Polk Audio DB570 - relatively inexpensive car speakers with clear, well produced sound
Written: Jun 01 '05 (Updated Oct 20 '05)
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Pros: Clear mids and highs, solid bass
Cons: Imaging is not as good as expected
The Bottom Line: Clear mids and highs, solid bass and an overall good value
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| jwhitakr's Full Review: Polk Audio db570 Coaxial Car Speaker |
Background
I have a 2003 Mazda 6s 4-door sedan with the stock CD player, and I wanted to get some better overall sound from it. This car comes with 6-speakers as standard equipment – 2 in the front doors, 2 in the rear doors and 2 tweeters mounted between the front-door windows and the front-door panels. The first step to improving the sound in your car, and usually the easiest step, is to replace the factory speakers that come with the car. I considered a number of brands when shopping for new car speakers, and compared prices across many online and traditional stores. Based on my positive experience with Polk Audio speakers, and comparing their sound to other speakers at a few local car audio stores, I decided to go with a pair of full-range Polk Audio DB570 5"x7" speakers for my front doors.
Basic Information on Car Speakers
The first thing you should find out when shopping for speaker replacements is the speaker size of your current factory speakers. An easy way to do this is to search online (Crutchfield.com is a great site for this as they have a handy "What Fits My Car" tool). You can also check the manufacturer’s website or the owner’s manual for your car. Once you know the size, the next key decision you have is what type of design to get – a full-range (also know as coaxial) or a component system. Full-range speakers combine a woofer and a tweeter by mounting the tweeter inside the woofer cone. A component system uses a separate woofer and a separate tweeter, and usually incorporates a crossover to send the specific frequencies to the appropriate speaker. Here is a quick comparison of each type:
Full-Range:
- Usually less expensive than components
- Almost always easier to install (almost all factory speakers are full-range, so replacing them with the same type of speakers is typically less complex than replacing them with components)
- Sound quality is generally not as good as components
Components:
- Usually more expensive than full-range
- Almost always have more complexity and effort involved in the installation
- Superior sound quality versus full-range
The other factors in your decision usually come into play only if you are planning to spend a lot of money on your auto sound system. These factors, such as power handling, sensitivity and the type of materials that the speakers are constructed of, are really only important if you are going to spend a lot of time and effort to make your system sound as impressive as possible. In most cases, you can achieve better sound quality by simply purchasing new full-range speakers that match the size of the speakers you are replacing.
Basic Information on the Polk Audio DB570 Speakers
These DB570 speakers are full-range and are made out of a polymer / mica composite material for the woofer, and a silk / polymer composite material for the tweeter. The tweeter is a 3/4" dome type. Included with the speakers is a built-in crossover network that directs the lower-range frequencies to the woofer and the upper-range frequencies to the tweeter.
The recommended power range is 6 – 60 watts RMS (continuous) and 180 watts peak power. Frequency response is 52 – 22,000 Hz.
Top-mounting depth is 2 1/8", which is important for knowing whether or not this speaker will install easily in your car (if you use the online tool at Crutchfield, you can filter what you see so that you only view speakers that fit in your car).
The sensitivity of these speakers is 93 dB, which is quite good compared to other speakers of this size. Typical sensitivity for speakers of this size is 90 dB. I knew I would need high efficiency speakers since I was only going to power them with my stock CD player, and not use an aftermarket amplifier.
The warranty for these speakers is 1 year. I purchased these used, so there was no burn-in required.
Installation
I had already researched the speaker size needed for the front doors, so I was expecting (and hoping for) an easy install. I got the factory speakers taken out without any problems, and dropped the DB570's in just as easily. The screw holes in the speakers fit exactly over the existing screw holes, so it only took a few minutes to get both speakers hooked up and installed. I had also purchased some Dynamat material to reduce the vibration of the door panel, which I also installed before re-attaching the door panels. I highly recommend using Dynamat (or a cheaper alternative material) to anyone installing aftermarket speakers to replace their factory speakers, as this does a good job minimizing vibration and rattles from within your car doors. All in all, it was a straightforward install without any big issues.
After re-attaching the wiring, being careful to correctly attach the + and - wires to the positive and negative terminals on the speakers, I did a test of both speakers to make sure I’d connected everything properly. The last thing you want to do is spend the time to re-attach the door panels, and then realize you’d missed something during the installation. It's always better to test the sound before re-attaching your door panels.
Sound Quality
Initially, I was impressed with the sound quality of these speakers. The woofers produce solid bass without bottoming-out at high volume levels. They added more punch to the music than my factory speakers had. The dome tweeter produced highs as clear as speakers costing much more - the highs were not “brassy” sounding, which was common in similar speakers within the same price range. The mids and highs were faithfully reproduced with no distortion at higher volume levels. All of the CDs I listened to were more clearly projected with these speakers and all sounded quite a bit better (especially at higher volumes).
I am, however, disappointed with the imaging of the speakers. The soundstage is just not enveloping as I would have hoped it would be. I was hoping that the built-in crossover would help to create a clear soundstage, but the localization of the sound is still biased toward the speaker that is closest to me. Regardless of my head unit settings, in my music I can still hear what I would call a "disproportionate soundstage" where the instruments, voices, etc. are not equal and are not balanced between the other speakers in my car. I have not listened to enough high-end speakers to know if this is a problem with the speaker itself, or with the positioning of the various tweeters within my car.
Conclusion
Overall, I am happy with the Polk Audio DB570’s. These speakers are a good value (I paid $65 for them) and provide clearer, more accurate and punchier sound than my factory speakers. My rating of 4 stars is due to the speakers not living up to my expectations for creating an even soundstage, although this may not be a direct result of the performance of these speakers.
My other Electronics reviews:
- Panasonic PT-61LCX65 LCD Projection HDTV
- Polk Audio PSW12 Subwoofer
- Sennheiser HD-280 Pro Headphones
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 65
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jwhitakr
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Member: Justin Whitaker
Location: Lenexa, KS, USA
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