Alpine and Pioneer are two of the most popular car audio brands. Both brands have a significant presence in the car audio industry.
But how do their speakers compare when it comes to sound quality? Let’s find out.
Alpine speakers produce a more discrete, sharper sound. They have better audio quality than Pioneer speakers. Alpine Speakers have a broader frequency response, the sounds are more consistent, and the audio level is higher.
Also, alpine speakers are more efficient as compared to pioneer speakers. On the other hand, Pioneer speakers work better with stronger amplifiers and are more durable than Alpine models.
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Tip: When you want to add more mid-bass to the car, you do not just want to buy other coaxial speakers, but instead, you may need to search for the specific speakers for the mid-bass frequency you need.
An excellent solution for this are the Pioneer TS-M800PRO speakers. They are available in the 6.75″, 6×9″, and 8″.
Unlike the small subwoofers, TS-M800PRO do not have a large magnet, which means they will fit into standard locations in most cars.
In this article, I will compare Alpine and Pioneer speakers from the technical side, sound effects, and of course, the price.
Are Pioneer Car Speakers Good?
Pioneer is a Japanese company founded in 1937 by Nozomu Matsumoto when he invented the first Pioneer A8 dynamic speakers.
One of the reasons Pioneer car speakers are good is their strong and sharp sound quality. The Pioneer car speakers are made from beryllium midrange (concentric drivers) and tweeters.
Beryllium is a crucial component of the speakers as it helps keep the speakers’ strength and stiffness while keeping the low weight. Also, beryllium reduces the probability of bending the speakers at a higher volume.
The tweeter and concentric midrange drivers are arranged so that the sound from midrange and tweeter reaches the ears simultaneously, which leads to better sound coherence.
Pioneer speakers also have high sound sensitivity, meaning they can play loud at a lower volume, making them suitable for cars with a lot of noise inside or convertibles.
High sensitivity improves the listening experience and ensures that every beat of the music is delivered with precision and clarity.
Let’s now look at the technical specifications of the Pioneer speaker series:
Pioneer TS-E Series
- It comes under the e-motion car series specially designed to increase your car audio performance.
- In these speakers, the Basalt Fiber IMX cone is used. This cone provides extra strength and durability.
- In the TS-E series, you can find multiple speaker sizes that fit easily in most vehicles, including 2-way speakers, 2-way component speakers, and 2-way coaxial speakers.
Pioneer TS-A Series
- TS-A is a high-performing family, and you will find 2 way, 3 way, and 4-way coaxial speakers.
- All TS-A series speakers have dual cones made from Mica with a matrix multilayer structure. This design allows wider distribution of sounds, especially deeper bass.
- These technological changes enhance the performance of speakers to play high bass sound.
Pioneer TS-G Series
- The Pioneer TS-G series has 2 way and 3-way coaxial speakers only. With a shallow mount design, these speakers are an excellent fit for cars with limited depth in the mounting locations.
- The cone of these speakers has a high-quality rubber surround. Cones are made from IMPP (injection-molded polypropylene) with a MICA reinforced material and are built into has a high-quality rubber surround. This combination improves the sensitivity of speakers and also reduces unwanted noises.
Pioneer TS-Q Series
- TS-Q comes with a separate subwoofer with a tweeter, ensuring that you get high-quality output across the entire range.
Separate Component Speakers
- Audiophiles, when looking to upgrade their factory stereo, should consider Pioneer separate component speakers.
- They have connectors that make the installation process easy.
- Thanks to the independent tweeters, they offer excellent sound quality.
Custom Fit Pioneer Speakers
- This series offers value for money. Due to connectors, they are easy to install and provide excellent sound quality.
Is Alpine a Good Car Speaker Brand?
Alpine is another well-known audio brand. This brand provides superior quality speakers at competitive prices.
Alpine is a good car audio brand, and you will find speakers from the middle to the expensive range. Alpine speakers are reliable and have low distortion levels compared to other brands. Due to these advantages, Alpine speakers can be found in many luxury cars.
This Japanese-based car speaker manufacturer has given some exceptional speakers to car audio systems. They have transformed the industry with their innovation and constantly launch high-quality drivers every year.
Alpine speakers fall into four major series – E series, R series, X series, and S series.
Let’s look at them one by one.
Alpine S Series
- These are affordable entry-level speakers. They fit in a wide variety of vehicles as compared to other series.
- Due to their high efficiency, you can connect Alpine S Series speakers to any low-powered stereo system without an external amplifier.
- They have built-in 1-inch silk dome tweeters leading to a broader frequency response, and you do not miss any tones.
- The tweeters can be adjusted to 10 degrees in each direction, ensuring that you will get perfect sound balance, which is especially important when the speakers are installed in the lower door panels.
- They have tuned mica polypropylene cones which are excellent in energy transfer, delivering high-quality audio output.
Alpine E series
- In the Alpine E series, you will find affordable speakers with above-average audio quality. They are designed for all who don’t want to spend more and look for a decent replacement.
- In this series, only coaxial speakers are available in different sizes. They have a sleek grille design dome tweeters. The tweeters are driven by neodymium magnets which are lighter than standard and provide a faster response. If you want to build a custom car audio system and do not want to spend a fortune, you should consider Alpine from the E series.
- Thanks to the lightweight injected pearl mica polypropylene cone, they can put out tremendous power.
- Instead of traditional round wires, these speakers use square wires for their voice coils. These wires offer a greater volume for power to travel through and greater heat dissipation while decreasing the voice coil size.
Alpine R series
- Alpine speakers from the R series offer value for money. They are in the middle of the price range and provide good performance and reliability.
- Alpine R series type speakers are significantly different from any factory speakers. They can handle powerful amplifiers and specialize in sound reproduction with extreme clarity.
- They use a hybrid multilayer fiber cone, and for a smooth base response, they have silk dome tweeters. Thanks to this, they produce crystal clear highs.
- Powerful Neodymium magnets make the mounting depth smaller without sacrificing power handling capacity.
- They use an HD polymer frame instead of a steel design. This allows speakers to be lighter, stronger, and easier to install.
- They are available in coaxial and component configurations in all standard speaker sizes.
Alpine X Series
- The Alpine X Serie is the to line. These speakers are manufactured using the highest-quality components and are currently a top-selling series among alpine speakers.
- The cone of Alpine X series speakers is exceptionally rigid, which means there is no distortion. They have a carbon graphite tweeter which is also very stiff and lightweight. They are great for high-quality sound reproduction with the highest possible clarity.
- In the Alpine X series, engineers made a couple of adjustments in the Neodymium motor to maximize the motor strength against the voice coil. The magnets are moved inside, which means they do not take a lot of space to install.
- Similar to other series, X speakers also come in all standard sizes.
Alpine vs. Pioneer Speakers: Which One Is Better?
If you are looking for new speakers for your car, you probably came across Alpine and Pioneer.
Alpine speakers are versatile speakers. They are slightly louder than Pioneer speakers and have less sound distortion. If you are looking for high-end speakers and money is not an issue, Alpine also has speakers in the premium range, like Alpine PSS-24WRA designed for a Jeep, which will cost you around 2000$.
On the other hand, Pioneer speakers are more budget-friendly.
If you compare the price of both brands, the basic Pioneer 6.5″ coaxial speakers start at around 20$, and similar Alpine SXE-1726S 6.5″ two-way coaxial speakers are priced just over 30$.
Bear in mind that those are the basic speakers, and although they will play better than most factory speakers, do not expect too much bass or heights clarity.
Now let’s compare different speakers classes of both brands.
Alpine SXE-1726S vs Pioneer TS-G1620F
Both Alpine SXE-1726S and Pioneer TS-G1620F are 6.5″ two-way coaxial speakers in a low price range. These models are made for everyone restricted on budget and still want good quality audio speakers.
| Characteristic | Alpine SXE-1726S | Pioneer TS-G1620F |
|---|---|---|
| Peak Power Output | 220 Watt | 300 Watt |
| RMS Power | 40 Watt | 40 Watt |
| Cone Type | Long Fiber Natural Pulp Cone | Injected Molded Polypropylene Composite Cone |
| Tweeter Type | Mylar-Titanium Balanced Dome Tweeter | 1-3/16″ Balanced Dome Tweeter |
| Impedance | 4 Ohm | 4 Ohm |
| Frequency Response | 60 Hz – 20,000 Hz | 31 Hz – 18,000 Hz |
| Sensitivity | 92 dB | 89 dB |
From the comparison table, you will find that both have similar RMS power. However, Alpine SXE-1726S are louder thanks to the higher sensitivity and create clearer and stronger high tones.
On the downside is their bass that is much weaker when compared to Pioneer, which means that if you listen to the dynamic music, you should install the Alpine in the car equipped with the subwoofer.
Alpine S-S69C vs. Pioneer TS-A692C
Alpine S-S69C and Pioneer TS-A692C represent two-way 6″x9″ component systems.
| Characteristic | Alpine S-S69C | Pioneer TS-A692C |
|---|---|---|
| Peak Power Output | 265 Watt | 450 Watt |
| RMS Power | 85 Watt | 100 Watt |
| Cone Type | carbon fiber reinforced plastic woofer cone surrounded with specialized rubber | Injected Molded Polypropylene Composite (IMPC) cone with elastic polymer surround |
| Tweeter Type | 1″ silk dome tweeter with inline crossover | 3/4″ polyimide hard dome tweeter with inline crossover |
| Impedance | 4 Ohm | 4 Ohm |
| Frequency Response | 65 Hz – 22,000 Hz | 33 Hz – 49,000 Hz |
| Sensitivity | 90 dB | 87 dB |
As you can see from the comparison table, Alpine S-S69C are slightly louder thanks to the higher sensitivity but have a much narrower frequency response with little bass.
These speakers have carbon fiber reinforced woofer cones that provide extra stability while being agile enough to produce complex midrange frequency sounds.
The speaker cone has a multi-roll rubber surround which leads to less distortion and increases sound quality.
However, when you test these speakers, you will see that Pioneer TS-A692C have similar loudness thanks to the more power but show more distortion at higher volumes.
If I had to choose between these speakers for my car, I would choose Alpine S-S69C for dynamic music and Pioneer TS-A692C for softer tones like Jazz or Soul.
Alpine R-S65C.2 vs. Pioneer TS-Z65CH
Alpine R-S65C.2 and Pioneer TS-Z65CH are high-class component systems. Both are priced under 300$ and can handle RMS power up to 100 watts.
| Characteristic | Alpine R-S65C.2 | Pioneer TS-Z65CH |
|---|---|---|
| Peak Power Output | 300 Watt | 330 Watt |
| RMS Power | 100 Watt | 110 Watt |
| Cone Type | Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Cone | Dual-Layer Cellulose Fiber Woofer Cone surrounded by butyl rubber |
| Tweeter Type | Carbon Fiber reinforced polymer Tweeter | Aluminum Tweeter |
| Impedance | 4 Ohm | 4 Ohm |
| Frequency Response | 65 Hz – 40,000 Hz | 30 Hz – 96,000 Hz |
| Sensitivity | 88 dB | 85 dB |
With the Alpine R-S65C.2, Alpine has leveled up the car audio systems.
These 6.5″ speakers have a CRPF woofer cone twitch rubber surround.
Thanks to this, these speakers have a solid mid-bass response however, Pioneer, similar to the earlier model, has a deeper and lower bass.
From this comparison, I would choose Pioneer because of the lower bass and slightly better dynamic in the mid-range, especially noticeable in the Rock Music.
Which Speakers Are Best for Different Music Types?
We all have different music tastes as some people are fond of classical music while others prefer to have loud bass.
Depending upon your music taste, you can choose different types of speakers in Alpine and Pioneer.
Car Speakers For Loud Bass
If you are dissatisfied with the bass of your factory car speakers, then Pioneer TS-M800PRO is the best replacement.
It has an excellent output handling capacity with up to 360 watts RMS and has a mid-bass driver, which produces balanced sound in concurrence with the tweeter.
One thing that I like about these speakers is that they are competitively priced for their performance.
Car Speakers For Heavy Metal Music
Car speakers that you can use for producing heavy metal music should have a sensitivity of over 90dB.
In addition, they must have excellent frequency response and are manufactured from materials that ease the production of smooth audio.
Pioneer TS-M650PRO are the best speakers to listen to metal music. They have a sensitivity of 94dB and 110-watt RMS output. The cone is made from lightweight blended pulp with tempered steel frames, which adds extra strength to the speakers.
Car Speakers For Rock Music
Rock music mainly focuses on the sound of musical instruments like the guitar, snare drum, bass drum, vocals, etc.
So, you need speakers that are louder and have excellent frequency response. Alpine X-Series 6.5″ coaxial speakers are the best if you are fond of listening to loud rock music.
They have a 6.5-inch nanofiber woofer cone with a multi-roll surround. The tweeter size is one inch and is made from carbon graphite. The RMS wattage that these speakers can handle is 110 watts and have a sensitivity of 89dB.
Car Speakers For Classical Music
If you are fond of listening to classical music then high frequencies and bass are less important. Instead, the speakers should produce clear and loud classical music at higher volumes.
Alpine R-S65.2 are unbeatable when it comes to listening to classical music in your car.
These R series speakers have larger voice coils (35 mm), are compact, and material used is lightweight yet of high strength, making them more reliable.
They can handle up to 100-watt RMS with a sensitivity of 90dB. They are equipped with the Ultra-smooth 1-inch swivel mount tweeters.
Car Speakers For Hip Hop Music
Hip hop music sounds great on car speakers that can produce good bass and clear midrange tones.
The bass notes are important to make sure every beat of the song is crystal clear. The midrange will make the lyrics of the music powerful and crisp.
Pioneer TS-A6990F are five-way speakers that can produce excellent hip-hop music.
Their bass performance is excellent because of the oversized motor structure and deep woofer basket.
For uniform midrange sound, these speakers use Pioneer’s open and smooth sound concept. This technology provides a smooth and seamless transition between the tweeter driver and midrange, thus making the sound more uniform.
Conclusion
Alpine and Pioneer are both famous brands. In this article, I have compared the speakers of these two brands in terms of sound quality, price, and durability.
After comparing the two speakers in detail, it is clear that Alpine is a better option than Pioneer in terms of sound quality and durability. But Pioneer speakers have a slight edge over Alpine when it comes to price and provide deeper bass.