[redflame]

I am trying to decide on which brand of rear desk speakers I should install to replace the factory speakers I have now. I have a 2008 GT with a shaker 500. I installed the Saleen sub-woofer unit with an additional 150 AMP in the trunk. All and all the Shaker 500 with the sub-woofer are good enough for me and I thought I would just make one more upgrade to the speakers in the rear deck.

I am looking at the Polk DB571 vs. the Infinity Kappa 682.9CF as my choices. Both seem to be very popular for use in our cars.

I was leaning towards the Infinity's but the one thing that I keep coming across is in reading reviews and talking with Crutchfield is that the Infinity Kappa speakers push a lot of the " highs " and the sound is very “ bright” and may be to much after awhile.

In my simple terms it appears they deliver much more treble over mid-level bass.

I listen to a lot of rock& roll and I like a good balance when I play it loud.

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

[gunz4me]

I would highly recommend that you replace your door speakers in lieu of your rear deck speakers. Those Mach plates included with the Shaker 500 in the front doors are a joke! Look on the bright side, you can always move them to the rear deck after you upgrade your door speakers

As for the Infinity Kappa review, it is spot on. Those MMD dome tweeters that Infinity uses can be quite harsh at times, but if you equalize them correctly, they can sound better!

[redflame]

gunz4me,

Your talking ablout the speaker on the top of the door, correct? If so, do yo know what size those are? I assume they are about 5 inch rounds? The speaker in the rer deck are junk as well, correct?

[hondahunter93]

get the polks, i have had both, the infinies were way to high and sounded terible at higher volume. the polks are an all around good speaker. but if you want the best get the eclipse speakers, my 6x8's sound like freakin subwoofers lol. o and i install mobile electronics for a living so i know what im talking about

[gunz4me]

Originally Posted by redflame

gunz4me,

Your talking ablout the speaker on the top of the door, correct? If so, do yo know what size those are? I assume they are about 5 inch rounds? The speaker in the rer deck are junk as well, correct?

Yes, I am talking about the upper speakers, not the subwoofers. Those speakers are actually plate speakers that fit in a 6x8 hole. You can squeeze a 5x7 in there but some 5x7s require that you create a foam gasket in order to have a complete seal whereas 6x8s will fit just fine!

Those factory Mach speakers in the doors are OK at best. That 6x8 plate contains a woofer (about 4") and a tweeter (about 3/4"), but it is still nowhere near as good as the Polk Audio speakers. If I were you, I would upgrade the door speakers, then take your existing door speakers and put them in the back deck!

Do you have plans to amplify them any time soon or will you pretty much stick with your stock radio and aftermarket speakers?

Here is an analogy as to why you do the front speakers over the rear. You don't go to a concert and turn your back to the stage do you? So why would you want all the high frequencies coming from behind your head in a car? It can sound good, but you lose your stereo separation and it generally sounds better to bring those high frequencies closer to your ears.

[nzero21]

I currently have the Kappas. I went throught the same thing. After reading up on all of the reviews I went ahead and finally purchased them. They are much better than the stock speakers but I can never get them equalized correctly. I am always finding myself adjusting the external amplifier and eq on the radio because the highs are just too harsh! You want to be able to listen to a full sound especially with rock. You want to listen to the bass guitar along with the drums and crisp electric guitar. Instead you will get a very harsh guitar and boomy bass guitar, while the rest gets washed out because of the strong highs and boomy lows but your full sound goes away. Another friend recommended me the polks as well. I am to a point where I might change out the kappas and switch out to the polks. Hope this has helped you and yes I am an expert in audio because I work for a high end audio company.

[Blue Notch]

I have Infinity Kappas in the rear of my '89, and they sound awesome! If you get them from crutchfield, you could always return them, and get the something else if you didn't like them.

[Storkdork]

I too like the Polks for their smooth sound. Personally I use MB Quart for mids and a set of Morel tweets but the Polks do a great job also. I just installed a set of Infinity Reference components in an Olds Aurora powered by an older MTX amplifier crossed over around 65hz. They sounded nice and crisp and no harshness.

[redflame]

Guy’s,

Lots of great feedback. It looks like we have fans of both Infinity and Polk and it comes down to personal preference. I do not favor too much from the highs so I went ahead and ordered and installed two pairs of the Polk DB571, 5x7 . Both in front door panels and rear deck. I still am using the Shaker 500 head unit, and the Ford door sub-woofers.

The only other mod I have made is I have installed the Saleen branded Rockford 12 inch punch sub-woofer enclosure customer fitted for the trunk. It has 175 watt amp built in and is smaller then the Shaker 1000 unit. It’s not very powerful for a 12 inch sub, but it does full in the lows and only needs a small amount of trunk space to do it.

Seems like this combo is just enough to give me great sound and a good amount of power and is not over done for the sound I was trying to get to.

I have to say the Crutchfield install directions were great. It did take some time, but everything went in fine.

For me, I am really pleased with the sound in the car now. The Polk’s are such an improvement of the Ford factory speakers, it like night and day.

Thanks again for all your feedback and enjoy your music. I know I will now !

[nzero21]

Wooohoooo! And the Polks take the Prize! LOL

[redflame]

Yep, from my view point , my Polk speakers are now installed 3 weeks and they sound great!

I would recomend these speakers to anyone looking for a noticable improvemnt over the stock speakers to a factory system at a very good price.

[Lee Yoder]

Hey all,
It seems as though the Polk and Infinity's are extremely popular. I myself want to go with JL Audio components in the rear deck and doors. Has anyone done a switch to JL Audio speakers and how do you like the sounds?

Thanks,

[TOXIC MX]

Originally Posted by hondahunter93

get the polks, i have had both, the infinies were way to high and sounded terible at higher volume. the polks are an all around good speaker. but if you want the best get the eclipse speakers, my 6x8's sound like freakin subwoofers lol. o and i install mobile electronics for a living so i know what im talking about

You install for a living, as in the business I am in.
I have never heard of an oval sound wave??? 6X8?? Always go with rounds for best quality and sound. You may have to modify the speaker mounting for a round but well worth it.

J L Audio gets my nod over both the Polk and Infinity's.

[Jaxbrad]

I have a shaker 500 and I bought the polk db571 5x7's today for the front doors and the back. The front speakers were installed today and they don't sound so good. I am getting alot of distortion, the factory speakers sounded almost better to me. Any suggestions?

[TOXIC MX]

A speaker only does what it is told to do. The distorsion is coming from the gains of the factory Shaker 500 amp. To really have a system that sounds better than stock, you will have to scrap the factory system. Then start from the beginning: good head unit, amp(s) and correct speaker ohms to match. Otherwise your just miss matching alot of good product by itself and bad if it is not working with what it is designed for.