# 5.25 vs. 6.5 components



## Rushnerd (Jun 2, 2012)

What kind of differences would you hear between a 5.25" vs. a 6.5" component set, all things (manufacturer, series) being the same.
I can put 5.25" in my doors with no mods but 6.5" i would probably have to slightly mod the back of the door panel. I was wondering whether it would be worth it?
Thanks from a noob! Please don't flame me if this is too basic, i'm just curious.


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## Richv72 (May 11, 2012)

You will probably have better sound from 6.5", larger speaker, better sounding bass. I say yeah its worth it.


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## cruzinbill (Jul 15, 2011)

greater cone area = more betterer. thats about it


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## The Baron Groog (Mar 15, 2010)

Though a 5.25" will play higher up the freq range before it starts to beam, so depending on the tweeters/rest of install a 5.25" can be a better choice...


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## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

If all things being equal, the larger driver will play lower frequencies with better authority due to more cone area and possibly lower resonance frequency. However, the larger woofer may suffer from cone break up sooner, with manifests in irregular frequency response at higher frequencies. Even if the driver suffers from little or no cone break up, the larger woofer will have worse high frequency response off axis. Having said this, I personally prefer the 6.5 woofer if I use a 2-way front speaker system. Having good quality bass coming from the front of the car outweighs other shortcomings for me. However, if the mod is difficult, I would stick with 5.25 inch woofers, but I would buy something a step above from a mainstream brand.


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## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

cruzinbill said:


> greater cone area = more betterer. thats about it


nuf said. bigger piston means more sound for the same watts and it will play lower, give better midbass. IMHO 5 1/4" midrange dont cut it unless you are pairing them with a 6 1/2" or 8" midbass.


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## huggy54 (Apr 13, 2012)

go for 6.5 i did, I had 5.25 previously and instantly noticed the difference


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

ZAKOH said:


> If all things being equal, the larger driver will play lower frequencies with better authority due to more cone area and possibly lower resonance frequency. However, the larger woofer may suffer from cone break up sooner, with manifests in irregular frequency response at higher frequencies. Even if the driver suffers from little or no cone break up, the larger woofer will have worse high frequency response off axis. Having said this, I personally prefer the 6.5 woofer if I use a 2-way front speaker system. Having good quality bass coming from the front of the car outweighs other shortcomings for me. However, if the mod is difficult, I would stick with 5.25 inch woofers, but I would buy something a step above from a mainstream brand.


This is the best response so far. Listen to this guy!


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## AAAAAAA (Oct 5, 2007)

If you get 5 1\4 you are saving yourself some trouble and all you really have to do is cross your sub over higher...say closer to 100hz.


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## Rushnerd (Jun 2, 2012)

my car is an 05 Accord. I was thinking of using the Massive CK series. I am also going to do 6.5" midbass in the rear.


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## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

Rushnerd said:


> my car is an 05 Accord. I was thinking of using the Massive CK series. I am also going to do 6.5" midbass in the rear.


I thought the Accords had the same size as the TLs of the same year since they're practically the same car. So yours came with 5.25s?

After my experiences, I have to say bigger is better all else being equal. I have a 3-way and I just installed a Dynaudio 10" in the doors with very little modification to replace the 6.5s. It was a very easy install. Obviously you don't want to do this with a 2-way because the 10 would beam at too low of a frequency but in a 3-way it's a no brainer. 

I think the midbasses are the most overworked speaker in the car audio world. I never realized how inadequate 6.5s are in the frequency range most are asked to play until I installed the 10s and I had some very nice 6.5s.

Also, there are many great mainstream brands, nothing wrong with that but if it were me I wouldn't go with Massive. Do the 6.5s so you can cross the subs over lower. I couldn't imagine the hell of trying to get the 5.25s to integrate with the subs and any semblance of up front bass.


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## diatribe (Aug 11, 2008)

Here are some spacers that I made for my Accord. The doors should be the same as yours.










I noticed that the interior of the door would get wet so I added this to help keep them dry. Make sure to treat the spacer if made out of MDF, as moisture destroys them quick.










Once you add a spacer you can put some pretty deep speakers in there, just watch out for the window glass.

Here are my old Adire Kodas that I had. They look plain as hell, but they sounded great. I should have never sold them.



















Good luck with your install!


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## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

These doors are awesome. I have 10s in them with no spacer with basically just a little additional cutting required. It was surprisingly easy. Mine are 3" deep. The windows go down with 1/4" of the glass still showing toward the rear of the door. You can barely tell the windows don't go down all the way. I reset the auto down function so it stops just short of the speaker magnet. If it actually touches the speaker, the glass is pretty much all the way hidden from sight.


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## Rushnerd (Jun 2, 2012)

diatribe said:


> Here are some spacers that I made for my Accord. The doors should be the same as yours.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah I think that would do. Where did you put your Tweets?


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## htvette (Feb 9, 2010)

Great info.


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