I'm also looking for some new speakers. I have a set of Boston Acoustic SR60's in my truck and they sound awesome. As such, I bought a set for my Fit. I'm very unhappy. The tweeters are FAR too bright, even at the -4DB crossover setting. There's also a hole at 1000hz and a huge bump at 5000hz. My headunit (Clarion NX501) only has a 3 band parametric EQ, so I'm stuck there.

I think its the rake of the windshield (my truck is very wide and flat so much less sound reflection) is why I don't like the setup.

I've seen in this thread: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...g-amp-sub.html
and others, that the polk's are bright too. The MB Quarts listed in this thread look interesting - at least they have a -6DB crossover setting, which may be just the reduction necessary to overcome the harshness.

Anyone else have any feedback on component speakers that have tamer tweeters that still sound good? I've debated building an L-pad to tone down the tweeters, but I'm not opposed to buying a new set (even better if they have a matching pair of 2-ways for the rear doors).

I'm not concerned about bass output (I have a sub). I do want to use the stock locations though as I'm parked in a lot all day long and the stocker everything looks, the better.

 

You're experiencing reflections and cancellations which are huge issues in car audio. Generally speaking, BA and MBQ have some of the brightest tweeters available. But even within their lines, they can still vary greatly.

1KHz is mainly output from the woofer. Are you or can you use custom mounts behind the door panel to change the angle? You might want to use something behind the drivers since it could be a rear reflection issue. Half wavelength of 1KHz is only 7.25". You could also try blocking the "line of sight" between the woofers to see of that changes the output.

You could try to angling the tweeter away from or towards the windshield to change the sound. Tweeters don't have to "sealed", so a little more gasket material could be used to change their position.

The Elemental Design i9.65 use a silk dome and although they only offer -3db attenuation on the tweeter, you'll be happier.

If you're willing to spend the money, Morel tweeters are very laid back. As are DLS. Dynaudio are more neutral.

If you want to try a quick, inexpensive, possible fix, try a pair of these Vifa tweeters with the BA xover and woofer. Their unique shape provides very good off-axis output and they're not very bright. Or try these, if you prefer standard domes. Both are less efficient than the stock BA tweeter but are still very good quality small drivers. But before you buy, confirm the resistance of the std BA tweeter is ~3.2 ohms to ensure the xover frequency will be close.

 

First, thanks for the excellent reply!

Right now I have nothing behind the woofers except the door skin. I'm about to go through and CLD/MLV the doors, so I'll try building a baffle with the MLV. Additionally, I could modify the mounts to angle the woofers a bit.

Right now, mine are epoxied into the factory grills. I might be able to change the angle a bit (assuming I can get them out of the grills), but while that might help the 5k bump, I don't think it'll help the output level much?

The BA's are 6 ohms. I measured and called them to confirm. So those would mess with the crossover point. Mounting those Vifa ones could be difficult. A custom mount on the passenger side wouldn't be too tough w/ the glove boxes removed, but on the driver side, it'd be a pain. Anyone done a custom mount in the factory location?

 

get a good and cheap component set like infinity reference 6030cs, I have them in my car and they are just amazing...

 

Better components will have some attenuation capability within the crossover. I have some Dyn's in my Accord that had +2db, flat, and -2db at the crossover and the Hertz HSK163's that I had in my Fit had +3db, flat, and -3db (I think) did the same. I've been into car audio for a long time and figured out a long time ago to spend money wisely and it will last. Get to a local specialty shop and give a few sets a listen since everyone will have there own opinion.

 

Well, that's kind of the point of my post - listening at a shop isn't going to help. I love the sound of these BA's in my truck, but can't stand them in my Fit. I realize answers are going to be fairly subjective, but its a starting point over spending tons of $ trying to randomly find a set that sounds good.

The MBQ's looked interesting because they could do up to -6DB on the xover, but from what I'm getting from people is they're still really bright, by design.

 

Quarts will be bright since the better series will have a titanium dome tweeter. Even with -6 on the crossover they will be bright. My Hertz components used a silk dome tweeter, and the Dyn's that are in my competition car are silk as well so I completely understand not wanting something that is so bright it hurts.

With that being said I would look into an EQ since you know you have frequency issues and a little tuning goes a long way. I would stay away with any tweeter with a metal or plastic dome and look for a fabric or textile dome. I've used nearly every major brand (even competed in USAC and IASCA in the late 90's with Boston's) Quart, JL, Dyn, Diamond, Morel, Hertz, and listened to nearly everything else in between. Everyone will have there own opinion and I recommend sticking with a local shop since the advice they offer is worth more than the money you pay for.

Another thing you can look into is some materials that will tame the reflections. I know when I had my Fit the pods I made were set so that the tweeters and mids aimed up and slightly back to limit the reflections. In my Accord the mids fire straight up at the windshield but I made a dash cover that makes a huge difference. Try a towel or two on the dash and see how that does. It could something as simple as using a dash mat, though ugly, they are effective.

 

Have you had a chance to hear any comps set up as a coax down low in a door?
A dash mat (i know they look terrible) will definitely some of the highs.

 

I tried a couple different towel materials over the tweets over the past week. It definately helped. Even just putting material around the tweets helped (likely due to stopping some reflections).

I'm going to try popping the grills and setting them at different angles to see if I can find one that works. If so, I'll figure out a mounting scheme at that point.

Also, the xovers have an on/off axis setting I'm going to try flipping. Don't think that'll help the tweets, but may help the 1k dip I'm compensating for.

And I may just go the L-pad route to reduce the tweets another couple DB. When they're toned down by the towels, they sound much better, so I think I'd be happy.

If none of that works, I'll look into replacements, but for what these BA's cost, I'd like to try to make them work, especially since I like them so much in my truck (ie: the potential is there).

 

I'm resurrecting this thread because I've finally have some time and money to deal with this problem, but it has lead me to further questions.

First, to see how reflections played into this, I did pop the tweeter mounts up and wedged them so they faced towards the front seats. While this did have a nice effect on the soundstage (it opened up a bit), the "honky" 5k-ish sound didn't diminish at all from what I could tell by listening (I didn't meter it).

That leads me to think this isn't a reflection issue, but actually a speaker issue. I'm starting to wonder if I just got a bad set of Bostons.

Regardless, I'm on a mission now to replace these and I have been looking pretty seriously at the Focal 165A1-SG's (I assume SG means "second generation"? Can't seem to find anything on the diff between the SG and non-SG except ~ $30).

I picked up a new set of factory tweeter grills (they're actually pretty cheap, enough so that if you plan to put the stock ones back in someday, just grab a new set to mount your aftermarkets in and cut them up however you please).

From what I've seen on the forums, it looks like the focal tweets will fit with some epoxy magic.

What I'm curious about is if anyone has used these, what do the they think, etc? The frequency chart of the non-SG ones look really good (can't find the PDF for the SG model), especially the 30 degree off-axis, so I think they'll be a good matchup. But at $250 or so, be nice to get some opinions before I go through the pain of installing.

 

With all of the hard surfaces it will be hard to relate the frequency response chart to how it will sound, except probably bright. Comparing two drivers with the response curve that is obtained in the same manner just gives you an idea of how the should sound, not really how it will sound in the real world. I used some Focal drivers years ago in my ZR2 and had some good results with them. They are still in use today where a friend bought them from me. I haven't had Bostons in years, since the late 90's when I was competing in IASCA and USAC but had excellent results at that time with them. Since the Focals are nearly a drop in (or at least a cheap fix if you don't like them) I would go for it.