speakers

The cab­i­net speak­er does not require instal­la­tion, it can be quick­ly con­nect­ed and just as quick­ly dis­con­nect­ed. For exam­ple, such a speak­er is easy to mount on a shelf behind the rear seats. In addi­tion, if desired, such acoustics can be eas­i­ly placed on the motor­cy­cle body.

A small cab­i­net speak­er can be eas­i­ly used not only in the car. Once out­side the city, you can turn on the music in the coun­try house. Pho­to: pixabay.com

A pop­u­lar cab­i­net speak­er mod­el is the Mys­tery MJ 103 BX. The col­umn oper­ates in the range from 100 to 20,000 Hz. Music lovers are unlike­ly to like such a col­umn, since it does not give an ide­al sound pic­ture. Less demand­ing motorists in the col­umn reviews write that the speak­er gives a loud and harsh sound — often this is enough. Price: from 1,400 rubles.

A more expen­sive alter­na­tive is the Boss MC650B. The col­umn has high mois­ture pro­tec­tion, so it is pop­u­lar with motor­cy­cle own­ers. The mod­el is equipped with 4 speak­ers and a mul­ti­func­tion­al remote con­trol. The oper­at­ing range is from 80 to 15000 Hz. Prices for a set start from 20 thou­sand rubles.

ACV MRT61G — cab­i­net speak­ers of the mid­dle price range. The lev­el of mois­ture pro­tec­tion allows them to be used on motor­cy­cles and water trans­port, and the styl­ish design was cre­at­ed for boats and yachts. Speak­er pow­er — 100 W, fre­quen­cy range — from 65 to 20,000 Hz. Price: from 8,700 rubles.

Do you need a subwoofer

A sub­woofer is a speak­er sys­tem that repro­duces the low­est sounds. This device is able to make the musi­cal can­vas more sat­u­rat­ed. Such speak­ers are loved by con­nois­seurs of deep bass, which makes the win­dows vibrate where the car pass­es.

Most often, sub­woofers in cars are installed by peo­ple who are seri­ous­ly pas­sion­ate about car audio, while the major­i­ty do with­out low-fre­quen­cy gen­er­a­tors. How­ev­er, it also hap­pens that a per­son who has nev­er expe­ri­enced a pas­sion for high-qual­i­ty music in the cab­in sud­den­ly has a car with a sub­woofer — after that he can no longer lis­ten to ordi­nary speak­ers, because their sound seems too poor to him.

The sub­woofer will not only make you feel all the shades of bass, but also become a styl­ish part of the car. Pho­to: pixabay.com

It is worth adding that the sub­woofer is a volu­mi­nous thing. Most often it is installed in the trunk, so you need to be pre­pared to lose some of the usable space.

Which subwoofer to choose

The fre­quen­cy range in which most sub­woofers oper­ate is from 30 to 150 Hz. Rare devices can repro­duce sounds with a fre­quen­cy of 20 Hz.

A good sub­woofer costs around 10 thou­sand rubles, there are mod­els whose price reach­es 30 thou­sand. We will name sev­er­al mod­els of acoustic sys­tems that have earned pos­i­tive feed­back from con­sumers.

The Pio­neer TS-WX300TA is a com­pact cylin­der-shaped sub­woofer that is easy to plug in and just as easy to dis­con­nect. The sound pow­er of the sys­tem is enough for both sta­tion wag­ons and sedans — the speak­er is heard per­fect­ly from the trunk. It costs about 11,000 rubles.

Ural AS-D12A BLACK HURRICANE is a domes­tic sub­woofer that pro­duces very pow­er­ful bass. The col­umn can be eas­i­ly trans­ferred from one car to anoth­er — con­nect­ing the acoustics to the sys­tem is sim­ple. Car own­ers note the spec­tac­u­lar appear­ance of the device, which looks appro­pri­ate in cars of dif­fer­ent class­es. You can also buy one for about 11,000 rubles.

Alpine SBG-1244BR is a sub­woofer with smooth bass, com­pact cab­i­net and back­light. The col­umn is heavy, well kept in the trunk. There is a minus — con­nect­ing and con­fig­ur­ing the back­light is a seri­ous puz­zle. It costs about 10,000 rubles.

Results

Acoustics is an impor­tant ele­ment of the car, which will bright­en up the trav­el time. There are sev­er­al types of car speak­ers. The sim­plest ones are broad­band, suit­able for those who are not picky about sound and just want to lis­ten to the radio in the car. The next type is coax­i­al. These speak­ers will pro­vide a high lev­el of sound, reveal­ing all the shades of music. If you won­der which car speak­ers sound bet­ter, then the answer is com­po­nent. This is the most per­fect acoustics, its speak­ers give not only juicy, but also sur­round sound.

Addi­tion­al­ly, you can use oval speak­ers by installing them in a shelf behind the rear row of seats. Speak­ers of this type will add bass to the back­ground music. In the cab­in, you can also put cab­i­net speak­ers, the main advan­tage of which is that they do not need to be mount­ed in the door pan­el or in the dash­board.

For fans of juicy bass there are sub­woofers. Usu­al­ly these speak­ers are installed in the trunk. When assem­bling a car speak­er sys­tem, you can start with a few qual­i­ty speak­ers. Grad­u­al­ly, you will under­stand in which direc­tion to devel­op the sound — whether to focus on vol­ume, vol­ume or bass.