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Old 07-29-2021, 10:49 PM   #1
thatgarrett
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 497099
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: TN
Vehicle:
2007 Outback Sport
Urban Gray

Default Help! Got lucky and have a hard choice to make, 2007 Wagon

Current setup: Sony XAV-AX1000 headunit (22RMS x 4) powering stock “premium” (lol) speakers and factory powered sub. Overall fairly happy with everything, I just wanted more clarity and less distortion from speakers, which are fine until I roll the windows down and turn them up a little more.

Goal: spend very little money to upgrade speakers so they don’t distort at 60% volume, keep HU as amp and use factory sub for fill, not anything too fancy.

My situation: after doing lots of research, I settled on wanting to upgrade my front door speakers to Polk DB652 (6.5 Coaxials) and seeing how happy I was after that to determine if I needed to change rear fills or something else. I wanted the component set (DB6502) but those were a little above my budget. I found an Amazon warehouse deal I rolled the dice on for DB652 but instead I was sent DB5251 (the 5.25 component system), brand new and unused at an 80% discount!! So scoring such a good deal on speakers that would normally be out of my price range, I want to figure out the best use for them! I’m between running them up front and replacing the OEM woofer and tweeter or running them in the back (mounting the tweeter somewhere up on the door) and getting the 6.5 coaxial Polk to go upfront and retain the OEM tweeter. Not running an amp, but using the stock sub, which would be the best use of them? Would I miss that much bass going with a 5.25 up front (and eventually adding a 5.25 coaxial for rear fill) or is the sound quality of the component a better trade off and worth keeping them up front and not putting in a 6.5 coaxial instead?
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Old 08-08-2021, 05:39 PM   #2
TXwrxWagon
Scooby Specialist
 
Member#: 191557
Join Date: Oct 2008
Chapter/Region: TXIC
Location: Rockwall-East DFW
Vehicle:
2004 WRX Wagon
WRB not so minty fresh

Default

componets up front when ever possible. 5.25 vs 6.5 in the midbass range, when powered ff the HU power will be minimal difference.

Personally I would retain the OE rears and invest as much budget as possible in the front. 6.5+ tweeter would be ideal. then MAYBE a rear upgrade to a moderate coax.

The key is looking at Efficiency ratings. You want the highest "dB per watt/Meter" out put. if you can find 6.5 components @ the 91-92dB range off HU power is best of a not-perfect situation.

also, since you have the OE Sub it will do an admirable job at supplemnting the mid-bass and upper bass regions.

best of luck.
~Rob
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Old 08-15-2021, 02:38 PM   #3
thatgarrett
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Member#: 497099
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: TN
Vehicle:
2007 Outback Sport
Urban Gray

Default

Thanks!

So, I ended up going with the Polk DB5251 component set in the front doors, fading mostly to the front, and using the OEM subwoofer, and after letting them break in for a few weeks am quite happy. Initially, to test, I cut the stock speakers out of the brackets and mounted the Polk 5.25” woofers to them, but they did not sound good at all for lower frequencies (bass, piano, deeper voices, etc.) because of the gap between the old speaker and the new one, so I went with iAPerformance’s 5.25 spacers for the front, and used Moretite rope caulk between the spacers, the speaker and spacer, and spacer and door to seal and isolate the speaker as much as possible (even in an infinite baffle situation, you don’t want to have air gaps right next to the speaker. After doing that, they sound great! Previously, I would have distortion at 26 on my radio (along with general lack of detail and muddy sound), but now I can push to 34 without distortion and have way more clarity and detail, parts of songs that I had never realized were there! Audio upgrades are largely influenced by installation quality, and I definitely saw that there, couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. I played with my high pass on the HU some too, eventually might get a better underwear sub (like that Sound Ordinance one everyone seems to have) but I accomplished my goal for less than $80 all in! The stock plastic speakers were definitely a step up from paper cones I’ve seen in other Subaru’s but the foam surrounds were starting to rip apart and they needed to be replaced, the Subaru tweeters are not even close to the Polk ones either!
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