GlassWolf & Others - Coustic Dr. Series - Need Help, Long Question

 

New member
Username: 8trackkid

San Luis Obispo, Ca USA

Post Number: 5
Registered: Apr-04
Dear GlassWolf (because you used to sell Coustic) and everyone interested,

I am having problems with my front stage components sounding muddy around the midbass- low midrange area. They are Clarion 6 3/4" Dual Concentric SRX1693 components (where the tweeter is in the middle of the mid), powered by a RF 2.6X amp, 35RMS/70Peak per channel@ 4ohms. They are in foam xtc baffles in the stock door locations (99 Nissan Altima). The rear fill are the older series Polk DB 5 1/4" co-axials, powered by the deck (Alpine 7874). The soon to be sub will be powered by an older Punch 100.2, 50RMS@4ohms, 100rms@2ohms per channel. I use quality interconnect and 4AWG power cables, etc. The deck is like new. I use the RF x-card to HighPass and LowPass at 80HZ for both amps.

I have an opportunity to trade the Clarion 6's for a NIB pair of Coustic Dr. series 6 1/2" mids, and MTX 5000 series tweeters and x-overs. I also have some older ADS 335is.2 crossovers I can use, beautiful 100V poly caps and large air-core coils, etc.

I am thinking that the Clarions sound worse due to the hole in the middle of the mid for the "pointsource" tweeters, thus less cone area, making it like a 4" mid.

Question 1: Do you think the Dr. series mids are good quality and will help the front stage sound better in the midbass/mid region?

Question 2: Do you think it would help to put the Punch 100 on the front stage instead of the 2.6X (35RMS vs 100RMS/ch)? Will bi-amping (tweets and mids parallel via component x-overs) at 2ohms create more problems than just running the front stage at 4ohms 50RMS/ch?

I figure that I can then use the smaller amp to power the rear fill, use the larger amp for the front stage, and buy a new amp and sub (when I can save up for it). Maybe a Brahma 12" and a JBL BP 300.1?

Any help that you can give me will be much appreciated!!!

 

John311
Unregistered guest
I'd put the Punch 100 on the components, it would really make them shine. Also, the foam baffles can cause problems with midbass, the first thing I'd do is take them off and see if you notice a difference. If you got them being concerned about water, I'm sure you could rig some type of shield. The coustic and tweeter would probably sound better. Bi amping would be fine. The crossover is a good one, but it depends if the midrange and tweeter would roll off at the desirable frequency, you could look at an MTX component system with a similar tweeter and see where the crossover is set at. If the frequency of your crossover is too high, then the midrange will sound horrible due to trying to produce what was intended for the tweeter, if it's too low, the tweeter will do the same thing, just in the woofer's range.
 

Gold Member
Username: Glasswolf

NorthWest, Michigan USA

Post Number: 2792
Registered: Dec-03
you should listen to the components and see what you think.
I'd change the highpass filters to 100Hz or 150Hz myself.. 80 with roll off is a bit low.
that mayb e the cause of the muddiness.
it could also be that the gains need to be readjusted on the amp.
you may just need some equalization to clean up the system. Have you looked at an audiocontrol EQL or similar product?
You can do a lot with a parmetric or octave EQ.
even with a simple 13 band model.

 

Bronze Member
Username: 8trackkid

San Luis Obispo, Ca USA

Post Number: 11
Registered: Apr-04
Thanks John and GlassWolf,

Yeah, I'm starting to think that the 80Hz 12db X-over point is a bit too low. I've got it set at about 120Hz and it already sounds better, the speakers just seem to work easier when the volume gets loud. I think that the gains are correctly set on the amp. I have an Alpine 7874 deck (2V pre-outs)_and set the volume to about 24 out of 35, and then adjusted the gain on the amp till it was at average listening levels.

So whats the correct way to set amp gain? :-)

I listened to the Coustic DR's and they do sound very nice. Kind of like mid level MB Quart (nice midrange), and the tweets were softer but nice. When I mount these I'll let you know how they sound. I'll try them without baffles in the door locations.

Thanks for all your help !!! :-)
 

Gold Member
Username: Glasswolf

NorthWest, Michigan USA

Post Number: 2852
Registered: Dec-03
silk tweeters often feel "soft" or supressed to people used to neodium tweeters or other similar overly bright, loud tweeters, but in reality, the component set with the softer tweeter is probably the flatter, more accurate one for realistic reproduction of the source material.
That can all be equalized out though, either way once its in the car if you use a decent octave EQ

gain setting:
http://p079.ezboard.com/fcaraudiotalkfrm27.showMessage?topicID=34.topic
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