Anything to be gained by mixing brands of speakers?

Question

Car: '97, 4dr Geo Tracker, Head: JVC KDG430, Dash speakers: 4" Infinity Reference.

Is there any benefit to putting 6" Kicker, Polk, Oz Audio, Sony, etc. in the rear to replace the factory speakers? Is there a benefit to sticking with Infinity Reference for the rear?

An amp & sub are NOT options since I park on the street, and don't want to tempt thieves with the sight of a sub in my cargo space. So, the rear speakers are my chance to do something special.

I mainly listen to 70s funk, and Caribbean music. So, clean, rich bass is important. Throbbing bass isn't necessary. I actually have enough bass right now, but the rear speakers are struggling.

Answer 1

well the benefit to sticking with one brand is not all brands sound the same. some brands are more bass heavy, some brands are better with all around SQ, and some brands just flat out suck. it all depneds on what you like. personally i like Infinty, but there Kappa line is by far better then there referacne stuff. Infinity is a overall good SQ brand, with pretty good bass. if i were you i'd stick to Infintiy or one of these brands that will have about the same sound.

Boston Acoustics
Kenwood Excelon
Diamond Audio

these brands will give you great overall SQ which seems to be what your looking for.

brands i would avoid, is pretty much anything you can buy at Best Buy or Circut city. granded BB is probably where your Infinitys came from, but there is better stuff out there, like there Kappa line as i mentioned before.

good luck

Answer 2

Yes, it will benefit you to replace the rear speakers, and no, you don't have to stick with the same brand; there's no real advantage to doing so.

The best thing you can do for your bass response in the rear is to modify the mounting location. If you pull off your side panel to expose the speaker, you'll see they're mounted in metal side panel with a wide, gaping opening around the bottom edge.

https://secure.scosche-cars.com/scosche.images/go/gotra96/gotra96rspu02.jpg

If you want good bass from the rear speakers, you need to seal off that opening so the rear of the speaker is completely separate from the front. You can probably do it by cutting a thin sheet of MDF or plywood to the required size. I'd apply some damping material like Dynamat to the mounting area as well. Any energy that's used up in making the mounting surface vibrate isn't available to generate bass for you, and thin sheet steel like that will vibrate very easily.

Answer 3

yea. almost all of the time is it better to buy brand speakers over your factory speakers.. out of the brands u picked, go with kicker.