OldFartAudio
CarAudio.com Regular
I got myself a set of the new Oz Vector series 6.5 components and I am getting ready to install them in my Focus as soon as my Metra parts get here. I installed them temporarily in a pair of USPS Flat rate boxes and have been listening to them a little on my bench powered by the front channels of an xtant 3150c. LOL, I am not kidding. They sound pretty good. When I was considering them I searched high and low for a review and all I could find was people talking trash about them because the company got bought out by Atrend and they are made in China but nobody had actually listened to them. Curiosity finally got the best of me and I threw down my $100 to find out and I gotta say, for $100 you won't be disappointed. Below I am going to right my review of the sound quality so if you are already bored you have been warned.
First let me say that my reference system is an Onkyo 7.1 receiver running Polk RTi A3's. I don't use a subwoofer for music in the house unless I am listening to old school bass cd's. Also, I am an old SQ guy and the Polks are actually a little boomy for my tastes, I actually prefer the smaller (5.25") RTi A1's for stereo music listening. Don't get me wrong, I love bass and all but for pure SQ with everyday music you don't need a sub, mostly. That mostly is cause I know somebody will say Korn uses sonic pulses, and Pink Floyd needs a sub, but really, is "The Wall" an album or a movie that should be watched in surround?
Now for the issue at hand. Cosmetically the Oz components are excellent. The build quality is on point and the set I received looks as good as the set they use in the glamour shots for their website. The woofers have aluminum cones with thin plastic pseudo-phase plugs which may actually be functional, I am not an expert. The crossovers are a good quality plastic and I don't know about the quality of the devices because I am not educated enough in that area. The one thing that I don't like is that there is no tweeter attenuation below 0, you can wire for plus 3 db though. I was concerned about this because I typically prefer silk dome tweeters over pretty much everything else and I was afraid the aluminum tweeters would be fatiguing. The tweeters come with wire leads attached and I didn't measure but I am assuming it is 22 awg. They are 1" so that helps tame them. Smaller tweeters sound bright and I don't know if it is a lack in mid frequency or that they just ring through but it borderlines on harsh for my tastes.
For listening I always play Lenny Kravitz "Fly Away" first. It is an awesome track that has a lot of low and low mid bass. If you haven't blasted this track through a good system with a subwoofer cranked up you will be surprised. The woofers couldn't get low enough to really do the song justice but the track really stretches from the lowest mid-woofer frequencies into the subwoofer frequencies. Right in the crossover zone and below. I like it for that specific reason. My old school Quart 6.5's couldn't do it as well and they were actually installed very well in my old Honda so there is no shame in a mid that doesn't quite pull it off. In fact, the only mids I have owned that could were some old school Pioneer Premier series 6.5's, and even with my Polk front stage only the upper bass notes are voiced as the lower notes are below the roll off frequency of them. (maybe I should reconsider a subwoofer for stereo music, LOL).
Next I listened to Melissa Etheridge "I'm The Only One". I love her voice and the acoustic guitar which is another good test of where the mid frequencies blend into the highs. On this track the 6.5's performed great and the tweeters were able to produce the slight nuances of the guitar strums surprisingly well. I was starting to like them. After this I listened to everything from Pink Floyd to the Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine to Public Enemy, and the Beastie Boys. I especially like the instrumental tracks on the B-side of "Ill Communications". "Sabrosa" is my favorite track on the album and the bridge in the middle of the song "Sabotage" after the rest when the bass starts back is my favorite bass line EVER. I listened to some Chuck Berry, Otis Redding, and Ray Charles too. I also want to stress that I started this listening session just to test the amplifier for functionality and make sure it didn't have any funny noises in any of the channels, and I enjoyed the speakers so much it turned into two separate hour long listening sessions.
Overall the sound is good. Really good considering the price. The tweeters, which were my main concern, are very good. They didn't over power the highs, they played smooth, and that was a good thing. They are aluminum but they don't constantly remind you that they are metal as you listen to the music. A lot of speakers do, especially in car audio, and especially for $100. I am not saying they are the best I have ever heard but I am saying that they are good and the haters are not exactly right.
First let me say that my reference system is an Onkyo 7.1 receiver running Polk RTi A3's. I don't use a subwoofer for music in the house unless I am listening to old school bass cd's. Also, I am an old SQ guy and the Polks are actually a little boomy for my tastes, I actually prefer the smaller (5.25") RTi A1's for stereo music listening. Don't get me wrong, I love bass and all but for pure SQ with everyday music you don't need a sub, mostly. That mostly is cause I know somebody will say Korn uses sonic pulses, and Pink Floyd needs a sub, but really, is "The Wall" an album or a movie that should be watched in surround?
Now for the issue at hand. Cosmetically the Oz components are excellent. The build quality is on point and the set I received looks as good as the set they use in the glamour shots for their website. The woofers have aluminum cones with thin plastic pseudo-phase plugs which may actually be functional, I am not an expert. The crossovers are a good quality plastic and I don't know about the quality of the devices because I am not educated enough in that area. The one thing that I don't like is that there is no tweeter attenuation below 0, you can wire for plus 3 db though. I was concerned about this because I typically prefer silk dome tweeters over pretty much everything else and I was afraid the aluminum tweeters would be fatiguing. The tweeters come with wire leads attached and I didn't measure but I am assuming it is 22 awg. They are 1" so that helps tame them. Smaller tweeters sound bright and I don't know if it is a lack in mid frequency or that they just ring through but it borderlines on harsh for my tastes.
For listening I always play Lenny Kravitz "Fly Away" first. It is an awesome track that has a lot of low and low mid bass. If you haven't blasted this track through a good system with a subwoofer cranked up you will be surprised. The woofers couldn't get low enough to really do the song justice but the track really stretches from the lowest mid-woofer frequencies into the subwoofer frequencies. Right in the crossover zone and below. I like it for that specific reason. My old school Quart 6.5's couldn't do it as well and they were actually installed very well in my old Honda so there is no shame in a mid that doesn't quite pull it off. In fact, the only mids I have owned that could were some old school Pioneer Premier series 6.5's, and even with my Polk front stage only the upper bass notes are voiced as the lower notes are below the roll off frequency of them. (maybe I should reconsider a subwoofer for stereo music, LOL).
Next I listened to Melissa Etheridge "I'm The Only One". I love her voice and the acoustic guitar which is another good test of where the mid frequencies blend into the highs. On this track the 6.5's performed great and the tweeters were able to produce the slight nuances of the guitar strums surprisingly well. I was starting to like them. After this I listened to everything from Pink Floyd to the Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine to Public Enemy, and the Beastie Boys. I especially like the instrumental tracks on the B-side of "Ill Communications". "Sabrosa" is my favorite track on the album and the bridge in the middle of the song "Sabotage" after the rest when the bass starts back is my favorite bass line EVER. I listened to some Chuck Berry, Otis Redding, and Ray Charles too. I also want to stress that I started this listening session just to test the amplifier for functionality and make sure it didn't have any funny noises in any of the channels, and I enjoyed the speakers so much it turned into two separate hour long listening sessions.
Overall the sound is good. Really good considering the price. The tweeters, which were my main concern, are very good. They didn't over power the highs, they played smooth, and that was a good thing. They are aluminum but they don't constantly remind you that they are metal as you listen to the music. A lot of speakers do, especially in car audio, and especially for $100. I am not saying they are the best I have ever heard but I am saying that they are good and the haters are not exactly right.
