Blaupunkt ODx663 OverDrive (ODx) Coaxial Speaker

Price Paid:  $75.00

Summary:
Sounds good on high and low frequencies. Unfortunately, this requires moderate to high volume, along with high wattage. Equalization helps, but causes the speakers to hit maximum excursion very easily, forcing lower volumes. The midbass leaves much to be desired, probably because the speaker was designed for lower frequencies. The highs can scream, and the lows can rattle your socks off, but it has to be 90% cranked to do it. Better than many coaxials, but low-end separate components give better overall sound.

Strengths:
Decent low-end, decent high-end. On the low-end, they reproduce much of the bass accurately.

Weaknesses:
The mid-bass suffers. The stock infinity system in my dodge dakota has 5X the midbass as these speakers.

Similar Products Used:
Many 6x9's, stock infinity in dodge dakota...

Price Paid:  $80.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 2000 Odx663 - 6-3/4" oversize Coaxial

Summary:
The Blau's are definitely on the recommended list. If you need to have some options available to you price wise and installation wise(and who doesn't)then you will find these to be a good option for you.

At first they sounded a little dark, the high frequencys were not there. But after a little breakin period this changed, the bass and the mid-treble range began to smooth out. I further found that the rear door locations actually point these speakers right into the seat cushions so there is a real acoustical loss taking place as the high frequencys are soaked up by the seat cushions. No speaker can over come this except maybe a superbright JBL speaker or using seperate components to relocate the tweeters.

The option for using a seperate amplifier to drive the second (sub) voice coil is very attractive for the additional bass output that is available from this speaker. I like bass. Let me quantify that. I like deep - accurate bass not muddy, tubby, or boomy bass. I enjoy music that has a tight, well controlled, musical low end. While I can appreciate any of the "Club or Techno" sounds, that some folks like to listen to the fact remains that the synthisized bass that these genres contain is not really going to sound the same on a pair of 6.5 speakers as it wood in a dance club with multiple 18" Subwoofer cabinets powered by 2000 watt per channel amps. That being said these speakers work very well at supplying additional low end oomph that is just not found in other 6.5 coaxials without spending hundreds more. This additional bass output really adds to the enjoyment of most of the music I listen to.

And if a car subwoofer is not really feasible for your installation then these speakers especially have something to offer you . I will be adding a seperate sub setup in the future and I'll add that review to this one.

Strengths:
This speaker has a "Dual-Voice Coil" (DV)in the woofer. This allows for some flexible installation options. You can use your head unit to power the full range side of the speaker (woofer-mid-tweeter)and then add a seperate amp to power the second voice coil (sub-bass) on the woofer.This allows for some "realativley" deep bass from the same speaker. Mind you I said "realative". it's not a big brute of a subwoofer, but if you have limited space for your install and or maybe you are forced to take a budgeted approach like - head unit and speakers now - amps and sub's later, then you might find that this coaxial speaker fills the bill quite nicely. It can also run both voice coils together with the supplied parallel jumper cable. This presents a 2ohm load to the amp and increases the current to the speaker for more output. You would need to determine if your amp or head unit amp can safely run a 2ohm load. Installation was a breeze, I was able to mount these into the rear door cavity's on a 94 VW Golf. The only modification necessary was to trim the central portion of the stock speaker grills plastic support spyder. This was necessary because the front mounting depth of the Mid-Tweeter portruded about about 1/2" out from the basket.

Weaknesses:
No significant dislikes, it did take a little while for the speakers to break in at moderate volume levels.

Similar Products Used:
Kenwood KFC 1786 6-3/4". The Kenwoods were decent they fit well and provided good sound out put. The Kenwoods fell short in the deeper bass area, and the mis range sounded a little horn like (squonkey) on vocals.