Best sounding/highest power 3.5's?

[superquest 10+ year member]

My 86 Olds 98 sedan takes 3.5's in the dash. I want to power them up with a amp and the 2 highest power RMS taking 3.5's I've found are by Infinity called the Kappa32.9cf which will hold 35 watts RMS, or by Polk called DXi350 which also hold 35 watts RMS. I'm gonna go with a Kicker or Rockford 40x2 amp. Which 3.5's of the 2 would you go with?

Here's the spec pages:

Kappa 32.9cf - Infinity

DXi350 - Car | Polk Audio®

Click to read more...

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

I have an 85 Olds Delta-88 Royale, and I've been through lots of 3.5's. The best I found was Boston Acoustics FE3 (discontinued) or SE35. Don't bother amping them, just use a 150 or 300 hz bass blocker off HU power. 35 watts rated is about the max any of them go, and I've blown 3.5s just on HU power.

If your dash is like mine and the speakers are high up near the windshield you'll have to modify the grilles to mount coaxials cuz the tweeters stick up too high. And the bigger magnets can be tough to squeeze in the holes. If you can fit something other than standard car type 3.5's in there you might look at Madisound web site for home speakers instead.

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

Boston SE35

JL C2 350x

Polk db351

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

2" CDT Audio ES 02BL Hybrid Mid Tweeter Set Black | eBay

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

You want the best? Or you want the best for around that budget? Because there are some outstanding 3" drivers out there.

Audible Physics nz3

Hybrid Audio L3

etc.

Dayton Audio has a bad arse 3" full range for like 20 bucks each on PE.

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

You want the best? Or you want the best for around that budget? Because there are some outstanding 3" drivers out there.
Audible Physics nz3

Hybrid Audio L3

etc.

Dayton Audio has a bad arse 3" full range for like 20 bucks each on PE.

Running tweeterless in stock locations could get messy, eh?

Unless he ran a capped tweet too

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Running tweeterless in stock locations could get messy, eh?
Unless he ran a capped tweet too

The NZ3's come with a HF transducer. My buddy runs them without the transducer in the stock dash spot and you'd never know he was sans tweeter. Besides, most 3"ers will go to 15khz or higher. And I doubt anyone would miss anything over that. Heck, people with off axis tweets probably don't get 15khz anyway.

The GOOD thing about the dash spot is it will catch all of the beaming frequencies and reflect them. Whereas a kick or door spot, you might not get that HF extension.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

2" CDT Audio ES 02BL Hybrid Mid Tweeter Set Black | eBay

I've got 2 sets of these on special for $120 shipped, while supplies last.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Why worry about RMS power at all? Small mids don't need a lot of people to get moving. Personally, for a good SQ build I would have preferred to have a higher quality 2-way component set installed with the tweeters placed in the mid locations. There just aren't that many good 3.5 coaxial speakers with their flimsy crossovers, and such. Of course, for an average build, to replace blown stock speaker, I'd consider simly a 3.5 inch coaxial speaker. Considering the reputation of Infinity tweeters, I'd prefer the Polk Dbs probably.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

I've got 2 sets of these on special for $120 shipped, while supplies last.

How do those sound?I may be interested in a pair.Dont mean to jack the thread, but those look pretty amazing to be able to hadle within the midrange area as well as the tweet areas.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

How do those sound?I may be interested in a pair.Dont mean to jack the thread, but those look pretty amazing to be able to hadle within the midrange area as well as the tweet areas.

If Infinity speakers have unnaturally bright treble, the ES-02s are the opposite. I prefer mine with a small tweeter, which I changed from silk to aluminum for even more "bite". I'm using them from 1 kHz to 6 kHz and they never disappoint.