Help me spend $400
 

Current system: Alpine 7894, Infinity 5752cf + 652i in a Protege5

Problem: System lacks overall smoothness and highs are very harsh. If I turn down treble on the HU then the sound lacks detail.

Should I change my speakers? Lots of ppl are telling me that's the problem with these Infinity. My budget is $400 for now and I might invest more later next year. I prefer a warm and mellow sound with detail (but not harsh) highs.

i've always felt MB Quart, Infinity, Polk Audio and Boston Acoustics to be on the harsh side, although Infinity the least of the 4. Usually the Xover has different tweeter settings. If not or thats not enough for you, you can add a capacitor inline between the tweeter and Xover. The value will depend on the freq range cut. This will further block the freqs that the Xover already does.

I use Directed Audio Studio series 3 way comps upfront and 2way comps in the rear. They are perfect for my tastes and may be a good choice for yours as well. Very smooth. Give em a listen at a DEI dealer near you. (www.directed.com) and best of all (if you race, like me :)) the woofers are extremely lightweight with the Neo magnets.

Funny, different ears hear different things :) in my case I have moved away from Infinity speakers and favor Polk (for the car) and BA (for the office) as good affordable speakers. In my case the Infinity was much to tinny sounding for my likes.

My ear digs the B&W sound and that's what I use at home for music. It sounds exactly as I described....very laid back and detail highs...bass is fast, solid and punchy without any booming. Too bad they no longer make speakers for cars.

I've been thinking about spend the $400 towards a pair of Focal Polyglass components or even JL VRs. But I'm afraid even if the Alpine really put out the claimed 27W it's still underpower for these speakers.

Another idea is to get the components and a 2-ch amp to power them for now. Get a sub later and use the same 2-ch amp...and move the components back to HU amp. Since they'll be crossovered to do highs only I assume it won't take much power and the HU amp should be able to handle it. Feasible?

The JL components are great, I have a set of XR525-CS and I love them, I'm getting some VR coaxials for rearfill soon.