Where did 6×9-inch car audio speakers disappear to?

Car audio in the 6×9-inch standard is the most popular segment. With a pair of good “ovals,” it was always possible to get decent sound for a car’s interior – noticeably a class above the modest factory sound of many car models. It’s just that buying decent “pancakes” has become difficult.

Today in Russia, it has become almost impossible to purchase car audio from brands that were always considered trendsetters in the mass segment with fairly high quality – Pioneer, Alpine, JBL, Sony, Panasonic, Kenwood, and the like. All these and similar companies have ceased operations in our country, and what is sold under their names on marketplaces is, nine times out of ten, crude counterfeits that have nothing to do with the original.

However, domestic brands in recent years have successfully replaced a significant share of the universal audio assortment in most popular sizes and niches, ordering drivers with the required characteristics to their specifications. True, not all of them and not to the full extent.

Take, for example, the very popular 6×9-inch format in Russia – also known as “ovals” or “pancakes.” This is audio with a 16×24-centimeter diffuser size, typically coaxial – two- or three-way. Traditionally, they were valued for the ability to create powerful, loud sound with elastic, dense bass, decent mids, and acceptable highs at minimal cost and effort. That very “all-in-one” option in a single pair of drivers, characterized by these properties:

• High power with large midbass diffuser excursions
• Coaxial construction with multiple bands
• Bass from 50 Hz or lower, highs – from 20 kHz or higher

The thing is, replacing the lackluster-sounding factory audio in the doors often runs into the small mounting locations of the original speakers. In other words, whatever size speakers were installed at the factory, the same size must be installed when selecting analogues with higher quality and power, and the gain in power and quality in this case is limited (unless, of course, we plan to disfigure the interior with various spacers and trim panels for larger audio in the doors). But large coaxial 6×9-inch “pancakes” are by definition more powerful and wideband drivers, and they integrate perfectly into rear shelves on many body types – sedan, hatchback, station wagon, crossover, minivan, etc.

What’s on the market?

But let’s see what we can actually find today in the “six by nine” segment on the domestic market, if we don’t count fake “Pioneers” and their ilk from marketplaces for a couple of thousand? In principle, you can hunt down those familiar brands “from the old days,” imported via gray imports. But 25-30 thousand for a pair of 6×9 “pancakes” from Alpine or Hertz may rightly seem excessive to many. And what do we see from the brands that have taken over our market, which have no problems with shortages, gray imports, or difficulties identifying originals and fakes? Let’s look at several popular brands and models to understand the landscape and evaluate them against our criteria.

• Piranha 69 V.2 – 80-12,000 Hz, 70 W
• Barracuda 69 V.2 – 70-15,000 Hz, 90 W
• Phoenix SQL 69 Neo – 68-15,000 Hz, 140 W

All these drivers are from different DL Audio lines – single-band stage audio, as is evident from the reproduced frequency range. In other words, “shouter” drivers, seriously limited in range both at the top and, more importantly, at the bottom. Belonging to the “stage” category is not at all a sign of low quality, but simply a set of characteristics for a certain style of car audio. But in our case, it’s important that the characteristics are not at all what is usually expected from the 6×9-inch size, where we need powerful all-rounders with a range from deep bass to mids and highs.

• Gryphon Lite 69 V.3 – 55-12,000 Hz, 80 W
• Gryphon Pro 69 Midbass – 55-10,000 Hz, 150 W

Also DL Audio. Better on bass, but again we’re looking at just single-band audio. And high frequencies are not its strong suit. “Canonical pancakes” are not like this.

• Aura Fireball 690 – 50-15,000 Hz, 70 W

A simple economy-class speaker – small magnet, paper diffuser. A classic, certainly, but not in the sense of the “6 by 9” standard.

• Aura Venom CL69-MB – 40-6000 Hz, 100 W

Very good figures for the lower limit of reproduced frequencies, but this is a single-band midbass for a component setup. Not it…

• Ural AS-M69 Molot – 60-15,000 Hz, 100 W
• Ural Molniya AS-ML69 – 70-12,000 Hz, 100 W

In different Ural lines in the 6×9-inch size, we again encounter typical single-band representatives of stage audio, although we’re not looking for them at all.

• Ural Classic AS-K6947 – 52-22,000 Hz, 100 W

This is closer to the point – multi-channel coaxial “pancakes” with a wide range starting from a quite respectable bass of 55 hertz. But the manufacturer for some reason only specifies maximum power in the specifications, and the “max” here is only 200 watts. This speaks to a very modest nominal rating. Again, not quite what we’d want.

• Aura Storm 69.3 – 50-22,000 Hz, 160 W

Of everything studied, only the three-way Storm 69.3 fully matched our requirements. And although the goal wasn’t to monitor absolutely everything on sale, given the coverage of manufacturers whose assortments were studied, the conclusions are obvious. In the car audio market in the 6×9-inch driver segment, there is a clear shift toward stage audio, “shouters.” And, accordingly, an obvious shortage of powerful universal “ovals” capable of qualitatively voicing a car’s interior as is – without other drivers, without amplifiers, external crossovers, component setups, etc.

A return to the classics?

However, some manufacturers see the oddity of the current situation and deliberately try to uphold traditions that are being eroded. The Ultera RS69 “ovals” fully preserve (or return?) all the best canons of this type of audio for those who don’t need a noisy “stage style” in car sound. The power, frequency range, and design features of these coaxial “pancakes” are like those of the typical departed class representatives of brands like Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony, and others that knew a thing or two about classic “6 by 9s” and delivered cohesive, powerful full-spectrum sound.

Incidentally, the new name on the domestic car audio scene isn’t all that new. The developer of the Ultera driver line is Neoline. Yes, that very Neoline brand you all know well from some of the best dash cams and radar detectors. Having studied the market’s characteristics, the company formed its own line of “above average” class car audio in the most popular sizes, initially focusing on models most suitable for users planning to replace mediocre-sounding drivers in factory car audio systems. A feature of the Ultera family is the use of high-quality materials and solutions typical of significantly more expensive audio, as well as special attention to design, which budget competitor models have problems with.

The emphasis in materials is on combining sound quality and durability of the audio itself. Today, many can no longer change cars every 3-4 years like before, and a car (new or decent used) is bought with an eye toward longer-term use. Accordingly, the sound quality of the audio system should also remain stable for many years. Fiberglass diffusers on butyl rubber surrounds and silk dome tweeters, used across the entire Ultera driver line, are among the best acoustic materials that maintain consistent characteristics across the widest range of temperatures and humidity typical of a car.

The two-way Ultera RS69 model in the 6×9-inch size comes in a large box, inside which are two individual “half-boxes” of thick corrugated cardboard for each of the pair of drivers, eliminating even a hint of damage during transport.

The drivers come with sturdy, resonance-resistant protective grilles and a set of mounting hardware.

90 watts nominal and 360 watts peak for the Ultera RS69 is a very good figure. The overload capacity of drivers with large, heavy magnet systems is very high, four times the nominal power. This is very important for distortion-free reproduction of bass peaks typical of “proper pancakes.” In budget drivers in general and “stage” ones in particular, the difference between maximum and nominal power usually doesn’t exceed 2-2.5 times.

Signal delivery through the filter to the tweeter is provided by flat braided wires routed along the centering spider. This is a very serious solution used in high-quality audio. In the vast majority of simple models, round-section wires to the tweeter simply pass straight through the midwoofer diffuser, which leads to premature breakage and sometimes knocking against the diffuser at high volume.

By the way, the coil impedance of the RS69 is 3 ohms, which allows painlessly getting 15-20% more power from a head unit or amplifier compared to standard four-ohm drivers. This impedance is often found in component and coaxial series of many brands.

The lower limit of the frequency range at 50 hertz provides dense, assertive bass. The punchy dynamics of drums are slightly excessive, but it doesn’t spoil the sound. The “kick drum,” of course, isn’t as expressive as in systems with a separate subwoofer, but it’s quite full-bodied. Moderate bass distortion is ensured by a wide, honest butyl rubber surround without any “optimization games” with width and materials typical of inexpensive audio. Fast and transparent midrange with almost no distortion – its guarantee is the very light yet rigid fiberglass diffuser. The one-inch tweeter, responsible for the 20 kHz ceiling, features a silk dome, which softens the highs, preventing them from becoming “razor-sharp” – but this isn’t good or bad, just a matter of taste.

Sensitivity is above average for the class. For good “ovals” in their traditional sense, 90 dB sensitivity is the norm. Here, this parameter is 92 dB (1W/1M). Higher sensitivity is typical of stage “shouters.”

Let’s sum up

Today, the Neoline audio family consists of 4 models in the most popular sizes. Besides the RS69 “ovals,” these are:

• RS52, 5.25-inch coaxial two-way speakers, 70-20,000 Hz, 240/60 W
• RS65, 6.5-inch coaxial two-way speakers, 60-20,000 Hz, 280/70 W
• RS65C, 6.5-inch component two-way speakers, 60-20,000 Hz, 280/70 W

It’s obvious that the Ultera line in general and the RS69 model in particular deserve attention first and foremost from those replacing factory drivers in new cars or “refreshing” audio systems in used vehicles. High-quality materials, impeccable build, and respectable specifications are comparable to acoustic components claimed to be significantly more expensive. In the future, the Neoline audio family will surely expand – we’re waiting!