Which speaker?

[cod7]

Hi, I'm being forced to change my front speakers and was wondering what type should I go for. I've been told that component speakers are top notch but more expensive and that JBL are the way to go. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[MiniMpi]

Owen is your man for 'ice'
Send him a pm maybe

[cod7]

Thanks. Also, I know it's the wrong topic, but my air temp sensor has read -40 ever since I bought my car, would love to get it fixed, would you know if it's a simple swap of out with the old and in with a new one?!

[MiniMpi]

Probably a faulty sensor. They are mounted behind the front bumper.

[Owen]

You don't mention what car you're looking to install into.

[cod7]

Sorry, it's an R53 cooper s. I must post some pictures, have been looking on this forum for ages and never posted!

[Owen]

With any of the early R5x models, R50/52/53, you're limited to 13 cm speakers in the front, and 6x9's in the rear. You can buy adapter pods to convert the front 13cm to 16.5cm which is the optimum size for fitting decent components in the doors. If you want those pods, BlueZed has a set for sale in our classifieds forum.

Brand wise, JBL are okay, but IMHO they're cleverly marketed to sound like JL who are audio market leaders, so you don't quiet get what you're expecting from them. In magazine reviews recently, two brands that surprised me by getting good reviews were Vibe, and Fusion. Personally, I've always used Alpines for speakers myself, their quality is superb and can take an unmerciful pounding.

To get the best result, I'd fit a headunit with a crossover in the car, let the head unit only send mid and high frequencies to the factory speaker locations, and I'd then fit a slimline subwooder under one of the seats to handle the low end.