tcguy85 10+ year member
CarAudio.com Veteran
well today i installed a set of Phoenix Gold RSD 6.5" comps in my Scion tC. the install was fairly easy and painless for the most part. i installed the woofers in the doors and the tweeters i flush mounted in the stock kick panels. the set is being powered by a kicker zx550.2 amp with the gains set with a -3db 1khz tone to 150wrms per side.
once i got it all wired up, before i even had the tweeters in their spot i turned it on and made sure everything was good to go. the first thing that popped into my head was "wooooowwww listen to all that mid-bass". just like all the reviews say, the mid-bass is absolutely amazing. especially for the size of the driver and the price you get the set for. the woofers really don't look very beefy but they sure sound like they are. my doors and deadened and sealed though, so if you just drop them in w/o doing that the results might not be the same.
now onto the tweeter, at first i didn't know what to think. i had a slight imaging problem right off the bat. but the guys over at phoenix gold saved me with the sweet pivoting the tweeter offers. i first tried pointing the right side at me(the driver) and the left side at the passenger headrest. but that really made the stage sound weird. it sounded very to the right side of the car. but even with the tweeter mounted down in the kick panel i was able to easily make the sound stage sound like it was much higher than it looks. now when female vocals are played they sound like they are coming right from the center, kinda like the bottom center of the windshield or right at the top center of the dash. everything sounds very good and very centered.
for the EQing right now i have 50hz and 80hz boosted by 2, and 125 boosted by 1, and that's it. i don't think the midrange or high end even needs to be messed with. my head unit also has time alignment but i already had it set for the factory speakers so that was done already and seems to be fine so far. i have the fronts crossed at 63hz at a 12db slope, and the sub also crossed at 63 at a 12db slope, and the factory rears i have off head unit power but faded out pretty low, crossed at 100hz. i played a few rap songs just for the hell of it and i think crossing them over at 63hz is to low. i feel if i really give them a lot of volume with certain songs i might be pushing them a bit much. but for any rock song that point is fine, i even played them full range and they were perfectly fine.
i already played them for probably a good 3-4 hours at least, maybe even 5. i listen mainly to rock, alternative, and metal(but not crazy death metal). everything i threw at them sounded excellent. on more mellow songs like stuff from 311's cd Transistor, or ****ation by opeth, everything sounded very crisp, detailed, and clear. when i play stuff that was a little faster and i don't wanna say harsh but stuff with a lot of crazy highs they sound good as well but the tweeters really come alive and sound really loud. maybe even a little bit bright (but not harsh), but i am going to assume that they will mellow out a lil bit over time. but really the tweeter is great.
overall for the money i have no complaints yet at all. well worth the $87 shipped they were on ebay.
now this is only my second set of comps that i have owned. i had a set of Infinity kappa perfect 6.1's a while back. i honestly at the time i kinda liked them but that was before i really had a lot of experience with car audio. the infinity's were definetly very harsh and had no midbass what so ever. i will leave off with a couple pictures, if anybody has any questions or comments let me know and i will answer them the best i can. i will update this after i get more time on them as well, i'm sure the sound will probably change as with all speakers.
(the left tweeter isn't angled all crazy like that anymore BTW.)
once i got it all wired up, before i even had the tweeters in their spot i turned it on and made sure everything was good to go. the first thing that popped into my head was "wooooowwww listen to all that mid-bass". just like all the reviews say, the mid-bass is absolutely amazing. especially for the size of the driver and the price you get the set for. the woofers really don't look very beefy but they sure sound like they are. my doors and deadened and sealed though, so if you just drop them in w/o doing that the results might not be the same.
now onto the tweeter, at first i didn't know what to think. i had a slight imaging problem right off the bat. but the guys over at phoenix gold saved me with the sweet pivoting the tweeter offers. i first tried pointing the right side at me(the driver) and the left side at the passenger headrest. but that really made the stage sound weird. it sounded very to the right side of the car. but even with the tweeter mounted down in the kick panel i was able to easily make the sound stage sound like it was much higher than it looks. now when female vocals are played they sound like they are coming right from the center, kinda like the bottom center of the windshield or right at the top center of the dash. everything sounds very good and very centered.
for the EQing right now i have 50hz and 80hz boosted by 2, and 125 boosted by 1, and that's it. i don't think the midrange or high end even needs to be messed with. my head unit also has time alignment but i already had it set for the factory speakers so that was done already and seems to be fine so far. i have the fronts crossed at 63hz at a 12db slope, and the sub also crossed at 63 at a 12db slope, and the factory rears i have off head unit power but faded out pretty low, crossed at 100hz. i played a few rap songs just for the hell of it and i think crossing them over at 63hz is to low. i feel if i really give them a lot of volume with certain songs i might be pushing them a bit much. but for any rock song that point is fine, i even played them full range and they were perfectly fine.
i already played them for probably a good 3-4 hours at least, maybe even 5. i listen mainly to rock, alternative, and metal(but not crazy death metal). everything i threw at them sounded excellent. on more mellow songs like stuff from 311's cd Transistor, or ****ation by opeth, everything sounded very crisp, detailed, and clear. when i play stuff that was a little faster and i don't wanna say harsh but stuff with a lot of crazy highs they sound good as well but the tweeters really come alive and sound really loud. maybe even a little bit bright (but not harsh), but i am going to assume that they will mellow out a lil bit over time. but really the tweeter is great.
overall for the money i have no complaints yet at all. well worth the $87 shipped they were on ebay.
now this is only my second set of comps that i have owned. i had a set of Infinity kappa perfect 6.1's a while back. i honestly at the time i kinda liked them but that was before i really had a lot of experience with car audio. the infinity's were definetly very harsh and had no midbass what so ever. i will leave off with a couple pictures, if anybody has any questions or comments let me know and i will answer them the best i can. i will update this after i get more time on them as well, i'm sure the sound will probably change as with all speakers.
(the left tweeter isn't angled all crazy like that anymore BTW.)
a little more.... i just drove around so i could hear a couple songs. i put Metallica's "and justice for all" in and listened to some of that. i listened to "one" and "and justice for all". they both sounded amazing, so detailed and clear even when i cranked the hell out of it. i heard things in those songs i don't remember hearing before.
