ALRIGHT! No more putting up with those god awful alpine R componets, I now have real speakers. I havent hooked them up yet, so this is just a kind of preliminary post. I will post pics of them installed and let everyone know how they sound.

First off a forewarning to anyone considering the Alpine R componets. I hate them. This is only my experience though, if I had to offer my opinion to anyone who wanted it, I would say "dont bother." I had so many problems getting them to sound right that I finally gave up and ordered these CDT's.

Ok no more complaining, on to my thread.


First off, I have not dealt with CDT audio equipment all that much. So looking through their line of componets I was surprised to find such a wide price range, and not a single solitary bad review of any of them. From the cheapest karma series that run about 100 beans, to the super expensive 2 grand eurosport series. There are alot of options, but the coolest thing that I found amoung the different systems was the fact that the frequency response numbers stayed pretty high and didnt vary all that much from set to set. I know that numbers usually mean squat, but they at least give you some kind of baseline. All of the series give you good options for expanding your system with xovers that allow for seperate imaging tweeters.

The set I wound up with is here:
http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?...937037448A3FBE

UPS came and dropped off my box, I opened it up and was surprised to find a rather cheap-looking packaging with some simple-low res pics. I thought to myself "good, so they are spending money where they need to be...who cares about packaging?" I opened up the box and pulled the equipment out, the speakers look top-notch. Very firm cones and pretty hefty. The magnets seem a bit small, but we all know its not the size of your magnet that counts...its how you woofer woofs. (hehe)

The tweeters are fairly hefty also as far as tweets go, and seemed nice and simple. Mounting shouldnt be much difficulty with these.

The crossover is where things really look different. Compared to the alpine crossover, this thing is a giant, and the coolest thing is that it has a extra hookup for image tweeters. So that gave me a couple of ideas.

I am going to try hooking my system up this way: I now have 3 sets of tweeters. The CDT tweeters, the JL evolution tweters, and the alpine tweeters. I plan on leaving the alpine tweeters in the kick panels where they are now and hooking them up as the main tweeters. Then I will hook the CDT audio tweeters up in the stock location as image tweeters. Hopefully this will work. If it does not, I will wind up loosing the alpine tweeters all together, remounting the JL's in the stock location, run them as image, and placing the CDT's in the kick panels running them as the main tweeters (what they were meant to be.)

The install will be done tonight when I wake up, and before work, so hopefully I will have my opinion on how they sound posted by tommorrow morning about this time.

I am going to bed now.

 

If anyone has any setup suggestions, here is my list of equipment.

Pioneer premier DEH-P860mp reciever
Crossfire 100w/2 channel amp (for componets)
Phoenix Gold XS2500 (for sub)
Alpine R midrange driver
Alpine R tweeters (1" silk tweets)
Alpine R crossover
JL evolution tweets (3/4" silk tweets)
CDT audio eurofit midrange drivers
CDT audio crossover (with image tweeter outputs)
CDT audio tweeters (3/4" silk tweets)
JL 12w6 sub in spare tire well box.
Wicked CAS speaker pods

Thats basically it...I need to update my siggy.

thanks for the input

 

Ben.. Ben..Ben...

Why dont you just step up to the plate and get some MB Quart Qs...

 

If you want some install advice, Give me a holler at home man. I can hook you up.

 

Finally someone agreeing about CDT! I recently installed the HD-62s with the US-200 crossovers and two sets of tweets also. I agree fully with your analysis of the quality and reviews of their products. But why did you not buy directly from CDT? They have a store on Ebay with full warranty for really good pricing.

Anyway, you may have some issues with the imaging tweets. I got the 200Us xovers because they have Stagefront built in. The CDT rep had informed me that the standard Xovers simply sent a redundant 3.7k and up signal to the second set of tweets. Stagefront is set much higher, like 8k and above which is true imaging off the windscreen.

Also, did you have troube mounting the mid. I believe the EFs are also a 2.75 depth no? Did you try an angled approach with MDF?

 

yeah I angled those alpines about everywhich way posisble. Not an issue now that I have those speaker pods. They fit fine. They just sound like crap. Cant handle any power, and are just real muddy. bah.

going up to the garage to put the CDT's in now. I ordered those from audio-n-more.com and got them for 270 bucks shipped, warranty and all! Couldnt pass it up.

When are you coming around here tracy? We all need to get together and get into something. Start yelling "urinal cake! at a new restaraunt.

 

Sounds like the Alpine R sub I had once..wish they put as much effort into their speakers as they do the head units. I have a feeling you will be amazed by the CDT.

 

Ok, I just got done with the install, and here is what I wound up doing:

CDT tweets in the kick panels running main.
JL audio tweets in stock location running image.
Alpine grills with the CDT drivers.

First off I had some troubles installing the CDT grille with the speaker pods. The speaker pod mounting hole was like a penishair too small for the grille, so I wound up just screwing the blasted things in with the Alpine grilles, which doesnt bother me because those alpine grills are just sweet looking....too bad they say alpine on the bottom, but oh well, who cares.
I really really really really didnt want to pull my door panels off for the umteenth million time, so I just jerked out those monsterous Alpine tweeters and flushmounted the CDTs in the holes. The design of the mounting brackets was really cool, there was no M shaped aluminum bracket to screw the tweeter housing to (I know you know what Im talking about.) instead, you sandwiched the panel with the tweeter housing via a screw on ring, that made install a breeze. I pointed the new tweets forward as much as I could and went to work on the crossover.
I ran the CDT kick panel tweets as main and the JL tweets as image, hoping that it would resolve some of my "wall-O-treble" that the JL/alpine setup created, and provide me with some slightly richer sound. Not much to do here except out with the old and in with the new.

...well, about an hour and 7 beers later, I hopped in the drivers seat and started tweaking. When I tweak the sound I always crank the stereo to about 2 below the max it will go and start turning up my amplifiers untill the componets start distorting. I believe that the crossfire highpass filter does its job at about +->100hz. I hate headunit crossovers (which is just basically signal processing..bah!), so I just decided to use the amp's since I have no other external xovers, and turn the headunit crossover off. I popped in my metallica "Load" CD, which has become my tweaking disc over the years, (it is the highest quality disc that I own as far as mastering goes.) I set the EQ on "flat" (I hate EQ's, I dont understand the purpose of reEqualizing something that has had thousand of dollars in equipment, and hundreds of hours in manhours into equalizing in the first place.) and started turning up the gain on the amp and WOW, those speakers can handle some power. I believe they said 180rms. (but who knows, the alpines said 70w rms but I will laugh at that number.) all I know is my little 100 wattx2 crossfire amplifier is almost maxed with NO distortion whatsoever. The bass from the componets alone shook the car almost as much as the JL subwoofer did with the volume it was at on the old setup (which was now off for the time-being), the "chunk chunk chunk" of distorted guitars was now clearly audible instead of being non-existant with the alpines and the whole tune just had a more solid and tangible (for lack of a better word) sound.

For the record, the JL evolution tweeters kept up watt for watt with the CDT's. I havent heard the rest of the JL evolution series as far as midrange drivers go, but if they perform like the tweets, they probably rock. think the frequency response number for the CDT's is like 92db with my set and I would believe it, these componets are totally cranked and not distorting whatsoever. The wall-o-treble is gone totally, replaced by singing, non-earbleeding frequencies. I can't really explain it, but with my old setup, when I started cranking it, the amount of treble just hurt, but now I think the volume is GREATER without the pain, if that makes any sense. I think it is due to the fact that the alpine speakers had absolutley no midbass whatsoever, the CDT woofers are probably making up for that, making the high frequencies more bearable. But for whatever the reason, I was now able to really start to unleash my JLW6, which has been starved since I bought it due to it having the uncanny ability of drowning out my componets.... So, since I lacked low-end bass because my new componets were so loud, I started in on the subwoofer. I started turning up my little pheonix gold xs2500 and got the bass where I thought it should be. Damn. JL subs never disapoint, and now that I have real speakers, I was finally able to hear the JL in all its glory....my audio system is now complete and I am MORE than extatic with it. I threw in some more CD's to see if I needed to do a little readjusting. I went through my "Soundtrack to your escape" by "In flames" CD, then I went to the good ole "Demanufacture" by "Fear Factory" CD (I like that one). Then it was "The Gathering" by Testament. I was surprised to find that I didnt have to touch anything, but then again, its hard to tell much anything with those CD's, so I started in on the softer stuff. I tried Dream Theater, Evanescence, and then Muse with no changes. Then the real test, Beethoven's ninth. I was actually a little disapointed with this test. The speakers were clear, alot clearer than the friggin Alpines, but just didnt have the big symphony sound that home stereo DCM's did. But a small complaint, as the sound was still a world away from what I had. The JL sub was very impressive however, and I could actually make out the notes from the tubas now.

All in all, these componets ROCK. Well worth the money, I would reccomend them to anyone. So here is my summary:

Highs:
great midrange and fullness.
easy-mount tweeters.
amazing clarity at high volumes

Lows:
ugly as sin.
PITA to mount mid drivers.
Lacks ability to produce lower frequency midbass notes (from violas and high-note chellos) but I figure that is what 3 and 4 way systems are for.

Pics coming soon!

 

Tackett, how did you get such a good deal at Audio-n-more. I don't see them listed??

 

Wow thats weird, the EF61's are there, but the carbon fiber woofers are not listed anymore....maybe waiting on a new shipment. Even still, its the same componet set, just not a carbonfiber cone. Just upgrade it to the 560i crossovers.

 

ahh, I see. Yeah the 560s IMO are important. I was previously running PG Elites which have a croosover point of 3k. I prefer the point lower to keep the mids concentrated on low and mid tones. Hope you are still enjoying the setup.

 

I am so freakin happy that my stereo is somewhat fixed now.....just need to figure out why my CD changer is not being recognized. Going to buy some new cabling and see if that fixes it...if not, then I guess its new changer time.