Loudest Clearest Speakers
 

So I was thinking this morning about what would be the loudest speaker that doesnt break up at these volumes. What speakers would you pick for the job?
Say being amplified with around 125-150 watts per channel. The stipulation is the tweeters can get too shrill when cranked. And I'm thinking 6.5" Components.

Opinions?

The Morel $1400 set.

Loudest and clearest.
 

I would use the Eighteen Sound 6ND430 midbass and the Vifa DPH11 tweeter. Of course i would make my own passive crossovers.

jbl gti c 608...hands down the best deal going for loud, clean components that easily handle big power and sound great...can be bought on ebay for 225-260.00 us...or locally for 700.00 in toronto. Has huge magnet so make sure you have the space, 2" voice coil, and titanium tweets with rubber surround dampers that are the most detailed and crisp sounding I've heard to date.

First off I would ask, why do you feel you need 125-150W and how you came up with that number? Secondly, all these Wattage numbers thrown around are purely arbitrary. Designing a system to sum up and sound coherent is a skill that is more important then buying a "150W RMS" set of components. Thirdly, 125W-150W into a given driver with a given frequency could spell death or breakup as you noted to a given speaker. Most tweeters running into those power ranges with low cutoff frequencies will make your ears bleed. 6.5" speakers playing double duty as mid bass and mid will sound very strained. Generally speaking, tweeters don't need more 50W at most, mid range speakers going up to say 75 and mid bass will require more, this will greatly depend on you ability to use deadening and driver placement for your given vehicle. A company putting a sticker on a box and says this will handle 150W RMS, which BTW makes no sense in a real life situtation. If you're building an spl vehicle then to me it doesn't matter what you put in there for mids and tweets, if you're trying to build a nice sounding system then I recommend you do some reading before you shell out your hard earned money on something that will to be quite honest, disappointing.

If you want serious output, go with a waveguide. USD makes some killer sets. I think I saw a set of ID horns in the For Sale section too.

DD makes a really solid 6.5 otherwise maybe hyrbid audio

one site. [url=http://www.partsexpress.com]Parts-Express.com found sooo much good stuff.

if u dont mind me asking but what kind of car or truck do u have?

This was the most non-helpful response I've ever seen. It was a general question. Believe it or not, some people like to have a mix between SPL and good quality sound. This being the goal. I understand that power doesnt mean a whole lot but its easier to say said amount of power rather than being able to handle a 1000 hz sine wave at 5% distortion with 150 watts.

I'll be more general then. I want a set of components that will take a lot of abuse and still sound good doing it. Is that better?

as for everyone elses response, thanks.

The vehicle will be a 2000 Chrysler Cirrus. Will hopefully be ran active with an 8" midbass alongside. With my experience I dont really like horns, however the ones that I've used were cheapies that did get extremely harsh.

Why a 6.5 sized set if you're also running 8's for midbass? I second the suggestion, and highly recommend waveguides for your application (give them another chance, just buy decent ones this time).

where the hell would I mount them?

I've had good luck with Pyle Compression Tweeters and Horns.

They're not "warm" like conventional tweeters but certainly not shrill...

Just don't do what I did and use way too much.

Sounded ****ing awful. Trashed the entire install because of it.

Edit: The only reason I mention them is because you can feed them absurd amounts of power and they get very loud.

Under your dash (and before you reply you don't have room, I've seen them mounted there in a Cavalier and it worked well).

Agreed, I stuffed a pair of ID CD2 Pro mini's under the dash of my 98 Dakota(had to cut some things to make it happen but...) Mount as flat to the bottom of the dash as possible is my advice.

When people find them harsh I have generally found that they are being overpowered(or poorly installed). Most horns are like 110dB efficient and need very little power to get very loud. I have an Orion HCCA 225r(25x2@4ohm) on my horns which are 8 ohm so maybe 15 watts a side and that is more then enough to be very loud and articulate.

my $0.02

I agree that they're super efficient and don't need huge power but just so you know; The Orion HCCA225's aren't linear in how they produce power when loaded (they don't double power as impedence is halved as specs state). Output at 4ohms is often in the 70rmsx2 range (or more).

I had a Cirrus for a while and the USDs were going to be tough to fit so I didn't. The ID minis fit in almost anything though as long as you have enough height.

Otherwise, you're going to get a tonne of opinions. I've ran my MTX ThunderAxe comps very hard and very loud and am always impressed with how they handle the power.

I really don't even know how to respond to this.....I guess I'll just leave it alone then. GL with your search.

Fair enough.
It was more to the point that the lack of power needed to drive the horn.

I took a look today at how to mount. The dash slopes WAAAAYYYY underneath, and it would aim directly at the steering wheel/crotch. I'm thinking on top of the dash would be a little much. I have been thinking of 3 way (woofer in doors, 8" if it fits, 3.5" in dash and tweet either custom mounted in dash or in sail panel.

I think by far the absolute loudest and clearest components are MB Quart they have been around for years they are tried and true. There is a reason they are still making speakers for all these years. The same with subs go with what has worked JL W6 series nothing can compare to the range of bass you get from them. The same for the Quarts they have outstanding range and they won't crackle if you have you stuff set right and matched properly. Use good wire everywhere your system is only as good as its weakest link you could spend 1500 on the world's best speakers but if you buy a cheap amp or use scrappy speaker wire. The system will never perform or sound the way it can. Good Luck and have fun