Date:         Mon, 25 Mar 2002 22:12:48 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Speaker Wire Polarity?
In-Reply-To:  <20020326020551.14049.qmail@web13008.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> The guys in retail will of course push the highest
> dollar speaker as the best because the highest dollar
> means the highest commission and the highest revenue
> for the store.

The highest dollar speaker is not neccessarily the highest commission one.
Commission is often paid based on gross profit, not selling price; sometimes
the most expensive speaker does not actually have the highest profit margin.

> They will also tell you that is what
> they use, and they will use it because they get it at
> store cost plus X.

Actually, they often get it for  _below_ the wholesale cost.  Many of the
larger audio manufacturers offer their products to salespeople for below
wholesale, correctly recognizing that "I own it myself" is a very powerful
selling tool.  On the other hand, given that the salesperson can get pretty
much any of the brands at a cut rate price, there may still be some value to
the fact that he personally picked one brand over the other (unless of
course he is an idiot and/or has a tin ear, neither of which can be ruled
out as a possibility).

> The mark-up on car audio is almost as bad as jewelry.

I would suspect that jewelry has a much higher markup. Typical markup in car
audio is roughly 35% on electronics and about 40% on speakers.

> That said - as long as it is not an extremely cheapo
> speaker (i.e. paper-cone woofer) a 5 1/4 speaker will
> always outperform a 4" speaker.

I would disagree. A 5.25" speaker will have more bass, if all else is equal,
but that does not mean that it will "outperform" the other speaker overall.
Many factors will determine which speaker performs better.  Among these is
the speaker's sensitivity - a measure of how loud it will play with a given
amount of power (the higher the number the more sensitive).  If you are not
using a separate amp, you want to avoid speakers that are insensitive,
because your Vanagon has a relatively high ambient noise level and a large
interior space to fill. Your indash may distort (clip) trying to drive
insensitive speakers to moderately loud levels (which could result in _less_
bass, simply because your indash can't deliver the power the speaker wants).
Also, as a rule you will get better treble performance out of a speaker with
a dome rather than a cone tweeter, as this will disperse the treble
throughout the vehicle rather than beaming it in a relatively straight line.
Woofer size is but one additional criterion to consider.  Most of all,
listen to them, with music you know and a comparably powered source unit,
and buy what sounds good to you (even if it is not the most expensive model
or brand). In the end the best measuring device, and the only one that
matters, is your own ears.

- Ron Salmon
  (15 years in the high-end audio business in my former life)
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  (215) 234-VWVW
  www.busdepot.com

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