ESK-165L.5 - Hertz 6.5" 300W Peak 2-Way Component Speaker System with Extra Heavy Bass

awesome quality

Before I begin, I did not purchase these on Amazon, but I do shop here quite frequently so I felt a review here would be appropriate. These are not the best set of component speakers, but they are pretty good "middle of the road" component speakers. First and foremost, to address the above review about "these components sound good without an amplifier" is something you should not do with a high quality brand of component speakers that have an RMS rating of 100 watts per side ( left/right tweeter/woofer/crossover) and 300 watts peak. These speakers come alive with an amplifier. I have a JL Audio 700/5 that has 75 watts per channel pushing these speakers. That sounded pretty good, but i do believe these speakers are pretty power hungry and capable for more, so I bridged the front and rear channels of the amplifier and am now giving this component set a solid 200 watts per side and its sounds 100 times better. these things are Loud, powerful, clear and have a very wide front soundstage. Its sounds incredible and is handling the extra power like a champ- which makes me come to the conclusion that the power ratings are probably a bit on the conservative side. I paired these with a set of Hertz ECX 165.5 coax speakers (powered modestly with the on board amplification of a JBL MS-8) for rear fill and a JL Audio 10TW3 in a sealed enclosure powered by the dedicated 300 watts for a sub/s. I also have a JBL MS-8 sound processor with logic 7 processing the whole set up which makes it sound even sweeter. Bottom line, these are pretty damn good components that sound amazing when POWERED by external amplifiers; they definitely need the dedicated power to sound as they were intended to sound.

I could not be more disappointed in this $300 purchase. When the first speaker was installed it had a scratching sound. I thought it was blown. THe seller said I could do a field destroy. Had to check both speakers to find which one was scratching. Oddly enough, the sound went awaay. SO I had the set installed. Initially, I though the sound was good. But boy was I wrong. The mids are terrible and there is NO EXTRA BASS at all. I will never purchase another set of Hertz speakers.

After one tweeter in a discontinued component set went up in smoke, I went through three different new component sets trying to meet or surpass the quality and volume of my original component set before I ponied up the big bucks for this set. Needless to say, the search is over, I believe. Straight out of the box, these speakers sound fantastic. I can't compare them to the standard ESK165 component set, but the L.5 variant (improved bass) certainly don't disappoint in the midbass region. Kick drums come alive, male voices stand front and center without getting lost in the track, bass guitars shine in a way most speakers can't even come close to. The tweeters are crisp and clear without being crunchy, harsh, or fatiguing, breathing new life into every genre. The component set as a whole is quite amazing. If I had to make any criticism of them, I believe the woofers are ever so slightly muddy at times, however I need to preface that by saying that the speakers have maybe ten minutes play time on them and I know that woofers like this generally need some time to break in. Hopefully this set will hold steady with the power they're being provided as long or longer than my old set.If you have enough power, at least 75w RMS, I don't think this set would disappoint you.

I had these installed to replace my stock 2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen's front door speakers. Did not install a subwoofer. Did not install an amp. Did not do the back door speakers, used my fader controls to turn those off. Using my stock radio to drive them. I'm a pretty discerning listener, as I have an expensive home audio system. I am very surprised by how good these Hertz ESK-165L speakers sound. Nice detail on high notes, voices sound good, bass is okay - no match for a subwoofer but decent and not muddled as it was in my stock speakers. Volume is good, but can't be driven to ear-splitting levels without an amp. I'm pleased and glad that I didn't pop for the extra dollars to install an amp. Overall a significant upgrade and worth every dollar.