A NEW ATTITUDE
Listen And Learn
By Krisa Bortz
Posted on Wednesday, Sep 1, 2004

Can you hear me now? Good.The Verizon ad has become an instant cliché, but it fits when you’re shopping for speakers. The best subs, best amps, best head units, or best accessories in the world, don’t mean boo if you can’t hear and understand the music — and, like the rest, it can boil down to one thing: personal tastes.

Nothing will garner more opinions than asking someone “what speakers are the best?” — you’ve probably learned that when buying subs, or anything else. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. There isn’t even a limit on the size of what you put in your car (unless, of course, you want to keep it stock and stealthy).

That’s the first thing that you want to decide — do you want to keep the speakers in the stock location, or do you want to go elsewhere (kick panels, a-pillars, doors)? If you want to keep the location stock, you’re only limited by the amount of space the automaker built in. Every speaker manufacturer worth its salt will have a speaker that’s the same diameter, but not necessarily a depth that will fit.

So, what do you want to listen for when choosing speakers? Bear in mind, these will completely round out your system. Theoretically, you can do without subwoofers, but you really can’t do without speakers — they produce the full range of audible sound. Subs won’t. But if you have subs, you want them to work together. (Clear as mud?)

Like subs, you want to audition what you’re buying before you plunk down your cash on someone’s recommendation. I recommend not doing this if you’re suffering from an ear infection or the like, because it will make things sound funny. (But you knew this already, right?)

Start with your local stores, and a budget, and realize that speakers are probably the easiest thing to DIY about a system. Unless you’re absolutely, positively sure that you can’t do it yourself, and unless it voids the manufacturers’ warranty, this is a way you can invest perhaps in better speakers, then spending money on the installation. That said, professional installation is worth the money because it saves you the time and hassle of possibly breaking things.

See if you can get the sales person’s help in shutting down everything that doesn’t approximate what you’ve got in your system. If you’re running deck power, see if you can get a power source in the same range. This way, you’ll be hearing speakers at the playing level they’ll at be when they’re installed. Play your music at different volumes — you want to make sure that the speakers sound as good at lower volumes as they do at higher volumes.

Distortion is something that you don’t want. Speakers don’t distort on their own — there are other factors, like amplification and signal-to-noise ratio that come into effect, but if the speaker doesn’t sound good to you in the store, odds are good that it won’t sound good in your ride.

Another way to get a listen (and I know I’m sounding like a broken record) is to check with other friends and to go to a show or two. See what the stuff sounds like installed in vehicles. It may open your ears to new product that you haven’t considered.

What about buying online? Sure, that’s an option, but can you listen to the speakers on the Internet and hear roughly what they may sound like in your vehicle? Nope.

The whole point of having aftermarket audio is to enjoy what you’re hearing better, and you can’t necessarily do that without checking out the goods first. Most importantly: take your own music with you. You want to make sure that what you’re going to be playing day in and day out in your vehicle is something you can hear on the speakers you may be buying.