The Audiophile's BS Thread

Every section has one... why not one for us?

Let me start it out.


I'm looking for a new set of tweeters down the road some time. My KS13's are a little too tinny for my liking. What do you guys think I should look into?

 

Good idea for the thread, cant really help you out tho with tweeters i'm an audiophile newb

 

Are you running them active or are they currently passive on the supplied crossover network from a component system?

 

Active. I'm also running my drivers fairly low. 300-500 iirc with a shallow slope in the high end. If I drop the tweets down around 5 I can't really stand the sound

 

300-500hz on which drivers? That's way too low for tweeters. 2000hz is probably even too low.

 

I'm getting ready to try my hand at fiberglassing tweeter's in an A-Pillar. My new Kenwood has some awesome TA and EQ adjustment's made my current kicker DS's sound so much better.

 

If y'all haven't tried these little Vifa tweeters they're incredible. Very low distortion and great dispersion since they're a 3/4" dome (smaller the tweeter the better the dispersion). They also have an extremely low FS so they'll play down to 2000hz no problem. Once more, the flange is fairly small and they are fairly shallow so it's not a pain in the but to mount.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=264-1006

 

My Hertz Mille ML280 tweeters are crossed over at 3750 with a 36db slope. I have 190 watts to each tweeter and I play my music LOUD. They sound very dynamic, clear, and not any brighter than they should be. I would highly recommend this tweeter to any fellow audiophile.

 

C'mon dude, you know me better than that. I'm runnin the 6.5's at 300-500hz My tweeters are at 5khz and up right now with a 30db slope.

 

Correction... my 6.5s are at 80hz to 2k. I swapped it up a bit


The 6.5's seem to love the 80hz btw, I dont normally run them this low but this active setup really keeps it clean!

 

Ok, so let me make sure I understand (just clarifying).
Sub is 80hz and down LPF
Mids are 80hz up and 2000hz down band bass
Tweeters are 2000hz and up.

Is that all correct?

If so I'd consider moving up the tweeters to around 3000hz to take some strain off of them. It's possibly they're getting a bit shouty due to a high rise in distortion from playing too low. I don't have the specs on those tweeters but the sonic electronix page said they only went down to about 4k with the included HP filter. I'm sure they could go lower but an extra 2k lower is likely pushing it.

It might be a pain in the ass but if it's not I would encourage you to disconnect or somehow mute your mids and sub. Then you need to listen to a song with ONLY the tweeters going to see if you hear distortion. I bet you'll be surprised at how much is covered up by the rest of your system.

PS: How are the tweeters mounted?

 

I can mute the channels invididually... its a feature of the deck, and its how I decided on the crossover point of 5k. (I posted a pic in the last post, thought you would have seen it.) There is a gap of 3k between the mids and tweeters but I kept a shallow slope, 12db I think on the mids.

I'll say again, I have the tweeters set at 5k. Any lower and they hurt my ears. I did read up as well about the 4k with the stock crossover, but I can't stand the sound when I turn it up at 4k, they just take over. It may be distortion, but I hate high frequencies so I don't know.

Tweeters are mounted on an MDF ring... not enclosed by any means.



Sub 80hz LPF
Mids 80hz HPF to 2Khz LPF
Tweets 5k HPF

 

If I'm not mistaken, these are your 6.5's, right?



In which case, your Hi-Energy 6.5's are typically sold with the 3-way component HSK-163 system. Your HSK 165L's are made to pump out more mid bass and lower frequencies better. They are nice drivers but I haven't heard them outside of a 3-way component application. Typically if someone wants more mid bass in the Hi-Energy series without the option of doing a 3-way system, we install the HSK165XL component set. Have you tried bumping up the crossover points on those mids and listening to them?

I would seriously recommend trying to fill that 2khz gap between your mids and tweets either by adjusting crossover points or adding drivers. There are some nice sounding mid range speakers out there that can be fitted nicely into the stock tweeter location on our doors. If you can't stand the way your KS13's sound when you bring them down to 4k, sounds like it's time for some new tweets. If you aren't crazy about throwing down the coin for Mille tweeters, the Audison Voce AV1.1 can be a nice alternative that are a little less pricey.

 

Yeah I missed that pic when I responded.

So yeah it sounds like those kicker tweeters are trash below 4k. I would recommend getting something like those Vifa's I posted higher up in the thread. They will go lower and really help your staging and the harshness you're getting from the kickers. They're a pretty laid back soft dome which sounds like it would suit your style.

And I agree with Shane; those mids should be playing higher if your current tweeters can't go lower than 5khz. You have a VERY large gap in the midrange even if your slope is shallow. The problem with running a 6.5" driver that high is that it will become quite directional because the offaxis response at those higher frequencies sucks.

I would raise the crossover on the mids to 4khz first and see how you like it. Try that first because it's free. Other than that.....it's new tweeter time.

 

Yep, you're right, they were part of a 3 way kit that was seperated when installed. The local Porsche installer here sold them to me separate for relatively cheap. They are perfect for me. Looking up the Voce are 189 on eBay (only place i see them online), thats a little more than I care to spend on tweeters. Maybe I'll get desperate, who knows, but you're hitting the nail on the head sound wise. I think I'd just be happier with anything silk dome or softer at least.

Overall, I'll survive, I don't notice the gap, maybe I just hate that frequency range. I really love how right now the 6.5's compliment the sub, because when I listen to Eon, I feel the bass coming from all 4 corners, everything is just so powerful with this setup.... I love it.

Maybe I'll just tweak the sound a little more with a nice shallow slope and turn down the gain a tad.

 

Didn't see your reply at first... will give it a shot. Thanks man.

 

does anyone know where i can get a nice box.

I am running a fi audio q 12
but it was reconed by SPL audio
these are the specs 3" ww d2 8 layer coil, 3 stiff nomex spider, dual sewn leads, heavy duty paper cone with med tall surround 2500w rms

anyways I want sound quality and most would say sealed box but if tuned right a ported could be louder and just as nice.
these are my airspace requirements
Sealed box: .8-1.5 High QTScuft
Ported box: 1.8-2.5 cuft @ 28-33Hz

 

I've been a member at Head-fi.org for about 7 years and have spent wayyyyyy to much money on headphones and amps and dacs, Tacomaworld has helped pull me away from that money suck, but im not sure I traded for a cheaper hobby... And now to see this thread that mixes the two!!! my wallet is screeeeaming.

Welcome to Tacomaworld, sorry about your wallet....

that should be a slogan here, if it already isn't

~M

 

My new sig

 

you have to upgrade the poop audio system if you have even the slightest ear for music