alphakenny1 10+ year member
LOTUS FTW!
Okay so i've had these tweeters for about a week now. I'll say this, this is my subjective review so if you have any comments that don't agree with me, i could care less 
. I will also say this is one weeks worth of listening, so i can change my mind if i need to in the coming weeks of tuning.
Let me rundown what my system consists of RIGHT NOW in my car! I must say this is a sad day though as this is my last listening session with the Lotus 8's //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif. I'll miss these frickers. Also my last time using the JL 450/4. Both have been sold i need to get them out asap for the people who bought them.
W200/h701
JL 450/4 (150 x 2 + 75 x 2) ---> Lotus 8, rm110
PPI a200 (50 x 2)-----> CAl26 titan
Lotus RM110 (220hz @ 24db, 2.8khz @ 24db -2db)
Lotus 8 (50hz @ 12db, 200hz @ 24db)
RAinbow cal26 titan (2.8khz @ 24db, -2db)
no sub
Tweeters I have used:
LPG 25nfa
LPG 26na
Seas Lotus Reference RT25A
Rainbow Cal27
Seas Neo Alum
I just threw these in without much tuning. the eq is flat. just set the crossover points.
I have the lotus 8's installed in door pods ib. both midrange and tweet in kicks cross firing. so these are severely off axis.
Listening Test
I popped in a few songs that i think i know decently well. so here are the songs:
Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up
This song starts out with the violin and man its so detailed and open. My head was just knocking back and forth while listening to the violin (stevie wonder head type action, no offense to him, lol). The violin sounded very natural. So as the song starts, you can just hear Josh's "breath" as it echos when he finishes off a verse. These things image very well. it was **** straight on the center of dash and very focused. when the song gets to its "climax", he's "yelling" and it goes on forever. which shows there isn't a huge roll off on the top end. This is also the sign of the tweeters excellent off axis response. Rainbow has a great rep for having tweets with good off axis and this tweeter is a good representation of that.
Josh Groban - My Confession
Again good God, these tweeters are airy, lol. You can easily spot the guitar in this song. The plucking of the guitar has plenty of shine and shimmer. Much more shine than the lotus alum and cal27s.
Celine Dion - My Heart Goes On (I know, but its a good recording)
The tweeters opened up in this song. There are no signs of sibliance at all and this song has plenty of "ssss" sounds. She easily just smoothed out the sibliance. The song sounded very natural and easy to listen to. Once i again, airy (i think thats a theme of these tweets, lol). There is just plenty of detail on these tweeters for my tastes. It really sounded like she just sitting on my dash signing to me //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif.
Metallica - Unforgiven
As the music starts you can easily tell where the guitars are on the stage. The plucking of the guitars is exacting and detail, crisp. It is very open and alive. There are definitely no worries about detail in these tweeters. Okay when James Hetfield starts to sing, it is easily heard that the lowend treble isn't quite as full bodied as let's say a lotus alum tweet or rainbow cal27 tweet. But much fuller than a seas neo alum tweet (thanks john!). I'm just being very picky here though. it's relatively full but as full as others.
Tool - Vicarious
The instruments on this song is reproduced very accurately. It's not like an in your face detail, but the tweeters sing "Hey i'm **** detailed" and does it very loudly (is this a word?). i turned it up to about 30/35 on my hu and it was way too much, especially for a song like this where there are lots of things going on. maynard just sounds so real in the song, again on the center of dash, just yelling at me //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif.
New Edition - One More Day
Now this was a real treat for me. I've been listening to this song for over 10 years and when i popped this song on there was something i've never heard before in my life. The song starts with him saying "Yeah." Before i just heard just him breathing out the worth at the end, but listening to the cal26 titan what i heard was him saying "Yeah", in the background fading says "Yea, Yea, yea" slowly (if you get what i'm saying). I was like OMG, i never heard that before. That just put a smile on my face //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif. The one thing that this song did was show very little sign of sibliance, but thats just being picky.
So in the end what do i think?
These tweeters are best compact tweeters i've used so far for MY INSTALL. I might just say the lotus has a similar detail and exactness to them but the off axis isn't so good on the lotus'. Which is why i say for MY INSTALL. I'm just a sucker for top end shimmer and detail. Very crisp and exacting, especially if you want to hear the instruments like they are sitting in front of you. These tweeters just play so effortlessly, detail for these things is no sweat. The only thing i didn't like was the lowend treble wasn't as full as i would like. I can probably account for this by raising the xover point on the lotus and let the rainbow play from 3.5-4khz and up.
Are they worth it? The retail for these at $320 or so might be a bit too much for most of us i didn't get them at this price though, thanks don!). I chose these tweeters for a few reasons: they are black (matches my kicks), rep of rainbow has great off axis response and was a metal tweeter i wanted to try. Like i said, i'm a sucker for detail. To me they are worth every bit i paid them for and fall in to what i wanted in a tweeter. I'll be sure to update any other things i see that'll be worth noting in the up and coming weeks.
. I will also say this is one weeks worth of listening, so i can change my mind if i need to in the coming weeks of tuning.Let me rundown what my system consists of RIGHT NOW in my car! I must say this is a sad day though as this is my last listening session with the Lotus 8's //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif. I'll miss these frickers. Also my last time using the JL 450/4. Both have been sold i need to get them out asap for the people who bought them.
W200/h701
JL 450/4 (150 x 2 + 75 x 2) ---> Lotus 8, rm110
PPI a200 (50 x 2)-----> CAl26 titan
Lotus RM110 (220hz @ 24db, 2.8khz @ 24db -2db)
Lotus 8 (50hz @ 12db, 200hz @ 24db)
RAinbow cal26 titan (2.8khz @ 24db, -2db)
no sub
Tweeters I have used:
LPG 25nfa
LPG 26na
Seas Lotus Reference RT25A
Rainbow Cal27
Seas Neo Alum
I just threw these in without much tuning. the eq is flat. just set the crossover points.
I have the lotus 8's installed in door pods ib. both midrange and tweet in kicks cross firing. so these are severely off axis.
Listening Test
I popped in a few songs that i think i know decently well. so here are the songs:
Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up
This song starts out with the violin and man its so detailed and open. My head was just knocking back and forth while listening to the violin (stevie wonder head type action, no offense to him, lol). The violin sounded very natural. So as the song starts, you can just hear Josh's "breath" as it echos when he finishes off a verse. These things image very well. it was **** straight on the center of dash and very focused. when the song gets to its "climax", he's "yelling" and it goes on forever. which shows there isn't a huge roll off on the top end. This is also the sign of the tweeters excellent off axis response. Rainbow has a great rep for having tweets with good off axis and this tweeter is a good representation of that.
Josh Groban - My Confession
Again good God, these tweeters are airy, lol. You can easily spot the guitar in this song. The plucking of the guitar has plenty of shine and shimmer. Much more shine than the lotus alum and cal27s.
Celine Dion - My Heart Goes On (I know, but its a good recording
)The tweeters opened up in this song. There are no signs of sibliance at all and this song has plenty of "ssss" sounds. She easily just smoothed out the sibliance. The song sounded very natural and easy to listen to. Once i again, airy (i think thats a theme of these tweets, lol). There is just plenty of detail on these tweeters for my tastes. It really sounded like she just sitting on my dash signing to me //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif.
Metallica - Unforgiven
As the music starts you can easily tell where the guitars are on the stage. The plucking of the guitars is exacting and detail, crisp. It is very open and alive. There are definitely no worries about detail in these tweeters. Okay when James Hetfield starts to sing, it is easily heard that the lowend treble isn't quite as full bodied as let's say a lotus alum tweet or rainbow cal27 tweet. But much fuller than a seas neo alum tweet (thanks john!). I'm just being very picky here though. it's relatively full but as full as others.
Tool - Vicarious
The instruments on this song is reproduced very accurately. It's not like an in your face detail, but the tweeters sing "Hey i'm **** detailed" and does it very loudly (is this a word
?). i turned it up to about 30/35 on my hu and it was way too much, especially for a song like this where there are lots of things going on. maynard just sounds so real in the song, again on the center of dash, just yelling at me //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif.New Edition - One More Day
Now this was a real treat for me. I've been listening to this song for over 10 years and when i popped this song on there was something i've never heard before in my life. The song starts with him saying "Yeah." Before i just heard just him breathing out the worth at the end, but listening to the cal26 titan what i heard was him saying "Yeah", in the background fading says "Yea, Yea, yea" slowly (if you get what i'm saying). I was like OMG, i never heard that before. That just put a smile on my face //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif. The one thing that this song did was show very little sign of sibliance, but thats just being picky.
So in the end what do i think?
These tweeters are best compact tweeters i've used so far for MY INSTALL. I might just say the lotus has a similar detail and exactness to them but the off axis isn't so good on the lotus'. Which is why i say for MY INSTALL. I'm just a sucker for top end shimmer and detail. Very crisp and exacting, especially if you want to hear the instruments like they are sitting in front of you. These tweeters just play so effortlessly, detail for these things is no sweat. The only thing i didn't like was the lowend treble wasn't as full as i would like. I can probably account for this by raising the xover point on the lotus and let the rainbow play from 3.5-4khz and up.
Are they worth it? The retail for these at $320 or so might be a bit too much for most of us i didn't get them at this price though, thanks don!). I chose these tweeters for a few reasons: they are black (matches my kicks), rep of rainbow has great off axis response and was a metal tweeter i wanted to try. Like i said, i'm a sucker for detail. To me they are worth every bit i paid them for and fall in to what i wanted in a tweeter. I'll be sure to update any other things i see that'll be worth noting in the up and coming weeks.
