ComQuest

Me too. I have factory radio and speakers so I would like to know the difference between "warmer" and "brighter" sound. Thanks

dkevox

Hard to describe the difference in sounds with text. Best bet would be to go to a good home theater audio store and ask to audition different setups. They should have some properly setup rooms with acoustical treatment.

You'll find that as you switch through different speakers that they all sound a bit different. These can all be very high quality speakers that produce very flat frequency response curves, but they just sound different. You will then understand what he means by "warmer" versus "brighter".

IMO though, car audio will be severely impacted in quality by the dimensions inside the cabin as well as road and vehicle noise. Glass is not an audiophiles friend, yet in a vehicle it's hard to escape. Your best car audio system will never be nearly as good as a properly setup home audio room with acoustic treatments, so stressing about the slight differences between the higher quality speakers is silly. Find the cheapest good quality set and you will be very happy with the performance increase over stock. The only way you'd ever be able to tell a difference in the tone of the various speakers would be through doing back to back comparisons. In the real world when driving around it's not going to matter at all.

ComQuest

[MENTION=147288]dkevox[/MENTION] Thank you for that good explaination. I do not have the Nav system set up in my truck, so I don't think I want to change out the dash unit radio. But I sure would like to have some nice speakers. I also do not have the sub box under my back seat. So I guess I will need that plus all 4 door speakers replaced.
Question for you: Do the little round speakers on the corner posts serve a purpose? In other words, are they worth changing out? Thanks.

Rugger

Warmer and brighter.....

Think of it this way. Warmer speakers are to the better side of muddy. So much bass that you can't hear a light tap on a symbol.
Brighter will give you every tick and high tone. You may hear a singer inhale. Too bright will wear on your ears over time. Too warm will be so muddy that the speaker can't move fast enough to reproduce a full range of sounds. Sub woofers can rattle the chrome on a rice burner, but it can't sound like a live performance. Treble turned up too far is so bright it sounds harsh.

And that is why the sky is blue?.....

dkevox

the higher frequency sounds are easier for your ears to figure out where they came from. The small speakers on the a-pillar's are called "tweeters" and are what produce the very high frequency sounds. Having them located down by the doors will make it sound more like the sound is coming from the floor area, also any obstacles or obstructions between your ears and the tweeters will block your ears from hearing those frequencies.

Having the tweeters mounted in the A-pillar will give you a much better "soundstage". Soundstage is the audio term used to describe that feeling that you can close your eyes and picture the band on stage in front of you, you can locate in your mind where the lead singer is standing, things like that. Headphones, for instance, make it sound like the band is playing inside your head. haivng the tweeters mounted on the A-pillars will make it sound much more like you are sitting in front of a band playing.

So yes, I think having the tweeters installed in the a-pillars is a much better setup. However, those systems cost more and you have to figure out how to mount the speakers there so it doesn't look horrible. I've heard you might be able to get the OEM a-pillars with the tweeter holes for relatively cheap, if you can do that then that would look and sound best.

But, i think upgrading the door speakers with a good quality speaker will make a big difference in terms of sound quality and you could easily be happy enough with that. Whether you do the tweeters or not should be dependent on your budget and how much you are willing to spend.

I would also recommend having a quality subwoofer. Subs don't have to be boomy and earth shaking like you often hear out of stupidly overpowered car audio systems. I think a sub in a decent closed enclosure that doesn't have the gain turned up too high would be something you'd really enjoy. It will really fill out the sound and add some extra depth to the music. Also, conversely to the tweeters, low frequency sounds are very hard for your ears to localize, therefore you have a lot more versatility in where you mount the sub in the vehicle, you will still get good performance.

ComQuest

[MENTION=45130]Rugger[/MENTION], Thanks. I like your description too. They way you word it made me laugh.

ComQuest

[MENTION=147288]dkevox[/MENTION] Thanks a bunch. Awesome explaination. Yes I already have the a-pillar tweeters in my truck. My truck did not come with the speakers under the rear seat, so I want some of them too. I absolutely love music, but as stated, I dont want it so loud that the person in the next vehicle is rumbling, like they do around here. I want better sound than the stock ones and a little kick to it at the same time.

LaBalaDePlata

iTrader: (3)

To anwser question, you can fit any speaker in the hole.. They make adapters for the circular speakers (which sound better as i was told)

Zixxer10r

In a very short explanation, if you look at the entire frequency scale of sound that a human can possibly hear, "warm" would describe a tendency to have a more bass and mid-bass focused sound, whereas "bright" would tend to focus more on the mid-high and high frequencies.

Rugger

Lets mess with it even more. Yes either size will fit in the holes in the doors. But, sound waves are like ripples on a pond. Have you ever seen an oval ripple on a pond. Round speakers will give a more accurate reproduction of sound.

Audiophiles will tell you that digital signals from CDs are not musical and don't accurately reproduce live performance like analog, non digital, signals do.