Alpine SPX-17PRO

The reviews I read about this speaker had me believing I would be transported to a Sonic utopia where I sit on a velvet listening chair and have beer served to me from a diamond encrusted, platinum tray by a bikini clad Katy Perry, in open-toe stiletto heels. Needless to say, that did not happen. I was initially disappointed in the speakers sound, and after trying everything, decided to remove the factory grills that covered them. Presto. PRES-TO. Night and day difference. Those inferior factory grills were blocking much of the sound.

These have a detailed, realistic sound, albeit a bit on the bright side (I believe the vast majority of automotive tweeters are made this way purposefully ). The woofer however, seems to lag behind the tweeter in refinement. There isn’t much bass or midbass in it, and while 6.5 inch components aren’t meant to produce bass, it could stand to use a little more oomph in this department.

These crossovers are a thing of beauty,( unfortunately the Bozos I hired to install this stuff took the easiest route possible for themselves and placed them in a hidden locations)The crossovers have actual heat sinks in them much like a small amplifier, and high quality parts throughout. I haven’t adjusted them yet, due to the difficulty in accessing them.


Pros: Really neat looking crossovers that look like small amplifiers. There is enough metal and capacitors in them to give an electronics nerd multiple orgasms. The tweeters sound terrific.

Cons: A bit pricey, woofer doesn’t sound as refined as tweets.

My first impression of this speaker was ghastly, the sound was hair-thin, shrill and bodyless.( Even despite the 100 Watts I am feeding each speaker from a Kenwood X600F amp) I immediately went to work on the tone controls of my brand new head unit (the Kenwood X794). After going through every ridiculous parameter on the head unit, and turning the amp gain all the way up, I managed to get an acceptable sound from these speakers. These speakers can play pretty loud.

Overall impression, I am disappointed that this is what passes as a great sounding speaker in car audio circles.(Judging from the stellar reviews on this and many other sites and car audio forums). While these speakers certainly “crank”, I guess I expect more in the areas of realistic sound and detail retrieval for Alpines flagship component speaker.

While I have not tweaked the crossovers yet (the clowns that I paid to install them made sure to place them in areas that are not easily accessible) I doubt it will make a huge difference. I am also convinced that the head unit (another piece of equipment that was rated highly by every site I visited) may be partially responsible for the lukewarm review.

Something I could do to considerably improve the sound is bridge the channels on my amp to feed the speakers exponentially more wattage. Generally speaking, feeding speakers greater wattage tends to make the sound more life-like and helps with detail retrieval. However, the problem is I wanted to use the remaining channels to power rear speakers, and I didn't want to spend more money on another amp. Suffice to say, I will try bridging the power anyway.

My friend’s $200 Boston coaxials being powered by less wattage actually have the goods on these components in overall sound quality (GAG). Despite this, these speakers trump the Boston’s in the area of bass and loudness (a small consolation).

If I had to do it all over again, I would but the Boston PRO60 SE components instead.

This is an okay overall component system. The woofers bump nice and get great sound out of them but I was expecting more from the tweeters. The tweeters are clean and get loud but they don't let you hear the distinct sounds that a higher end tweeter does.

Great product. Bought few months ago. After a few weeks they just kept on playing better and better. The tweeters are the best out of these components. Clear sound at all volumes. I have a sinfoni amplitude 90.2 and it just sounds amazing!

Once you go Alpine, you'll never go back to anything else. Phenomenal!