Rear speakers...what a joke!

[Bicho6]

like people to be educated on what they are talking about. [/B]

I believe this is a forum where people ask questions, not a forum for debate. Many people here such as I, are here because we want to learn about our cars and hear other people

[adrew]

Come on, just admit that the factory speakers are some of the crappiest you've ever seen. Even if they had a poly cone, rubber surround and a tweeter, they'd still sound terrible due to the tiny magnet and voice coil and flexible plastic basket.

Plastic baskets work fine if they're nice and thick, and braced properly like the Infinity Kappas have. I know--I had some in my old car and they were great. The Kappa's magnet is pretty small compared to most high-end speakers. But, generally speaking, high-quality speakers have bigger magnets to house their heavy-duty voice coils and provice high power handling. There's a reason that some high-end 15" subs weigh upward of 50 lbs, you know--and easily handle over 1000 watts, too.

Pretty much everyone agrees that the Infinity Perfect 6.1 compenent system is a great pair of speakers. Look how big the magnet is on them...and how about that heavy cast aluminum basket?

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. But it's pretty easy to tell the general quality of a speaker by looking at how it's built. Like you said, just because it has a plastic basket doesn't automatically mean it's crap. It's just when you see poor examples of technology, like the flimsy plastic basket on our speakers, or the tiny magnet (strontium) that you wonder why they'd even waste the money to make these things.

[dtexan]

Also when you have a larger magnet the speaker will require more power to move it. But when you have a smaller magnet with a matched amplifier then you can still have great sound. Honda just designed a speaker for the stock decks low power outputs.

[02sicivic]

I also upgraded my stereo in my si for a demo vechile for my business. What I hated about the factory system is that if your windows where down and you where driving on a highway and the stereo was all the way up, you could hardly hear the music. The cd player also skipped alot when I hit bumps or when I would power shift.

[benmunger]

Hey, those speakers sound awesome for the amount they weigh..... Just think, there are guys out there removing there rear wipers. And we are complaining that our speakers don

[Vivid-Cruz]

Originally posted by benmunger
Hey, those speakers sound awesome for the amount they weigh..... Just think, there are guys out there removing there rear wipers. And we are complaining that our speakers don?t weigh a lot. This is honda?s way of getting great sound from something that weighs as much as a cell phone.

Now I understand that some of us, like quality sound and don?t mind the extra weight. That?s fine. I just wanted everyone to understand the reason for the small (efficient), plastic (efficient) speakers.


Thumbs up for Honda in efficiency

are you kidding me?? efficiency and light weight is the last thing a car company is going to think about when installing 6.5" speakers.. Honda decided it would be in their best interests to invest money in other things than our rear speakers. Im sure they took into consideration that most people who buy honda si's are going to upgrade the stereo anyways.

[BarracksSi]

Originally posted by mister_honda
...The factory speakers have small magnets for a reason. A typical speaker (with a big magnet) has a magnet made out of iron (strontium ferrite to be exact). The material used on those and many high-endhigh-end speakers use a material called neodymium, which is approximately 10 times stronger than the iron-based magnets, meaning they can be smaller and still be effective.....

To whomever said that we need a degree in magnet chemistry, this explanation is NOT difficult to understand. It's a stronger magnet material, so a smaller amount can be used, keeping the weight down and allowing for better cooling.

It's not a debate, either -- it's an answer. A neodymium magnet doesn't require the support of a cast basket (magnet weight is the main reason speakers with heavy magnets have heavy frames). Plastic baskets can be made cheaply and still be stiff enough to contain the speaker's movements, and even absorb resonances that metal baskets might enhance (ever hear plastic go *dinnnng*?). The lighter speaker also won't pull on the mounting points as much.

Again, the worst parts of the stock speakers are the cone design and lack of a tweeter. There are several aftermarket speakers from respected brands with small neodymium magnets and plastic baskets, anyway.

A speaker builder can dig up another 30 pounds of ferrite magnet for an extra 30 bucks and charge 150 bucks more because they claim "it handles power better".

[Bicho6]

if the speakers were made with some sort of special magnet or whatever, why is honda trying to keep it a secret. For most cars on honda.com, there is a link on the homepage for audio under the heading of interior. SI has no such link. I would think that if you have some amazing speaker that with a tiny magnet produces amazing sound they would advertise it. Someone send Honda an email, they need to fire their marketing firm. Forget about the Bose system or Alpine audio. They are not talking about our wonderful speakers with tiny magnets :-p

It seems that some people are really really really in love with their EP.

[BarracksSi]

I'm not saying that the rear speakers were any good -- I'm saying that they're being derided for the wrong reasons.

So what if the magnets don't weight fifteen pounds? They've got problems, but those problems aren't because of the magnet size or the plastic basket.