Speakers for JVC KD G320 in-dash receiver

[aithal303]

Hi folks,
First of all, this site came across as a huge surprise (and bonus) for its professionalism and sheer gamut of topics covered. Plaudits apart, I would be very obliged if one of the car audio gurus could advise me on the kind of speakers I have to go in for to get the best out of my JVC KD G320 MP3 player for my Wagon R. I am looking to fit only 2 good speakers (no fancy stuff like subs, etc). Would appreciate tips on fitment, speaker availability and pricing in Bangalore.

Cheers and keep up the good work!

[Sam Kapasi]

Hello aithal...

Thank you for the compliments, it has taken the time and effort of many people to get this part of team-BHP up to this level.

I would not advice only 2 speakers for you wagon R, not unless you are looking strictly at soft background music.

The reason for this is simple

1) The wagon R factory default size is merely 4", but in an excellent position

So if you put only front speakers, you will get good clear midrange and treble from the front, but little/no bass.

2) In the rear, though there is no factory provision, you can put a pair of 6" coaxials OR a 6X9 coaxial.
Though these will sound better than the 4" in the front (fuller), they will be far away from you, in the rear. And just a pair of these will not give you the right sound.

Ergo I suggest you go in for 2 pairs. 1 pair 4" coaxial speakers and a one pair 6" coaxial speakers.

Avoid JVC speakers, they don't sound too nice. It is always nice to buy speakers from a specialist brand (one that spcialzes in making speakers).
There are many good brands, take your pick. Expect to spend about 5000 to 6500 together on both the pairs for specialist speakers and between 3500 to 5000 on regular brands like pioneer etc.

[vid6639]

Aithal what Sam says is absolutely true. The best thing to do is go for 4 speakers.

The front ones are 4" and will be fairly inexpensive. You can go for JBL GTO427 coaxials costing Rs.2750.

For the rear you can opt for the JBL GTO937 6X9 oval coaxials costing Rs.4750.

The rears should be fitted in a box. If you dont want to lose any boot space at all you have the option of fitting it on the boot door although this is not advisable.

In bangalore a good place to get the fitting done is Anwar's Auto fusion in Koramangala. If you do opt for fitting on the bootlid get it done from him.

I have heard a WagonR with the same JVC HU and pioneer 4 way 6X9 speakers fitted on the boot lid done by Anwar. He had done so much sound dampening on the boot lid and it sounded pretty good. The drawback was a heavy bootlid which didnt open very easily. Again this is not advisable unless you dont want to sacrifice boot space.

Other than JBL speakers you can also see other brands like Hertz, Alpine at a higher budget.

[aithal303]

Thanks Sam,
I seem to be getting somewhere. A couple of questions...
1) If I have a budget of around 4k-5k for the speakers, can I get a specialist speaker brand like JBL or Blaupunkt? Are there any other names worth considering?
2) The JVC KDG 320 cost US$130 (inclusive of 8.5% tax in the US). Is it a good bargain being I pod ready and satellite radio ready (not sure if this is of any use here) and includes European tuning capability for radio. Also, this has a remote and multi color LCD display (compare to the KD G220)
3) For the front speakers, is padding necessary to damp vibrations?
4) Can you suggest the best fitment position for the rear speakers? Some people are recommending a plank behind the rear seat but this will disable the rear seat folding functionality.

Once again many thanks

[navin]

Originally Posted by aithal303

1) If I have a budget of around 4k-5k for the speakers, can I get a specialist speaker brand like JBL or Blaupunkt? Are there any other names worth considering?
3) For the front speakers, is padding necessary to damp vibrations?.

1. JBL makes a CS series which you can also consider. A pair of 4" and 6" coax from this range would cost you 6K (2 pairs). Blaupunkt also makes speakers in this price range listen to both.

3. damping will help but damping the Wagon R itself will cost you 4K

[esteem_lover]

@ sam, cant he just install components for the front & save some money ? he is looking for simple sound.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

@ sam, cant he just install components for the front..

He has a WagonR. The factory dash slot is for a 4" speaker. I think only one or two mfrs make a 4" component set. Kicker is one of them I think.

However i must add that the physical positioning of that 4" speaker is fantastic in that car and even a coaxial performs very well in that slot.

[angelfire]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

He has a WagonR. The factory dash slot is for a 4" speaker. I think only one or two mfrs make a 4" component set. Kicker is one of them I think.

However i must add that the physical positioning of that 4" speaker is fantastic in that car and even a coaxial performs very well in that slot.

Sam,....Think Kicker has stopped their 4" comps some time back...gto`s @2.7k wil be a good choice as vid6639 suggested i guess...

[Sam Kapasi]

Really? Kicker doesnt make 4" compos either now eh?

Then I guess all 4" users will have to stick to coaxials.

[navin]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Then I guess all 4" users will have to stick to coaxials.

All? Me too? :-)

[Sam Kapasi]

Nope. for those that haven't got the joke,

Navin would usually convert a coaxial speaker into a component speaker by dissecting the speaker, creating his own crossover and replacing the tweeter with a phase plug.

For those that haven't got that, here do this

[NIP]

ok....

navin...it would be great if you post a write-up on how to convert a coaxial to components as a DIY thing. sorry if you have already posted something like this on the forum...could you plz point me to it ?

[navin]

Well Sam the tweeters provided with many of these coaxials is their limiation besides if one does that one does not have atweeter grill (unless the car has a stock location for the tweeter).

I would rather salvage some tweeters from my "garbage" bin. Last time I looked I found a pair of Blaupunkt Velocity tweeters in there mated them to Vifa 12cm woofer used a friend's LMS to get readings and LSPCad to make the basic XO and my ears for fine tuning.

NIP, not all coxials are built the same. B&T and I have discussed this (on this forum) before but I am not computer literate enough to find these lnks. So it does depend from coaxial to coaxial. Unfortunately I do not spend as much time on ICE as I did 10-15 years ago and so much has changed since. Hence I am loathe to give advice that most likely is errornous or outdated.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by navin

Well Sam the tweeters provided with many of these coaxials is their limiation besides if one does that one does not have atweeter grill (unless the car has a stock location for the tweeter).

I would rather salvage some tweeters from my "garbage" bin. Last time I looked I found a pair of Blaupunkt Velocity tweeters in there mated them to Vifa 12cm woofer used a friend's LMS to get readings and LSPCad to make the basic XO and my ears for fine tuning.

Here's my bit!! Navin is there any way to explain this in the Queen's language or I don't wanna know?

[navin]

Rags,

a) if it is too much forget about it. I am a DIYer at heart and keep forgeting that not everyone can/will dedicate as much time and energy to DIY audio as I did. In my day many of the advances in Audio had it's origins in DIY.Today it is Sony and Bose and their big research budgets.

b) I find the tweeters provided with coaxials to be their achilies heel. I dont blame manufacturers but this is a fact I live with. The midbasses are often very manageable esp once a steeper (read as second order) LPF has been implmented. The tweeters however can be very difficult. Now since I have been around when I have to make a 4" component or other speaker I can usually salvage components from friend's, installer's, etc... and make a match.

LMS (written by Active X) and sold with LEAP is a Loudspeaker Measureing Software. A better one is MLSSA but I have not used that since 1993-4. One needs to have some basic measurements of drivers before one can start designing a crossover.

LspCAD is my favourite XO design software. There are many others too but I am used to Lsp and too old to learn anything newer.

Forgive me if I often digress into DIY. I am always hoping to turn the DIY lights on in someone.