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I have updated my review since writing the review below. After a lot of research, it turns out that the lack of full range sound I was looking was caused in large part to the door mount nature of the stock speakers. Doors are not the best places to mount speakers, and the Subaru OEM mount holes are not compatible with aftermarket speakers mount points, so I had to make a custom flange, despite the courtesy Sony provides by milling all sorts of mounting holes into the speaker’s frame. (Thanks a heap, Subaru.)

The flange did not isolate vibration well enough, and it took a bunch of experimenting to find a solution to fix the problem, including messing around with sound dampening goop. At the end of the day, $20 with of grommets, bolts and other minor stuff fixed the problem well enough to completely change my experience.

I am now very pleased with the sound quality and have installed these speakers at all four corners. For $60 a pair, Sony has provided a tremendous value for the sound quality. Throw in a few extra dollars to insure optimum acoustics after installation, a good head unit and a sub-woofer, and I achieved a great sound quality without breaking my budget.

(My original review, now obsolete, is below.)

I intended this to be a full range speaker to replace all four of my car’s 6.5″ speakers. What I discovered is that the crummy factory speakers have a better mid and low frequency response.

The 1641′s are great high frequency speakers. I hear clarity and definition I never heard on the previous speakers. But, despite being four-way speakers with an impressive advertised freq. response they are not a complete solution. Even those content with an average audio experience will need woofers to balance the sound, probably with crossovers splitting the midhighs from the midlows.

I’ve only just installed them, so I can’t comment on reliability. They seem sturdy enough, and the cone material is unusually tough. It’s not mere paper.

I’m still searching for good woofers to complement these Sony’s, so I don’t have the final answer on how well they perform. That I have to return two of the four speakers and search for a new rear speaker answer has left me very disappointed in Sony. I gave these three stars thinking they will be very good as component speakers, but as a full range speaker I would give them one star at best.

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