Focal 165 V30

I formerly had a set of Boston 6.5 components and wanted to upgrade, my bostons sounded best when using the tweeter pods so I mounted these the same way on the dash... The tweets were too "in your face loud" in the pods even with the 3db down setting, and eq'ing didn't get them exactly right either, so I moved them to the dash firing up, which sounds counter-intuitive but they image really great now and kind of "disappear" into my front soundstage while maintaining excellent sound. Who'd of thought? I also found out that there is a big difference between amps in the way speakers sound. I used to think a decent amp was a decent amp, and that the sound wouldn't vary that much but I was dead wrong. I ditched my 4-ch Boston amp and bought a JL 300/4 v2 and the difference is night and day! The JL is super warm sounding and I finally got the midbass "kick" I was looking for in a component set. The midbass of these moves my pant legs on rock music and is what I was really looking for in a set. The woofers on these are just that, WOOFERS, not tiny xmax overgrown midranges like most component sets. They have serious punch and the ability to MOVE with kick drums (with that JL amp anyway)

This is the most money I've ever spent on a set of components, but truth be told, I would probably never spend less on a middle of the road set again. I finally got the great sound I've been looking for in my car. When turning up the volume, these just get louder and louder with that JL amp, and the distortion isn't there, just pure clean and as loud as I can tolerate/enjoy! I played these for a friend and they were very impressed with the overall clarity and midbass response.

Hands down these were a great investment, however I do recommend a high quality AB amp. I listened to them on several amps (digital ones) and the JL was hands down the best sounding with these particular drivers. The digital amps all sounded empty or flat out harsh to the ears... I tried a rockford amp in the T series and they sounded horrible, the alpine digital sounded empty, and JL digital sounded warmer but still a little empty...

Also, be very careful with the tweets, they come with a key to move them between surface pod or flat mount and they seem very delicate. There is a lot of exposed area on the tweeters when the little grilles are off and I envisioned me putting a tool through them on accident or something... I gave "ease of use" 4 instead of 5 because you have to use a paperclip or something super thin to remove the grille covers and there was no supplied tool to do this.