2.75" Dash speaker reviews - Anyone tried multiple back to back?

AudiOn19s · February 26

All,

I have a '21 Sierra with factory Bose. I've added an amp and a pair of 8" subs with a processor which has allowed me to fill out the bottom of the sound stage quite nicely.

In doing so I was able to turn down the bass on the rest of the system which actually helped sound quality quite a bit in my opinion. I've done full stereo builds over the years and I'm trying to avoid that here. The current setup is ALMOST where I need it to be to be happy with it but where it's still missing is a bit of clarity and detail up top. I don't need it to be louder, I'm just looking for clarity. I know that ultimately that comes from enough power to drive really good drivers but again trying to find a happy medium here.

I believe the dash speakers are the key to rounding out the sound profile I'm after. I'm considering the following:

Pioneer TS-A709 - only proper 2 way with dedicated tweeter

AudioFrog GS25

Kenwood KFC-X2C

I'm curious if anyone has been able to demo these back to back to compare? I see reviews of each of these individually on this board but given there's nowhere I've found to go try to demo them in person I'm curious if anyone here has been able to do the same.

I'm honestly leaning towards the GS25's but I worry the factory bose amp won't be able to do them justice...that said they get pretty stellar reviews in the GM truck forums where people have used them.

The Pioneer seems like the slam dunk of the bunch but I haven't been the biggest fan of them in the past and worry it's not really going to provide the detail I'm after...just a tweeter to get really high frequencies that will ultimately be fatiguing instead of adding value.

I guess I could order all of them and take advantage of return modern return policies but would prefer to avoid that if someone else already has feedback on one vs. the other.

Thank you,

mafd2 · February 26

1 hour ago, AudiOn19s said:

All,

I have a '21 Sierra with factory Bose. I've added an amp and a pair of 8" subs with a processor which has allowed me to fill out the bottom of the sound stage quite nicely.

In doing so I was able to turn down the bass on the rest of the system which actually helped sound quality quite a bit in my opinion. I've done full stereo builds over the years and I'm trying to avoid that here. The current setup is ALMOST where I need it to be to be happy with it but where it's still missing is a bit of clarity and detail up top. I don't need it to be louder, I'm just looking for clarity. I know that ultimately that comes from enough power to drive really good drivers but again trying to find a happy medium here.

I believe the dash speakers are the key to rounding out the sound profile I'm after. I'm considering the following:

Pioneer TS-A709 - only proper 2 way with dedicated tweeter

AudioFrog GS25

Kenwood KFC-X2C

I'm curious if anyone has been able to demo these back to back to compare? I see reviews of each of these individually on this board but given there's nowhere I've found to go try to demo them in person I'm curious if anyone here has been able to do the same.

I'm honestly leaning towards the GS25's but I worry the factory bose amp won't be able to do them justice...that said they get pretty stellar reviews in the GM truck forums where people have used them.

The Pioneer seems like the slam dunk of the bunch but I haven't been the biggest fan of them in the past and worry it's not really going to provide the detail I'm after...just a tweeter to get really high frequencies that will ultimately be fatiguing instead of adding value.

I guess I could order all of them and take advantage of return modern return policies but would prefer to avoid that if someone else already has feedback on one vs. the other.

Thank you,

This tweeter will out perform all the ones you have listed by far. The specs, frequency response and sensitivity (db) out shine the 3. The GS25's have an 87db while the CDT has a 92.5 I have the Bose system and put these in. The chimes and warning signals still come through perfect. Read the specs on these.

https://www.woofersetc.com/p-es-hi-rez-26mm-1200isf-cdt-audio-ultra-high-high-end-1-silk-dome-tweeters-wideband-wide-range.html

AudiOn19s · February 26

You have my attention, I’ve only ever seen a tweeter in the stock location when others have run them in a 3-way configuration.

do you feel like you lost upper mids in the 400-1500hz range with those?

GETGONE · February 27

I had a pair of ribbon tweeters laying around that I put in first. I don't have the Blowes, just the stock IOR radio. The ribbon tweets added tons of high end, but it lost the upper-mid range. I ended up replacing them with the Pioneers because they are the only two way I could find in this size. They sound good along with the MB Quarts I have in the doors.

mafd2 · February 27

3 hours ago, AudiOn19s said:

You have my attention, I’ve only ever seen a tweeter in the stock location when others have run them in a 3-way configuration.

do you feel like you lost upper mids in the 400-1500hz range with those?

Absolutely not. All mids are very clear, loud and audible. The stock door Bose speakers carry mids. In fact, I put the bass and treble on max and down on the mid. Down on the midrange tones down the awful piercing 1K frequency range. Great sound out of these.

AudiOn19s · February 27

MAFD2 - assuming you are running passive crossovers on the CDT? What frequency are they crossed at?

mafd2 · February 27

20 minutes ago, AudiOn19s said:

MAFD2 - assuming you are running passive crossovers on the CDT? What frequency are they crossed at?

No crossovers.

d15nonvtec824 · April 1

On 2/26/2024 at 10:44 PM, mafd2 said:

No crossovers.

so you just wired the tweeters into the factory dash wiring?

mafd2 · April 1

29 minutes ago, d15nonvtec824 said:

so you just wired the tweeters into the factory dash wiring?

Correct.

Patches2 · April 6

You're likely sending a lot of frequencies below 1500hz to those tweeters without any filtering network in place. I'm passing the dash channels directly to mine with an hpf of 300hz/24db. My door speakers are bandpassed around 80-300hz/24db if I remember right. The Bose system just kind of throws a huge amount of range to all of the speakers which contributes to the muddy sound. Plus, using the door woofers to play everything up to 1500hz can't be doing you any favors to your soundstage.

OP, I've only used the Pioneers, but they're fine. I'm probably not pushing more than around 20-25w until things get uncomfortably loud. I think adding in a directional tweeter into the pillars would be a worthwhile investment if you're okay with the fabrication or aesthetic with generic tweeter pods. The dash location will suffer above around 10k because everything is off axis. More expensive speakers won't really be able to overcome that.

Edited April 6 by Patches2