Blaupunkt ODc54 OverDrive (ODc) Component Speaker

Price Paid:  $0.00

Strengths:
Power handling, compact size, sound quality of speakers, price

Weaknesses:
Poorly designed crossover, finish of plastic tweeter mounts could be better.

Summary:
I'm really impressed overall with the speakers and tweeters - they simply sound fantastic. However, they sounded terrible at he crossover point - very muddled up indeed as the woofer was trying to reproduce the same high frequencies of the tweeters. So me and a friend experimented by swapping the stock crossover with an out of production JBL P-kit, and then with a set of Infinity Beta XP one crossovers. Both of these crossovers cross out the high frequencies form the woofer perfectly. With the crossover issues cleaned up, the sound quality of the components really becomes apparent fast. It also made it very easy to pin point the best location to install the tweeters for an optimal sound image. If you have a good crossover - 3.5khz or a little higher, 2nd order, and it crosses both the tweeter & woofer - then I can tell you these have enormous sound potential. With the stock crossovers, they will still work well, but will never sound as good as they should at the crossover frequency. Crossover with standing, the rest of the package is very good.

Similar Products Used:
Phoenix Gold "XS" components

Price Paid:  $99.00

Strengths:
High power handling, flexible mounting (i chose flushmount in my front sail panels of the doors), nice crossover unit, solid (but not cock-diesel) build.

Weaknesses:
Can't find flaw in them in any particular way...

Summary:
After pondering the many choices available for 5 1/4" component speakers, i decided to give these very inexpensive speakers a try. I am so far very happy with them, although the imaging in my car still nowhere approaches my home system consisting of Vandersteen and Audio Research equipment. When you consider the $99 price tag though, these have got to be just about the best VALUE out there. TO be honest though, they sound much cleaner than the last pair of speakers (paid 170 for those) I had in the car.

Similar Products Used:
Eclipse Pointsource 5.25" Components - The eclipse were too bright. The blau's allow you to cut the tweeters by 3dB if you find them too bright. I give the edge to the Blau's for this reason.