Need big time help with my 6.5"s !

Okay - I have no idea what is happening here, but my Infinity Reference woofers (from a component set) look like they are falling apart, and they are only 2 months old.

The rubber surround is "pitted" on the top of both speakers - almost looks like it's disintegrating. I have no idea how this happened - the speakers have plenty of clearance. The only time the door panels were off since the speakers were installed was when my tint was done - but the guy was careful, and this doesn't look like that kind of damage. He used the typical soapy-water spray for the install, but again - I don't see how that could cause what I'm seeing.

WTF? Anyone know what might be happening here?

And along the same lines - now I will be looking for a new set of midrange/midbass drivers. The rest of the Reference set is fine, so I want to keep the tweeters and x-over and just get a new set of drop-in 6.5" woofers. Maybe something with 100 watt+ RMS handling, hopefully for $150 or less. I need recommendations for the drivers, as well as where the hell to buy them - again, I DON'T want to buy a whole new set of comps, just the 6.5s (or maybe slightly larger - I might be able to fit 6.75" or 7" - but 6.5" is preferred.

Looking for help/advice on both issues.

Thanx!

~HH

I know that some mazda's have a problem with water draining in from the area between the window and the vent. If the back of the magnet is kinda rusty i'd bet thats the cause. To prevent it in the future get a rubber cone from the stereo shop close to for the 6.5 size. Electrically there's nothing I can think of that would cause that. Even if they were over powered they'd blow the voice coil first not the suspension. As far as recomendations, MB Quarts are just about the best speakers for midrange-highs on earth. JL's are pretty good too....but if I had a choice and looking at your price range, go with the MB's. The part number for the 6.5" midbass is PWD160. You can go for the Q series which is QWC160 but the 6.5 componet set is $1800.00 so I can't imagine what the just the midbass speaker is. If you want a cheaper alternative do the Pioneer TS series, I recomened them to a few people on here and they loved em.

I looked at the Quart HPC1206 - but it seems like more of a midbass, than a midbass AND midrange. I'd love to throw a nice three-way comp set in, but it's just not gonna happen right now.

Will the MB make good midrange as well as mid-bass? Any idea where a good online shop would be?

Also - does Pioneer make dedicated midrange/midbass speakers? I'm really not looking for coaxial, since I have the x-overs and tweeters already.

Pioneer makes one 6.5 midbass its a TS-W161. IMO the MB's will blow the pioneers out of the water sq wise. The pioneer's are kinda a cheap alternative for someone who's not building a highpower system. The MB's I had in my grand cherokee where just flat out awesome. Once I got the amp and head unit dialed in they would bass almost as good as 8" subs and wouldn't disort any voice's or instrumentation that happened to be in the midrange frequencies.

Any opinions on Rockford's Fanatic Q line?

They have a dedicated midrange/midbass driver, 6.5" (maybe 6.75 - can't remember right now). 45Hz to 5kHz (recommended crossover range is 80Hz and 4kHz). They handle 100 watts RMS, 200 peak.

I think I will probably pick up a pair, unless I hear some real bad stuff about them. I can get them for a tad over $100/pair.

i just installed 6 1/2 quarts in my car about a week ago. i had some terrible vibrations in my door panels at high volume but not at low volume. i finally figured out what the deal was, inside our door panels there is a 6x8 shroud that fit perfectly around the factory speaker. it is conveniently molded in to the door panel and was rubbing the s@!t out of my speakers. so i took the door panels back off took the dremel out with a cutting wheel and cut it out and now they sound flawless. MB Quart is the best! hope this helps you. Also use dynamat or cascade to pad they sound much better with insulation.