Alpine SPR-60C 6.5' Car Audio Component System (Pair)

I bought a 2013 Audi S4 late in the model year and was unable to get one with the optional B&O system. Ever since, I have been pondering about upgrading the basic 10-speaker Concert DSP audio system. In 2010, Edmund reviewed it and gave it a C+ rating. I think it's not far off, though I might rate it lower, because it's really disappointing to have 10 speakers and missing all the high and low ends so badly, but not so bad that I would rather turn it off. Audi has been using the same speakers for their B8 platform cars since 2009 and each speaker is made with its own casing to fit. So there are no direct after market replacements. It has taken me a while to look into how to upgrade in a simple way that would give the most bang for the bucks. Amazon actually shows these Alpine speakers as not fitting the S4. However, they do work with rather minor effort to adapt the speakers to the space.The car uses 2 pairs of component speakers for the 4 doors, though the 2 front tweeters are on the dash. The 60C uses neodymium magnets which make the drivers more compact and easier to fit in tight spaces. The door woofers require 1" spacers to push them forward to mount in the factory space. The 6.5" size is about 2" smaller than the Audi part. I crumpled some thin foam sheets to stuff the excess space loosely and covered them with a black "wool scarf" that wrapped around the driver. This reduces resonance and cleaned up the sound a bit. The tweeters are small and light enough to be suspended in the factory space with simple attachments. They can swivel more towards the interior and not straight up at the windshield. The factory grilles go back on nicely and the Alpine grilles are not needed.Audi's factory 6 channel amp is quite decent, rated 180 total: 40Wx2 to the front pair, 20Wx2 to the rear pair, 40W to the subwoofer and 20W to a front center speaker. Although the 60C is rated for 8W-110W. It's not a problem to drive them with 20W or 40W rms. Few people listen above 1W rms, which gives a sound level of 88 db. 4 speakers at 1W each would give 94 db. How loud is that? Well, exposure to 88db for more than 4 hours would result in hearing damage. 91 db should be kept below 2 hours and 94 db below 1 hr, etc.I chose the Alpine Type-R after listening to it in the store and comparing it against other 6.5" components systems by JL, Pioneer, Kenwood, etc. Their prices ranged from $100/pr to $500/pr MSRP. The 60C is priced in the middle, but I found its sound to be fuller without the help of a sub. I started by replacing just the front pair, and also replaced the subwoofer by Alpine's 120W powered sub PWE-S8 (my review of that is given under its Amazon listing). After hearing how big an improvement they made, I replaced the rear pair with 60C as well. One nice feature of the 60C is that the crossover is smaller than most others, hence easier to position and hide.The tweeter level could be set to 0, -2, -4 and -6db with a jumper. I prefer the -4db setting.Audi's front center is a 2.5" driver. After the 60Cs are installed, I found its sensitivity and tonal characters not a good match. I tried 3 other small full-range drivers and came to the conclusion that it's best to not have a center speaker at all. In a home theater system, the center is mainly for dialogues in movies, almost never used for music. For people who don't watch movies in the car, there is really no need for it. Since the head unit doesn't offer separate controls for the center, there is no way to match the center to other channels. The weakest link in the Audi system is the subwoofer. The PSW-S8 proved to be an excellent replacement, works well the SPR-60C and takes up little space in the trunk.When it's all said and done, the sound system goes from 180W for 10 Audi speakers to 240 W for 9 Alpine speakers. The factory amp still drives the the front pair at 40Wx2 and the rear pair at 20Wx2. That's 120W total. The powered sub comes with its own 120W amp. Despite having one less speaker, the Alpine upgrade is a considerable improvement over the factory system. It's probably better than the 14-speaker B&O option as well because that also uses a free air subwoofer that is never very effective. It's not hard to find online owners of the B&O system who express their dissatisfaction. While the B&O system has over 500W total, I much rather have 120W for a sub that works and another 120W for the two pairs of 60C. They are more than low enough to cause hearing damage. The MSRP of the system is about the same as the B&O upgrade, though one could find discount easily. The labor is either DIY or could be done at BestBuy for about $300 labor plus some miscellaneous installation materials.After the upgrade, the clarity is much improved, the lost bass and drums have returned, and the sibilance in voices can be heard. In other words, the distortion is much lower and the frequency response is much more extended. It's quite pleasant to listen to on long trips. While I wouldn't say is A+, in the sense that I would not compare it to the speakers in my home system (Carver ALS-3+). I would give it at least a B+, or "very good". Realistically that's about one could hope for with just a simple swap of speakers without doing much else. It's an cost effective upgrade and not an ultimate system. That's all that I was aiming for. In retrospect, I'm glad that I was unable to get the B&O upgrade when I bought the car.************Buyers Beware*************Buying the 60C on Amazon would get a hefty discount off the MSRP, but the sellers are typically not authorized US dealers and Alpine will not honor the warranty. Looking closely at the detailed images posted on authorized dealer web sites suggest that the products are the same: the lettering and color of the capacitors and inductors are all identical, even the texture of the grid pattern on the back side of the cone look the same. Alpine's web site warns people about serial number. As it turns out, these speakers do not have S/N on the box and cannot be registered with Alpine no matter whom you buy them from. It took a call to Alpine to understand that they don't deal with speaker warranty directly. They expect it to be handled by the authorized dealers who sold you the speaker. For the powered sub which I bought an Alpine authorized dealer, it does have a small sticker on the box with a bar code and a serial number. My best guess is that Alpine sells the speakers through unauthorized dealers at big discounts to DIY buyers. They don't want to deal with consequence of improper installations, so there is no real warranty. In order to have warranty, one must buy from local authorized dealers who usually install them as well. For the powered sub that can be removed easily, it's possible to send to Alpine for service. Of course, there is always the danger of buying counterfeit products online. So one must examine what one buys carefully. I do wish Amazon would clearly indicate the situation on the web page description.*******************************There are clearly other component speakers that could be mounted in the Audi the same way, and other compact powered sub that would work well. I can only report that the Alpine 60C and the PSW-S8 is a combination that I could recommend to other Audi A4/S4 owners who like to improve the sound system in a significant way with minimal work and a budget around $1000, higher or lower depending on where one buys and who's doing the installation. When I started the process, I went to a car audio store and was ready to just let them do whatever they recommend to upgrade the speakers. However, I was told that I had to spend $3,000, rewire everything and sacrifice a good part of the trunk space. I was not impressed by what they showed me. I actually like this simple upgrade better regardless of price.Images below show (1) front door woofer with a black "scarf"; (2) center speaker removed and (3, 4) compact 8" 120W powered sub PWE-S8 behind the rear seat.

To start off i'm a huge audio guy, especially when it comes to car audio, getting the perfect sound and quality is what is most important to me when it comes to a system. I listen to pretty much everything (Metal, Rock, Country, Rap, Dubstep, House, Trap,Orcestral, ect). I go for SQ instead of SPL. With that being said my take on the Alpine Type R 60c's was that they we're okay in quality and sound. Definitely not worth it for the price though. I bought these to replace a set of kenwoods i had in my front doors and for a little while i thought the kenwoods sounded better until i EQ'd these better. I powered theses speakers with an alpine mrp f300 amplifier with 150 watts RMS going to each pair (tweeter and woofer). Doors are deadened and sealed and speakers were complimented by an Alpine Type X subwoofer in a custom ported box tuned to 32hz. experimented with them crossovered between 65-120 hz. I say this to give you the kind of expectation i had, the type of enviroment they were in and what i wanted out of these speakers while you read my review.Woofer- Woofer is probably the better of the two in this comp set. I did find the mid bass a little lacking and the response was not as tight as i would like, it was difficult to get a real tight kick from the kick drum and lower end. The neodymium magnet made this woofer smaller than most i had seen, you wouldnt expect the response it gives from looking at it. the mids range tones sounded good, guitars we're vibrant and not over powering but didn't give much response when it came to toms in rock/metal songs. They had decently clean response when it came to bass heavy songs like Rap and Trap. Definitely want to have these crossed over around 80 hz (12db slope), any higher and you just don't get the best sound out of them, any lower and it starts to get muddy.Tweeter- This is where i had the most problem with this comp set. Don't get me wrong the in-line tweeter crossovers we're handy when it came to installion, no need to find a place to mount a bulky crossover you can tuck it in anywhere. Though to me the tweeters we're overly bright and really peaky in the 12k-18k hz range. i usually had them at -4 or -6db depending on what genre i was listing to. Beware of the S's! I had to EQ these tweeters to -6 at 16k hz with a q factor of 4-5 to try and get rid of that annoying hiss, it was very frustrating and just found a way to cut through everything. After that though the hiss was still there a little bit, enough to notice but the cymbals sounded crisp and the highs in rap and house kept up. Also seemed like Alpine crossovered these into woofers a little too low in my opinion, sounded like it was in the 2.5 to 3k range.Power- These spearkers are able to handle a lot of power. they will handle the 110 RMS very well but if you dont have your doors deaden, the vibration from these speakers in your door will wreck havok on your SQ. They do get loud, not super loud, but loud.Overall- The speakers we're okay. They are definitely a step up from stock speakers but need to be complimented with a subwoofer for the lack of low end (30-70hz). That being said dont expect a lot of thump from these guys. That's to be expected though. you're obviously not gonna get great low end and thump from 6.5 inch driver like you would from a 10" or a 12". The tweeters are bright for a silk tweeter but if you like those sheer ear splitting highs than this could be the comp set for you. Bottom line i would not recommend these to a friend. For the price you can find better.

I am not an audiophile, nor am I a professional installer. I wanted to update my 2003 Nissan 350Z with a set of components and a sub. This was my first install and though I was really nervous, I did my research, took my time and went for it. I honestly had no trouble installing these and tuning them. I am using a Pioneer PRS-D800 (under the driver seat in Arizona) to power them. My HU is a Pioneer AVH-X8500BHS. I only have these and the sub; no rear speakers, and no power from the headunit. I would be hard-pressed to think that for the price, you could get a better component system. Been running my system pretty hard since April 2017 and they sound amazing. Highs and mids are what I have these for, so I cannot speak on how they produce lows. These match my Infinity Kappa 120.9w (powered by Kenwood X500-1) beyond what I thought they would. I'm in love with my system and it gets louder than I would realistically run it. The right HU or equalizer would probably allow someone more interested to get even more out them, but I have been and continue to be completely satisfied.

Great set of speakers, probably as good as most people would ever need. A little more trouble mounting separate tweeters but well worth the effort. Crossovers are small and easy to conceal.

Great product came to my house fast. Thank you!

Sounds awesome!