Aura ns3 dayton rs225-8 and 28a

[Bob]

I've had the rs225-8's installed in the doors and the rs28's in the dash for a while now, and they sounded good despite having a lack of presence in the lower midrange. This weekend I got the time to add ns3's to the kick panels IB, and what a difference.

Vocals are extremely clear and the lack of distortion in the midrange makes listening a much more pleasant experience. Also, the sensitivity of these drivers does not seem to be a problem when crossed over at 190hz 24db/oct[edit: further listening showed this to have a good amount of distortion, mostly at higher volumes where it made everything around 2khz sound extrmely peaky. For them to really sound clean at high volume levels I had to cross them over around 500-600hz 24db/oct], they get extremely loud before distorting, enough so to overcome freeway noise with the windows down as good as anyone could expect, and this from the kick panels. This is with about 45w per with a Zed Audio Gladius.

The rs225's sound great in the doors, and although they don't extend much on the top, when crossed over properly they sound amazing: extremely clean midbass and good low end extension. When not driving the extension is low enough to use without a subwoofer, but they don't have the sheer output down low to oevrcome road noise in a well-deadened car. However they blend in extremely well with my subwoofers running without a highpass, and never strain at high outputs. This is with about 120w per with a Zed Audio Deuce.

The rs28a's are installed flush, reverse mounted in the dash. I've said before that they sounded better without the diffusors in place, but this is only when not using a dash mat as they sounded less harsh thatw ay. I've recently put the diffusors back on and found a dash mat, and although they get some harshness on certain frequencies, they sound much more lively with the diffusors in place. I don't think the dash is the ideal mounting place for them because of this harshness, and I think I'll be trying out the dayton nd-20 small format tweeter now that I have a dedicated midrange. This is with 90w per from a Zed Audio Gladius.

[newtitan]

nice review

what is a diffuser by the way?

[Bob]

It's the little plastic circle in the center of the grill, helps with off-axis dispersion at higher freqs
[edit: they are not really diffusors, actually are phase shields. Don't do much with off-axis response but block out some phase cancellation issues in the top octave increasing the top end extension]

[sheepdog]

[QUOTE=Bob]I've had the rs225-8's installed in the doors and the rs28's in the dash for a while now, and they sounded good despite having a lack of presence in the lower midrange. This weekend I got the time to add ns3's to the kick panels IB, and what a difference.

*snip*QUOTE]


Where do you have the tweeters high passed? I was looking at a similar setup.

[Bob]

I tried everywhere from 1.2khz to 2kz, problem is both drivers lose definition in that range and it never sounds quite right because of this

[ArcL100]

Bob, I had extremely similar experience with the same hardware, so just to reaffirm your results:

When not driving the extension is low enough to use without a subwoofer, but they don't have the sheer output down low to overcome road noise in a well-deadened car.

x2 Right on the button. They also seem roll-off well above their FS.

I don't think the dash is the ideal mounting place for them because of this harshness

x 2 Other people seem to have no problems with them, but cymbals/high-hats hurt when I ran them.

I tried everywhere from 1.2khz to 2kz, problem is both drivers lose definition in that range and it never sounds quite right because of this

having a lack of presence in the lower midrange

x 2 Midrange vocals are a little thin, but playing a 1" tweeter below 2kHz just sounds lousy IMO.

Great post :D

BTW, What's your Head Unit?

-aaron

[Bob]

Ya I didn't like the tweeters below 2khz at all, especially the way vocals sounded with the them on the dash.

Headunit is a Kenwood X679, decent with a little bit of tuning ability, but not enough to do everything I want to do.

[Bob]

Well a while back I changed dashmats, mainly because the one I had was reflecting more light than the dash itself. Turns out it was also reflecting more sound, when I put the new one on all of the issues with the rs28's went away: no peakiness, no sibilance, just good clean sound.
I'd say stay away from velour type mats that have the layer of foam under them, and stick to the carpet types.
Also I've changed crossover points with the rs225's, they blend much better now crossed at 40hz and the subs crossed at 50hz, both 12db/oct with the subs out of phase. This overlap with the subs out of phase causes some cancellation right where I get the most cabin gain, and makes them have a much flatter response.

[niceguy]

Well, you guys are making me too nervous to fool with the RS28s in my van's dash....just as well, my $30 pair of Peerless RDCs are bearable but spending triple that amount to get the same results might make me cry....

Jeremy

[Bob]

I think the most important thing with dashmounting the rs28's is a good dashmat, stay the hell away from the foam backed velour types, I learned that the hard way.
And if I'm not mistaken those Peerless RDC's are practically the same tweeters as the ones in the Koda component set. The only way I got those to sound good at all was to have them way way off-axis in the sail panels, and then they broke a little bit later heh.
So if it doesn't take too much modification to get the rs28's in your dash and you have/can afford to get a good carpet type dashmat I'd recommend trying them out by all means.