Looking for 6x8 speaker suggestions

Also, if they're old enough PowerBass speakers, they're like rebranded Chinese Alibaba crap. PowerBass made a few aquisitions over the years that got them better quality stuff, but they've never been and never will be a "good" brand to go to for the best sound quality.
This may be the case. It's my first and last time trying them.
 
Audio is very subjective, so if possible, I would suggest you go to a car audio retailer that carries multiple brands/lines and have a listen.

Personally, I have always found Infinity Reference series to have a balanced sound, and didn't have any fail on me in the several vehicles in which I've had them installed. I might just be convincing myself of this, but textile/"silk dome" tweeters sound smooth and pleasant to me, whereas "titanium"-type tweeters sound harsh. The latter aren't bad if you're into stuff like EDM where you really want sharp highs, but I don't like them for vocals.

I put 6x9 and 6.5 Reference in my Buick and they do take some time to break in but they sound really good even with the stock head unit.

Not sure this one at Amazon is the same although they appear to be but half the price. I purchased mine thru Amazon.

 
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I do plan on adding a sub. The car came with a factory sub, but the previous owner removed it. I found an aftermarket sub box that fits in the stock location that I will eventually add, but I'm not in a rush at the moment to do so. It may be 6 months to year for that. I want to add it, but it's not a high priority (if that makes sense).

As for what type of sound...........I will try to describe as best as I can. I do love bass. Not nasty aimless bass, but clean bass that fills a car up with sound. Add a nice sparkling high to that that isn't harsh and that will get my attention. I have been kicking around the idea of shelling out the $$$ for Infinity Kappa and your description has gotten my attention. Just wondering if the receiver/amp setup has enough juice to push them. I have not done the research.
Most the jbl/infinity kappa line are 2-3ohm high sensitivity with that said they should get plenty loud with head unit amplification
 
I've been through this before, with all of my Ford trucks. I've not found a 6x8 that can outperform the OEM speakers with regard to "fullness". That's my arbitrary and completely subjective opinion on the quality of the lower and mid bass region. Possibly the best way to describe it is that lower register of male voices sound normal and right on the OEM speakers. Additionally, drums and bass guitar sound "right" not "missing" on the Ford speakers.

This is not really a surprise to anyone who looks at the drivers objectively. They are paper cone drivers (which tend to give a pleasing sound) , with adequate cone area, (unlike the aftermarket 5x7's that fit the 6x8 hole) sufficient cone travel and an adequate motor structure.

The problem comes in as the frequencies rise. As the Ford 6x8 simply can't reproduce the mids and highs all that well. They tend to sound muddy due to this.

Suggestion:

Try using the OEM speakers with a crossover, find some external tweeters that can reach down to 1000 HZ. Mount those tweeters where they sound best to you. I like 'em on the door above the OEM speakers, angled towards the driver.

Use a sub and find it's proper crossover point for your vehicle. Start with 80HZ.

I guess the best way to describe such as system, is that it's cheap and sounds pretty good.
 
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I've been through this before, with all of my Ford trucks. I've not found a 6x8 that can outperform the OEM speakers with regard to "fullness". That's my arbitrary and completely subjective opinion on the quality of the lower and mid bass region. Possibly the best way to describe it is that lower register of male voices sound normal and right on the OEM speakers. Additionally, drums and bass guitar sound "right" not "missing" on the Ford speakers.

This is not really a surprise to anyone who looks at the drivers objectively. They are paper cone drivers (which tend to give a pleasing sound) , with adequate cone area, (unlike the aftermarket 5x7's that fit the 6x8 hole) sufficient cone travel and an adequate motor structure.

The problem comes in as the frequencies rise. As the Ford 6x8 simply can't reproduce the mids and highs all that well. They tend to sound muddy due to this.

Suggestion:

Try using the OEM speakers with a crossover, find some external tweeters that can reach down to 1000 HZ. Mount those tweeters where they sound best to you. I like 'em on the door above the OEM speakers, angled towards the driver.

Use a sub and find it's proper crossover point for your vehicle. Start with 80HZ.

I guess the best way to describe such as system, is that it's cheap and sounds pretty good.
i'm not knocking oval speakers traditionally round speakers just have a better timbre. factory shelf deck mounted 6x9s will definitely produce decent bass after that they fall flat on their face. some of the premium delco or bose systems had tweeters mounted on a seperate bracket sitting over the 6x9... not a whizzer cone an actual tweeter with a cap.
 
I put 6x9 Pioneer TS-A6960 4-way speakers in my Ram. The truck only has two speakers. Very pleased with these. Good full range with the 4 way setup, and nice highs without being tinny or sharp/harsh.

6x8 is an odd size, but I’d look into what in their ts-a series might fit, there’s a whole range.
 
PowerBass? probably garbage. break them in with a hammer to improve them. just my opinion, of course.
How good do you want the sound? and what is your budget? alot of speakers that have good high end lack in bass response - and really beg to have a subwoofer. no, I'm not talking about rattling the whole car, but good, decent bass. I have Alpine's in a few cars, but they generally need a sub to fill in the low end. I did just put some Pioneer "D" series 6x8's in an Escape, and they were impressive - much better bass than most 6x8's that I have heard.
 
PowerBass? probably garbage. break them in with a hammer to improve them. just my opinion, of course.
How good do you want the sound? and what is your budget? alot of speakers that have good high end lack in bass response - and really beg to have a subwoofer. no, I'm not talking about rattling the whole car, but good, decent bass. I have Alpine's in a few cars, but they generally need a sub to fill in the low end. I did just put some Pioneer "D" series 6x8's in an Escape, and they were impressive - much better bass than most 6x8's that I have heard.
Lol, I can confirm. They are.
 
I've had Pioneers in the Ranger for years and like them. I had Alpines in it and those blew within a year. I found the 6x8 Pioneers at Walmart, but that was 10 years ago.
 
With this being said, I had a new set of a set of 2XL-683 speakers (6x8) by PowerBass in storage that I bought a few years ago but never installed. I

With this being said, what are some good 6x8 options to look into?

Kicker, Pioneer, JVC or some other well known company speakers (not BOSS or DUAL) should work better then those off brand speakers.
 
I find that you can get a lot of bang for the buck with most pioneer speakers, and at least back in the day they mated very well with their own head units, though I would have expected brand-matching not to be a thing. Problem is, the focus probably has a pillar tweets, so adding a pioneer with tweets to existing pillar tweets is a lot of tweets. So really, if you do have factory tweets in the pillars, you’d need to disconnect those or disable (preferably via low-pass filter) the new 6x8s.

or put in full separates, with the xover mounted where it would serve both door units and pillar units. The problem is, so many of the component separates Ive used are seriously harsh with 3-6 dB needing to be dropped out of the tweeters. Ive had to build compensating networks to get it right, and some HUs now provide a decent approximation to do the same by guessing the x-over frequency and then shelving down everything above that. If this is sounding complicated, yes.

with Ford factory, one of the best things I’ve found is to stick the oem woofer back in, and pull the pillars off, and cut the extra plastic guard (cage) off the front of the dome of the tweeter. it’s a small diffference, but it’s a nice difference.

beyond that, however, Cujet nailed it up above, nailed it to the wall. the oems get a surprisingly good sound out of cheaper components because they optimize the design to work well, with the math up front, allowing them to use cheaper components designed (tuned) to work well together. We can buy “better” stuff, but we then have to go through a ton of re-optimization (tuning) to get it to all line up.
 
Asking an internet forum about speakers is almost always going to result in nothing but 20 different recommendations from 20 different people referencing 5 different brands. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's like buying shoes online without trying them on. A particular pair may fit one person perfectly, and be painful for the next.

That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if the speakers you installed need a little time to break in. Sure, they aren't top of the line, but they should sound better than the OEM stuff. There's no way that a factory 6x8 with a whizzer cone for "high frequency" reproduction should sound better than even a cheap aftermarket speaker.

I installed some cheap CT Sounds 6x9's in my previous Grand Cherokee and initially I was disappointed by the sound. Tight, dry, lacking in low end. This Jeep did not have the Infinity stereo and the speakers were being driven directly from the cheap wish.com 7" flip out radio I picked up. However, after a couple weeks, they really opened up. Bass level was on par with the OE speakers, but better defined and much more dynamic. Being a 2 way, the highs were obviously more clear and open.

Since you've already installed the HU and the 445u, maybe this would be an idea: get 6x8 to 6.5" adaptors for the front and install a component set. Then, throw the Powerbass speakers in the rear to fill in the mid-low end. Since you plan on installing a sub, you don't need a ton of low-end output from the main speakers. A good set of 6.5" mids with a sound deadened door should sound equally as good at a 6x8 co-axial.
 
So what did we get?
Stock speakers for now.

A thought in the back of my mind is to use the suggestion from earlier in the thread and connect these new speakers that I hate to a home receiver and give them 100-200 hours of time to break in and try them again. Not sure if it would help, but that's a thought floating in mind. I found some 6x8 speaker boxes that I would mount the speakers in to break them in. Since I own a few Fords, it wouldn't be a complete waste.

I don't think they will sound much better, but I figure it's worth a try until I land on a final brand.
 
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