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(More customer reviews)For now, just ignore the price. You owe it to your ears to audition these speakers. You will be spending hundreds of hours listening to your car audio, and for all you know, you may actually be an audiophile.
Focal makes four different levels of car speakers: there's the entry level, then these ones, then their much more expensive high-power line (which doesn't sound any better to my ears, just louder). Then there's the the Utopia Be line, justly famous for their beryllium tweeters. You should under NO circumstances listen to them unless you could look at a five-digit car audio bill without flinching. (I'm still trying to forget how they sound, dammit.)
Speakers are extremely subjective, so listening to them before buying is absolutely crucial, but how can you do that at Amazon? Well, you're in luck if you live in (or can find an excuse to visit) CO, OR, TX or WA. For your convenience, Amazon has provided 49 car audio listening suites in these states. For some unknown reason, they chose to call these suites "Car Toys", and they are stocked with fairly aggressive salespeople. You can also buy car audio there, but the prices tend to be significantly higher. You could buy your speakers at Amazon and then take them to Car Toys for installation, but you'd have to be rather nervy to do that.
(It seems that you can also find these speakers at significant discounts on eBay and at stores that are not Focal dealers, but I DO NOT recommend it: counterfeiting of Focal speakers is seemingly common.)
My car audio budget upper limit was ~$1000. I figured for that price I could get a good head unit, four decent speakers, a 4-channel amplifier, and a subwoofer. I quickly zeroed in on the head unit and subwoofer. I listened to speakers in my price range and came very close to buying Infinity REF6020CS (even though I think they are ugly as sin). I compared them to similarly-priced entry-level Focals (165 A1) and found the Focals sounded significantly better.
But there is a reason why Focal makes entry-level speakers, and it is not so that you will buy them: it is so that you will then idly listen to these, just to see what the extra money would get you. I was literally stunned, sitting down quite abruptly. I am somewhat of an audiophile, but these Focals sound better than anything I've ever owned, even my beloved Klipsches. Don't think you are an audiophile? After listening to these, you may change your mind. For one thing, they're significantly "faster" in the low and mid range, meaning that notes get attacked more sharply and cleanly. But the glaring difference, and the reason my budget just had to stretch, was how sweet, silky, and non-fatiguing they are on the high end. Switch back and forth between the entry-level "A" Focals and these while listening to the re-mastered "Eleanor Rigby", for example, and you'll find that suddenly you can hear each individual violin. Like me, you may find it impossible to settle for less. Perhaps I should just sum up this entire review right now: eighteen months later, I still smile widely whenever I turn my car stereo on.
Finally, some good fiscal news: these Focals are very efficient, meaning that it does not take much power to drive them. When I finally realized I was just going to have to pay $1000 for speakers (these in the front doors and door pillars, 165 CV1s in the rear doors), the deal I made with myself was that I would use the amplifiers in my head unit for a while, until my wallet recovered. Eighteen months later, I still haven't installed a separate amplifier, which means that I am driving the Focals with 12 second-rate watts each, and yet I can easily tell the difference between a CD and the same CD mp3-maximally-encoded at 320 Kbps, and they nicely balance my 200-watt subwoofer. The door-pillar tweeters have excellent dispersion (they sound good even when your ears are off-axis), but with tweeters this good, it would probably pay to "trick-up" the door pillars so that the tweeters swing out on-axis when the stereo is turned on (after all: that's how Aston Martin does it :-)
[Fun update: I recently stopped to help a broken-down Aston Martin (which is an action about as lacking in ulterior motive as stopping to help a broken-down Uma Thurman), and these Focals were not embarrassed by the system in the $250,000 supercar.]
A plaudit from an unusual source: my sister is not remotely an audiophile, but when I sat her in my car and played her the re-mastered "And I Love Her", she teared up. (When I was very young indeed, this sister kept me up way past my bedtime and took me to a live concert: a Beatles concert.)
Closing thoughts: the speakers come with a very attractive window sticker for your car. Before you think of displaying it, consider that there are people who would read it as: "In case of fiscal emergency, break glass." I did the installation myself, ensuring it is completely invisible, which gives me great peace of mind. It's also lots of fun to give someone a ride in my anonymous little Mazda and turn on the stereo, having previously cued it up to the Dylan/Lanois "Man in the Long Black Coat," with its thick-enough-to-slice New Orleans atmospherics. It starts with crickets chirping, which are startling through the Focals, often making people look around in wonderment, then a couple of guitars twang a few high, sweet, lonesome notes, then the band kicks in. Jaws have been known to drop :-)
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Focal Polyglass 165 VR 6.5-Inch 2-Way Component Speaker KitThe 165 VR is a 6.5-inch, two-way speaker kit from Focal's Polyglass VR line. Included are the 6 VR woofer, an Aluminum/Magnesium inverted dome tweeter and a separate crossover. The 6 VR offers extremely high efficiency, and its 94.5dB sensitivity reveals the smallest details--transcendent on drums and percussion. The tweeters deliver smooth and precise sound, with a surprisingly large center. A great replacement for your OEM components.
6.5-Inch Polyglass Woofer
The 6.5-inch Polyglass woofer is built Focal's Polyglass cone, coupled with a butyl rubber surround, for detailed reproduction and a well-defined mid-range.
Polyglass Technology Polyglass, a Focal specialty, refers to the controlled deposit of hollow silica micro-spheres over a cellulose pulp cone. The objective is to combine cellulose the damping properties of pulp paper with the rigidity of glass, without increasing the overall mass of the cone.
Aluminum Phase Plug Phase plug designs control midrange out of the listening axis, for added accuracy.
85mm (3-1/3") Magnet High sensitivity where everything begins.
Zamac Chassis This strong, rigid zinc alloy chassis is non-magnetic and nonresonant.
The TNB Tweeter
Aluminum inverted dome tweeter technology offers significant rigidity and lowers distortion.
Inverted Dome Design The inverted dome tweeter is a Focal specialty that has been developed to precisely optimize dome and coil coupling in order to transform the electrical energy into an acoustical wave with minimal loss in comparison with a conventional raised dome. The inverted dome supports itself evenly on its entire surface, which provides a much more improved three-dimensional radiation, which during listening, translates into a surprisingly large soundstage.
Flush/Angle Mount Hardware and tools are included for both flush and angle tweeter mounting.
Polyglass Crossover
The Polyglass series crossovers feature refined audiophile components, for perfect integration into most any vehicle.
Adjustable Tweeter Level Adjust the tweeter level control according to location (3 level settings) with a simple switch.
165 VR Technical Specifications
About Focal Innovation is key to the Focal sound. For 25 years, through the pursuit of constant new advances in technology, Focal has been able to develop a harmonious research and production system that enables us to continuously improve our products and introduce new ones, all with the same goal: the most faithful reproduction of music. The latest example of this philosophy has been the introduction of Beryllium in our top products, which has become a new reference worldwide.
Constantly pursuing innovation is the embodiment of Focal's corporate strategy and that goal involves every facet of the company. From R&D to production to quality control, all our teams are fully involved and focused on this one objective: continual progress through innovation.
In today's world, where globalization and the pursuit of chasing cheaper production methods have tempted most companies to splinter their organizations, Focal has opted to be different. Though we have grown tremendously through the years, our R & D, headquarters and manufacturing facilities remain based in Saint-Etienne (France).
We have learned that true innovation is not simply work carried out at the research department, but is also a question of comprehensive management and the direct control of the different production phases. The example of Beryllium is a significant one. Only three years ago no one was capable of producing tweeters with a pure Beryllium foil dome. Focal innovated a solution based on research and the invention of specific in-house industrial processes.
Such an approach has given us an important advantage over our competitors: we develop our own technology, which allows us to consistently provide true quality production using our own methods. In 2008, the Focal Car range gets richer with a new amplifier line: Solid. This perfectly sums up Focal's commitment for high musical quality from the entry-level contrary to the general tendency that consists in looking for the cheapest prices in priority instead of performance.The result is music standardization and trivialization, which is highly prejudicial to sound quality. Focal cultivates this difference. This is the core strength of our brand and our company. This is the Spirit of Sound. We want to share this with you... It is our Utopia
What's in the Box 6.5-inch Woofer (pair), Tweeter (pair), Crossover (pair), Woofer Grille, Tweeter Flush Mounting and Surface Mounting Supports, Installation hardware, Owner's Manual
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