full range speaker recommendation

[guttapercha]

Hi,

I'm building a console for my new truck and plan to install built-in speakers for radios. Because having an actual speaker housing would be unnecessary and clutter up the inside of the console, I am wondering if anyone can recommend any small high-efficiency speakers with no housing (say 4" or less) that might be good for this project?

Thanks,

Josh

 

[K7MEM]

The best speaker that I have come across, for communication purposes, is the "center" speaker from a surround sound system. These speakers are usually designed for the voice portion of the audio spectrum, and really enhance the intelligibility. The one that I use is from a RCA surround sound system. The speaker, with housing, is about 6-1/2" wide by 3-1/2" high by 3-1/2" deep. That's not very big compared to the sound quality it provides. It may not work as well outside of its housing. I drive mine with a small PA amplifier that has multiple inputs, so I can hear several radios at the same time. But it works fine connected directly from a radio.

If you need to hear music through the same speaker, the rest of the surround speakers might be of use. They are even smaller than the center speaker.

Martin - K7MEM

 

[guttapercha]

The best speaker that I have come across, for communication purposes, is the "center" speaker from a surround sound system. These speakers are usually designed for the voice portion of the audio spectrum, and really enhance the intelligibility. The one that I use is from a RCA surround sound system. The speaker, with housing, is about 6-1/2" wide by 3-1/2" high by 3-1/2" deep. That's not very big compared to the sound quality it provides. It may not work as well outside of its housing. I drive mine with a small PA amplifier that has multiple inputs, so I can hear several radios at the same time. But it works fine connected directly from a radio.

If you need to hear music through the same speaker, the rest of the surround speakers might be of use. They are even smaller than the center speaker.

Martin - K7MEM

Thanks, Martin. I'm very limited by space inside this thing so I'm just going to give it a try with a 3" speaker from parts-express that got a decent review for ham radio. I suspect you are correct about the housing being a factor. Worst case scenario is that it doesn't work and I just have to figure out places to squeeze in some speakers in the vehicle.

JD

 

[Rred]

jd-
Bear in mind that a "communications grade" speaker for radios is built for the 300-3000Hz range that the radios use, not the very different 100-15,000Hz range of FM radio or the larger range of CD & DVD.
The speaker housing is an intrinsic part of how the cone is "tuned", because backpressure from the air being dampened in the housing is effectively a spring acting on the speaker cone and coil. Not saying this is always done right much less done well (G) just that it is a real factor.
I would expect that a quality communications speaker (i.e. from Motorola) that is sold complete with a minimal enclosure, is going to be "tuned" for clear communications-grade radio audio, more so than a random raw speaker. Which will almost certainly be built for higher power (watts) than a communications radio would supply to an external speaker.

 

[chief21]

To the OP... there are many small, and even very small, external speakers (complete with enclosures and brackets) that are intended for CB, amateur and scanner voice audio applications.

John

 

[lmrtek]

Go to a truck stop
They usually have several quality external speakers on display and truckers tend to have ALOT more noise to deall with so they terternd to work pretty well

 

[guttapercha]

jd-
Bear in mind that a "communications grade" speaker for radios is built for the 300-3000Hz range that the radios use, not the very different 100-15,000Hz range of FM radio or the larger range of CD & DVD.
The speaker housing is an intrinsic part of how the cone is "tuned", because backpressure from the air being dampened in the housing is effectively a spring acting on the speaker cone and coil. Not saying this is always done right much less done well (G) just that it is a real factor.
I would expect that a quality communications speaker (i.e. from Motorola) that is sold complete with a minimal enclosure, is going to be "tuned" for clear communications-grade radio audio, more so than a random raw speaker. Which will almost certainly be built for higher power (watts) than a communications radio would supply to an external speaker.

Yes, I agree. In my last vehicle, I used a GE-Ericsson Land Mobile speaker, and a Kenwood speaker that are fantastic. Unfortunately, the new truck has much less room for speakers and I thought I'd try to build
some speakers directly into the custom console from the inside. I'll definitely report back with results when the whole project is finished. Worst case is that I'll wind up using the old speakers but they'll be mounted in less than cosmetic locations.