Hi all,
My 1st post here but I am no stranger to high end car audio. I have quite a but of experience in both installing high end systems and listening to them.
So I have spent a solid month with a pair of '06 CDT ES-620 comps with the DRT-25 1 inch silk tweeter. (Purchased new for $399... retail at $699).
They are powered by a Pheonix Gold Titanium Elite 500.4 (I have powered them both in bridged for 250 watts RMS and non bridged for 75 watts RMS).
My HU is an Alpine CDA-9833 with 4 volt preouts.
Subwoofer is a 2004 RE XXX 12" Dual 4 run at 2 Ohms via a PG Titanium Elite 800.1
Rear fill was not run.
My previous comps have been: Infinity Perfect 6.1s, MB Quart Q series, CDT EF-61s, some older Polks, Dynaudios, and some JL comps.
1st let me say that I am not a CDT fan. I was thoroughly unimpressed with the EF-61s. They sounded good yes, for an entry level comp, but were very weak in midbass. I only decided to give the Eurosports a go because of the great price I got them at. The other options for me were Seas Lotus comps, DLS Iridiums, or Rainbow Profi Vanadiums. (all were over $900).
Also, I recently got to experience a pair of CDT HD-61s, and was far more impressed than with mine...
SO I figured, what the heck, if I hate the ES 620's I'll dump em on
Ebay and go with the Lotus.
Installation was a snap cause they had the same mounting depth and frame as the EF-61s.
1st Impressions: Not good. Flat. Midbass not what I was expecting. To my horror they distorted quite easily. I was utterly horrified by the mid woofer of CDT's "flagship".
But, the 1 inch silk tweeter sounded great. I always have been a fan of silk tweeters for their warmpth and lack of edginess, and this one really delivered. Hands down the best tweeter I have ever heard in a car.
SO back I go to figure out if I had screwed up the midbass setup. Nope...wiring all correct. So off I go to work on tweaking this mid woofer to do what people say it can do. I take it off 250 watts RMS and put 75 watts RMS to each. Big difference, much better, but still not great. I think the PG was prolly pumping out 300 watts as they are underrated.
SO now they are comfortable and in no danger of being overdriven. Off I go on tweaking sessions. Many of them. Cant get them to sound good. The MB Quarts blew these out of the water. They still sound flat, no mid bass.
At this point I was crossing them over at 100 Hz with a 24hz/dB slope. (where my RE would pick up at 100 Hz low pass)
SO I got even more frustrated and drove with them for a week to see if they would wake up a bit. Nope, they still sounded like the Infinity perfects (NOW THOSE sounded HORRID).
In Complete dismay I broke out some classical CDs and turned off the sub, to perfectly set the gains using Henrich Gorekski's Symphony #9. In doing so I put the head unit into
Defeat Mode Which turned out to be the smartest thing I did. I then used the gains/boosts/crossovers on the amps on the PG500.4 and 800.1.
Well something about doing that set these babies ALIVE. Suddenly I was running two 6 inch BEASTS of mids. A touch more tweaking at the amp level and I was grinning so hard my cheeks were hurting. The midbass came to life and man, it was THERE and hit hard and tight. Best midbass I have yet ever heard. It was as good as my buddies HDs. Tweets sounded much better, blended wonderfully... but it is the vocals which the ES's excel at. Vocals are so amazing on these comps I cant even put it to words. Sara McLaughlin with delerium was mesmerizing!
And they just cant be distorted...if you think you hear a distortion, play it back soft, and it's on the track, not the speaker. These things just get sickly loud, but do it without losing their fine sound.
Conclusion: easily the best comps I have ever owned. Sound spectacular! Took alot of tweaking to get them to sing, but it was well worth it.
