Dayton RS150S-8 & RS28A-4 VS. CDT Audio EF-61

[Kramerica]

First off I have the speakers mounted in the back deck of a 95 Altima. The RS150S-8 is in the stock location firing up and the tweeters are in small boxes pointing straight ahead. I don’t have any speakers in the front, mainly because I didn’t want mess with the doors or dash. The speakers are bi-amped with 40 watts going to the tweeters and 30 watts going to the mids. The active crossover is set at 1488Hz.

I upgraded from my older speakers to some CDT EF-61s, they had great reviews and I found them at The Zeb for a good price. The first thing I noticed when I listened to them was that they were lacking highs. I put my ear up to the tweeters and could barely here them. I disconnected the mids so I could just listen to the tweeters. They had a very small frequency range and had a very soft sound to them. I tried turning the volume up so I could get some detail out of them but they still sounded soft. I don’t know if I got defective speakers or they were designed this way. The midrange on the other hand sounded very detailed and clear. Its strange that CDT would put these two speakers together. Its like they went over budget with the midrange and so to compensate they sold it with a cheap tweeter. Well I returned the set back to The Zeb and finally decided to go the DIY route.

I bought the Dayton RS 6" mid range and matching RS tweeter. I didn’t want to build a passive crossover, mostly because I am lazy, so I bought a PPI amp with an active crossover built in. The sound quality of this combo is incredible. The tweeter has more detail than I thought I would get at this price. They are natural sounding with a little brightness to them, but that was expected since they are aluminum. The midrange of the Dayton has a cleaner sound than the CDTs, but the CDTs had a lower bass response. But this is because of my setup, if the midrange speakers were mounted in a door or an enclosure they would have a much lower end response.

The Dayton RS midrange and tweeter sound so much better than the CDT EF-61s, there is no contest which to choose. Add a passive crossover to the Daytons and they are still cheaper than the CDTs. This is the second time I have upgraded speakers that were the same price and the second pair is a lot better, at least this time I got my money back.

[racerraul]

The sound quality of this combo is incredible. The tweeter has more detail than I thought I would get at this price. They are natural sounding with a little brightness to them, but that was expected since they are aluminum.

When I was doing A/B tests between the RS28, the LPG 25nfa & Infinity Polycell I noticed that the RS28 & Infinity needed much less power than I was giving the LPG 25nfa.

I think those that find the RS28 to have similar characteristics to other hard domes, need to spend a good week with different referrence material to get the gains on the amp dialed in just right...

After all too much gain on any driver will yield negative results...

Other than that, I agree that this combo is hard to beat for the price... To me all it took was 1 listen at a friends car & I knew my OZ had to go (which I swore I wouldn't do... )

[Kramerica]

Just want to post an update on my setup. I bought a Kicker 1/3 octave EQ and WOW, what a difference, this was by far the best upgrade to my system. It must have been my car that added the harshness to the tweeters because my mids also needed to be toned down. The EQ also helped my get rid of some sibilance problems I has having with the tweeters.

My main goal I had with the dayton RS combo was to get close to the sound quality of my PSB Image 2B's ($400 a pair). Comparing the RS28A to the aluminum dome tweeter the PSB's, the RS28A's are the clear winner. With any instruments that play over 2kHz like a violin, cymbals or acoustic guitar, the RS28A's sound very natural and clean. The amount of detail they have on any type of music is amazing, even the radio sounds good. The midrange and midbass on the PSB's are better than the 6" RS150S, but this is probably because of the harshness that my car adds (they are pointing up at the rear window).

I am very happy with the dayton RS combo and would recommend them to anyone looking for great sound on a budget. For $110 for speakers + $90 for extra amp (for going active), I would bet this combo sounds better than any component set retailing for $200.

[Beau]

What PPI amp did you use?

[Kramerica]

I bought a PPI2240 for the mids and I used a Denon DCA-500 that I already had for the tweeters.

I just bought a Nakamichi amp (from dodgerblue, great seller) for my subwoofer and did some amp switching. I now have the PPI2240 for the tweeters and a PPI PCX-280 (used to power sub) for the mids.

Why do you ask?

[ArcL100]

Hehe, glad it worked out for you 8)

I finally resolved my tweet issues with EQing and placement as well 8)

-aaron

[Beau]

Just general curiosity. I'm planning to do a two-way speaker set up for my son’s Jimmy and, although I am close to finalizing the tweet and woofer combo, I haven't picked out an amp yet. I'd like to use something that others have had good luck with (esp. with crossovers), yet not break the bank. Any recommendations?

[Kramerica]

As for the PPI amps I like the crossover on the 2240 because it has one contol for the HPF and LPF for both the amp and the line out. The PCX-280 is a newer generation and has seperate controls for the amp crossover and the line out crossover (also the HPF and LPF have different crossover points), this gives you more control over your crossover points but can be harder to set up . It is for me at least because all of my amps are in the trunk and its very annoying not being able to adjust the crossover while not being in the front seat. :mad:

It also depends on your application and how you send the signal to your amps.

You can get Diamond Audio amps on ebay for pretty cheap, they also have crossovers that go up to 5KHz. Another good brand to look at is Zed Audio (http://www.zedaudio.com/home.html). If you dont need them in a hurry you can also look at the classified sections in car audio forums, most of the time people sell equipment for very resonable prices. Some places to look at: ECA (http://www.elitecaraudio.com/) , sound illusions (http://www.soundillusions.net/) , sound domain (http://forum.sounddomain.com/) , car audio (http://www.caraudio.com/vb/) , sound solutions audio (http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum/index.php?act=idx) . There are more but thats all could think of off the top of my head.

Good Luck

[Beau]

Thanks alot for your suggestions. I appreciate the help.

[evangelos K]

You do realize the crossover point of the CDT's is at 5000Hz, so no question there why you could not hear much coming out of the tweeter. Glad you like the new setup.