A few months ago a buddy was putting together a little stereo for his car and asked for speaker recommendations, and after learning that the Hertz I bought and liked in my car are no longer available, I recommended some entry level Focals. Even without an amp, they sounded great; possibly even better than my Hertz and an amp, especially in terms of mid bass output.

Fast forward a bit and I got the urge to upgrade my front speakers in search of a little more bass. Naturally, I wanted to try out some Focals, and got a set of 6.5" components from their Performance series. After talking with some people, it sounded like I was going to need some adapters to get them to fit properly, so Patrick (PHenryiv) of SubaruAudio.net fame, made me a pair specifically for these Focals. Since it was the middle of winter and I'm without a garage, I drove up to his place to do the install in his garage.

On to the pics!

Here are the old Hertz:


And the new goodies!








I noticed a pattern emerging during the install: the new Focal parts seemed to be much beefier than the Hertz stuff. Granted, the Focals were about double the price of the Hertz, so it isn't exactly surprising.

Hertz:


Focal:


Hertz:


Focal:










And the finished product!


At this point I probably only have 5 hours of time in the Focals, and I haven't re-tuned my amp, but I was expecting a little more bass from these guys. We shall see how they behave when they get broken in and I lower the crossover a bit. What I can say is that I like the way the tweeters "fill" the air more than the Hertz. I'll update this later when I get some more time with them.

Anyways, thank you Patrick for helping with the install and for making the spacers. They sure made the install a breeze!

 

Very nice!!

 

In for.more.

 

I don't know that you'll be overly pleased with the Focals, those tweeters are generally bright, but you may just need some more power to pull that midbass out of them. Should have just gone 8" comps if you wanted more midbass

 

Well, it's been a year, so I wanted to give a proper review of these speakers. I played with the crossover setting in my head unit, and made sure the amp (Boston Acoustics GT2 125 RMS x 2) didn't have the crossover turned on, as I wanted to be able to control that from the HU. I'm happy to say that these now produce a decent amount of bass for a 6.5", and I just love the way the tweeters sound! I really liked the old Hertz tweeters, but these are even fuller sounding without being the least bit harsh. The bass response is also great, so great that I need to do another round of sound deadening in the doors. They already look like this:



To top it all off, I have joined up with Patrick and will be making custom PVC Nissan speaker adapters/spacers! As far as Maximas go, we only really need them in the front doors, as clearance isn't an issue in the rear deck. I can use either 1/2" or 3/4" material depending on your speaker dimensions, and will cut them for your specific application. Prices are $30 shipped for a pair, or $55 shipped if you want four. You can PM me, or email me at: Nick at subaruaudio.net (put together!). These will work in most other Nissans from the past 15 years, so if you have a G35 or 350Z and want custom adapters made, just let me know!