I've heard Infinity brand spoken of very highly. Any others, beside OEM?
el Raidman

Sound quality is a very subjective matter. What sounds good to one person may not sound good to another. I am an ex-car audio IASCA competitor, I took it all the way to the finals. THE ONLY WAY to figure out what the best speaker is would be to go to various dealers and listen to as many different speakers as you can. Figure out how much you want to spend, and work from there. With a few exceptions more expensive speakers = better speakers. Also better speakers = need for good amplification. Keep that in mind when buying speakers, because $500 set of Diamond Audio HEXs will want about 75-100 watts per channel minimum. If I was to recommend any speakers I'd suggest you go listen to MB Quart (Q series), Focal (kevlar and up), Diamond Audio (HEX), Seas Excel Lotus line (amazing) and Rainbow (seriously expensive, but mind-blowing). If you are seeking great sound within reasonable budget you can find some very decent components from Crystal and Virtual Technologies. Do your homework before you buy, and you'll be happy. Also, keep in mind - most speakers carry 75-100% markup at the dealers - negotiate. Good luck!

There is no such thing as highest quality speakers. There are at least 40 manufacturers that build "highest quality speakers" and that in the mobile audio area only, and excluding manufacturers like Sony, Clarion, Kenwood which manufacture let's say middle class speakers, at least in the low end-low price segment.
Now, a very short list of highest quality car speaker manufacturers, apart from Focal and BA, which I see they come very highly recomended from everybody, (kidding of course, they are very good, but extremely expensive), should include Harman Kardon, Becker, Mark Levinson and Infinity, not to mention JBL, from Harman International Industries, Precision Power, Orion, and a/d/s from the Directed Electronics group (Viper audio and Directed audio by the way are not as good as the first three), Phase Linear, Magnat and MacAudio from the Recoton group, Cerwin Vega, MB Quart, Oz Audio, KEF, Dynaudio, Rockford Fosgate, JL Audio, Audiobahn, Alpine, Kicker and so many others.
So as you see it's not about who makes the highest quality speakers, but more about which speakers do you like more from the sound point of view ( the best test possible is to be able to listen to them in the same enviroment prefferably in the car they'll be installed in, but if that is not possible, at least in the same room and of course mounted on a rack not held in hand) and of course here comes the affordability matter.
It's very easy to say "take BA, they're the best" ok, maybe they're among the best but can you afford or more likely are you willing to pay 300 USD - MSRP for the entry level RC520 from Boston Acoustics? I can assure you that if you're not an extreme audiophile you won't even notice the difference between these speakers and another entry level of one of the good companies I listed above, let's say the Discus series from MB Quart which comes at nearly half that price.
And by the way all these speakers need power, and I don't mean here the sorry 12W that the average head unit can provide. You need amplifiers, otherwise it would be like having at home a pair of Bose, Jamo, Tannoy or you name the speakers and powering them with a Discman.
So instead of trying to buy the world's most expensive speakers you should try to build a more equilibrated system bearing in mind that you would need amplifiers, speakers and a good head unit with at least two line outs capable of minimum 3Volts.
5.25 speakers work only if you have power windows, otherwise don't even think about it, it's hard enough to fit 4" with round masks in the front cutouts of the 240 with manual windows, because the window handle barely passes the masks, with 5.25"'s and spacers that becomes impossible.
A better handling of the issue is to install like I did a pair of 4" midranges with tweeters, in the front and possibly in the rear doors (in the rear door panels there are cutouts prepared, you just have to cut the panel material, and a good subwoofer in the trunk.
There is a secondary alternative that allows you to install even 6.5" speakers, and is even better for the general imaging of sound since it increases the distance between the ear and the speakers, allowing the soundwave to reach the ear almost simultaneously from left and right speaker which in this car is a big problem in the actual location of the speakers unless you have some kind of electronic delaying device that are found on the new generation high class head units. The alternative is buying or building kick panels.
By the way coaxes are not as bad as you would think since the best sound imaging is obtained by having the midrange and tweeter nearby.
--
1991 Volvo 245; 1979 Volvo 244

Although some speakers are better than others it's a very subjective matter. It depends on what you listen for in music. Ideally speakers should replicate all audible fequencies equally, but this is not the case.
Companies like BA (Boston Acoustics) do a better job at this than some lower companies who just want the thing to sound loud, which isn't usually what you want to hear. The biggest factor in my opinion is what somebody already touched on which is road noise. My 240 looks, drives, and sounds like a tank, there is so much noise (especially w/ studed winter tires) that you really have to listen for the music unless you crank it up. It also depends on if you want a component system in the car. If not then you should get something that has a tweeter mounted on the speaker housing to help with the high end sounds. The Infinit speakers are subject to quality lines, in short, the Reference serries is not nearly as good as there Kappa series. Infinity is known for making oversized speakers (less metal, more speaker).

So in short, there is no complete answer, only opinions and numbers to back them up. My sugestion is listen to several different systems and pick what you like the best.

Yeah, I agree on the general opinion of Boston Acc, but they are even more expensive and perhaps a little better, then my oh so preferred focals(focal is French).

succes with the custon spacer, you will need it, to make a spacer.

There are many brands in car audio that make great speakers. I would have to say you would have to listen to the speakers and then decide which one you like. Different speakers creat different sound and the only way to choose one you like is to listen to it. I personally like Audiobahn, infinity, and Boston Acoustic. Boston make very good speakers, but they are very expensive. You could easily run up into the hundreds with boston. Boston in my opinion is one of the best speaker companies on the market becuase they put so much research into their speakers. They offer really nice 5.25" component systems if you can afford them.

Charles
1985 245ti 135K

I agree, Boston Acoustics components, specifically the ProSeries. They're expensive, but properly set up, with a quality amp, they're incredible.

heartily agree about the Bostons. I have a set up in each of my bricks with Boston Pro's (4") in the front doors, 5.25 or 6" Boston Pros in the rear, and a Boston Pro 10" sub in the trunk. Power is from a PPI 250w amp for the 4" and 5" (or 6"); and another PPI monobloc for the sub. Incredible sound -- the type absolutely NOT to be expected from a 49 year old guy in a brick by the young'uns in their tricked out rice rockets. I've even had profesional musicians preer to bring their demo CD's ot my CAR for a listen !

Mike

I've got 5 Hafler amps (3 MSE44Di, and 2 MSE88Tn), waiting to be put to use. I liked the Haflers I used in my Merkur XR4Ti to drive my Boston Pros that I've picked up a few through the years for future use. When I get the perfect 245, I'm going to scare my kid's friends with the system I'm planning. I even have a new old stock 10 inch Hafler sub that might find it's way into the project.

BTW, I have another recommendation for speakers, but they'd require a bit of searching/luck to find. The discontinued Polk/Momo MM455 components sounded great, and can occasionally be had new on ebay for the $150-200 range. At that price, they put out some high quality sound.

Boston Acoustics makes nice speakers as well as Infinity, Polk Audio, many others. If they are for front doors, you will need to create custom spacers to ensure clearance for the window in back. If you have manual windows, be sure to check for crank clearance with spaced grills as well. Busted knuckles aren't really worth the price. Other alternatives are nice 4" speakers, but add sound deadening material such as dynamat to the floorboards and dynashield spray to the interior of the doors. Any reduction in road/engine noise translates into better music.

Jeff

I would go for focal, kevlar series.

I fitted 2 5,25" (13 centimeter) focals in my front doors with custom spacers.
They really sound great in front, much better than the el cheapos popular.

I putted the tweeters in the 2 most distinct corners of the upper dashboard.


price is triple of "screaming popular brands"

they can handle 60 Watts RMS, double or triple "screaming popular brands" -)-)

you need an amplifier for these buties ! this even more improves quality

wiched I had a digital camera

One speaker weights 1 kg (+- 2 pound) because of the magnet.

with one centimeter of spacing the rear of the magnet just don' t touch the window wehn it is rolled down

succes

http://www.focal.tm.fr/