Oval Office – 6×9 Group Test

If Cannabis is the gateway drug to the hard stuff then oval six by nine loudspeakers are the gateway product to ice addiction. Merely smoking a bit of Skunk may make you go mental in time but it doesn’t really follow that you will eventually be injecting Heroin by way of natural progression. Some people only ever stick with six by nines.
But if you turn into an Ice addict, then I guarantee you this is the route you take…
You start with a headunit. (Just one puff…)
Then some better-than-stock speakers (Ooh this is quite good fun!) and then you experience just how much more fun some real output can be in a mate’s car. Thinking you will be OK, you won’t get carried away (it’s just will power after all, you can handle it) you go and get that MDF parcel shelf and some ovals to go in it. The difference in output from an oval speaker versus one of the same motor size but with a round cone is remarkable. Like elongated ears, the cone reaches further out sideways and creates this great big extra lump of cone area. And that’s directly proportional to SPL or loudness.
And it’s wonderful.

 
It was the same shape speaker that was in the legendary Dansette record player. It rocked. (Ask your grand-dad.) Thing is, after a bit of serious sounds on headunit power, it’s easy to add an amplifier and dramatic things happen. It gets a lot louder and deeper. Much more exciting, a bigger buzz. (Mmm yes, do lets go to Amsterdam!)
Then, you kind of get used to it again and turn it up a bit. However, this time, you find the limit of the Oval Office as you have it appointed and find you need to elect a new president. (Oooh topical!)
You blow something up.
Either a mid or a tweeter or perhaps a really big belt of bad bass and blow the bass cones.
So you have the amplifier, you have the holes, you have the urge but only so much cash to spend. It’s a big step to mainlining – or in this case to have a ‘proper’ install with a subwoofer in it and yet it’s easy to upgrade those ovals or simply load that Camberwell Carrot to the badder.
So this round up is just for that nutter (who most certainly was ME for a while) who is a bit of a Wear ‘Em Out Wilf and wants a set of Six by Nines that can really take it and make it.
Or perhaps you are a closet Sound Quality type, (audiophile even) and want to know which are the highest quality set around? Or maybe you just want to know what a few of the best ones are like before you buy your next set?
I asked for various posh types to try (no rubbish under £40 as they start at flumpence for hole-fillers) and we got all sorts, from Pioneer’s A & E series and a pair of Alpines by way of yardstick for the state of the Japanese art, to the exotica that are the newer-model rectangular Vibe QBs. These have actual subwoofer motors on their bases with sawn-off shotgun ten inch woofer sized cones (oblong ones!) instead of stretched-out six inch ones as far as the motive shove on the thing is measured. DLS do that do rather well, too, so are seen here as well.
 
Now more than ever it is important to get your cash spent wisely, so check these out, selected from the best on the market and don’t do what I did, throwing cash at a couple of pairs that didn’t last long. Go straight for the jugular with the best for your own personal pocket-versus-urge equation.
Pioneer TS-A6903i £69.99
RE6x9FR £93.00
Ground Zero GZHF693 £99.00
Kenwood KFC-X692 £99.00
DLS 269 £99.99
Vibe QB69 £100.00
Cerwin-Vega Vega69 £104.99
Pioneer TS-E6902i £129.99
Morel Pulse 69 £149.00
Alpine SPR 69C £149.90
Diamond Audio D3 D393i £149.99
Hertz Hi Energy HCX690 £185.00
The reviews will be found under ‘speakers’ in time but there will be a delay from approval in November 2010 for all the older reviews to be updated to this system.