The Bottom Line: The JBL GTO527 is a very good speaker. It sounds very good, has solid construction and can improve the sound of your stock audio dramatically. As long as your...
dkozin's Full Review: JBL Grand Touring GTO527 Coaxial Car Speaker
After I have installed the JBL P650c component system (front) and JBL P652 (rear) into my 2004 Infiniti G35 (as a replacement for my stock front speakers), I needed something suitable for the 2007 Honda Accord VP.
Although the Accord has only two speakers, I felt that replacing them with better ones would be a significant improvement, even without replacing the head unit. The stock accord speakers do not sound particularly terrible, but they are a bit muffled and treble quality is not very good.
So I picked up and installed the JBL GTO527, replacing both front speakers in front doors. Although the GTO527 is a 5.25-inch speaker and the stock ones were 6.5-inch, they fit OK (I paid $70 for the install). I originally wanted to get 6.5-inch speakers, but was not sure if they would fit.
The Existing System
The stock speakers of the 2007 Accord sounded fuzzy and slightly muffled, lacked bass and midrange as well as upper treble. Even without seeing the stock speakers, I knew that the aftermarket speakers could not be worse. were bound to improve the situation.
Once the stock speakers were removed, I was unpleasantly surprised by their light weight, plastic construction and extremely small magnets. The cones looked like they are made of paper. In any case, a 6.5-inch full-range speaker, especially with not very rigid paper cone, is not going to sound very well.
So the sound was mediocre: muffled, lacked definition, had uneven frequency response, had poor instrument separation.
The JBL GTO527 System
The GTO527 is a 2-way coaxial speaker system that consists of two 5.25-inch polypropylene woofers with rubber surrounds, two pivoting mylar-titanium tweeters with level control (+3 dB switch directly on the tweeter) and built-in crossovers.
The system came with good-looking speaker grilles and variety of mounting hardware, which I did not use. The speakers feature solid construction. The woofers have heavy magnets and rigid cones. The tweeters rotate for good positioning. I used “reference” setting (no +3 dB treble).
Some Specs
The speakers are rated to have frequency response of 70 Hz-21 kHz. The power handling (RMS) is 2-45 W and 135 W of peak power. The mounting depth (top) is 2 5/16 inches. The impedance is 2 Ohms and the sensitivity is 91dB.
They sell for $99, but I got them for $33 (don’t ask where, the web site where I got them closed, but not before I got a bunch of speakers, windshield wipers and InstallCards).
Sound
I was not sure what to expect from a simple speaker swap while keeping the OEM head unit. And how good can the speakers sound mounted in the same openings as stock? I do not play music super-loud and do not like super-accentuated bass or treble. I always use 0 setting for bass and treble adjustment on any good sound-reproducing equipment. And although these speakers are rated to deliver down to 70 Hz, I expected some lack of bass, which would be acceptable.
Even without burn-in (whether you believe in burn-in or not is your own decision), the speakers sounded very good. There is no comparison with the stock setup. The treble is quality is excellent, the dynamic range is excellent and the audible spectrum is much wider than stock.
The instrument separation is excellent. No longer you have to strain to try to hear different instruments in upper bass and lower midrange area. Cliché, but I have to say I can hear instruments that you would never know were in the recording, have you used the OEM speakers.
The GTO527 are obviously not perfect. Although bass is lower (in frequency) than I expected based on the 70 Hz spec, it is not sufficient for people who want low bass. But unlike 45 Hz low end spec of the other JBL car speakers I got, these actually seem to reach pretty close to claimed 70 Hz. The treble is slightly harsh so far, but might improve with burn in.
In any case, am very happy with this swap.
Update 04/2009
The treble indeed improved and the speakers are pretty smooth now. Which is something I cannot say about my, more expensive, speakers in the G35. And after 1.5 years, these speakers are playing better than ever.
Bottom Line
The JBL GTO527 is a very good speaker. It sounds very good, has solid construction and can improve the sound of your stock audio dramatically. As long as your head unit can handle 2-Ohm speakers and you are OK with less than stellar bass (or have a subwoofer), these speakers are a good choice.
GTO527 has a cone with more surface area than competing models of the same size. The benefits of Plus One are greater efficiency and bass output. It o...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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