Pioneer TS-G1341R Coaxial Car Speaker

Sometimes, bigger is better. When it comes to loudspeakers, you just can't beat speaker size for creating rich bass and natural sound. There is no way to squeeze bass blood from a tweeter turnip.

This was the problem I faced in one of my cars, which had 5.25-inch two-way speakers low in the doors, augmented by tweeters up high in the doors. I was unhappy with the bass this system produced (there are two 4x6-inch speakers mounted in back) and thought that a different set of 5.25-inch speakers just might make more bass than what was already in the car. Since I was very impressed with the 6.5-inch Pioneer two-way speakers I installed in a different car, I decided to install 5.25-inch Pioneer TS-G1341R speakers in the first car.

What They Are

The Pioneer TS-G1341R is a two-way coaxial speaker with a 5.25-inch woofer and a 1.18-inch tweeter. The tweeter is fixed in position and cannot be rotated or angled. The woofer has an injection-molded polypropylene cone with a rolled cloth edge and uses a six ounce magnet. The tweeter has a tiny (0.6 ounce) neodymium magnet and has a PEI dome construction. The overall nominal impedance is four ohms and the speaker is rated to handle 25 Watts of continuous (nominal) power.

The overall frequency response is rated by Pioneer at 60 Hz to 22 kHz and the sensitivity is rated at 91 dB (1 Watt at 1 meter). The mounting depth is a shallow 1.82 inches and there are four mounting lugs evenly spaced around the perimeter of the stamped steel frame.

Included with the speakers are a couple short hanks of wire with female connectors that mate with the terminal lugs on the speakers. Also included are some screws and nuts to simplify attaching the speaker to custom cutouts. Since I was installing the speakers as exact-sized replacements, I could re-use the screws holding in my existing 5.25-inch speakers.

I paid around $38 for a pair of these speakers at Wal-Mart.

Installation

This was very easy in my car. Once I had removed the map pocket that covers the speakers, it was a simple matter of unscrewing four screws, disconnecting the original speaker, connecting the new speaker and screwing everything back together. It took perhaps no more than 15 minutes per side and by appearance you would never know anything had changed.

There was already some sound dampening in the doors behind the speakers, so I saw no need to add additional sound mats or other treatments.

Sound Quality

The old speakers were just bland, without much life. Of course, being small they had little bottom end. The Pioneer TS-G1341R has a little more treble and definitely stronger mid- to upper-midrange than the old speakers. This makes women's voices stronger and punchier, and the added treble is good for percussion and guitar edges. One of the first things I listened to was an MP3 disk of Alanis Morrisette, and it sounded very good with her voice. Also good were male voices in the tenor range, including one of my favorites, Steve Goodman.

Musical instruments such as acoustic guitar sound very good, with crisp and well-defined notes. Drums have a sharp snap and electric guitar has pleasing overtones at the high end. Really, everything from mids on up is pleasant at the modest levels I prefer.

What this speaker has little of is bass. When it comes down to it, what can you expect from a 5.25-inch woofer? There is simply not enough moving area to generate much bass.

You have to understand where I'm coming from here. I'm an old folky from the 1960s, still hung up on the Beatles and Bob Dylan. To me, "rap music" is an oxymoron. I'm simply looking for good, clean, balanced sound, with enough bass to give some meat to the music. However, if you like a thumping bottom end, you have come to the wrong speakers. Bigger is definitely better in this case and these little guys are yorkies looking for respect among the labrador retrievers. They can yip pretty well but their woof is laughable.

What the car really needs to give it richer sound is a subwoofer. For my needs, an eight-inch subwoofer would probably be just fine. In the meantime, the Pioneer TS-G1341R speakers have strong and clear mids and highs -- they just sound a little naked without anything on the bottom.

Summary

The Pioneer TS-G1341R speakers have no worse bass than the 5.25-inch speakers I removed; the problem is that they have no more bass. This is not really the fault of the speaker, as there is just so much air that a 5.25-inch speaker can move, particularly in a location that's some distance from my ears. Don't expect to solve your bass deficiencies with the Pioneer TS-G1341R.

This looks, feels and sounds like a well constructed speaker, especially for its reasonable price. By itself, it can't carry the weight of a full-range car sound system as it drops off quickly when it comes to delivering bass. However, it would be a very good component in a system that includes a balanced subwoofer.

I like the sound that I get from these Pioneer TS-G1341R speakers. It just sounds... unfinished.