whitedragon551 5,000+ posts
Moderator
Review of Subwoofer or Speaker: VMAudio VM-EXS690.4
First and foremost in order to be as transparent as possible and to remove any bias I did receive these speakers in return for a review. It was not mandatory to post a positive review in light of this.
Ill preface this review by saying I have been in the car audio community for over 3+ years installing and testing hardware so this isn’t your typical these sound fantastic review.
Upon opening the packaging up I found a set of separately wrapped speaker covers, install hardware, warranty information, installation instructions and a cut out template if the need presented itself.
The speakers looked to be well made with a stamped metal basket and rubber surround. The first thing that stuck out to me was the open tinsel leads between the woofer and the tweeters. They were fairly long with no type of protection and lose to get caught on something. The second thing I noticed was the massive magnet cover. It was a simple rubber boot that was glued on. The third thing and probably the most irritating was the terminal connections. They seemed cheap to me and if you don’t apply pressure to the opposite side of the spade connector I could see them easily breaking on someone.
During install the magnet boot was too large to fit in my door with the OEM water drip trays so I had to remove the boots. You just peel them off with moderate pressure. This was on a 2008 Dodge Caliber SE.
The install went pretty easy as my doors have already been prepped with Second Skin Damp Pro and the wiring from previous installations. Took all of 30 minutes to remove old speakers, wire up the new ones (I use Bullet connectors for quick swapping), and put the door back together.
After everything was installed I turned to the radio to hear some quick tunes. Verified that all of my settings from my OEM headunit: bass, treble, mid range, fade, etc. were all at 0 in order to not distort the audio. The midbass was the first thing that stuck out to me. It was deep and pronounced. Sounded much better than the OEM speakers that were there. Was almost on par in terms of output with my Eclipse SC6500 midbass which may be a result of the door treatment that was already done. The midrange and highs were present, but not harsh.
All in all a decent upgrade over factory paper cone speakers for the wife. Id rate them a 4 out of 5 due to some minor issues or quality concerns I had during install.
First and foremost in order to be as transparent as possible and to remove any bias I did receive these speakers in return for a review. It was not mandatory to post a positive review in light of this.
Ill preface this review by saying I have been in the car audio community for over 3+ years installing and testing hardware so this isn’t your typical these sound fantastic review.
Upon opening the packaging up I found a set of separately wrapped speaker covers, install hardware, warranty information, installation instructions and a cut out template if the need presented itself.
The speakers looked to be well made with a stamped metal basket and rubber surround. The first thing that stuck out to me was the open tinsel leads between the woofer and the tweeters. They were fairly long with no type of protection and lose to get caught on something. The second thing I noticed was the massive magnet cover. It was a simple rubber boot that was glued on. The third thing and probably the most irritating was the terminal connections. They seemed cheap to me and if you don’t apply pressure to the opposite side of the spade connector I could see them easily breaking on someone.
During install the magnet boot was too large to fit in my door with the OEM water drip trays so I had to remove the boots. You just peel them off with moderate pressure. This was on a 2008 Dodge Caliber SE.
The install went pretty easy as my doors have already been prepped with Second Skin Damp Pro and the wiring from previous installations. Took all of 30 minutes to remove old speakers, wire up the new ones (I use Bullet connectors for quick swapping), and put the door back together.
After everything was installed I turned to the radio to hear some quick tunes. Verified that all of my settings from my OEM headunit: bass, treble, mid range, fade, etc. were all at 0 in order to not distort the audio. The midbass was the first thing that stuck out to me. It was deep and pronounced. Sounded much better than the OEM speakers that were there. Was almost on par in terms of output with my Eclipse SC6500 midbass which may be a result of the door treatment that was already done. The midrange and highs were present, but not harsh.
All in all a decent upgrade over factory paper cone speakers for the wife. Id rate them a 4 out of 5 due to some minor issues or quality concerns I had during install.
