urgent | need help choosing new splits ; opinion on LANZAR gear?

[OVR444]

New Speakers : Focal's

Hey guys;

I'm looking to get some new 6.5" splits today; keen on anyone's experience or opinion on LANZAR gear?

I listen to all types of music; and am currently running kicker k6.2's; but the tweeters are less then steller.

I am looking at these:

Lanzar Opti6.1 6.5" Component Speakers

[SPECS:]
One Pair Aluminum Cone Mids:
6.5'' Midrange Driver
Aluminum Alloy Cone
Butyl Rubber Surround
200 Watts RMS/ 400 Watts Peak
Frequency Response: 55-6KHz
Impedance: 4 Ohms One Pair Plastic Casing Tweeters:
1'' Silk Dome Tweeter
Neodymium Magnet
3 Mounting Options:
Flush/Swivel/Surface/Angle Mount
Frequency Response: 1.4-24KHz
Impedance: 4 Ohms
One Pair Passive Crossover Network:
Two - Way passive Crossovers
12dB Octave Slope
Gold Plated Connectors
Fully-Protected Circuitry
Included Accessories:
Custom Grills
Mounting Hardware
Wiring Kit
Wiring Diagram Template



I have been offered $250.00 pickup. Just curious as to sound quality / also I noticed the mid range woofer's basket looks fairly deep; wondering how that would go in the doors.

looking to spend around or under $350.00. Any other suggestions including links?

Thanks

 

[drez]

Back when I used to play around with car audio, Lanzar was one of my choice.
Everyone will have different taste on music and sound.
Here is my thought anyway:
Sound quality is good, good in terms of its has high clarity NOT high quality
The tweeters and speakers on split system, will really gives you that treeble you wanted, its very high pitch and clear.
The subwoofer itself gives you very bassy but not too solid sound, which what i like.

So lanzar when it comes to sound quality, probably i'll put it on 6/10 mark.
But for sound clarity, i give 8/10

 

[OVR444]

Thanks for your input dre;
I ended up spending most of the day shooting around from audio shop to audio shop and picked myself up some Focal 165KR at a VERY nice price including x2 slabs of dynamat.

Focal specs:
165mm (6.5") woofer
K2 composite sandwich cone
Zamac non-magnetic solid metal chassis
Butyl rubber surround
Engraved serial number
new TNK kevlar-cone tweeter, inverted dome principle
Max. power handling: 160W.
Nominal, power handling: 80W RMS
4 ohm impedance
Sensitivity (2.83 V/1m): 91dB.
Frequency response: 60Hz-20kHz.
grilles included


Mods: please lock this thread.

 

[JediRuss]

I have a set of Focal 165 A1s running off a Pioneer GM-3200T in my Verada.

I have always been a fan of Focal. You won't be disappointed.

 

[Tom]

I have also heard many good things about Focal speakers When I get around to upgrading my system that bit more, I might lean towards them.. Although the speakers in my car now seem to be pretty clean for stock!

 

[cyber_scriber]

The doors in our cars have pretty good depth clearance.

If for some reason you have massively deep speaker magnets, this can be dealt with by way of an MDF spacer.

The Focals are not bad. I've heard the Utopia series and they impressed me.

Having said that, if you like a revealing, warm and incredibly detailed speaker, Dynaudio is hard to beat.

Make sure you use the Dynamat on the front doors, including both the inner and outer door skins. Dynamatting the doors will give you the most benefit from an audio perspective, as compared to dynamatting any other part of your car.

 

[montgomery]

The Utopia range really need to be powered properly and set up by someone who knows proper sq for them to sound good.

i had a set of 165v2's , very very nice speakers , although just lack slightly to the k2's

Price is reasonable on them though.

 

[cyber_scriber]

Here are a few pics of how to properly Dynamat your doors.

To ensure excellent midrange response, note:

a) how the midrange speaker is mounted onto an MDF baffle for strength;

b) that the entire door is sealed; and

c) that behind the midrange speaker is an absorption product, which is good for absorbing reflective waves from the speaker. This product is commonly known as DynaZorb or Focal Plain Chant.

 

[OVR444]

I definately did dynamat the inside and outer skin; however not quite as prescise/mad as you bruce

I have one in all wired up; so far sounds AMAZING ... so tomorrow mornining; early start to finish the drivers door; and then move my old kicker K6.2's to the rear doors.

At the end it was a toss up between the Focals and the Alpine DDLiniear ... The alpine sounded fantastic down low to mid volume; but lacked power when getting up into the louder ranges; the focal was better in high end and a little quieter in low. All up; for the price I think they were a steal including the dynamat.
I compared a few types of speakers today before making my decision;
JL Audio/MB Quart/Eclipse/Kicker... All in all I was quite surprised how good the Alpine DD's sounded; especially when comparing to Type R's in the same board.
The focals seemed to have more life in mid range; the vocals and instruments just seemed to come alive alot more.

----
Installing the Focals was easy too; they fit in the standard mounting area with perfect clearance; only hitch is having to drill custom holes into the plastic mould.
With the tweeters; I ended up removing the driver from the mounting case and using some good 3M double sided tape to hold them onto the factory angle brackets, wrapping the speaker wire through the brackets cable management area; under the plastic covers in the corner of the door cards.
I was quite impressed with the result; all in all you still cannot tell there is aftermarket speakers installed. IMO the best way to do an install.

 

[cyber_scriber]

I think that's the most important thing, Brett. Irrespective of what brand of speaker you use, what amp you use to power it, how it's installed etc, the most important thing is that you find the sound amazing - the harshest critic will be the person who drives the car!

>only hitch is having to drill custom holes into the plastic mould.

A little trick for next time to avoid drilling into factory pieces or metal. Make an MDF spacer and screw that into the factory screw holes in the plastic mould. Then, drill the necessary speaker securing holes in the MDF spacer to your heart's content. This also provides the mid range speaker with a good, solid base to work from.

How much power are you feeding the Focals? I'm thinking they could use at least 50 watts rms of clean power to really get them singing. I'm running over 200rms x 2 to my front stage and my speakers love it!

How do you find the imaging and staging with the tweeters mounted there? What I like to do is to use some Blue Tac to temporarily move the tweeter around the cabin and see which location gives the best imaging and staging. In my Galant, I found that the A pillar sails (where the factory tweeters are) were not an ideal location for the tweeters.

When installing your splits, I hope you didn't put the cross over in the door ...

 

[bradc]

What is wrong with putting the crossover in the door?

 

[Guest]

I think every stereo install I've ever seen IRL has had the x-over in the door...

 

[OVR444]

Cheers for your tips; I did this in my old car; however decided to just drill into the plastic mould this time for the sake of being lazy.


Q: How much power are you feeding the Focals?

A: They are powered by a Kicker KX 200.2; so roughly 100W rms per channel; however I only have the gain VERY low currently until I spend some time tuning the new speakers to my preference.

The speakers are rated at:
Max. power handling: 160W.
Nominal, power handling: 80W RMS

So I can safely say I won't run out of power and the amp is nicely matched to them.


Q:How do you find the imaging and staging with the tweeters mounted there?

A: I agree; I feel there could be a better location for them; personally mounted in the sails they seem to pitchy or a little 'too' dynamic; I would like to find a better location for them to bring the sound back to a more pure form and perhaps push staging further forward. I have quickly double-side taped them to a few other places which seemed to improve the sound (e.g. back in the side door cards, and down in the kick panels. However I wasn't really convinienced it was worth drilling holes for; so I just went for the standard mount points.


Q:When installing your splits, I hope you didn't put the cross over in the
door ...

A: Negative; I have mounted them securely under the drivers seat; so they get good ventilation and also makes it easier when im tuning to adjust the tweeter's bracker bar for the 3 stage steps. (i.e. -3db 0db +3db)


All in all; I'm pretty happy with them; they certainly are worth every cent. I too am now a converted focal fan boy.

 

[cyber_scriber]

What is wrong with putting the crossover in the door?

The cavity between the inner and outer door skin is generally not weather proof. This is why a lot of cars have drainage holes at the bottom of the door sill to allow excess water out.

The crossover is a sensitive electrical component. The last thing you want is to have water getting into the circuit boards or terminals and corroding the components.

If the crossover must go in the doors, ensure that the door is sealed and that the crossover is protected by a waterproof piece of sheeting.

In fact, many component speaker manufacturers specifically recommend that you do not mount the crossover in the doors.

Under the dash would be a better mounting point in my opinion.

I'm from the car audio school of "do it once, do it right". There's nothing worse than having to take a car apart to find an electrical gremlin that could have been avoided with proper / better installation in the first place!

 

[cyber_scriber]

They are powered by a Kicker KX 200.2; so roughly 100W rms per channel; however I only have the gain VERY low currently until I spend some time tuning the new speakers to my preference.

100rms will get those Focals going!

It's a common misconception that the amp power cannot be greater than the speaker's rated power. More power gives you more head room and the ability to run lower gains. Obvious benefits are lower distortion and less chance of system noise. In fact, for a speaker rated at 50rms, I'd prefer to have an amp that does 150rms and have the gains very low, rather than an amp that does 50rms.

You often find that having not enough power is more of a problem. For example, you have a subwoofer rated at 500rms and you drive it with an amp rated at 300rms. You find that the response is not loud or good enough so you end up turning up the gains, bass boost, and / or the sub level. The sub then gets a clipped signal and fries its voice coil ...

I agree; I feel there could be a better location for them; personally mounted in the sails they seem to pitchy or a little 'too' dynamic; I would like to find a better location for them to bring the sound back to a more pure form and perhaps push staging further forward. I have quickly double-side taped them to a few other places which seemed to improve the sound (e.g. back in the side door cards, and down in the kick panels. However I wasn't really convinienced it was worth drilling holes for; so I just went for the standard mount points.

I had the same experience. With the tweeters in the factory A pillar sails, the sound was a bit bright. I think this is because that location means that the tweeter takes the shortest sound travel path to your ears. Sure, you could paper this over with some time alignment, but I prefer to set it up properly and only use time alignment as a last resort. I also like to follow the general rule of keeping the tweeter within a handspan of the midrange speaker.

I found that placing the tweeters in the kick panels gives a good result in terms of sound performance, imaging, staging and ease of installation.

I have mounted them securely under the drivers seat; so they get good ventilation and also makes it easier when im tuning to adjust the tweeter's bracker bar for the 3 stage steps. (i.e. -3db 0db +3db)

Good work and good to see that you've mounted them in a place that's not in the doors. With the Focal sound, I think you may find that the tweeter attenuation will work better at 0db or -3db, particularly given where you have mounted the tweeter. Of course, it will come down to personal preference. When I previously used a set of Boston Pro's with a metallic tweeter, even -3db seemed too bright!

 

[mookers]

Do you guys spend lots of time sitting and listening to your car stereos with the engine off and the car parked?

The reason I ask is because (in my opinion) unless you have an uber quiet luxury car, there will be enough road noise / wind noise / engine noise / whingeing and fighting from the back seat noise (oh wait that's just those of us with kids)... that the painstakingly arranged soundstage experience will be effectively lost.

When I was a student with no family I actually did often listen to CDs in my parked car, because I had more free time to just listen and enjoy music and it sounded better than my home stereo. But nowadays, it would be a complete waste of time for me to be so fastidious about my setup. I did put a subwoofer in and replace the stock head unit and speakers, but I didn't go anywhere near high-end components or worry about the dynamics of my sub enclosure. "Sounds good enough" is good enough for me these days!

 

[OVR444]

Do you guys spend lots of time sitting and listening to your car stereos with the engine off and the car parked?

The reason I ask is because (in my opinion) unless you have an uber quiet luxury car, there will be enough road noise / wind noise / engine noise / whingeing and fighting from the back seat noise (oh wait that's just those of us with kids)... that the painstakingly arranged soundstage experience will be effectively lost.

When I was a student with no family I actually did often listen to CDs in my parked car, because I had more free time to just listen and enjoy music and it sounded better than my home stereo. But nowadays, it would be a complete waste of time for me to be so fastidious about my setup. I did put a subwoofer in and replace the stock head unit and speakers, but I didn't go anywhere near high-end components or worry about the dynamics of my sub enclosure. "Sounds good enough" is good enough for me these days!

I am by no means a audiophile; but I do have a enormous appreciation for quality sound; this is why when I'm driving over 1.5hrs to and from work of a day; there is alot of time to sit and enjoy/cringe at the sound quality.

My previous speakers were still 100% working; however the tweeters did suffer degration from when they were in my mrs car (she used to love VERY load music, even if its distorting.. this is something i quickly changed )

So I decided to get a new set; the old set will be going into my rear doors now as background fill; but at the end of the day, I don't sit in my car for hours just to ensure I have the best tune possible.

 

[cyber_scriber]

Do you guys spend lots of time sitting and listening to your car stereos with the engine off and the car parked?

The reason I ask is because (in my opinion) unless you have an uber quiet luxury car, there will be enough road noise / wind noise / engine noise / whingeing and fighting from the back seat noise (oh wait that's just those of us with kids)... that the painstakingly arranged soundstage experience will be effectively lost.

When I was a student with no family I actually did often listen to CDs in my parked car, because I had more free time to just listen and enjoy music and it sounded better than my home stereo. But nowadays, it would be a complete waste of time for me to be so fastidious about my setup. I did put a subwoofer in and replace the stock head unit and speakers, but I didn't go anywhere near high-end components or worry about the dynamics of my sub enclosure. "Sounds good enough" is good enough for me these days!

Hey Derek.

You would be surprised at what some strategically placed sound deadening can do. With the front doors fully deadened and perhaps the boot and wheel arches as well, you can dramatically cut down on exterior noise.

For example, in my car, I cannot hear or feel the engine at idle and there is very little noise intrusion into the cabin until over 3,500rpm - meaning that the cabin is very quiet for the majority of driving conditions and certainly whilst cruising or coasting.

By way of another example, on my previous car (S15), I stripped the interior and undertook some substantial sound deadening. The end result was amazing - the cabin felt and sounded like the interior of a high end luxury car and the doors closed with the heavy thud of a bank vault. Even at 200sx meets, other owners who sat in my car whilst on the move were amazed at how quiet and refined it was.

As you've alluded to, a quiet and sound deadened cabin means your stereo doesn't have to work as hard, meaning you need less volume and power to drive it. As an added bonus, it's also a great platform to achieve good imaging and staging.

After all my rambling, the short answer is "no, I don't spend a lot of time listening to the stereo with the engine off and the car parked because I can already achieve that environment with the engine on and the car moving "

 

[mookers]

For example, in my car, I cannot hear or feel the engine at idle

Wait till your lifters start ticking lol

Anyway I suspected that you'd done the whole sound-deadening thing. It wouldn't be worth putting so much effort into the stereo without it!

 

[Guest]

LIFTERS ARE MY WORST NIGHTMARE! ARGH! LOLOL.