Rainbow Germanium's or CDT ES-620z for front stage?

[MonkeyBone 10+ year member]

Long story short I am doing my first REAL car stereo build and have all the components I need. I'm just trying to decide which front speakers to use. I have two sets of 6.5 components and two amps to choose from for the front stage.

Here are the components...

Speakers I have:

CDT Audio ES-620Z 6.5" comps

Rainbow Germanium 6.5" comps

Amps to choose from:

Zapco AG750

Sundown SAX 100.2

I'm 95% sure I want to use the Zapco amp up front because it has more raw power than the Sundown but can't decide which comps to go up front. Both are excellent speakers, but which ones would you use as the front stage and why? I am going to be doing rear speakers as well so whatever won't go up front will go in the back for rear fill. I do not want an only front stage system. This system is 100% SQ and not SPL.

BTW the rest of the system is

Pioneer DEQ-9200 audio processor

Alpine HU

2x 12" Hypnotic subs in custom sealed enclosure 1.7cf per chamber

Kicker Zx1500.1

Big 3 including a new 250 amp alt.

Car: 2002 Mustang GT

As always I value the opinions I have gotten on here and encourage your input good or bad. Thanks!!!

Click to read more...

 

[JayRich 10+ year member]

Now i havent heard the CDT's but my brother has the germaniums and they sound amazing, they have a very natural airy sound to them, and are well defined. They also have pretty good midbass as well. I have the power series and I love how rainbow speakers sound personally

 

[MonkeyBone 10+ year member]

Now i havent heard the CDT's but my brother has the germaniums and they sound amazing, they have a very natural airy sound to them, and are well defined. They also have pretty good midbass as well. I have the power series and I love how rainbow speakers sound personally

The Rainbow is a great speaker and I've heard other Rainbow series before. I bought the CDT blind off of recomendations from this site. The speakers and x-over look great.

I hate threads w/o pics so here are the pics for no reason at all....

The CDT's

The CDT x-over

Germanium

Germanium x-over

ZAPCO BABY!!!

Sundown

 

[okiedokie 10+ year member]

**** that zapco looks so nice & big, no one can say which is better for you.

but you can play with each set to find what sounds better to your ears

i like the tweeter on rainbows better

i like the mids on the cdt better

remember SQ is more than just about the speakers

aiming,placement,deadening,etc.........

good luck

 

[JayRich 10+ year member]

remember SQ is more than just about the speakers

aiming,placement,deadening,etc.........

good luck

Very good point, install is probably the most important aspect to the system

 

[JayRich 10+ year member]

You could also look for the CDT woofer abd crossover and buy a cal 25 or 26 tweeter separate and may be best of both worlds, but i guess it really depends on the crossover, it may be made for that tweeter, but it may be worth a shot

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

The crossovers on the Germs can be configured so much to help improve the sound I wouldnt even think about the CDT's if I had the Germs already on hand.

 

[okiedokie 10+ year member]

why dont you go active,

 

[MonkeyBone 10+ year member]

why dont you go active,

So to set up an active front stage I would need four powered channels up front, or in my case add another 2 channel amp one amp for the mids and one for the tweets correct? If I did that I'd get another Sundown SAX 100.2 amp. Now that would be a bad-*** front stage.

That DEQ-9200 has an amazing amount of features for fine tuning a system. That sound processor kicks some arse.

 

[okiedokie 10+ year member]

yes you need one four channel amp or two two channel amp for the mids & tweeters

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

i would grab the CDT better lowend extension and much more depth.. the Gs sound too airy and lite, almost thin...

 

[boardroomjimmy 10+ year member]

I just bought a pr. of es 600's for my back fill, I'm installing tomorrow. If I remember I'll post update tomorrow. Only the 6.5" mids are in the back, the 2nd set of tweets are in stock pods in an Is250. So it's only kinda rear fill.

 

[okiedokie 10+ year member]

ok

 

[boardroomjimmy 10+ year member]

i would grab the CDT better lowend extension and much more depth.. the Gs sound too airy and lite, almost thin...

This is what I found today when I installed my es600 mids. ( I assume they're the same as yours since they look identical) The cdt's are set @ 60hz and seem happy, while my alpine spx17's are up @ 80+. The alpines will bottom out set any lower. Of course the gains on the alps are set higher also, the cdt's are in the rear for fill. They do blend nicely with the sub.

 

[okiedokie 10+ year member]

newer ones es6 are really nice speakers.

http://www.cdtaudio.com/custom_components_08.htm