Question about buying speakers (Infinity's, specifically)

[KingNothing]

Crutchfield says that my car (1995 Geo Prizm) can accept 4" speakers in the front doors and 6.5" speakers in the rear deck. I'd like to buy Infinity's as I've heard they're excellent speakers. Apparently the only Infinity speakers I can fit in my car are 4" Infinity Kappas (42.5i model) in the doors and 5.5" Infinity Reference (505cs model) in my rear deck. Is this an okay setup or should I get some 6.5" speakers for the rear deck from another manufacturer? Crutchfield says that whatever speakers I install in the rear deck will require "cutting". I have to replace the rear speakers since the stock ones buzz whenever any bass in run through them...not cool. I don't plan on installing an amp at any time in the future.

If I should get 6.5" speakers for the rear, what would you guys recommend?

Edit: This auction has "Infinity 42.3i Kappas" for $64. The specs look the same as the 42.5i model, so I'm guessing the title is an error. One thing that seems odd though, is that the auction says the speakers are brand new in the original box but it seems that only the speakers are included. Crutchfield includes the following items with their speakers:

<SPAN class=TEXTTINY>Two 2-way speakers
2 Grilles
2 Grille rings
2 In-line crossovers
8 Self-tapping screws
8 Speed clips

Do I need all that or are the speakers sufficient? I know the picture of the Kappas on Crutchfield's site has a few more items in the picture with the speakers, although I'm not sure what those are.</SPAN>

 

[DaveSimmons]

Infinity makes good home speakers, I'm listening to a pair of 2000.3's as I type this.

I'm guessing the title is an error

risky assumption, the typo could be in the specs not the model number. Since it's eBay this should be a red flag, they could be refurb, grey market, scam, etc. you might be better off paying a little extra for the excellent Crutchfield service. If that's out of your budget then uBid.com might have some closeout ones at a decent price.

 

[bmacd]

i bought two pairs of infinity 5752cf reference speakers from Circuit City and fell in love with them. However...that week i checked on ebay and they were about $30 less than what i paid for them, still new in packaging. I ended up keeping the ones from CC in spite of a return or something where i need to deal with a reputable company. However..i've bought lots of car audio equipment from ebay users and plan to buy more.

-=bmacd=-

 

[EvilYoda]

I second the notion to be wary of any assumptions with Ebay.....anything different might not be an error, but a deliberate change in things. You should email the seller and make sure first. As for the speaker sizes themselves, Infinity makes good car speakers, their Kappa line is well respected.....the 5.5" is a bit small for a woofer (won't reach as low), but due to the improved quality, it'll be better than stock audio. Just make sure about what you're buying, I wouldn't bother going too fancy, you might want to get a new car first. (We had an old prism......<shudder>)

 

[KingNothing]

Originally posted by: EvilYoda
I second the notion to be wary of any assumptions with Ebay.....anything different might not be an error, but a deliberate change in things. You should email the seller and make sure first. As for the speaker sizes themselves, Infinity makes good car speakers, their Kappa line is well respected.....the 5.5" is a bit small for a woofer (won't reach as low), but due to the improved quality, it'll be better than stock audio. Just make sure about what you're buying, I wouldn't bother going too fancy, you might want to get a new car first. (We had an old prism......<SHUDDER>)

Are you insulting my beautiful...wait. Yeah, you're right. I'm not putting woofers back there, just another set of speakers. Sorry if that was misleading. It's just that the current speakers have lost their ability to reproduce bass frequencies. And two pair of infinities is my expenditure limit on this car's audio equipment.

What year prism did you have? Mine's a 1995, it's actually a pretty decent car.

 

[TheNemesis]

I just put the 4" Kappas (42.5i) in my 94 Prizm. They left a lot to be desired running off of my 11W RMS HU, but I amped them and they sound great. Depending on how much power you will be giving them, maybe look at Refernce series for lower power.

 

[KingNothing]

Originally posted by: TheNemesis
I just put the 4" Kappas (42.5i) in my 94 Prizm. They left a lot to be desired running off of my 11W RMS HU, but I amped them and they sound great. Depending on how much power you will be giving them, maybe look at Refernce series for lower power.

See, that's the problem. I can't put Reference speakers up front because the 4" models are too deep to fit in the doors. I can put Reference in the rear deck, but not Kappas (for the same reason, I guess).

How much does an amp fitting my needs cost? The other car audio thread said not to buy Reference speakers if you were going to amp, but those are the only Infinity speakers I can put in the rear deck. If I amp, should I look at different speakers? The Reference, BTW, are 5.5", but I can put 6.5" in my rear deck.

 

[TheNemesis]

You can run the fronts off of an amp, and the rears off of the HU if you'd prefer. Wiring an amp doesn't cost too much if you have some time.

 

[KingNothing]

Speaking of installation, how easy was it to install the front speakers in your Prizm? And what about the amp? Where did you put it and how did you run the wiring? Did you leave the rear speakers alone?

Also, does anyone know of some 6.5" speakers that sound as good as 5.5" Infinity Reference speakers but cost the same or less?

 

[Spendthrift]

well since this thread is dealing with Geos and infinity, ill jump in.

i have an 89 spectrum with kappa 4" in the front and kappa 693.1i 6x9 in the back. the fronts are powered by a pioneer premier amp with 80watts RMS running to each speaker. the rears are powered by a rockford fosgate amp with 80 watts RMS running to each speaker.

my brother has kappa 4" in the front of his car and 6.5" 63.1i kappas in the rear deck. both are running off the head unit.

ok now for advice. my brothers sound pretty good. he has the 2nd from the top panasonic deck from about 4 years ago. it puts our about 20watts RMS per channel and its decent to power all the speakers.

i prefer the sound of mine with my amplifiers, but unamplified is fine too. it depends on your budget.

i would recommend buying the speakers from an authorized dealer. i have had both the 4" and the 6x9s replaced. i blew the 6x9s and infinity sent me new ones and i thought i blew the 4s but it was really a grounding problem and again infinity sent me new ones. both were still under warranty (3 years for kappas i believe).

oh and talk to the guys at crutchfield. if mounting depth isnt the problem, it may be worth it to buy the kappa 6.5s and do a little cutting on your rear deck. ive done a door install where i had to cut the panel and install speakers (there were no speakers there before the install so it was entirely from scratch) and it wasnt too bad. if you only have to cut the rear deck to widen the holes a little, it should be easy. ask crutchfield for specifics.

oh and youll want the grilles, ect....

 

[erikistired]

you don't want to run kappas off the stock head unit (you don't really wanna run ANYTHING off the stock head unit, but alas that's a different convo), they need more power than that. if i were you i'd call crutchfield, they are usually quite knowledgable. find some speakers that don't require as much power to push, even if they aren't infinity. also, crutchfield will send you good install instructions so it might be worth the extra money, especially if you have a difficult install. i've never done a prizm install, but i recently did an older toyota that would have been extremely difficult without the crutchfield papers.

~erik