System update

unrealii

Its funny, I keep saying I'm done with CA, but it never ends. If you remember from my old thread "Did I damage my DB3000's" http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32052 . The answer may be NO I did a 2 hour AB test with the rainbows and polks and decided I am going to try the polks out again for a week and see. Right now I have the high pass at 10khz 6db slope. They sound excellent at that setting. I hope that isn't going to kill them. Guess if 5khz at 6 db didn't then 10 can't be bad. I just need to figure out how to get rid of the harshness at the really high end and I may be set. In the end, I think it was poor tuning on my part, I reversed the terminals with the rainbows and they sounded infinitly better, and so do the polks now. I think it also had to do with mp3 cds, with such a good quality radio, amp, and speakers, I guess the compression is noticable.

Oh yeah, and I upgraded radios too. My cd8454 was having trouble reading burned cds, so I went to goodguys and bought the cd8455 for a cheap price since gg is going out of business. I think I can break even by selling the 8454 when it gets back from eclipse.

skydeaner

I notice huge differences in quality between mp3's and cd's. Especially in the high's like you are talking about. IF the mp3 is encoded 224vbr, or 192khz regular then I dont notice it as much, but anything below that and it is very very noticeable. Also, burn cd's at lower speeds to get them to playback better on certain cd players.

PoweredByDodge

those tweeters should be highpassed at 4 k / 12 db / octave... or go 4 k / 24 db for better results.

factory was like 3.8 k / 12 db i believe. 10k is like "why even bother having them" kind of thing.

unrealii

Yeah, most of my mp3's are ripped at 192. But I think I still notice mild distortion from cds too. Maybe my system is good enough to point out flaws at recording. I dunno, my ears are very sensitive.

PBD, they are 10khz at a 6db slope. For some reason, I prefer the sound at that rather than 4khz at 24db.

PoweredByDodge

really? that surprises me a lot dude.

what have you got going as far as mids and stuff ? i mean are the tweets part of a component set or whats the deal?

the reason i ask is that i'm thinking if you have mids (6 1/2's , 5 1/4's, or even 3 or 4") that are high passed but not low passed, then they may be "reaching" up to 7 or 8 or 10 khz.

if that's the case, then by x-ing the tweets lower, you're getting overlapping - which makes it more harsh in that range, and that would explain why you don't like it --- if that's what you're up to - then try xing your mids lowpassed at about 4 or 5 k, and highpassing the tweet at the same marker...

also - where are they placed? if they're up high in the pillar right by your head then it would also explain why too much tweet is bugging you.

anywho - off to the races...

unrealii

Yeah, they are in my A-pillar. I have DB6510 (old school-YEAH) mids. I have the mids x'ed over at 3.15...forgot the slope.

I just finished swapping for ANOTHER set of tweeters. I'm anxious to see how these play with the DB mids.

Here's the current equipment list:

Eclipse cd8455
Eclipse pa5422
Eclipse pa5532
Polk Audio DB6510 140 watts each bridged through pa5532, active hu xover
Polk Audio DB5510 85 watts each (pa5422) through polk passive xover
Polk Audio SR Tweeters 85 watts each (pa5422) through active hu xover
Image Dynamics IDQ10 270 watts

skydeaner

Give Me Your Db3000 Tweeters~!

PoweredByDodge

hmm... freaky. hey long as it keeps ya peachy

unrealii

lol, you really want the db's? They are barely damaged from user error. It depends how sensitive your ears are. They sounded better damaged than my friend alpine tweeters he's running off the hu. If you want them, send me $20 and they'll be at your door.

skydeaner

what's your email homie

1996blackmax

unrealii wrote:

Its funny, I keep saying I'm done with CA.

This feeling only lasts for a while .



How are you liking the CD8455? Does it have better MP3 playing capabilities than the CD8454? I did not like not knowing what song or folder was playing when I played MP3's on my 8454.

unrealii

I consider the 8455 a good improvement over the 8454. They fixed most of the things that pissed me off about the hu. Knobs are more accurate now...maybe too sensitive though. E-Iserv actually measures now. For mp3, it assigns a number to each folder and track, so if I know I want to hit the 8th track in the 5th folder from the root, I can press the folder and track knob to 5-8 before even seeing the track name or folder name come up. I dunno if that makes any sense.

I sent my 8454 in for repair. I got the 8455 cheap enough since goodguys was selling their floor model and going out of business, so hopefully I should break even on this upgrade.

1996blackmax

I know exactly what you are talking about . Eclipse makes some nice sounding units. I may go back to them before too long.

unrealii

1996blackmax wrote:

I know exactly what you are talking about . Eclipse makes some nice sounding units. I may go back to them before too long.

want to buy an CD8454

1996blackmax

Already had one of those .

unrealii

These SR tweeters are nuts. They are really clear. I had to reverse polarities on the old db's and the rainbows I had. These I had to wire correctly otherwise they were waaaay too strong. I wonder how much longer until these SR's break in. Right now I have the mid low pass at 2.5khz @ 12db and the tweeters high pass at 5khz @ 18db. So far blending seems to be pretty good according to my ears and the measuring tool built into the radio.

MacLeod

Yup, at that competition yesterday, everybody that listened to my system, except for the super-dork that showed up, the first thing they remarked on was how good the tweeters sounded.

1996blackmax

There is always one of those guys around. I read your other post Mac.

unrealii

I can't say enough. I love these tweeters. I polk.

cam5860

Yeah polk rules on mid's and high's if only they could make there sub's that good.

MacLeod

Their subs are some of the best on the market. Their Momo line will hold their own against any SQ sub costing much more. Just run down to Tweeter and listen to them up against some W6 and W7 and Type X's.

Their new DB2122 is bad as hell! If I had a hatchback or something and was looking for a premade box Id look no further than this one.

PoweredByDodge

cam5860 wrote:

Yeah polk rules on mid's and high's if only they could make there sub's that good.

Thats wholly unfounded.

Polk Audio builds some of the nicest subwoofers I have ever had the pleasure of hearing or using.

While they have built subs and speakers in the past that I wouldn't take for free, those were base lines, and they've been summarily dropped (thank god). On the whole, Polk has made and contines to make SQ subs that impress me. I completely disagree with you.

1996blackmax

cam5860 wrote:

Yeah polk rules on mid's and high's if only they could make there sub's that good.

Why would you spend your money on subs that you thought were not that good ?


I think Polk makes some very nice subs.

cam5860

Every polk sub i ever bought blew up in less than a week. The polkmomo subs are great subs but there subs used to not be worth a damn. That's why i always bought polk sub's from circuit city cause you could get circuit city's extended warrenty on them. You all know how it is exchange out for a new sub in store everytime you blow a sub. The polk ex series sub's man you could blow them in a day did not make any sense. They only had 6 mm of xmax. So if you even tried to turn them up to hear them over your highs you would over drive them. Then i bought the polk gnx sub which was better but that ain't saying much. They would last you about two week before the voice coils would melt down in them. But now i will have to say the polkmomo subs are good subs because ive had these about 9 months and have not had any trouble with them. If a sub can't get loud enough for you to hear them over your highs without overdriven it into failure it ain't worth a damn to start off with.

MacLeod

Well Ive got a Momo 10 rated at 300 watts and its getting 400 and has never so much as whimpered. Plus Im 2 for 2 in SQ competitions with it.

cam5860

What a lot of people don't realize is polk has really stepped there game up in the last few years. They make nice products now from there entry line to there top of the line stuff. But it hasn't always been that way. That's why you hear so many people say i have never considered anything from polk to be top of the line. Because there entry level stuff used to be not nearly as good as there entry level now which is the polk db series. You cannot even start to compare the polk ex series which used to be there entry level series to there entry level series now the polk db series.

MacLeod

Well Polk has been making award winning, high end home audio for 30 years so I figure their car speakers would be pretty good too.

They have had some stinkers in the past Im sure as has everybody but taken as a whole, the Polk catalog is on par with most on the market today.

cam5860

Yeah polk has always made great home audio speakers. It's car audio im talking about im sure they could have done much better back then. But i guess they were mainly focused on home audio. Which i have never questioned polk on there mid's and highs they have always sounded better than most company's out there. It's just there sub's that used to piss me off.

MacLeod

Whatever you didnt like about them back then Im sure theyve fixed by now. Ill put a Momo sub up agaisnt anything out there regardless of price point and feel confident it will hold its own.

cam5860

Yeah i have nothing bad to say about the polkmomo line they have now. They sound really good and can get really loud for a sq sub.

MacLeod

I would like to see em come out with a sub that can handle a little more power tho. Not necessarily a SPL sub but say a 10 that can easily take on 500 watts would be cool.