Initial Impression: CDT ES-100s don't sound so stellar...

[KojiroTakenashi 10+ year member]

The Eurosport tweeters I got for my girlfriend's car stated that they came with crossovers...instead, I got an inline capacitor. The CDT "X-1". While I understand that it is, indeed, a crossover, it's not cutting it in my initial tests.

Everything is in free air, with woofer and tweeter level. First I tried with no capacitor - sounded GREAT, but there was WAY too much 'ringing' distortion in the upper end...the mids were fantastic, however.

Then I tried with crossover (wired in parallel), and the tweeters sounded 'laid back', not what I consider a good sound. It seems like it's crossed over way too high? Anyway, I then noticed something else about the woofer, it played its own 'ringing' distortion. The woofers are the ones from the eDi 6500s.

eDi has told me that the 6500 woofers have 'useful' output up to 7Khz, and I believe it...should I invest in a pair of seperate crossovers? I already went overbudget with her own money and I'm dipping into my own (for the amplifier, wiring, etc). Should I try things in-car before making any die-hard decisions, though?

In a word...these tweeters sound 'weak' when using the capacitor and quite a bit too distorted when complicated music is played. The woofers just keep thumping along, though.

If anyone's curious, my penultimate audio reference are the Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 (non SE) bookshelf speakers. The eDi is almost more than a match for these (which is a darn shame they're so magnetic...), speakers which have Aerogel woofers. The Tweeters, though? They don't sound worth the money I paid ($100, on sale at WoofersEtc). What am I doing wrong?

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[djdilliodon 10+ year member]

Those tweeters havent been made for quite some time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif woofers must of bought the old stock cdt had. Also i have never even seen a cap style xover used on a cdt tweeter other than there coax's. Exactly which cdt comp set do u have and if you have a pic of the set i could help you alot more.

 

[Thieroff 10+ year member]

Well, James, an inline capacitor is never really that good of an answer for a crossover, they are only useful for 6db/octave rolloff, crossover networks are usually designed for a specific set of drivers, and you're going to want a little more rolloff than that.

Where do you have the mids crossed over at on the high end?

CDT tweeters are generally known for being "laid back" and I believe possess a 6ohm impedance which could also be screwing up your crossover freq.

CDT tweets are not the in your face agressive type, they are generally more natural and laid back sounding, as with most silk tweets when compared to a hard dome.

Best option I can tell you is get in contact with a CDT dealer and see if you can get some Satnet480 passives for a good price, or build your own, which wouldn't necessarily be easy bro

CDT dealers

AlterAudioUSA

DjDillioDon

CT

 

[Thieroff 10+ year member]

Don,

He's got some eDi 6500 mids I sold him and a set of those ES-100 tweets he bought off of Woofersetc

 

[KojiroTakenashi 10+ year member]

The ES-100s were 'on sale' for $110/shipped down from '400', although price searches dug up the actual original price of about $200 or so, with some people selling their used ones for close to $100 anyway.

By laid back I don't mean 'not aggressive'. Quite the contrary - Ascends aren't aggressive, nor are they laid back, they're neutral. I guess what I meant by laid back would be something more like...quiet. They're quiet and not as accurate sounding as the woofers, even in their intended frequency range.

I don't know where the actual crossover point is supposed to be on these things. The included pamphlet didn't give me any real information about it.

Building my own crossover not easy? Psh. Asides from the whole 'circuit design' thing, lemme just get out my soldering iron...

Edit: Are you guys also saying I should have gone with newer model tweeters, even though they would be less expensive?

Edit 2: Here's the link to the Tweeters: http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=3073&CFID=1952678&CFTOKEN=bc52ee69adda7264-9F9087D3-1422-7C6E-5046B82E4AF5F38D

 

[Thieroff 10+ year member]

My CDT tweets aren't what I would call loud, they are more just there enough to hear them, more balanced

Only thing I can really think of is to build yourself a passive set, although impedance graphs and FR graphs may be hard to come by thru CDT

or purchase a set of passives, wait til Don chimes back in, he knows more about CDT than I do, and can maybe offer you another option

 

[KojiroTakenashi 10+ year member]

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G13200

Would those crossovers work ok?

More to the point, would they sound better than what I have going on now?

Keep in mind, my tests were just in free air. I'm sure the sound should pick up a bit while in the Tracker, but I want to make sure it sounds at least _acceptable_ before them.

 

[Thieroff 10+ year member]

Do you have a DMM?

Find the impedance of those tweeters and i might be able to find something that will work better

 

[KojiroTakenashi 10+ year member]

Nope, no multimeter. It was on the 'to buy' list before my store canned me.

Edit: I can take it in to Radio Shack tomorrow and they'll check it for me for free.

 

[Thieroff 10+ year member]

cool, do that and get back to me

 

[gr1m 10+ year member]

Kojiro, I have the same exact pair of HT speaks as you, the classic CBM 170s as my LR and the classic CMT-340 for my center (HTM 200s surrounds), mated with the PB10 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

I believe curtis, the Ascend forum moderator, also has CDT components(?) for his 4Runner. wow, what a small world.

I am contemplating which component set I should buy for my '06 Odyssey. the factory speaks sound like crap!!!

If anyone's curious, my penultimate audio reference are the Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 (non SE) bookshelf speakers. The eDi is almost more than a match for these (which is a darn shame they're so magnetic...), speakers which have Aerogel woofers. The Tweeters, though? They don't sound worth the money I paid ($100, on sale at WoofersEtc). What am I doing wrong?

 

[KojiroTakenashi 10+ year member]

It was Curtis who referred me to CDT XD

I am also one of the winners of the Ascend Baseball Caps.

 

[alteraudiousa 10+ year member]

Those are definitely older tweets as the newer ES series uses the ES-01 Gold which are the tweets like these http://www.buycdt.com/drivers_es01.htm. And all regular 2006 ES models are using the drt series tweeters. Those tweeters from woofersetc.com could be the older tw-24 or 25 tweeters, hard to tell. I used to use the tw-24 and liked them but the ddrt25 is definitely a better tweeter and the drt-26 adds the benefit of being modular. And the ES-01 is just better.

 

[pik 10+ year member]

I have a set of crossovers from Arc's ACS 265 set xover is at 3200 i believe.

pm me if you want them for almost nothing.

 

[KojiroTakenashi 10+ year member]

Those are definitely older tweets as the newer ES series uses the ES-01 Gold which are the tweets like these http://www.buycdt.com/drivers_es01.htm. And all regular 2006 ES models are using the drt series tweeters. Those tweeters from woofersetc.com could be the older tw-24 or 25 tweeters, hard to tell. I used to use the tw-24 and liked them but the ddrt25 is definitely a better tweeter and the drt-26 adds the benefit of being modular. And the ES-01 is just better.

I would be seriously upset if those were from the TW series, as they also have those on the website for cheaper.

Pik, I'd be interested in the crossovers if Thieroff thinks they're ok. Car crossovers aren't exactly in my area of knowledge...