P16-S

I've been a diehard Rockford Fosgate fan and been using their products for 25 years now, and have been an audiophile since I was a small child. These are a great set of component speakers, and for the price they sound really great and I can really crank the volume with zero distortion on these badboys. I paired these with some full range Rockford 5x7 rear door speakers and a Rockford 12-in sub in my F-150, got it all tuned and dialed in and sounds like im in the front row of a concert. Super impressive. And for the ones out there that honestly don't know much about how a stereo setup should be, no, these do not offer hardly any bass I knew that when I bought them because they are a mid/high component setup they will not offer hardly any bass, but great highs and mid-range sound. If you're looking for bass, hook up a subwoofer, stop expecting so much out of speakers when you are not even dure of their purpose. Yes some factory and door setups do offer decent bass. But it also depends solely on the type of speaker and what they are intended for.

1996 Cherokee with manual windows. These 6 “ components sound very good with super highs and medium lows.. these are largest that will fit without cutting, one hole lined up and drilled others. I put tweeters where window switches would normally be.. i paired this with Rockford PS 8 powered sub and WOW what a combination.. loud as you would want with great sound combination.. No rear speakers needed with this combination. If you don’t get a sub then you will need something on the back. I was considering 6x9 in boxes but no need now.

I had been looking at replacing my factory amp and speakers for quite some time and did quite a bit of research online, and decided that I really wanted to go Rockford-Fosgate this time. I had no prior personal experience with their products before, but their reputation was top notch. I bought the Rockford-Fosgate R2-500x4 elsewhere, but it seamed everyone was backordered on these speakers. I wasn't about to cut corners, so when I saw them in stock here I didn't hesitate, and thank god I didn't. The amp I chose is so powerful I could never go past half volume out of the head unit without rattling my brains loose. What blows me away most is that these speakers handle all that power and deliver a kind of crisp clean sound I don't think I have ever experienced before. I play the drums, so naturally I listen to how real they sound on the recording. When I listen to this system I can truly imagine being behind the kit and hearing the crack of the snare and the crisp sound of the cymbals as well as the thump of the bass under my butt. Honestly if it was any better I could probably tell if the drummer was using nylon or wood tips. This is the best stereo equipment I have ever had in any vehicle I've owned and I couldn't be happier.

I am reviewing the P165-S together with the P1694, installed in a 2000 Civic coupe with a Sony head unit and no amp. I would rather give these 3.5 stars instead of 4, but I can't, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt knowing that I'm not using an amp and that their performance will very from car to car. I'm not sure how much difference an external amp would make for these. I'm not that experienced with car audio. They will play well beyond useable levels out of the Sony head unit. It's only rated to 17w RMS... Let's get what I don't like out of the way first. For starters, they had a very long break in period. I know people like to go nuts about break in, especially with higher end gear. I don't generally buy in, but in this case, it's for real. Out of the box the P165's tweeters were way too loud, bright, harsh, sibilant and made vocals sound nasal. The mid range and bass out of the 6.5" woofers was weak to non-existent. This went on unchanged for at least two weeks of every day use. I'm going to estimate that it took at least 20 hours before they started improving at all. Long enough that I'd ordered a set of 4 ohm resistors to try and calm down the tweeters as another reviewer had mentioned doing. However, by the time they arrived, things were really looking up. At this point I've had them for two months and think the sound has been stabilized for at least 3 or 4 weeks. I can tell because I haven't been desperately fiddling with the EQ every time I listen to something different and my current settings are pretty mild. I still feel that the tweeters do too much of the work and they lack mid range presence and the 6.5" drivers still have very little bass. BUT, they have pleasant tone and are not really fatiguing to listen to. The mid range is at least better than it was and they do blend in nicely with the rear P1694 6x9" drivers. I installed the 6.5" drivers in the front doors with Boom-Mat inserts to protect them. I found they did need to be ported. I cut most of the bottom half of the mat out. I had to use the shorter mats too, which didn't help. Basically, these need a decent size chamber to work right. I feel the Boom Mat inserts were still a good buy to protect the drivers from the elements inside the door. In the rear, the 6x9" P1694 have pretty powerful bass for not being amped. The mid range fills in what the front speakers are missing very well. However, in spite of the fancy 3 way tweeter, they really have no high end to speak of in my rear deck application. And I mean from the middle of the mid range up. Female vocals sound like they're coming through a closed door in the other room. I really don't know if these would cut it as a primary driver if your application doesn't use any other sizes. If I bought them again I'd save the $10 and get the set with the simple, single tweeter. I don't think the P1694's had an acute break in period like the fronts did, FWIW. The tweeters in front were over-powering everything... One thing I do find now, is it's hard to get the right bass level. I listen to a wide range of music, but tend toward electronic, like trance and such. What I mean is, I often want just a little more bass, but can't get it without losing control or over-whelming the rest of the range. So I generally keep it so it's a little light most of the time, but then a few tracks are still really overwhelming. I didn't seem to run into this with the same head unit and stock speakers. I could do well with slightly lower extension and better control, but I'm not using a sub or amp, so I should really be more than satisfied with what these are giving me! I'm just quite spoiled by home system though. In my Civic, thew two sets work together quite well. I have the balance center, and fader to 1 out of 15 notches toward the rear. The sound really blends quite nicely and I don't notice that the fronts aren't handling much bass or that the rears lack high end. The sound stage is nice and wide and somewhat well defined. For still sounding slightly bright at times, the ultimate resolution is a bit lacking. Better than the stock speakers though, and the sibilance is all but gone, which is more important. Subjectively, they're at a point now where I don't constantly feel compelled to listen critically and mess with the levels, or regret my purchase. I can simply enjoy the music. Granted, I had that with the stock system before the front left crapped out, but largely because I don't need my car to sound like my home system. All that said, I'm a mechanic, and I drive a lot of cars. Since these speakers have broken in, I do find that everyone else's stock stereo suddenly sounds like crap. Even ones I knew I liked before. Funny how that works. And here's my disclaimer of sorts. I said I don't know much about car audio and that's true. My home system on the other hand, is a set of HiFi-Man HE-5LE high end planar magnetic headphones, driven by a fully balanced amp. They make Beats sound like $30 garbage. (Actually, I think the Beats do that them selves just fine, but I'm getting off track.) This is pretty close to true reference level gear and doesn't do anything badly. This is my benchmark. So calibrate my review that way. For under $200 that I spent here, on both speaker sets and the boom mat inserts, there really isn't anything to complain about at all, now that they've broken in. At the speakers' MSRP, my complaints though fairly minor, would at least be more rational. I also haven't tried any other speakers in my own car. I'd have to guess that if another set for a similar price sounds noticeably better, It's gotta be a set with a better built external crossover. The crossover does a lot more than just separate the lows and highs. It's really the most important part of the system, and probably the weak link for both these sets. I meant to sum this up with the last paragraph, but failed. I know I've made a point of hashing out what I thought could have been better. Over all, I do think these sets *together* are a good bang for the buck. They really wake up at higher volumes too. I would be highly unsurprised if they have a lot more to offer with a good amp. Either way, if you have a decent head unit, and want to crank up your tunes, these should get the job done just fine.

I have been into car audio installation since 1985. RF was the biggest of all back then. However I was the type of person that always went with gear speakers like, JBL, Kicker, M&M, G&S Designs, etc. I figured I would go all Rockford this time and I’m happy I did. In this case I needed a rear fill and wanted the most from the drivers. Instead of a standard door install, I opted to build fiberglass pods and mount them high on the C Pillar. I used a cross angle design and with a little math I came up with a great design. After a weekend of MDF, router work and fiberglass I created a perfect pod that allowed me to perfectly fit these separates into the custom wrapped enclosures and the sound great. They are being driven with a 2 channel Rockford amp and I am totally satisfied with them. Of course there is so much more, but eventually I’ll post that up.

I just installed these Rockford fosgate component speaker into my Jeep Wrangler and the difference in sound quality is night and day. I originally had kicker component speakers in the vehicle but I had never really been happy with the sounds quality of the kicker speakers. I replaced the front kicker speakers with these RF speakers and it’s a huge difference in Sound quality. It really woke my system up! I liked them so much, I order another set to replace the kicker speakers in my sound bar. These RF speakers are have a very nice rich and clean sound and I am finally happy with my sound system again. I would recommend these RF speakers to anyone wanting an upgrade. They are excellent component speaker and a very reasonable price. It’s going to be hand to beat the quality of RF at this price point.

Like others have said, these are an excellent upgrade if you are building a mid-level audio system. You really need to amplify these as the true beauty shines through when you start pushing about 40 watts + RMS into them. Stock decks sound o.k. with these, and you get a definite improvement in clarity that you didn't even know was missing, but with a good aftermarket head unit and an amp you get that effect in addition to depth of sound that adds another dimension, and enhanced output and imaging. Add a performance sub and mono block and the whole system will come alive. Mounting in my 2011 Accord Coupe was challenging. The included mounting brackets for the woofer were worthless. The tweeter is larger than stock, barely fit and mounted kind of strange, but still worked. You may have to get a little creative. If you're not creative, don't have tools or are technically challenged, have someone else do it. Put some wattage into them and they shine at high volume.

Awesome