Just had this installed in my Pilot yesterday. I have a great installer, did nothing other than install the speaker, so this review is only of the speakers. Furthermore, they are currently running off of a Power Acoustik OVA600 amplifier at (what I think is a stretch) 75x4. Head unit is a Pioneer 960.
Apperance -- the only thing appearing is the tweeter in the sailpanel. Looks good, but sticks up about a full inch. A bit more than I expected, but this is a small cosmetic gripe that could be fixed by flushmounting, which I wasn't prepared to do.
Sound quality -- very detailed and accurate reproduction. I was very happy, listened to several songs off of my IPOD and was hearing new parts to the music I had not heard before. Which is saying a lot b/c the ipod signal is much less detailed than a CD, at least as I recorded them at 160hz.
The most important thing to me was accuracy at a low volume level. These have it, hands down. You turn the volume down, and you can still hear the music, all of it, proportional to the volume.
Oh, and if you're concerned, they are super accurate all the way up through the volume range. They get too loud for me, and when they reach this point they are still very accurate, no distortion.
Midbass is full and detailed, it created a new dynamic for bass reproduction in the vehicle, as now there is detailed midbass (I didn't measure so I dont know how low, I do know that I'm using it crossed over, will check and amend when I know the frequency that I'm cutting off). Makes the stock alpine 10 inch sub seem light years inferior.
Only two major sound quality gripes here -- one, the accurate sonic reproduction will make much more obvious any imperfections your music source contains.
Second, THE TWEETER IS LOUD. Everyone was RIGHT. You absolutely need, I mean NEED, an equalizer, in my opinion.
I tried all the different soundstage settings that are programmed into the Pioneer, and the only one that is comfortable is the flat setting, with no loudness setting. If you select another setting, the tweeter will cause pain. Not enormous pain, but it will be difficult to listen too.
Overall, an excellent speaker for the money (paid $220 at Ike sound). Barring any unforseens. Just be prepared for a very accurate tweeter and some time spent adjusting. I cannot wait to put a good SQ sub in to do justice to such nice components.
