looking to replace the speakers in an 05 toyota camry -- any suggestions as to where to go to get decent speakers and good service???
Try Creative Acoustics in Raleigh or Radio-Active in Garner. I know the installers and owners of both places and they are good at what they do. Craig
Are you talking about true high fidelity, or do you want a boom boom box to make quarters bounce on your hood? If it's the former, is the factory unit that lacking? I once put very expensive Polk Audio speakers in an '88 Cadillac Brougham, and they didn't really sound any better than the factory speakers. Those factory speakers from that '88 are now in my '79 Coupe de Ville. That car originally had an AM/FM 8-track, which I still keep with the car. Since Cadillac used the same dash for so many years, I dropped in the '88 speakers without any mods, and dropped in a mid-80s Delco Symphony Sound AM/FM cassette unit I pulled from a junk yard and had reconditioned by United Radio in Albany, NY. Plugged right into the existing wiring connectors, and it's a GREAT system. Delco made some great systems then, before the Delco/Bose crap that sounds like people singing into coffee cans. Anyway, the point is that a little homework might save significant dollars and give you a superior system.
As anyone that is into auto audio systems or audio systems in general for that matter will tell you that it isn't always the speaker but how it integrates into the enitre system. As is often the case in what is called a deck and 4 install, the factory radio is removed and replaced with a higher quality/power output unit. The factory speakers are then removed and new higher quality speakers are put into the factory spots. As is often the case the factory radio does not have enough built in power to drive a conventional set of speakers, which is often why you will find "factory" speakers with either an amplifier attached directly to the speaker or you will have an external amp usually located under one of the seats to power the speakers. Often times if you just replace the factory speakers they will be of a different ohm load rating than the speakers you are using to replace them with. Different ohm load ratings will effect how amps either built into the radio or external will produce power. If you happen to replace factory speakers with a set from wally world you are more than likely replacing either 16 or 8 ohm speakers with 4 ohm speakers. And amplifier will produce more power with the lower ohm load and thus it is usually easier to get a distorted sound out of or a distorted signal into the speakers, which more often than note will make an all factory system sounds just as good as a factory headunit with aftermarket speakers. For the same reason above a replacement deck will not sound as good with a factory set of speakers as aftermarket headunits are designed to produce their power into a 4 ohm load and as previously noted most factory speaker systems are either 16 ohm or 8 ohms, thus they do not receive enough power from the aftermarket headunit. If you really want to talk audiophile reproduction you need to call Jay Lovelace at Creative Acoustics as he has won several World Championship titles in Sound Quality and Installation(using a 1967 Mustang of all things), as well as being a World Champion several times in SPL (Sound Pressure Level) competition. For more info about what it takes to become a World class competitor or champion check out the following sites: http://www.iasca.com/ IASCA offers both Sound Quality as well as SPL competition. http://www.termpro.com/dbdrag/ DB Drag Racing offers SPL style competition in a head to head drag racing format. Where 2 competitors with like sound systems have 30 seconds to achieve the highest SPL they can. Craig
