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I was thinking of getting the Infinity Kappa Components:
http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S...K605CS&o=m&a=0
With the Kenwood KDC-MPV7019 HU.

I don't plan to get an amp or sub.

Do I need to get rear speakers or would it be a waste of money?
Also would this setup sound nice? I don't have much money to spend so I'm trying to get away with just a new HU and components.

 
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You don't have to get an amp, but with that quality of speaker, I would definitely run a small one to power them. What kind of HU are you getting? With those costing $299 and a nice HU around the same, you could probably replace all 4 speakers with some decent coaxials instead.

If you are stuck on the Infinti's, try this instead:
Infinity Kappa's for $209

Kicker Amp

 
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sorry for my newbism...what are coaxials?

 
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Go with the components, amp them, and look into pioneers decks...cheap and nice.

 
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No, i don't think you'll need any rear speakers, unless for rear full, no real use for better staging. Also, if those speakers are the only thigsn you'll be hearing through, I'd get an amp, for more clarity and bass.
-Ed

 
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Well, components are the speakers you are looking to get. They are a combination of seperate tweeter with a woofer. Coaxials are just one speaker so the tweeter and the woofer are one speaker. Coaxials have the tweeter built into the center of the woofer.

Getting rear speakers is debatable. If you don't get rear speakers it's just not going to be as enjoyable to listen to music in your car for the people who sit in the back. Though if you get these speakers, get an amp to power them. Under powering speakers is not good for them and they can break if you do. Also the amp will make it sound a ton better than any HU would.

Since you are on a budget, I would take a look at the Infinity Reference components. They'll probably save you $100 and you will still get great sound quality.

 
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Okay...so amp instead of rear speakers. Okay.

What amp would be good for a set of Infinity References / Kappas?

 
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Both those speakers take up to 90 watts RMS meaning you should put that much into them. Since a 90 watt x 2 amp isn't very common you should go 100 x 2 because it's better to put more power than less power and 10 watts isn't a whole lot more.

You said you were on a budget so here are some ideas of some cheaper amps you can get that some of my friends have and they work great for them.
Profile 400SX
US Acoustics USX-2100
These are both 100 x 2 watt amps.

This is what I would recommend but it is a little pricey:
MTX Thunder 8302
It is a 75 x 2 watt amp but MTX's are always underrated. Each one is tested before they leave the factory and each have a birth certificate saying what they were tested at.

The Profile or US Acoustics will do the job just fine.

 
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no reason to ditch the rears. id keep the stock ones on deck power. since you say your not planning on getting a subwoofer, why leave the rears? no reason to just get rid of them to just run front speakers. its really just a good idea if you have it coupled with a woofer in your trunk.

sure there are benefits to no rearfill, woofer or not. but still, why mess with it if it works? i personnally would leave my stock speakers in running off deck power, i could always fade a bit to front if its too much coloration of the stage.

 
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Well the reason you would get rid of the stock speakers in the rear is because it won't sound good with the new speakers in the front. Especially if you are powering 100 x 2 in the front and 25 x 2 or so in the rear with an aftermarket unit. You can just disconnect the rears also, no need to remove them unless you are replacing them.

In the car I had before my civic I replaced the front speakers with infinity kappa coaxs and left the rear speakers and powered all 4 on the stock HU. I had to fade all the way to the front cause the rears sounded so bad with the fronts. Then again, I had an old bose system that didn't sound good to begin with, but this is my experience.

In the end it comes down to user preference. Try with and without the rears and see what you like.

 
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how do you figure?

edit: especially when there are competitors who run stock speakers as rearfill......

 
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Well the quality of the stock speakers in the rear will not match the new fronts. For example the stock speakers are made of foam or paper surround where the new ones will have rubber surrounds. It would be best to run the same make and model of speakers in both front and rear to get consistency.

Though I've heard that the "perfect" car stereo will have component speakers in the front with no rears. I disagree with that but I would prefer not to use stock speakers along with aftermarket speakers, even if it is only rearfill.

I'm all about personal preference. It's about what you like and not what other people like.

But I definitely understand what you're saying. I tried running stock rears with new fronts in my old car. It would've been better if the stock rears weren't so beat up.

 
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So now I have to pick between Infinity Kappas and Reference...

Kappas seem a lot more expensive...are they worth the extra cash?
If it's not as much of a bang-for-your-buck then I dont think Kappas would be good for me.

 
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What I would do, if it's possible, is to go to any place that sells car audio equipment and see if they sell kappas and references. Listen to how they both sound and then make a decision.

I have never listened to both so I don't really have an opinion on them.

 
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lmao...
now my friend is telling me to forget the amp and run mb quarts off of the kenwood hu i plan on getting.

this car audio stuff is so confusing...

 
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this is just repeating what you said before. so ill ask again, how do you figure?

many top of the line subwoofers run foam surrounds. does that mean they too have less quality than a speaker with rubber surrounds? will a paper surround cause the cone to flex? will the rubber suround keep the cone of an aftermrket speaker from flexing? or is the material a speaker is made of not really matter?

at autofest, a triple point usac event, the second place competitor in my friends class ran woofers made form treated paper. second place, if he were using woofers with non-paper cones he might have taken first!

JL XR components have THE smoothest tweeter I have ever heard in a sub $700 component set, its not made of silk, its made of aluminum. comparitively, infinity speakers have some of the brightest tweeters i have ever heard in a nice component set, and it IS made of silk. so then why is there this rumor that silk is smother than metal dome tweeters?

the moral of the story is, it doesnt matter what the speaker is made of, if it sounds good, it sounds good.

so why keep stock rears? rear speakers and power for them costs money. that money could be better spent elsewhere. for ambiance, all you need is a small amount of power running the rears, easiest and cheapest source would be deck power. many headunits nowadays come with functions to limit the rears to only playing rearfill frequencies, below 400 Hz or so. stock speakers can handle such a small amount of power just fine, and if not, an L-pad cna be cheaply and easily constucted to even further reduce the power, if you dont want to use your fader control. stock speakers have the fantastic tendancy to flex less than many aftermarket speakers out there, which you can guess will add far less distortion to your final sound. properly set up, stock speakers make a fantastic rearfill speaker, all without adding any expense in both time and money to your carefully designed and installed and tuned system.

90% install, 10% equipment. best example of this is RCA cables. you can buy radioshacks junkiest RCA cables and it will sound JUST as perfect as if you used 5000 series TIFF rca cables. if you install them right. i personally use the gold series, it gets teh job done for me, i get no added noise to my system. If i get noise using the cheap stuff, its cause i didnt un my cables so as to not get any noise, and i NEEDED that additional expense to make up for my poor install. I hear it day in and day out, "changing to monster cables fixed all my problems" so would have tearing out all yoru wires and re-laying them.

as far as using same make and model speakers all round, all i have to say about that one is psychoaccustics. nothing more. the same could be said about rca cables, and ultra-high-end amplifiers. and radios for that matter. it cost more, so it MUST sound better. no, properly set up, stock stpeakers in the back will give you exactly the ideal performance of a rear fill speaker a tuner would be looking for.

its when you start to look at your rear speakers as a source of sound that you should start considering investing in an aftermarket speaker and amplifier.......

 
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Yes I did say the same thing twice. I was just restating my point but added an example to explain why I thought so. I can't really explain it another way. It all comes down to if you like how it sounds.

 
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USING MBQ RUNNING OFF THE DECK, DUDE WHAT ARE YOUT THINKING. THEY WILL SOUND CRAPPY. IF YOU MOVE TO MBQ'S THEN YOU HAVE TO AMP THEM. ANY INFINTY SPEAKER DOESN'T COMPARE TO MB QUARTZ. ITS LIKE LISTENING TO DAY AND NIGHT. MY ROOMATE HAS THE KAPPA'S RUNNING TO THE DECK, AND AFTER HAVING THEM BROKEN IN WHICH TOOK ALL SUMMER, THEY APPARENTLY SOUND BETTER. HE SPENT ABOUT $300 TOTAL, ON THE FRONTS AND 4x6 IN THE BACK. ANYWAYS, AMPING SPEAKERS IS ALWAYS A GOOD THING, BUT IF YOU CAN'T HEY DO WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR NOW. AMP THEM LATER.

Chicohonda02

 
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heh... breaking in speakers... thats funny... sorry mr chico, but the concept of breaking in speakers is just a little myth... when done to subs its a free air thing at inaudible frequencies to stretch the surround, but even that is useless... if you say it sounds different, then maybe the eq was switched around