Over a month ago, installed an Alpine 9857 in my xB. Upon fiddling with the balance and fade the other day, the rear speakers sounded like garbage when the FADE is pushed all the way back. The front speakers, however, don't seem to break up with the FADE entirely up.

I know the Alpine puts out a lot more power (that's why I got it), but...

-Does anybody know the wattage of these speakers? Are the fronts rated for a higher wattage than the rears?
-My theory is that the front speakers can handle the signal because they're wired in parallel with the dash speakers. Therefore they share the load and have more headroom.
-What's everybody upgrading the rear speakers with?

Thanks.

 

I have all Elemental Designs in my xB. I have a set of components in the doors with tweets in the dash, which are amped. I don't have any rear fill, it's totally unecessary. Check out: eDesignaudio.com

 

(Keep in mind that the OEM HU has delays and equalizations for the specific OEM speakers installed in the three models. I suspect that some of the limitations of the stock speakers are compensated for by that...)

 

@ Tomas

Makes sense. I nearly forgot about the "xb,xa, tC" modes in the stock HU in addition to the SSP. I remember always thinking the rear speakers were weak with the stock HU. I guess its time to upgrade them....

 

When I pulled the rear speakers out I was amazed at how cheaply made they were. They do sound bad running off the factory head unit and with more power they sound worse. I replaced mine with Image Dynamics co-axials and even with 2 channels of an Orion 4004, they don't get that loud nor sound very good. The behind the rear seat locations are bad, very bad.