Infinity Reference VS Boston Acoustics S Series

more specifically:

Boston Acoustics S85 6X8
Boston Acoustics S95 6X9

VS

Infinity Reference 6812cf 6X8
Infinity Reference 9612i 6X9

Looking to do "drop-in" speaker replacements. My HU is a JVC Arsenal KDC-AR480 that has an RMS rating of 20Wx4.

They are all 2-way speakers and the price difference between the two brands is about $12.00. I'm leaning towards the Infinitys, but the BA speakers seem more efficient with a max RMS power handling of 35wx4-compared to the Infinity's 60wx4. Does anyone have any experience with these speakers?

Btw, I prefer not to get an amp and components up front and leave the rear speakers stock. Please do not suggest so...thanx

You need to go listen to each of these speakers make the call. Compareing specs on speakers is all but the most useless thing you can do. Either set will handle 10 watts from a factory deck and 100 watts of clean power from a quaility amplifier.
You need to go to several car audio stores, bring your favorite disc, NO MP3s or bad IPOD nonsense, and test out everything you can afford.
Your ears will tell you what to buy.

I think both options sound like crap. I have never cared for the Infinity or Boston sound, other then the Boston Z's.
For my ears, I would pick eclipse, polk, or JL.

Keep something in mind if this is your first venture into aftermarket car audio:
A 6x9 on the rear deck will drowned out ANYTHING you put in the front. You will basicly not even hear your front speakers as they are firing at your ankles and you are WAY off axis. The 6x9s on the other hand are aimed at your head and a harsh tweeter up there can be nasty.
Thats alot of the reason we steer toward front components and an amp, it lets the front simply compete with the posisitoning of the rears.

1sty said:

You need to go listen to each of these speakers make the call. Compareing specs on speakers is all but the most useless thing you can do. Either set will handle 10 watts from a factory deck and 100 watts of clean power from a quaility amplifier.
You need to go to several car audio stores, bring your favorite disc, NO MP3s or bad IPOD nonsense, and test out everything you can afford.
Your ears will tell you what to buy.

I think both options sound like crap. I have never cared for the Infinity or Boston sound, other then the Boston Z's.
For my ears, I would pick eclipse, polk, or JL.

Keep something in mind if this is your first venture into aftermarket car audio:
A 6x9 on the rear deck will drowned out ANYTHING you put in the front. You will basicly not even hear your front speakers as they are firing at your ankles and you are WAY off axis. The 6x9s on the other hand are aimed at your head and a harsh tweeter up there can be nasty.
Thats alot of the reason we steer toward front components and an amp, it lets the front simply compete with the posisitoning of the rears.

Click to expand...

Damn you 1sty...you make sense!

This is not my first venture into aftermarket audio. However, if I go your route it would be the first time I've gone past a new HU and drop-in speakers.

I'm not YET willing to add a sub to my system, but I would consider an amp. I will be doing the install myself and would also like to avoid components since I am a little hesitant to punch a hole in my interior for the tweeters.

With that being said, if I were to buy a NICER set of coaxial speakers (perhaps with a directional tweeter) and amp them, would that even out my cabin sound. Or are you saying components are a must? Also is an amped system without a sub not a good idea?

Finally, I would rather have the amp in the trunk, then under a seat. I installed a 12-disc changer a few months back. I routed the connecting cable down the passenger side of the car. Is it okay to run this cable along the same side as the speaker wires from an amp? Or should I switch it to the driver side and run it along the power line from the amp?

Thank you for all your knowledge.

Subs are a very odd pardox 1/2 the population wants nothing to do with them. The other half WAY over does it. Once oyu have a sub, you will always want a subwoofer as there is music there that the artist intended you to hear. however you never need one, they just round out the sound for an accurate system. Atleast that is one intent.
Components are not that hard adn you can coaxly mount many of them.
So I would let your budget and ears pick your way here. There is plenty of info on here to get you through a component install and again many coaxly mount so there will be no need to cut up your interior.

Directional Tweeter? YOu mena an aimable tweeter?
Amping the fronts certaitly help depending on the amp and speakers but the rears will always be bright and loud becuase of the placement. I ran 200 watt rms to each of my front componenets and the rear coaxles could still be very easily noticed even when they were only on deck power.

For amp installs follow a single rule, Signal on one side, power on the other.
So speaker wires, RCAs and your CD changer cable can go on one side. The power wire for the amp and CD changer should be on the other.

lastly...you say that some comps can be mounted coaxialy...

What is your opinion on 5X7/6X8 plate speakers? Are they basically comps? If you were comparing 5x7/6x8 coax vs plates in the same line/brand, which would you choose?

Plate mounts can be convient but are usualy just coaxle speakers that are seperated out. A true component will have a seperate crossover.
http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/mmc650/
The above is actualy a coaxly mounted component.


I have these:
http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/sr5250_65_slim/
Which can be mounted coaxly or seperately.

Your speaker are very nice (& costly). But, you get what you pay for. I would strongly consider the MOMO 5x7 but Crutchfield says they won't fit and I searched the model number here and nothing came up under proteges. Oh well...the search continues then