Car tweeters vs. home tweeters

[ProgMtl 10+ year member]

Why is it that most tweeters used in home audio speakers sound so much smoother and more realistic than tweeters used in car audio?

I have a set of CDT ES-62i's and while I really like the midbass of these the tweeters sound like crap compared to my Polk Audio system at home.

Anyone know of (from first hand experience) a really good sounding set of SILK tweeters (4ohm) that I can use in the car instead of the CDT's?

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[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

Polk ajudio. I run them in my Ford Escape. Very smooth and very sweet sounding.

 

[ProgMtl 10+ year member]

Didn't like Polk Audio car speakers at all (had the DB series and the tweets were horribly harsh)

 

[PaulD 10+ year member]

CDT tweeters are not that great. 2 Things to remember for car audio - the 1st is that the car can be a VERY harsh environment, especially for high frequencies. The 2nd is that typical markup on car audio is much higher than mid priced home equipment. The CDT silks probably cost them like $5 to manufacture.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Vifa xt25's sound very nice, can get the ring radiators from Madisound, but you have to get them on-axis...

 

[UCF52 10+ year member]

It is most likely a combination of your tweets and the general environment of a vehicle. You can usually set up your home environment to be **** near perfect, but with a car it is difficult to get everything on axis. Then time alignment comes into play. Because we don't sit in the center of our vehicles, we must used delays to make sure sound waves from all driver are arriving at our ears at the same time.

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

dig around partsexpress or madisound and see what you can find

 

[UCF52 10+ year member]

dig around partsexpress or madisound and see what you can find

I am not sure he's running active, but yes you should find some nice small format tweets at Madisound.

 

[ProgMtl 10+ year member]

Was thinking of giving these a try (not much money really):

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=264-578

 

[UCF52 10+ year member]

Are you running active?

 

[ProgMtl 10+ year member]

not running active...I have the upgraded CDT xover (200Z) and it have variable xover points for the tweeter...figured it would work with that Vifa tweeter...not really out a lot of $ if I don't like it either

 

[twisztdauthorit 10+ year member]

Was thinking of giving these a try (not much money really):
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=264-578

Same ones im thinking bout trying out

 

[Millertime1028 10+ year member]

I put the ES-62's in my girlfriends car and can say the same thing about the tweets . Ive been wanting too switch them out for awhile now . Still running the origanal xover though . Been looking around for a slight upgrade .

 

[ProgMtl 10+ year member]

well I won't be able to do it for about 2 weeks (going on vacation) but if you last 2 posters want I can be the guinea pig and let you know in a few weeks...or one of you can be it

 

[UCF52 10+ year member]

not running active...I have the upgraded CDT xover (200Z) and it have variable xover points for the tweeter...figured it would work with that Vifa tweeter...not really out a lot of $ if I don't like it either

Gotcha. I would browse over at DIYMA... a better crowd as far as running active and I'm sure they can give you a few solid (inexpensive) recommendations.