Car Audio2

I run a pair of rockford fosgate frc1369 6x9s in one of my cars, and they are about 10 years old. These were good 6x9s in their day, and I was just curious if they make better 6x9s now or not really?

Colton

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftec...FRC1369-TS.pdf

compare your specs with the closest match you can find on their site

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...s.asp?cat_id=3

Denonite

iTrader: (1)

Pretty much the same, 6x9s in general aren't a "high end" style of speakers and as such aren't treated the same as high end components in the R&D departments. Some of the advancements may trickle down like dome tweeters, better basket and cone materials, and more powerful magnets. Overall though, I would say there hasn't been any great improvements in the format over the last 20 years or so. I still think my Altec lansing 6x9's from the late 80's was one of the nicest sounding, as well as the JBL power series from the mid 90's. The problem is it's hard to get consumers to drop more than 250.00 on a set of 6x9's and that makes it hard for the manufacturers to spend a lot on improving them...add to that the fact that they aren't used in high end sound systems and you get the picture. Honestly, most of the better ones sound damn good, get very loud for the money, and used properly can make any car sound pretty good. I like them personally. If youwant a higher SQ set, you can look to Focal or Morel as they do have mid range lines with 6x9s.

Lymen

Could always go comp set 6x9 to up the potential SQ.

zoomer

iTrader: (3)

what are you using them for? rear deck, rear doors? up front? this is critical information.
Most car audio manufacturers such as alpine, pioneer, polk, RF, Infinity, Clarion, etc have mid and higher end coaxials available in round and 5x7, 6x8, 6x9 formats. I am not talking about the real high end over $500 lines. So if you are happy with a $250 6 1/5 inch coax you will be happy with the 6x9 inch version. If it is rear deck or doors it should do fine also as these are mainly fill. Stay away from the 3-4 way lower end lines that have those tiny shiny chrome plated tweeters.

Car Audio2

Honestly what made me coem up with this question is this... i have been running rockford fosgate frc1369 6x9s in my back dash of my car.... but decided to buy some cdt 6x9 subs to put in there to try and get more low end... so i wired in an amp to run them, and had that done before the cdt's arrived to i hooked the amp up to the rockford 6x9s and they sounded good copmpared to deck power. So about a week later the cdts arrive, and i swap them in place of the rockford's, only to find not much increase in bass.

Yes if i would have never hooked to rockfords up to an amp and did the amp and cdts and the same time I would have thought that i gained alot by getting the cdt's. But with the rockfords running off the amp I get damn near as much boom as with the cdts hooked to the amp, but with the added bonus of having highs still coming from the back.

So kind of disappointed I even bought the CDTs.... and am amazed how good 10 year old rockford 6x9s can sound hooked up to an amp. Then I wondered they cant make better 6x9s now then they did 10 years ago if these 10 year old ones sound this good right? So yeah I asked here....

And yes the amp was pushing the CDTs to their full potential... was using a JL 300/2.

zoomer

iTrader: (3)

well you answered your own question then! I looked at the cdt sub and frankly they dont give many specs on it. Seems just a glorified 6x9. The sensitivity seems to indicate that the resonant frequency/mass of the cone is not much different than standard 6x9 (to get lower resonant frequency you have to increase mass and then lose efficiency) Given the uncontrolled environemnt of a trunk there is little they can do to make this as high performing as a regular sub that want a sealed or vented box to control its performance parameters.

Sorry that you where dissapointed.

mohawkboom

It has a dustcap instead of tweeter pod, otherwise identical. To improve bass output, try sound deadening and sealing off your rear deck

slip

Back when I first bought a system in the early 80's 6x9's were the speakers to buy as subs were just starting out in autos and the 6x9 was the best way to get some good bass.
I had to swap out early 90's Blaupunkt "Quartz" (non paper cone) 3 way 6x9's as they sat in a box for 16+ years and the rubber that mounts the cone dry rotted and deteriorated. They were "experimental" kind of cones and just didn't have as much bass as past Blaupunkts.(they were favoring reliability over performance due to the bottom line of profits). I remember my older pre-1990's Blaupunkt speakers having more bass but used paper cones, which didn't weather well.
Once music turned digital, the older paper cone Blaupunkts speakers had a tough time with the extra dynamic range of cd's.Just not sure if they were ready for digital yet.
I purchase infinity 2 way 6x9's this year.
The "imaging" is better with the new infinities, and although I have only had them for a couple of months they seem to be more reliable then the old paper cones of yesteryear. Some said the 2 ohm speakers will be "bright" but with flat setting on my amps they sound natural and neutral.
Now that subs are on the scene, it isn't as important for the 6x9's to do all the bass... plus the dynamic range of recording isn't as great as when cd's first came out so maybe development "peaked" on the design and uses of the 6x9's as the "main" speakers
Maybe this is why they have fall'en out of flavor over the years.
just theories and thoughts

cheers

AAAAAAA

iTrader: (7)

PEople don't like 6x9's beause purest think that round is the only way to go for good sound and that a shape other then that will not sound optimal.

The truth is in car 6x9's offer a lot of benefits.