The Best Component Loudspeakers

The Best Component Loudspeakers are what this one’s all about. ‘Component’ is a totally cool buzz word, up there with ‘Turbo’. As a lad, I bought a hugely heavy ghetto blaster with the Aiwa brand on it, called the ‘Carryin Compo”. I loved it to bits. It was styled like a small flight case. Two box speakers (bass reflex ported) were cased, with a stack of ‘components’ between them. There was an integrated stereo amplifier, sat atop an AM/FM stereo tuner, sat atop of a cassette deck. A battery pack was the bottom component. It was all about ‘separate components’ being better than stuff fused into one lump.

The famous Amstrad system was a single unit that looked like a HiFi separates stack. It was an atrociously low sound quality unit that helped create Sir Alan Sugar’s business empire. Separate or component units can have their own better-built qualities and features. And so it is with car speakers. While coaxial speakers can and do go up to incredibly high quality, they are limited to their mounting. You can move the tweeters on the mounting pole of some coaxes but only by a few degrees of aim. With component loudspeakers, where the tweeter is separate from the mid-woofer, you can install the tweeter as you wish. I have seen JDM component speaker sets, where the tweeters can even be mounted in little pointy pods on stalks. Thus they can be aimed precisely. The high frequencies are the most directional of all, which is why this matters.

Car component speakers start off affordably yet still give you tweeter-placement flexibility. You normally get a flush mount plus an angled mounting ring with a the cheap to upper mid-price components. Fancy brands know you’ll be custom-mounting their products.

For this guide to the best component loudspeakers, we’ll start at affordable and go up to proper posh.

How to Aim Your Tweeters

This can be very easy. If you are plopping upgrade tweeters into stock locations, as you had separate mids and tweets, this is not relevant. But if you are installing a set of component speakers into a single OEM speaker location then try this. Before you finally mount the tweeter, fit the mid-woofer as normal and wire in the tweeter on a foot of speaker wire. Allow that to come out around the edge of your driver. The idea is you will not have made a hole for your tweeter wire/mount yet. Then, play the speakers with the tweeter stuck on a blob of BluTack! Yes! It is a ‘superfluid’ like Silly Putty and even cornstarch oobleck. This means it seems soft but if you hit it hard, it is as rigid as hell.

Here’s a brief science bit. At the frequencies your tweeters tweet, the acceleration acting upon their domes is huge. At 20kHz, it is 100,000 Gravities. This is why speaker cones and domes need to weigh as little as possible. That means a tweeter is held in an acoustical vice-grip. The trick is simply to try different positions and angles until it sounds best. Don’t worry about the science. Just mess about until you like it.

Kenwood KFC-E170P (seen at £33)

The design brief was about shallow mounting depth as well as affordability for this set. The key is that crucial separate tweeter that you can aim, as described above. Because they come with some extra plastic mouldings for mounting the tweets. Small pods that hold the tweeter at an angle that can be aimed by their rotation as well. Stick these down with BluTack and experiment for the best results. This set’s passive crossover – the capacitors/coils/resistors – are not a posh set as it is entry level. A lot like the simple single filter capacitor hidden under most coax speaker tweeters, this is an ‘in-line’ one. Just simple and incorporated into the supplied cabling.

Not rated at high power, only 30W RMS power handling, they are very good at turning watts into music though. That 92dB efficiency is exceptionally high. Whilst you lose the chance to run them on a powerful amplifier, they will transform a stock system. The grilles are smart looking, too. You’d never know they were so inexpensive. You can get these as a smaller 5.25 inch set of components as well. Not a common size for the higher end brands at all. A lovely no-brainer upgrade, you get lots of stereo imaging improvement possibilities and they’ll make your stock system feel louder. Any guide to the best component loudspeakers, has to have some Kennys in there!

• Comprises: 17cm polypropylene cone, 25mm PEI tweeter
• Power Handling/Impedance: 30W RMS/4ohms
• Sensitivity: 92dB @ 2.83V (1W)/1m
• Frequency Range: 30Hz to 22kHz
• Made as: 5.25in, 6.5in

Hertz K-170 UNO (seen at £85)

Another set of components that know their lot in life is to be stock replacements. Again, no fancy passive crossover, just a 6dB capacitor filter in the wire to the tweeters. These tweeters themselves have a slice of designed-for-car-use going on. No matter how well placed, Hertz know that you are still unlikely to be using handcrafted A-pillar speaker builds. So their tweeters are designed for good dispersion and to show a good off-axis performance. We touched on this in the coaxial speaker guide, where makers do the same thing with fixed tweets. A smaller dome than some, the Hertz tweeter has a powerful Neodymium magnet. The main cones are simple pressed paper (still a hard to beat cone material) and have foam surrounds. Called a V-Cone® it is domeless and Hertz reckon it makes for better sound. This is speaker making technology filtered-down from their higher end products as Hertz have several ranges. Some are seriously high end.

The K-170 UNO components main drivers have a really big 1in voice coil fixed to their behinds. Hertz state this is better for higher SPL or Sound Pressure Level. They are being open about these being made to go as loud as possible. The best feature is the startlingly high 93.5dB efficiency. The extra money gets you a phat 70W RMS power handling and every watt will rock through these, some of the the best component loudspeakers around.

• Comprises: 17cm V-Cone® woofer, 24mm NEO PEI dome tweeter
• Power Handling/Impedance: 70W RMS/4ohms
• Sensitivity: 93.5dB @ 2.83V (1W)/1m
• Frequency Range: 55Hz to 23kHz
• Made as: 5.25in, 6.5in, 6.7in

Rockford Fosgate Prime R165-S (seen at £120)

Flush, surface and angle-mounting options for the tweeter, and this system is again all about that first OEM upgrade. Another with the simple tweeter filter in-line rather than a fancy passive crossover network. The tweeter is only a half inch 13mm Mylar job but this design can go loud! Made in the classic stock size of 5.25in, they also cater for both 6in and 6.5in, as seen here. Although inexpensive by Rockford terms, you are paying a little bit for the technical excellence. Like all their speakers, even the entry level, they are measured with rigorous speaker-industry standard ‘Klippel’ analysis. This is a speaker specifications verification system, used by companies wishing to avoid the silliness of lesser outfits’ piffle claims. Also, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) in the USA set up their own set of ratings. When adhered to, it enables buyers to compare products’ specs in real world terms and definitely deserving of being amongst this group of the best component loudspeakers.

The RMS power rating for these is thus rock solid. There has been so much hogwash – and still is out there, that this is important stuff. So although the specs read a little weak for the money, their 80W max rating will be real. It means that these speakers can take a spanking on a decently potent set of watts. They are Rockfords, play them hard!

• Comprises: 17cm Mica-injected polypropylene cone, 13mm Mylar dome tweeter
• Power Handling/Impedance: 40W RMS/4ohms
• Sensitivity: 89dB @ 2.83V (1W)/1m
• Frequency Range: 60Hz to 20kHz
• Made as: 5.25in, 6.5in, 6.75in

Sony XS-163ES (seen at £350)

A jump straight to the serious, with the new Hi Res rating. The are the best component loudspeakers that Sony make. This means the tweeters can reach way up past what we used to think was the limit of human hearing. We now know that frequencies above 20kHz still matter like hell and we can somehow tell. Intended for use with the super high resolution streaming services that play music way more detailed than mere CD resolution. That or a storage device with the mad-end files stored upon it. Hi Res needs fancy speakers to play. Sony’s ES line has always been a special one.

This system is our first three-way, with a separate mid and mid-bass driver, as well as the High Frequency. The cones of the mid and mid-bass are made of ‘Cellular Aramid Fibre Matrix’, that Sony used to call MCA. A special cellular material that is awesomely rigid and light. Theme here. As promised, manufacturers brag about their cone materials’ properties in these directions. They say this latest generation cone compound will give a ‘wider frequency response and a smoother, more natural’ sound. The cones’ surrounds are fancy, too. With a notched look, they stretch with a better linearity, meaning they wobble better. Vertical amplitude symmetry, or a more even excursion, for better sound. Both the mid-bass and the mid driver also have a phase plug in the middle, known to help sound quality. It adds up to one heck of a spec for the three and a half inch driver in particular.

The tweeters are an delicious soft dome that can reach the bat-frequencies. The passive crossovers can take a single power feed and split it up between the three drivers. You can bi-amp them, a very rare feature, where you feed one passive with two amp channels. Beautiful looking, beautiful sounding.

• Comprises: 17cm Cellular Aramid Fibre Matrix cone, 3.5in 80mm NEO midrange, 25mm soft dome tweeter
• Power Handling/Impedance: 90W RMS/4ohms
• Sensitivity: 89B @ 2.83V (1W)/1m
• Frequency Range: 40Hz to 40kHz
• Made as: 6.5in, 6x9in two-way and this 6.5in three-way

Alpine R2-S653 (seen at £500)

This is the Alpine next generation R series or R2. A high end range, their main drivers have die cast aluminium chassis. Tremendously Alpine in flavour. This set is made to take proper grunt and deliver visceral power yet with the crisp reach of a bat. They are rated as Hi Res audio capable. That lies largely in the crazy resolution and reach of the tweeters that can go to 40kHz. R2 come as merely fabulous components, in 6×9 and 6.5 inch 2-way versions and as 6.5in and 6×9 coaxials. They also come as this ‘Pro’ level in two-way and three-way 6.5in. Also Hi Res rated, their chassis are a little shallower and they have a new cone material. This is an actual Alpine proprietary material. Alps have an incredible history in speakers and this is a serious investment in technology for car sound.

As a three-way, R2-S653 comes with beautiful passive crossovers. You connect the full range power and the crossover acts as a traffic cop for sound. It directs each frequency to the right speaker. A classic piece of Japanese design, you can adjust the output of the mid and tweeter. You can have 0dB or -3dB, or ‘+3dB’ by changing tiny controls within the passives. But it cannot ‘plus’ anything, as it’s passive, no amplifier. That means that Alpine ‘voice’ their tweeter a tad stridently and 0dB is in fact a tiny bit attenuated. I truly think I can hear the resistor take the sparkle off the high frequencies. So set the passives to ‘+3db’. At this level, I reckon you’ll own some fancy digital EQ. You can fix any issues without dulling the detail through a resistor.

And that is a proper slice of ‘opinionated expert’ and we hope why you came to look! Hi Res in the the best component loudspeakers group!

• Comprises: 16.5cm glass fibre reinforced woofer cone, 96mm midrange (GFR), 43mm Hi Res tweeter
• Power Handling/Impedance: 100W RMS/4ohms
• Sensitivity: 88dB @ 2.83V (1W)/1m
• Frequency Range: 65Hz to 40kHz
• Made as: 6.5in and 6x9in two-way, and 2-way and (this) 3-way 6.5in ‘Pro’

Focal Utopia 165W-XP (seen at £1,500)

There is only one passive crossover in the Utopia line. Most buyers will be purchasing just the drivers they need, to run them on a dedicated amp channel each – ‘actively’. You choose what sizes of drivers; you could even assemble eights with sixes and tweeters as a three-way active system. But if you have a great dynamic clean amp, maybe a 4ch one to bi-amp them with, these are amazing. The ninth of nine ranges that comprises an incredible variety of car speakers. Focal’s Utopia line is the ultimate destination for some car audio sound quality competitors. They sound gorgeous when applied right. Like the Sony X-ES passives, you can bi-amp the crossovers with a 4ch amplifier running dual stereo into them.

The tweeters are legendary. An unashamed slice of the fabulous, the TBM Beryllium tweeters are state of the art. Inverted metal domes, they have astonishing performance and cost £1,200 a set on their own. Beryllium is toxic and the set comes with a 44 page warning instruction in many languages about that alone. But the material is literally brilliant. Three times faster sound wave propagation than titanium and two and a half times faster than Aluminium. The linearity or smoothness and above all the ‘impulse’ are breath taking.

For impulse, they mean rise time. That means how fast a sound gets louder. Hard to explain, it’s what cat’s ears are good at and why they adore a papery rustle, and mice squeaks. High rise time. Bells and things that go ting and tinkle have high rise times. A massively fast tweeter will give you goose bumps and you’ll hear the mouth sounds of that vocalist. If well driven, they can sound like you could pucker up and kiss that close-miked singer, right there… mwah! These are amongst the tip top of the best component loudspeakers for cars.

• Comprises: 6.5in 6WM, and TBM Beryllium tweeter
• Power Handling/Impedance: 100W RMS/2ohms
• Sensitivity: 93dB @ 2.83V (1W)/1m
• Frequency Range: 60Hz to 40kHz
• Made as: separates, with only this kit assembled with a passive.