D.C.GS430

iTrader: (1)

1. CDT Audio
2. Rainbow
3. Boston Acoustics
4. Diamond Audio
5. Dynaudio
6. Focal
7. Image Dynamics
8. Infinity
9. JL Audio
10. MB Quart
11. Mmats
12. A/D/S/ Now tell me which one would you pick and why? Because I need your help on deciding which one is the best as far as clarity quality and loudness is a big concern
for me thanks in advance

rgarjr

iTrader: (1)

Go with the Dynaudios.... really nice sound

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

They each sound differently.

Some brands have their good and bads.

But if i had money, i'll go with Rainbow. Bar none one of the best speakers out there, though they are hefty in price!

Percy

Do you mean "rainbow reference"? I have yet to see a REAL frequency response or waterfall chart from them. The xovers being used are of questionable quality at best...iron core inductors, pretty much off the shelf generic caps. Saw one apart in a Japanese magazine on autosound...really cringed at the poor xover. NOTE...iron core inductors = hysteresis distortion. Lots of patchwork with the rainbow xover.

Best that I've heard so far are the Dyns. Focals are good too, but stay away from the hard dome tweets. ADS also makes some nice sounds. VERY smooth.

Would like to listen to the CDTs sometime. Heard very good reviews from them. Same with Morel speakers.

Clarity...Dynaudio. They're THE only company that I know of that will publish repeatable frequency response charts, 2nd and 3rd order distortions as well as the full layout of the coil / suspension specs. Try getting that from Rainbow reference.... As for their 7,000 dollar price...absolutely insane. More like a status / "voodoo" product than anything else. The lower speaker lineup...they might be worth something if they provided some real substantial and repeatable specs.

Loudness...how loud are you playing?

Percy

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

I'm not surprised there are no FR and waterfall plot for the rainbow reference. Not to many people have them are willing to send them in for measurements. Though there was one guy who owned these, and they were by far the best sounding to him. Of course this was just one man's opinion. I agree they are not worth the price, but they arent' bad sounding at all. probably a chunk of the cost has to do with exclusiveness. I guess you can say these are the NSX of speakers. Not much for the money, but certainly not bad I do agree that rainbow cheaped out on the xover. I rather have them use air core inductors than iron core. hell, I' probably guess they're using run of the mill eletrolytic caps or an off-brand polypropylene. heh. I guess they know 90% of the people out there wouldn't be able to tell a difference in their cars.

And besides, most of the people that i've spectulated gets rid of the passive xover and go on straight for an active setup anyways, so they have nothing to complain about the set. Of course now we reach to the point where it's all about tuning, rather than the driver itself.

I use to be a CDT fan, but they aren't my coupe of tea anymore. I had the old cambria set, and the eurosport. the eurosport midrange sounds nice, but the tweeters sounded sterile. I haven't heard the 07-series yet, I'm not willing to pay the hefty price when their drivers total under $200. The tweeters themselves can be found for $30 each. I doubt CDT modified them, if they did, enough that it's worth almost 10x the price.

I like the Dynaudio 360 in an infiniti G35 sedan. It sounded nice and the midbass output was clleaannn. Definitely one of the best sets I have heard. By any chance you have the 2nd/3rd harmonic distortion sheet for the dyns? Energy storage and Decay test would be interesting to see too!

On morel speakers, I wouldn't expect too much from them. While they are not bad speakers, they just done compare to the Dyns or scanspeak mids. Maybe it's just me. Their tweeters sound sterile. Even the supreme/supremo are expensive for what they are, though great sounding. Performance for the buck, I would put Morel below pyramid. jk

Percy

If I remember correctly, the Rainbow Reference used magnesium midranges. They have a nasty tendency for resonance so I'm not surprised at all when they tried to do the patchwork in the xover. Even if you run the xover active, you don't have the trap filters that they intended. But then, every application is different so the resonance point is not exactly the same.

FR and distortion graphs...
http://www.dynaudio.de/images/auto/m.../DYN_MW160.pdf

Waterfall plots...
http://www.gattiweb.com/dynaudio.html

Take a look at the ESOTAR lineup...absolutely incredible. The only thing with less energy storage would be a true line / ribbon driver, but that's pretty hard to fit in a car.


Percy

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Yup! The Rainbow uses magnesium cone. Bad breakup-up in the ~4Khz. I think the mid is electrically limited around 2khz via notch filter. I should know..my current mids are magnesium alloy and suffers the same breakup, but I was able to "avoid" the breakup using a steep filter at much below 2.0khz. The thing is, in cars that i've played with, the doors are enough to dampen the resonance. Even though the electrical cutoff is around 2khz, the acoustic cutoff is still enough that you dont hear it going: "wwwhhahabdsjskljdfjaaaa" Heh.

The waterfall plot sure looks better than most others I've seen. It's true about ribbon tweeters though, they sure are big! In my old car, I had to remove a bunch of crap just so I could fit my ribbons. Never going back to that track again!

I'm looking forward to the Esotar lineup though. I'm always a sucker for new things

Lexkost

D.C.GS430 ,Everybodys ears are different get what sounds good to you.
This may be tricky because you must here the speakers mounted in a car and not a display case...............and when listening in a car make sure to set head unit to the flat setting.

Percy

George Short had a headache with a similar driver for his Pegasus project.
http://northcreekmusic.com/Pegasus/Pegasus.htm

Newer Dynaudio speakers are on the way. Expect them around mid june. They include a redesign of the MD100 tweeter, a new subwoofer and the MW160 redesign. At the end of the year, expect the NEW ESOTAR 2 tweeter. They'll be about the size of the MD130s that are on the market, but will sound BETTER than the MD330D tweeters. If you've ever listened to a MD330D or T330D tweeter, they're by far the most accurate that I've heard...and the new ESOTAR 2 (squared) will sound even better. Amazing stuff.

Expect to pay well over a grand for a pair of the ESOTAR 2s. Dynaudio uses similar drivers for the Confidence C1 speakers as well as their C4s. Managed to listen to a set of Dynaudio Confidence C4 and they're simply amazing. By far the most transparent and airy treble that I've ever heard, and I've listened to lots of high end speakers in my time.

Percy

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Ah yes the Seas Excel. The new Seas Excel Nextel (nextel coating) is suppose to have better midbass than the original magnesium, but without the pain in the butt cone breakup.


I'm hoping to hear the new Dynaudio too. Maybe if I like it enough, I'll switch out my speakers for them. I've always like the smoothness of dyn tweeters. Easy on the ear while being accurate. This is perfect timing because just 30 minutes ago, I finished up my wiring

88supramki

I like my focal V2s, would prefer some K3P's or Utopias but mine do the job great

unit74

iTrader: (3)

I tested quite a few brands before I bought separates.


I went with the Infinty Perfects. They had the best SQ in my opinion.

jinetix

I had the CDT 3-ways in my RSX and they sounded great.. I ditched them for some DLS Audio Iridium 3-ways.. love them.

Lexbox

If I could afford Dynaudio I would have went with them. I use XR650-CSi's from JL for now, only $200 per component set too.

OutlawTita

iTrader: (1)

I think it depends a great deal on what kind of music you listen to.......I am an old fart and like 70's rock and the midrange is critical. In my application I love my CDT EuroSports - their midrange is awesome and can handle a lot or power (running 200 to each side).