Kenwood Excelon vs. Eclipse 3-ways

[bunner bob]

Well it turns out the p.o. put Eclipse 3-ways in my '00. Things sounded very honky and bad until I figured out how to work the bass & treble on the Alpine deck he also installed. Now it sounds pretty full but still a fair bit of midrange honk on vocals, piano & such.

Went by a hifi place (good installers, very experienced) and they said they can put Kenwood Excelon 2-ways (I think KFC-X16 in instead. They thought the 3-ways were overkill for a 6-1/2" speaker. Listening between the two, I thought the Kenwoods had much less honk, more shimmer, seemed better overall. Not night and day, mind, but better enough to be worth dropping $150 or so.

They may have to do a little modding to fit them in, but seemed confident about doing it. I would do what I could to make sure they kept things watertight where necessary.

Any thoughts on the matter? Experiences with Kenwoods?

- Bob

[stevo12886]

Bob,
I dont know if you are like me in the audiophile department, but component speakers are probably the way to go. (Polk, JBL, and Kenwood all have systems that fit the Insight for under $200) You might also look at the Infinity Refrence low profile speakers...good sound. Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Steven

[bunner bob]

Thanks - I'll look into the options!

[Arsenic1250]

you want some pioneers, alpines, or adiobahns they sound a lot better

[Tim Maddux]

I have a pair of Kenwood KFC-XR601's and they are very nice. They're driven by the Eclipse amp under my passenger seat which also drives my shoebox subwoofer.

Fit into the door was perfect, easier than either the OEM or the Eclipse 6.5"ers I had because of the smaller neodymium magnets. I had to do a lot of extra sawing at the OEM speaker covers to fit the new Kenwoods.

[snowboardsteez]

I've had Kenwoods in most of my cars. I highly recommend them, Polk Momo's are also good.

[kapps]

Infinity Kappa's are also great sounding speakers. You will have to build a spacer in order to get their large magnets to fit (or you could just cut about 1/2" of plastic/metal out of the door panel).

[bunner bob]

I guess I'll have to break down and get the shoebox subwoofer - plus mount an amp under the seat. I figure with my Alpine head unit I won't need any more power for the front speakers - have to check specs again and compare with the shoebox guy's recommendation.

Those Eclipses are honk city though. I even dialed up the un-honkiest sounding EQ on my iPod - better but still not very nice.

- Bob