Alpine SPR-17C 6-1/2" 2-Way Speaker (Pair)

by Alpine

Product Details

• Item Weight: 8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000NVBNW0
• Item model number: SPR-17C
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,819 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 28, 2007

Product Description

2-way coaxial speakers, hybrid layered pulp woofer cone, 300 watts peak power, 1 Inches silk dome tweeter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome speakers!, January 22, 2008

By 

Stephen M. Baylor (Evansville, IN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alpine SPR-17C 6-1/2" 2-Way Speaker (Pair) (Personal Computers)

These speakers are awesome! They have excellent clarity. I have them installed in an S10 with Alpine Type S 4x6 speakers in the dash, two 12 inch subwoofers behind the seats, and an Alpine IDA-x001 head unit. I have passive crossovers installed on these speakers, so I can't comment on the bass response of these speakers, but the mids and highs are excellent. I have them powered by the in-deck amplifier, and these speakers could certainly handle more power than is being supplied. An external amplifier would probably be a good choice with these these speakers, but it is not necessary. They sound loud and clear just the way they are. They sound better than several component speaker systems that I have heard in the past, and I would definitely recommend these speakers to anyone wishing to upgrade their sound system.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Coax Speakers, October 19, 2010

By 

Jayne_Cobb (Jaynestown) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alpine SPR-17C 6-1/2" 2-Way Speaker (Pair) (Personal Computers)

The first thing I'd like to address is that most brand new speakers require a break-in period. A large percentage of negative speaker reviews you'll see are from people that hooked them up out of the box, played them for a few minutes, and decided they sounded awful. And it's true that most speakers will have a hollowness to them and that they'll lack punch and clarity when they're new. In order to really gauge sound quality, new speakers need to be played at a moderate to high volume for several hours.

These Alpines are no exception to the break-in period. They did sound a bit hollow and muffled when I first played them. But after a few hours of drive time, they really opened up and gained some punch and lucidity. I'm truly impressed with the sound quality for the amount of money these cost.

In my previous vehicle I had a Dynaudio System 220, which sounded absolutely beautiful. While I can't say that these Alpines are as good, I can definitely say they get close, and that's a lot to say for a coaxial speaker. I purchased these Alpines because I wanted something simple and easy to install, and also something that would handle a lot of power. One thing I've found with coaxs is that the tweeter size makes a huge difference in power handling. I was attracted to the fact that these Alpines came with 1" tweeters. Many coaxes will only come with 1/2" or 3/4" tweets. In the past, I've blown quite a few small tweeters, and with clean power. So the fact that these have larger tweeters is a major plus.

Another big plus to these speakers is the filter components. Most cheap coaxes will only have a small cap, acting as a high pass filter for the tweeter. Those tiny caps can get fried, even with clean power. These Alpines use large high quality capacitors which help them handle higher power levels. Also, they have inductors on them acting as low pass filters for the woofers. This is something you won't usually find on cheaper coaxes. By sending only lower frequencies to the woofers, you're going to gain better separation and clarity in your music.

As for the magnets, these speakers are beefy. Alpine did not skimp on the magnets, and that's always important if you want to get tighter midbass.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with these speakers and I would fully recommend them as far as sound quality and power handling go.

Now, for installation. I purchased these because Crutchfield's website said that they fit the front doors of my vehicle. I currently have a 4-door 1994 Honda Civic. The civic has stock baskets which will only accomodate shallow depth speakers. I knew that these would have to be removed, which is no big deal. The Alpines come with two sets of mounting rings, one set of which I assumed would bolt right up. Wrong.

The shallow set of mounting rings has various tabs on it that you can break off, depending on your particular vehicle. The only way to make these rings fit my civic doors was to break off almost every single tab. Unfortunately, even with that done, they're a bit too shallow. The backs of the speakers will hit the window glass. This left the deeper rings to try. With the deeper rings, there are no tabs--just an odd array of plastic clips and extensions that make it impossible to lay the rings flat against the metal speaker holes in the doors. These clips and extensions do not break off easily by any means. I had to get my dremel out and cut all of them off in order to get the rings flush against the doors. After that, I used some black silicon to seal them to the metal. Unfortunately, the only holes on the speaker rings that allow for mounting to the metal are the same holes that you must screw the speaker into. What this means is that you'll have to drill out the plastic holes so that the included long screws are free to move inside. I used a 3/16 bit to do this. After that, I used a 1/8 bit to drill into the metal. I connected the speakers and then hand tightened the screws into the doors. With that, installation was pretty much complete.

Generally, when Crutchfield says something will fit, they mean it will bolt right up without any modification. This is certainly not the case with my car, so if you plan on installing into a similar vehicle, be prepared to do a little work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you have an external amp and need drivers that can handle it, don't bother trying to go cheap -- these are what you need, February 19, 2010

By 

Brian Patrick (Chicago IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alpine SPR-17C 6-1/2" 2-Way Speaker (Pair) (Personal Computers)

I was pretty pleased with the factory Bose speakers in my car. Unfortunately, one of the back speakers finally blew out after 14 years. I auditioned three other sets of speakers -- a pair of Pioneers, a pair of Kenwoods, and even a pair of Alpine S-series -- before finally settling on the R-series. They were the only pair that could handle the power put out by the factory amp, and they were the only ones that came close to replicating the bass put out by the Bose speakers they were replacing.

Compare these side-by-side with just about any "commonplace" 6.5-inch speakers and they're much deeper and have a much bigger magnet. Take that as a clue. The reason these speakers cost twice as much (or more) as many 6.5" coaxial car speaker sets sold here is because they sound twice as good and put out at least twice the bass. If you want truly good sound from a 6.5" speaker and you're not dealing with an unusually shallow mounting space, don't cheap out -- don't even get the less expensive Alpine S-series. Go for the R-series. Spend the extra money for these speakers because they are completely and totally worth it. But I want to reiterate that these are for systems with an external amp, so make sure you've got the power to move 'em -- the 20-some watts per channel coming from your head unit won't be enough.