Geared up and ready to go! Our speaker listening roundtable panel.

If you're searching for a great set of component speakers for your mobile A/V system, you know it's hard to find the "best" set by just comparing specs. Sure, you can look at frequency response, efficiency ratings, and factors like the speaker materials and construction, but that won't tell you the whole story. Finding the "best" set of speakers usually has as much to do with personal tastes in music and how we think things should sound, as it does with scientific specifications of speaker performance. To aid you in your quest to find the right set of component car speakers, we gathered together a worthy assemblage of brave knights (OK, audio writers), then put them in a room with three sets of high-performance component speakers and played a variety of music for a roundtable listening test and discussion. The opinions of our listeners may help you find the component speaker set that will work best for you.

Our merry band listened to the Kicker SS56.2, the MB Quart PCE 216, and the Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 component speaker systems. We placed the speakers in identical enclosures, and connected them to the same amplifier and CD player through a speaker selector switch. To keep the field level, we adjusted playback volume levels by playing a full-frequency "pink noise" track and then measuring each speaker's output with an SPL meter. This ensured that no set of speakers would have an advantage because it sounded louder relative to the other models. After this the roundtable listened to our musical examples and recorded their reactions. This wasn't a "blind" test — our panel knew which speakers we were listening to, and after each musical example we stopped to discuss our thoughts on what we had heard.

What did we listen to? Each member of our panel provided a favorite CD track, ranging from the excitingly dense garage-band sound of The Mooney Suzuki's "Alive & Amplified," to Lucinda Williams' powerfully rockin' "Metal Firecracker," and onto the intimate excitement of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers classic jazz quintet cut "Moanin'." From the world of classical music we listened to the stirring First Movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' "A Sea Symphony," with its goose-bump inducing mix of chorus and orchestra. Electronica was represented by the eclectic sampled sounds of Murcof's "Mir," while the gravelly voice of Tom Waits in the acoustic-flavored "Step Right Up" rounded out our selections.

What were we listening for? While we were enjoying the tunes, the roundtable examined how well the speakers performed several tasks, including imaging — how well the speakers reproduced the position of instruments and vocals; separation — whether or not individual parts and instruments came through clearly; tonal balance — whether certain frequencies "stuck out" unnecessarily, and bass response. You can read more about some of the key elements of speaker specs and construction in our Learning Center Speakers Glossary. For reference, we'll list the key specs of each speaker at the beginning of its discussion section.


Who gathered at the roundtable for the test? Since appreciation of good sound doesn't discriminate, our panel consisted of two home audio writers, Dave Bar and Ralph Graves, two car audio writers, Danae Marshall and Tim Sprinkle, plus our web product editor Charlie Pastorfield. Our roundtable look at these component speakers raised some strong opinions, and also the realization that, while all the speakers performed well, they each had specific strengths and weaknesses. In addition, a speaker that was great for one style of music wasn't necessarily great for another style. So, without further ado, let's check out what our panel had to say.