christian921's Full Review: Kicker DS60 (2005) Coaxial Car Speaker
Kicker is huge in the after market car audio scene and when it was time to grab some new speakers for one of my trucks they were first on my list to look at. I was installing a new head unit, a JVC Arsenal KD-AR260 and wanted to have something of equal quality going in the doors of my truck. Kicker has a good reputation and after visiting a local retailer and speaking with the speaker guy I settled on the Kicker DS60. They were going into a 2003 Freightliner Century which is tractor trailer truck, not a pick up. It can get noisy in there and I need speakers that can not only sound good in that environment but I also need them to fit in the shallow doors and stand up to the abuse. I have had them in there for just over a month now so let me tell you about them.
The Vitals
Kicker is well known in the world of car speakers. They make the DS60 with a lot of nice features but let’s start with the basics. The DS60 is a 6.5 inch speaker and are sold in pairs. They can be mounted from above or below and include the needed hardware for both applications. Kicker also includes gray plastic grill guards in case your installation requires them. They look a little too “High School” for me but I did not need them for my set up. Aside from fitting just the 6.5 inch speaker opening the frame of the DS60 will also fit the oversized 6.75 inch opening as well without any modifications.
The DS60 is a 2-Way speaker. This offers you both a woofer cone to handle the lower tones found in the mid and low ranges (bass) as well as a tweeter cone to handle the high notes (treble). The woofer speaker itself has what Kicker calls a CIMP (Curvilinear Injection-Molded Polypropylene) cone. This is a fancy material and method of manufacturing that produces a light weight and durable cone. The cone is what broadcasts the sound. Most factory speakers are paper cones which breakdown over time. Poly cones do not. Attaching the woofer cone to the frame is a “Polyfoam”. This is designed to be flexible enough to take the movements of the speaker cone without tearing. The Polyfoam is pliable enough that it does not interfere or restrict the movement of the speaker either. The Polyfoam surround is UV treated to protect itself against the sun. The .5 inch tweeters are made from Kicker’s trademarked PEN material. PEN is biaxially-oriented polypropylene naphthalate film. After doing some research I found out that this is an extremely light weight and strong film used in aerospace and either is or a part of Mylar. What this does for your Kickers is that PEN tweeters give you sharp imaging and crisp high notes. They also resist high temperatures that are generated by high power applications. The semi-domed tweeters are strong and at times it seems a little too sharp.
Kicker backs the cone with a hefty neodymium magnet. The speakers for their size are very heavy and this is due to the magnet. Heavier magnets are able to handle more power (and require more power) and do more work. In a nut shell, the heavier the magnet usually means a stronger magnet and therefore the better the speaker will work, usually. The DS60 uses a low profile chassis and a specially designed basket to hold the magnet in perfect alignment for the best possible sound.
Included in the box with the speakers:
Grill Guards (2)
Mounting Hardware; 2 sets of 8 screws (2 different threads)
Retainers (8)
High tinsel leads (2 pair)
Installation manual (includes an 800 number for tech support)
Warranty/Registration card.
Personal Impressions
Installing the DS60s was a breeze. I popped out the covers and had these installed in less than a half an hour. I mounted these on the outside of the mounting bracket attached to the door of the truck. There are two different sets of screws to match the threading of the existing mount and if needed there are retainers to secure the speakers to. The DS60s are shallow enough to fit in my doors. I have just over 2.25 inches to play with and the speakers are only 1 7/8 inches deep when installed this way. If you have to mount from below you will need 2.25 inches to get them in there. I lucked out!
Once I got them in it was time to try them out. Firing up the JVC Arsenal AR260 the Kickers came to life. Putting the DS60s through the paces I was a little disappointed with the low ranges. The bass is weak though the mid tones come across with nice depth. The DS60s lack a lot of punch but I was also powering them straight from the head unit and without an amplifier. My head unit only pushes out 18 watts on four channels and maxes out at 50 watts. The DS60s are designed to handle 6-50 watts and peak out at 100. Maybe if I fed them a little more power I could get a little more rumble from them but hey, this is a big truck, not a cruiser! If I were to put some sort of an enclosure behind the speaker I would have a much richer sound and maybe a little more bass. The doors of the truck are utterly hollow except for the wiring and mounting hardware for the door’s internals.
The high notes are razor sharp from those fancy tweeters. The DS60 has very good sound imaging. The tweeters are almost too crisp at times. Sometimes you need to dial back the treble to not get overwhelmed.
As a complete package the DS60 sounds nice. It is very strong in the mid to upper range but they fall flat on their faces when it comes time to thump out some bass, You can overload the speakers if you feed them too much volume without running through a crossover. The DS60 will get washed out and just rumble if you push them too far. If you keep the volume down to just beyond a reasonable volume you will be pleased though. The Kicker DS60s have stood up very well to the abusive environment of a tractor trailer. My drivers tune in everything from talk radio to rap and no one has complained yet. I have been very pleased with them and for the price they are a great buy!
Specs on the Kicker DS60 6.5/6.75 inch 2-Way Speakers (taken from manual/researched): Woofer: 6 inches (Poly w/ poly surround)
Tweeter: .5 inches (Mylar)
Power Range: 6-50 Watts RMS
Peak Power Handling: 100 Watts
Sensitivity: 1m 90 dB @ 1W
Rated Impedance: ohm 4
Effective Frequency Range: Hz 43-20k
Mounting Hole Needed: 4 7/8 inches
Top Mount Depth: 1 7/8 inches
Bottom Mount Depth: 2 .25 inches
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