Your head is completely inside your colon. If it's better, it's high end, if it's not, it's not. If someone hand builds a car, and it wins, who gives a shit what the wankers with expensive frames call it?
My v1 open darths were a big step up over stock. Amping them is a requirement, tho. You need power to control the bass. They were better than 501s by far, for example.
Of course, if you're connecting to speaker terminals, just whack the end off and experiment, no biggie. Just label when you're done, before you solder it onto anything else.