6 1/2 vs 5 1/4's in the rear doors ...

I have the Rockford Fosgate T600X5 amp installed and with the stock speakers it's just not what I had hoped for ... so now I want to change out the stock speakers, front and rear. Doing the research on Crutchfields site there are lots of 6 1/2" choices for the front doors but it appears many of the good choices for the rear doors seem to be only available in 5 1/4". A couple of questions ...

• If I go to the 5 1/4's will I notice much difference as opposed to selecting a 6 1/2" version of a different brand?
• What size is in there now?
• Any recommendations for a good middle ground set would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

go with 6.5 with adapters.

 

This might not be a popular opinion, but I would consider if you really want rear speakers: If you regularly have passengers in the back who want to listen to music that is loud enough to inhibit conversation, then the answer is yes, you want rears, and 5.25 is probably fine; however, if you are interested in preserving imaging and soundstage for the front passengers, and any rear passengers can just get sloppy seconds, you might not need to bother with rear speakers.

I'm kind of an audio purist, and a big fan of front-left, front-right, single sub, and to hell with rear fill. I always fade out my rear speakers to zero. Rear speakers only serve to convolute a sound image that was originally recorded and mastered with the intent of being reproduced by stereo (i.e., two not four) speakers. Only if you have special spatial processing hardware in your truck, and source audio that was mixed to take advantage of it, would you need more than front-left, front-right, and bass; an example of this is the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Super Audio CD, which is amazing with front and rear speakers.

So there you have it, the unpopular "less is more" speaker opinion!