Customer Reviews

Polk Audio DB6501 6.5-Inch 2-Way Component System (Pair, Silver)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I installed these as a part of the first car audio upgrade I have done since I was in the 10th grade (10 years ago). I wasn't even going to bother with a car audio upgrade unless it could play on the same field as my home stereo. The home stereo is a pair of Polk Monitor 70s, a Denon receiver, and a Martin Logan Dynamo sub. Obviously a tall order.

Powered by an Alpine MRP-F600 amp, these speakers produce excellent, clear sound at any volume. From the inhale of a vocalist to a loud trumpet, at social listening volume to beyond ear-damaging levels, these speakers reproduce the source faithfully.

Installation note: The speaker adapter brackets have a lot of tabs on them to fit a variety of factory mounting points. In some installations you will need to remove the extra tabs so they don't interfere with the door panel. THESE TABS EASILY SNAP OFF BY HAND! I was a dope and didn't realize this at first, so instead of snapping the tabs off I spent 20 minutes making a mess cutting them off with a Dremel. =D

About 3 months ago, I decided that I'd had enough of my factory car speakers in my 2008 Toyota Prius. I haven't replaced speakers in my cars for years so I didn't want to do the whole rewiring/amp/equalizer/etc deal. I simply wanted to replace the stock speakers with better ones. After a couple of weeks of research, I chose these over Boston Acoustics, Pioneer and Infinity because of the sensitivity rating and price.

Before I get on with how great these are, let me explain how bad the old ones were. The stock speakers suffered bad "motorboating"...you know, when a bass heavy piece of music causes the speakers to make a fluttering sound like a motorboat engine. This was a daily occurence, even with the base kicked down two pips. I also had to kick the treble up two pips. Still, the treble was severe. Songs like Alanis Morisette's "Citizen of the Planet" were almost impossible to listen to because the lows were too quiet and the parts where the bass kicked in overpowered the speakers immediately. Once I pulled the stock speakers out, it was evident why they sounded so terrible. The magnets on them were slightly less than an inch in diameter and I couldn't find anything that would actually stick to them.

okay, back to the polk audio's. Installation went pretty easy. I did have to make my own mounting brackets from mdf to fit in the huge holes that Toyota has in it's doors. The tweeters fit nicely in the same place as the stock tweeters were. After the install, I was able to put the treble and bass back to flat. Initially, the bass seemed to be a little week and I was concerned that I would have to put an amp in to correct it. After about a month though, it seemed like the speakers started to loosen up. Now, the sound is great. I know I don't need an amp, at least not with this radio. I'm enjoying hearing new things in my music that I'd not heard before because the previous speakers couldn't reproduce it. One note of caution though....as a regular podcast listener, I happened to be listening to a podcast that, at one point, had a car horn honk. It sounded realistic enough that it caused me to swerve to avoid the imaginary car that was approaching on the right! :)

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these speakers to anyone!

You could tell a lot about a product just by seeing the type of packaging it came in. But for Polk Audio, the name alone tells you it's a great product. They were easy to install, came with all the necessary hardware, look great, and most importantly, sound excelent. Crisp, smooth highs and natural sounding mids & vocals even when pushed hard. Bottom line, great sounding speakers at a great price!

These speakers rock. If you want the full output of these I would reccommend an amp though. These are power hungry.

These speakers really sound great. I looked at a lot of speakers' specs online, and nothing came close to these--bass response down to 35 hZ (I am a professional bassist so this was a necessity), while they have an efficiency rating of 92db. This is VERY important, if not the MOST important spec when you are matching your speakers to your amp (or even driving them with the weak head unit). You need TWICE the power to push 3db more sound...So all else being equal, an 89dB rated speaker will sound half as loud with the same power input. These sound just awesome with an Alpine CDE-124XSM head unit (GREAT unit, with built in XM tuner!) driving them (50watts/channel peak, 18W/ channel program). I'm sure they would be even better with an amp, and they can take a TON of power! I'm not sure how they got such great bass response AND efficiency; really genius, and like NOTHING ELSE I found on the market. I bought them due to the amazing reviews, and great reputation of POLK.

35 hZ is nearly down to the low string of a five string bass guitar (low B); most other speakers have no output below 65-90 hZ. If you want BASS, get these. There is no silly treble response up to 22,000 like some speakers, but most people can barely hear up to 20,000 hZ and there is almost no musical information there.

I set the crossovers at -3dB because I hate harsh treble, and you need a lot of bass frequency to make up for all the low droning road noise on the freeway. I put a narrow +1 dB boost at 500hZ, for warm growl, and a +1dB wide boost at 10K for the cymbal sparkle. I have not heard the tweeters at the other settings; for now I am happy as a clam. I had the tweeters mounted in the door, facing up, right near the woofer. Beautiful tweeter sounds, very clear, warm (if you can say that about treble) and not harsh at all. Silk dome tweeters like these have a smooooth response.

The system is rounded out by a (discontinued; you can still find them) Blaupunkt THB-210A 8" active subwoofer (240 watts peak, 120 watts program). These three components (head unit, speakers, and sub) together sound absolutely amazing, AND I paid less than $700 for everything, installed. Even without the sub, there is VERY nice bass...but add the sub if you can....

Our Eurovan went from a broken tape player and worn out speakers to an XM-equipped audiophile system at a bargain price! BTW, that Blaupunkt sub fits perfectly under the front seat! No loss of cargo room and my wife likes the vibrations in her seat:) We just put the swivel seat adapter in there too (Eurocampers.com) and it couldn't be a more perfect fit---the seat basically touches the sub but it STILL FITS!!! We were relieved...

I love hearing all the details of the music AND THE BASS!!! at a low volume. I don't need to crank it to hear everything beautifully. Head unit is generally set no higher than "15", and I hear NO distortion. Like I said, I am happy as a clam.

Buy these speakers; I did hours of research...FOR THE PRICE and even at twice the price, they can't be touched...

I bought these speakers and installed them in the front doors of my 2011 Honda CR-V. I also dampened and sealed the doors with Dynamat Xtreme. I was immediately impressed (maybe even surprised) with the build quality and finish of these inexpensive speakers. The plastic crossovers look cheap in pictures but in real life are made of solid well-finished plastic. The included screws and hardware are all stainless steel to resist rusting. They come with rigid plastic mounting spacers which I used in my install. The included speaker wires are pretinned and preterniated with connectors. All nice touches which aren't found in speakers costing much more.
Driven by just the factory Honda headunit (around 10-15watt/channel), the sound quality is noticably improved over the factory speakers. The bass is a little tighter and more powerful than before. On Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, the bass line comes through loud and strong. The treble now also has more sparkle and detail (have the treble output set a 0db on the xovers). There is also more spaciousness to the sound. I also no longer hear the slight hollow echoey sound in the midrange as with the factory speakers.
However, with the factory headunit, the sound lacked dynamics and impact. I soon installed and powered them with a external JL Audio XD400/4 4-channel amp (75 watts/channel) fed by an Audiocontrol LC2i active line output converter. With the sub channel turned off and the bass boost on the LC2i turned up, the bass output is unreal...super strong and loud. Again, keep in mind that my doors are dampened and sealed with Dynamat which helps with the bass output. The overall dynamics are also noticably improved by amping them.
In short, I highly recommend these speakers. They sound great and are really a great bargain.

I purchased these to replace stock audio systems. I wanted something that was worth the money. Wow, did I ever find them. To begin with, the packaging was great, every component was individually wrapped and sealed in its own plastic bag surrounded by cardboard. Could they have been in Styrofoam? Yes, but there was no need for it. Proper packaging prevents most damage, and Styrofoam is a waste of space and is non biodegradable.

Everything I needed (except diagonal cutters and wire nuts)was included. The template that is included fit where I needed it to, and once I figured out how to make sure they were properly oriented, I was able to have them looking great in no time.

Make sure you do not cut ANYTHING off before you dry fit everything, CHECK CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK all your fittings prior to cutting, anything. A little prep work will go a LONG way.

As for sound, this is the exact speaker system I needed. I am a bit of an audiophile, and no longer feel the need to make my ears and eyes bleed, but the sound that is emitted from this system simply is superb. As long as you want quality and superb audio in a package that is easy to install, this is the system for you.

I fell in love with Polk Audio about 20 years ago when I had their top of the line components and a Rockford Fosgate Punch amp installled in a Prelude that I was driving at the time. I paid about $500 for the component speakers alone, but I did not regret it!!! Being on a fixed income these days, I was pleasantly surprised that Polk offers components at a much more reasonable price.... I was skeptical, in fact, because of the outrageously low price. Could these cheaper components produce the heavenly soundstage that I had experienced years ago????? The answer is a resounding YES!!! Without the benefit of a dedicated power amp (running off a cheap Sony head unit - I plan to add 200W Punch later), these speakers are a voice from the heavens. I installed them myself in a 2003 Nissan Sentra.... tweets in the factory pillar brackets.... woofers in factory door cutouts..... The highs are crisp and extremely well defined... the lows are punchy and gutteral.... again this is without dedicated amplification!!!! You might as well have Eric Clapton with you in your vehicle. Probably the best $113.00 I ever spent!!!!
I just purchased a second set of these components for the rear deck (tweeters are installed in rear pillars for imaging purposes).... each set of components (one amp for the front channel and one for the rear) is powered by a Rockford Fosgate Prime R150-2 amplifier (Rockford Fosgate's low end). The system is rounded off by a R300 - 12" amplified enclosure in the trunk and an Alpine CDA-117 head unit that allows the flexibility of six preamp outputs (two front, two rear, and two subwoofer).... this is the cleanest system that I've ever owned..... I can't detect any audible distortion at even very high volume levels.... I've never taken the system above about 20 on Alpine's scale of 1 to 35, nor would I want to (I'd like to be able to hear in my later years). From what I understand about Polk speakers, their high end speakers differ by solid metal construction of tweeters and crossovers, but, for me plastic is OK when I look at the almost identical audio performance of these speakers (which is among the tops in the industry.... awesome to say the least). With a "surround sound" system in my vehicle anchored by Polk, Rockford Fosgate, and a stellar Alpine head unit I am pleased and often dazzled.... I couldn't be happier.... I recommend any or all of these components without reservation!!!!!

With my old vehicles I use to spend loads of money on systems. I would use Eclipse decks and speakers powered by JL audio amps. I always loved the mellowness of the highs without being piercing. In my new car I didn't want to go so expensive or crazy, just something easy that would sound good. I installed these Polks in my 04 S2000 and they were a perfect fit. Just a little modification needed to match the holes but very simple. The speakers sound great. I lowered the tweeter decibel on the crossover -3 which tones them down and are never too sharp. The highs are clear and the lows are very good. I don't use an amp but could only imagine them with one. I run them off of a JVC KDR900 so not a super high end deck but performs very well with these speakers. I recommend fully. You won't be disappointed.

I installed these in a 2009 Jeep wrangler with a stock head unit and Polk Audio DB651 in the roll bar. These sound so much better then the Polk Audio DB651, these have body and depth, the rears don't. Installation was not too hard, they come with some very good brackets that (after some trimming) fit fine, I did have to modify my tweeter holders to make em fit right. I do not have and qualms with the quality, would buy again.