Grand Component Jamboree

Welcome to a monster group test! In response to TA Forum traffic, we present 6.5 inch two-ways.
In these times of commoditisation of the 12V industry (now there’s a word – I think I mean the process of a luxury product turning into a mere commodity to haggle over) it has proved harder to find the really sexy two-way component speaker systems on open demo in dealers across the land. While the Talk Audio readership is as focussed and hardcore an enthusiast group as exists, we are spread out. So it is still costly for a shop to render a piece of posh product to the realms of ‘B’ stock or stock that isn’t box-fresh and so has to be sold eventually at less than full price. We have had numerous posts requesting that we look at the £200 to £300 price bracket. However, never one to do things by halves and as greedy as my capacious belly signifies, I wanted to really chow down.
What about the nutter product that is so well made it punches way above it’s price point? What about stuff that comes in a shiny metal case, has Carbon fibre inlaid grilles and costs a fat Grand? (JBL 660GTi) What about the exotics like Atomic and SPL Dynamics? What about the ‘I’ve never heard of them’ things like the PowerBass 3XL-6C?
It’s like my Favourite Joke Of All Time.
‘Two bulls in a field. A young one and a mature one. The young one gambols up to the wrinkled, cud-chewing bull and says, ‘Hey, I saw the farmer going off to market. How about we run down the field, jump over the fence, sprint across the field and bonk a few Friesians before he comes back?’ The old one says, ‘No son. Walk down, step through the gap. Shag ’em all.’
So, it might have taken a wee while and it isn’t strictly a shoot-out rather than a wide comparator to see how good each product is of its type, but here is the biggest group test I’ve ever done in one lump. There were a couple of three-month ten-at-a-time things I did in the tuning and styling mags but this will make that look like finger painting as each product gets the space and depth of probe (!) that can’t be done in mainstream publishing. The Joy of the Web.
I sincerely hope you find something useful in this lot, even if it merely adds to the agony of what to get because now you know about a whole bunch more speakers than you did before! It was a task but I loved it!

Click Here For All 20 Tests

Welcome to the after party. The conclusion to my huge twenty-strong 6.5 inch component loudspeaker test for Talk Audio. What a trip! My first really big group for Talk Audio and done to a depth of probe far more intense than I have ever been able to do. I’ll admit it has been a learning process for me too – not least of which was that it is easy to get your data twisted when you are compiling all the facts and figures for performance into one place in the same shape and flavour so as to make it all the more comparable. Equally easy to overlook something and make mistakes. Even if you are as anally retentive as myself. My wonderful patient webmaster has had his work cut out to rein in my worst excesses. Hell, I even sent him one version of a review before the typographical snarl-ups had been removed with the seventh function button. I’m literate and can spell but my fingers can’t and I fear the shock might have been a bit much for the poor love – and he’s used to adjudicating Forum-speak.
So, here goes. Have you ever bitten off more than you can chew? This was close to it in terms of the work needed to fit and then put away twenty sets of 6.5 inch component car speakers. (Well, it was 23 times as I managed to need to fit three sets more than once, entirely due to my own issues.)
Work it out. Twenty sets equals forty lots of packing or unpacking, plus each set has at least ten cable ends to fix and then take off to do the test, as well as screwing the midbass drivers into place and fitting their tweeters and plugging it all in. I’d hate to work out the ‘ops’ count. Even then, nearly every one had some reason why or how it was just a bit different from the rest and all had to be taken time over to make sure that with all that many wires to connect I never connected any out of phase. Incredibly, on nearly every occasion, both channels of the speakers fired up first time. When they didn’t it was my fault. I was very careful and used stripe-marked wire. I call it the idiot-method. Treat yourself as though you are an idiot. Do it. Check it. Check it again. Try not to be obsessive but check once more&;
What was an utter relief (this has happened every time I have ever done a big group test over the years) was that I found I could tell them all apart and they all had real differences and applications to suss out. I was worried that I might not actually be able to tell so many speakers from one another and have anything even remotely useful to offer on each one. (Now that’s a  feeder line for a web-heckle if ever I read one&;) But the truth is, like meatballs, satay and soup, everybody’s mama cooks a different way and although speaker designers are just as tied to the laws of physics as a cook is to thermodynamics, there are twenty different overall approaches to the issue of making a decent set of component speakers here and as they are all from the upper price zone, there were no actual duds.
This was like going to one of those prestige car hire places and being offered a choice of CLS500, R8, M5 or Type-R. Different ways of doing 100mph.
Of course, there are different kinds of punters and different end users. You know, those amongst you, who have poetry in your soul and may find resonance with the odd comment about the affliction known as audiophilia in reviews of such speakers in our group as those from Focal, CDT and JBL. Likewise, the TNBs (that’s Turbo Nutter B******) amongst us will recognise the hints (usually the word ‘hooligan’) that make it clear which are the more intensely potent sets for their urge, like the Atomic QT65C2s, Kenwood PS1700s and Fusion NV-CM65s. Even the buyer who knows he has posh tastes but is prone to the odd burst of nuttiness – I’d steer them at the Morel Dotech Ovation 5s and JL Audio C5-650s in this group.
For the hard of pocket there are designs best able to sound posh for less – the Genesis P6 and Rainbow’s SAX 265.20 and those with massive gonads but cheap underpants – the PowerBass 3XL6C.
If value with engineering quality is the prime mover then the Vibe BlackAir 6 are bling for your money, The Rockford Power T162S are American High End for a keen price and the DLS Reference 6As an incredible all rounder for a savagely competitive rate.
Lovers of posh Japanesery will drool over the Clarion 1752HX, the Pioneer C17PRS and the Alpine SPX-17REF jobs – each are yummy.
If you like American spank, the Kicker SS65.2 and the Orion HCCA 6.2 are the ones to look at, with oddly enough, the SPL Dynamics HF6.2 in the same bracket, despite being designed by Scandinavians.
If I had to pick the best of their type, just check out the ‘Recommended’ rated speakers. These include the Focals, CDTs, JBLs and Rockfords. The first for a wonderful hifi output, bettered only by the CDTs. The JBLs are pure, seemingly limitless, rock and roll and the Rockfords are a class act.
The Pinnacle performers were the Morels, JL Audios, Atomics and Genesis offerings, each scoring a Best Buy rating. The Morels are aristocracy with a V8, the JL Audios remain a phenomenon all of their own and the Genesis are the product of pernickety keen-value design by the bloke who designed the amplifiers of the same name and perform way outside their weight, like an ugly bloke with a fit bird at £60 cheaper than the next nine-scorer for SQ.
Now you could get cynical about nearly half our product scoring a Best Buy or a Recommended rating. However, do remember the kit we were asked to test was the stuff that isn’t on general display and demo in dealerships simply because it is top dollar kit. This is all the best stuff.
With the cheapest a full-on £120 and the top one a fat grand, you really would be disgusted to find proper naff kit in there.
Unlike cat shows where every moggy gets a rosette, a Talk Audio Best Buy or Recommended rating can be relied upon. Ask any other expert you know if any of the exalted nine in our big old group are any good in their opinion and see what they say. The one flag we haven’t awarded to anything yet is the State of the Art one. Reserved for products that drop no more than one or two points across all ratings. Those are rare like Tigers.
Back at the door panel, you can also be certain that as long as you are honest about what your true urges are and what you want out of your speakers and follow the generic advice above, you’ll not go wrong. Trust the fat bloke, I’m not a doctor.

The Results Table