It still depends on your ears though. Some people swear by the lower end boston acoustic, to me they are bright as hell with a muddy mid. My personal pick are CDT CL or EF series(steer clear of KA series), warm mids, clear but not bright highs, decent midbass response even being in the door. Diamond S or D6(I don't like the D3 that much) sound great, great midbass, nice highs, lacking a bit in the midrange but they aren't muddy. JL VR series are pretty decent, I'd compare them closest to the diamonds. MB quart premium or reference series are nice, but lack on midbass a bit(STAY AWAY from the discuss line). The polk DB and and MM series are ok as well. $100-$250 is the best bang for the buck region, there are tons of great sounding drivers in that range. If you like brighter highs look for titanium domed tweeters, if you like a smooth crisp high look for silk domed tweeters. The higher the sensitivity/efficiency the better unless you plan on throwing an amp on them, then efficiency doesn't really matter. Be careful with sensitivity/efficiency measurements, the standard is 1w of power listening at 1m (1w/1m), some companies play games and use odd voltages and different distances to inflate their efficiency, infinity is HORRIBLE about doing that).
Personally I have a hard time taking anyone's opinion on drivers. I look around to see what people generally like, then go around to all the stereo shops around and listen. I usually test install to make sure I like them before I cut wire lengths, mount x-overs and such. Places like Ikesound have a great return policy so if you don't like them you can send them back, so long as they are in a good enough condition to resell. That's why I don't cut wires and such, and try my damnedest not to make screw marks. Sometimes I'll just hold the woofer in the hole and use some double stick tape on the tweet just to see if I like the sound.
There is quite a bit less people here since there are so many specialized forums pertaining to specific models now. Also the allowance of a few too many bad apples scared quite a few of the good people away.
Since you're a fellow bay area resident I highly recommend looking at Fry's. You can find deals and if you don't like them, take em back. Boy do I love Fry's return policy lol(and I'm sure they hate me lol)
