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Sony XS-A1027
by RyanQ
I have a 1999 dodge Dakota, and when my stock speakers blew, I needed to get some inexpensive car speakers. I choice two of these and two of a lesser quality and cost, but overall these sound great. I actually installed these myself, and they were incredibly easy to install and took probably 2 hours total, and thats taking off all of the ... interior to get to the speaker casing. I have had them in now for over six months, and they still sound just as good as they did the day i put them in. Where as the two lesser quality ones have lost their quality, these keep on sounding fantastic, even when I have the base turned up quite high. Overall I would highly recommend these to anyone who is not a complete speaker head and who just wants some good quality replacement speakers and does not want to pay a lot to do so.
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Kenwood KFC W300S
by NotMyToothbrush
My friend had this installed in his car by Halfords after he bought it from them a few months ago.
The setup was very, very lengthy. I am not too sure whether this was because the subwoofer was awful to set up or whether the Halfords employee was just completely incompetent. However, as the employee is supposedly very ... experienced at installing such devices, I assume the 3 hours we were waiting for it to be installed were because of the subwoofer. The employee did mention some issues he had with the subwoofer but obviously we didn't really care once it was working.
Now to performance, we were told to keep the subwoofer on low for the first few days to break it in a bit. However even with it on about 20-25% of its full power the bass was incredibly deep. Especially as I was in the back seat ont he way back and therefore right next to the speaker!
About a week later he had it on full power and to give you an idea of how powerful this subwoofer is. I heard him coming when I was in the back of my house, with the windows and doors shut, when he was still halfway down the road. This wasn't even on full power. If the loudness is what you are after, then these are perfect for you.
Inevitably, I was in the back seat again this time and I really do not recommend being so close when you have them on full. The front seats do not really SUFFER from the speakers but the people in the back seat merely hear bass directly into their ears. If you are ever in the same situation as me, you will miss your sense fo hearing for a couple of hours afterwards!
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Kenwood KFC 1361S
by DanB7290
These babies can be had for under £30, which is very cheap in the world of car audio. But don't let this fool you; they are brilliant. I coupled mine up to a Sony Bluetooth head unit, I had 2 of these speakers in the back of a Fiat Seicento, and a smaller, 4"ish pair in the front (other than size, they were identical to these). I ... decided upon Kenwood because they were much cheaper than the Sony equivalents, plus they did the speaker system for the McLaren F1, and that's the greatest car ever made.
First things first, these are not going to compete with Bose, B&W and B&O, who all make factory installed solutions for higher end cars, but we're not talking a £20,000 BMW here, rather a £1000 Fiat. Installation was a doddle, the bigger speakers simply slotted into the parcel shelf, and were the same size as the terrible factory installed Fiat ones. The fronts took a little more effort, some of the metal 'ears' on the outside of the speaker had to be bent so they would fit in the holes in the dash (I wasn't cutting up the dash of my Fiat). But they got in, and stayed in place perfectly until I removed them and sold the car.
I fiddled around for hours with the EQ and fade settings on the head unit for the best sound, but I eventually hit the sweet spot. The mids and highs are more audible on the 4" model than this larger one; where the bass is more prevalent. In fact, there was enough bass to negate the need for a separate subwoofer in the boot, which was handy as the car had very little bootspace at all. While the bass on the bigger ones was great, the mids and highs seemed to get lost somewhere, but that's where the smaller front ones came in. They have far less bass, not quite to the point of non existent, but they lack on bass. However the mids and highs are pretty good on them, so the two sizes of speaker complement each other very well. Please don't think however, that they will instantly make your Saxo have a Bang & Olufsen rivalling stereo; they won't. This isn't so much down to the speakers themselves, more the effectiveness of the sound deadening in the car. Poorer sound insulation means a poorer quality, but I have no doubt that these would be much better in a car that had more sound deadening than my rusty old Fiat.
So, if you're a fan of better quality sound, but have a smaller budget and don't have a BMW with a high end stereo in it, then get these, hook them up to a decent head unit and there you go, much improved quality over the factory fitted option. And at £30 a pair, reasonably priced too. If you want Bose quality, go pay Bose prices.
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