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I was shocked when I listened


rambronco

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I know the title is kinda vague but seemed fitting. Ok to start of the main part of this post is going to be  to discuss a pair of Rainbow W130 SLC component speakers I purchased recently. Ive been in this hobby for a long time now (going on 30 years, wow when I actually see that in print.......) and didn't think there were any/many things that could really make me go wow anymore. I set up a test bench a few years back and I dabble with different mids, tweets, woofers ect.

I have heard  a lot of great sounding cars over the years attending events or friends vehicles. I have made the natural progression from SPL to SQ but have never had a "great" sounding car. To this day one of the best sounding (Not loud enough for my liking) cars was my wifes 2010 Volvo C70 Hard top convertible with the Dynaudio premium sound. Its because of that car that I purchase Dynaudio speakers. On my test bench their Midrange speakers are the most natural ive heard and lean towards the 8" over the 6.5" in terms of uncolored and natural sounding.

I found a good deal on Ebay for a 5.25" component set of Rainbow W130 SLC minus the x-overs. I am in the process of building my first "great sounding" vehicle, that, and the fact that im a sucker for a good deal purchased them. When I finally got around to throwing them on the test bench  I am in the process of trying to put together a nice 3 way set up front and have decided the Dynaudio 8" and either the DLS UP1C tweeters or the Dynaudio out of the Volvo's (which I believe is a MD102 but have not been able to confirm yet) I will have to spend some time listening to both. Still haven't decided what midrange will be used, this is where the Rainbows come in. I started playing around with x-over points and a little EQing and at that point I turned them off-axis.

Now over the years ive heard people talk about the imaging of this set vs that set and to be perfectly honest I thought it was 100% in the install (position, eq, delay, ect) I know speakers sound very different but I did not think imaging was a "Characteristic of a speaker" until now. Im not sure what makes these speakers so different, it cant be the size of the wave, I have tried other 5.25" in the same spot. Now these speakers sound good on-axis, very natural and uncolored, they are not the best ive heard and will say I prefer the Dyns sound over them but when I turned them off-axis its like these speakers are a ventriloquist, the image  sounds like its being projected 3 feet towards the center, Ive never seen (or should I say heard lol)  anything like it.

Have any of you guys had similar experiences? I also realized during this just how much different speakers of the same size and "Advertised quality" can sound. I have a pair of upper end Arc audio 5.25" and I have to be honest I think they are very unnatural  sounding speakers, that said I have not hooked them up to there X-overs yet but just playing them flat there is so much emphasis on the upper frequencies, its wild.

Long drawn out post that I will stop babbling about now. 

01 Chevy Silverado X-cab

2 Sundown Z18v4 walled on 2 Lanzar Opti 7k's strapped at 1/2ohm = each amp wired to 1/4ohm. Havent checked impedence rise so not sure what they are actually seeing. 6 group 31AGM's.

2-Eclipse 34230's each one running 2 Eminence 6.5" Beta 6A. These are beastly mids rated at 350w program power. I was skeptical but the eclipse amps are 370w x 2 and when there was 4 mids on 1 amp I could push it into thermal protect within a song so added the 2nd amp. 

Eclipse 4212 running 4 CT sounds Meso tweeters. and 2 DLS ultimate tweeters up high to raise the soundstage.

 

96' Ford F350 4wd 4d long bed 7.3 diesel with 91k miles. Will be the sound quality rig if I can ever find the time.

 

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