Sr6500?

Vestax

Thom wrote:

Especially when it seemed that your feelings were hurt that the Polks got such a good review next to your precious Seas:

http://forum.elitecaraudio.com/showthread.php?threadid=123396

LOL.. not hurt at all, like I said Pat Turnmire based it on "best speakers we tested." Key word: tested... so I respect that.

When it all comes down to it, installation matters most. If you can get drivers that sound great right out of the box that come close to what you need with little processing, that'll be great. IMO, very few sets meet that criteria. Iridiums and Dynaudios are good examples. The SR's..... I see some work required for better midbass response.

MacLeod

you have a point on one thing, I noticed mine bottomed out pretty easy at first too. I was listening to Pink Floyd's "Hey You" and each kick drum at high volume levels came off with a distinct THUD! That was with them high passed at 80 Hz. It did take a little tweaking to get around that as Im giving each mid about 70 RMS so theyre getting a little more juice than theyre rated at. Still, after fidgetting around with the settings, I now have crossed at 65 Hz and they do not bottom out at all.

Ill also agree that the SR's arent perfect out of the box. But then again youd have to spend nearly twice as much to find one any better.

Vestax

Thom wrote:

And Vestax- I'm not trying to change your mind, I know you guys love Seas over on ECA.

Hehe, I know you're not trying to change my mind, it's just my observation. I know that every forum have boners, look at ICIX (Elemental Designs, CDT's), Car Stereos.org (Resonant Engineering, Adire), and ECA have their flavors of the month too, but don't label me too fast - I have ran and demoed a lot of drivers out there. You know if this was a bar, I'd probably have my a$$ beat down by now.. just saying something about Polk. But I'm sure you guys have an open mind like me.

Vestax

Thom wrote:

But at $750 sell price in Tweeter they're quite a bit cheaper than the Quart QSD's. And the other speakers that have big distribution and sell for more money give no more performance. And Car Audio gave them a near identical rating to the Seas Reference. Since Seas have no big distribution it's rare to come across anyone whose heard both sets. But any of the guys affiliated with Seas will tell you that they're the best thing out there. What do the Seas retail for? We could buy a set and Kilppel them here (as we did with the other speakers) but who knows where to buy them. And if the SRs measure better then we'd hear "well they may measure better but measurements aren't everything" like the Buwalda Hybrid fans say. You can't please everyone with one set of speakers.

Maybe your problem was the Tru amp. I've never heard one because the only car I was in had a hidden amp since the Tru always had problems. But I don't go around bashing Tru every time I see them mentioned. I figure just because I've run across a limited amount of product that sucked from one company that not everything they make sucks...

Bashing Polk is the last thing I want to do at the moment but I used to worked for 3 different installer shops, 1 of which was CC, and I must say, Polk products were far way better than all the other average entry level gear they had. I could've easily swapped out my Tru amp with my DLS gear but I figure the top end on the SR's sounded great, why would it be the amp?

Oh BTW, don't worry, all your testing troubles have been saved. Seas works directly with Dr. Klippel. So any test that comes from Seas, comes straight from the Klippel system. I think they even shared the same booth at CES

exalted512

Vestax wrote:

If you can get drivers that sound great right out of the box that come close to what you need with little processing, that'll be great. IMO, very few sets meet that criteria. Iridiums and Dynaudios are good examples. The SR's..... I see some work required for better midbass response.

iridiums and dyns sound great out of the box? You must be one of the select few that think that:)

I have the SRs in my g/f's car, stock locations, not sound deadened(yet), they sound better out of the box than iridiums do, and dyns are even harder to dial in than iridiums...IMO anyway.

-Cody

Vestax

exalted512 wrote:

iridiums and dyns sound great out of the box? You must be one of the select few that think that:)

I have the SRs in my g/f's car, stock locations, not sound deadened(yet), they sound better out of the box than iridiums do, and dyns are even harder to dial in than iridiums...IMO anyway.

-Cody

Actually, I would say the majority car audio community would attest to that. There are non-biased car audio forums out there that are not catered to one brand. Just curious, are you on any of them? If you are on the more popular ones, just ask the same question, what's better out of the box, Iridiums or SR6500's and see what kind of answer you'll get, then you can prove yourself right on that one.

exalted512

im on a few, but ill do you one better, I have iridium 6.3s in my truck, as well as the SRs in my g/f's car. The iriduims took A LOT more time to get the placement just right, the SRs were a lot more just plug and play
-Cody

1996blackmax

It is nice to have choices .......

exalted512

Now that I have more time...

The 880 is a wonderful deck. I picked up recently for my g/f to replace her 770. It is hand down better than the 780. The 780 is basically the 980 without bluetooth capability. It has color graphics, but the 880 offers so much more its unbelievable. Theres not many decks out there that can boast 16 band eq's for the left and the right.

DLS vs. Polk.

For plug and play, I'd take the polks. If youre doing a custom install with testing the positioning of the tweeters/woofers for a better sound, I'd do with the Iridiums.

W6 is a great sub, albeit, very pricey and most people pay more than I would for it, its still one of the best SQ subs out there, period. Dont get a sub like this and a deck like the 880 and skimp out on the components. Thats just morally wrong:D
-Cody

BigSim

Whoa, this thread's taken off since I saw it last

Thanks for your reply Cody, I ended up going with the 860 over the 880, it was $150AU cheaper, and I thought I could use that to put towards my speakers. Hopefully I didn't compromise the wrong way.

The more I read about the SR's, the more they sound like the speakers for me, provided they fit in my car (which is in the shop at the moment, after some guy ran into the back of me ) so I'll check that and see how I go, and if I can find them for the right price I'll get em.

Where I live in Australia, there's not as much opportunity to demo stuff before buying, so I'm pretty much just going by word of mouth, and getting what people recommend off ebay. The 12w6 was a good price, so the expensive thing wasn't really an issue for me.

One last question: I know that the MB Quart QSD's retail higher than the SR's, but I find that they're cheaper on ebay. Given that, people still recommend the SR's over the MB Quarts?

Thanks guys

exalted512

Well, you ARE on a polk forum, so any speaker set that is close to the price of a set of polks, were all going to tell you go with the polk. We're here because we think they make great speakers and sell them at outstanding prices.

I've never been much of a fan of MBQ, I despise their tweeters, I think they sound very mechanical and too crisp. Plus, they've slowly been going down hill lately. So yes, I would still recommend the sr's over the qsd's.

But then again, you have to watch out from what you hear on other forums as well. A lot of people dont like Polk simply because it gets sold at circuit city. Mind you, the SR's dont, but a lot of people are really that closed-minded. 'Oh, Polk, they get sold at CC, theyre crap'

Ive actually seen that written on a forum before. So listen to the people who back their statements and see what they say, not the people that simply say 'quart>polk' and press submit.
-Cody

Thom

Vestax wrote:

Actually, I would say the majority car audio community would attest to that. There are non-biased car audio forums out there that are not catered to one brand. Just curious, are you on any of them? If you are on the more popular ones, just ask the same question, what's better out of the box, Iridiums or SR6500's and see what kind of answer you'll get, then you can prove yourself right on that one.

But anonymous people on the internet will have an opinion whether or not they've heard both sets. Everyone's an expert. But my guess is that not many people have heard both sets in the same install. Or even on the same demo board (where a slight difference in sensitivity is enough for most people to declare a winner).

And DLS' reputation came a long way with Scott B. pushing the stuff so hard for the year or two that he did. So the internet reputation should be good. Obviously many other guys have great sounding systems using DLS, but many of the guys competing and winning can use just about anything and continue to win.

Thom

Vestax wrote:

Hehe, I know you're not trying to change my mind, it's just my observation. I know that every forum have boners, look at ICIX (Elemental Designs, CDT's), Car Stereos.org (Resonant Engineering, Adire), and ECA have their flavors of the month too, but don't label me too fast - I have ran and demoed a lot of drivers out there. You know if this was a bar, I'd probably have my a$$ beat down by now.. just saying something about Polk. But I'm sure you guys have an open mind like me.

There's lots of good stuff out there, and we've got no problem with people (even on our forum) recommending other brands. But when you make your negative opinion known about our SR's I've got to say something. I tend to stay away from Polk threads on other forums, and never recommend Polk when someone is just asking a general "what speaker is best?" question. So I'm not just blindly supporting Polk because I work here. I've still got Zapco amps in my car.


I have a very open mind, and I can't hear with my eyes (unlike many car audio forum members).

Thom

BigSim wrote:

One last question: I know that the MB Quart QSD's retail higher than the SR's, but I find that they're cheaper on ebay. Given that, people still recommend the SR's over the MB Quarts?

Thanks guys

If you can get the QSD's for less than the SR's that might be the way to go. Both sets are very nice, and have similar performance. I was always a fan of Quart, but there are many people who aren't a fan of the tweeters. So I'd still say do your best to listen to a set first.

BigSim

I wish I could listen to these sets first I guess I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope I'm happy with what I choose. That said, almost anything has to be better than the stock speakers I'm running at the moment. I'll choose between the two sets, make a purchase soon and let you all know how I go.

MacLeod

Yeah you can get em cheaper on Ebay and they could be repaired, knock offs, remanufacturered or out right defective. Pay a little extra and get whatever you plan to get thru an authorized dealer. That way you get full warranty and backing from the manufacturer. Thats worth a few extra bucks to me.

And trust me, get the SR's.

Ive had a lot of people listen to mine and most are experienced SQ competition veterans and everybody has had nothing but glowing things to say about them.

1996blackmax

BigSim wrote:

I wish I could listen to these sets first I guess I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope I'm happy with what I choose. That said, almost anything has to be better than the stock speakers I'm running at the moment. I'll choose between the two sets, make a purchase soon and let you all know how I go.

It's kind of hard to drop that much money on something you have not heard, but these things do sound nice. Try to read as many reviews on them as you can, not just the ones from the magazines, but also from different forums as well. For this set, most are very favorable.

For my components I had to do the same thing. I do not have any Rainbow dealers anywhere near me. I read as much as I could, some of that reading inlvolved a good amount of translation from German to English, as well as other languages. I also listened to a few individuals who are very knowledgeable, and have alot of experience with what Rainbow has. In the end I am very happy with my purchase. I see no reason why you wont be with yours.

BigSim

I'd at least consider getting them from an authorised dealer if I could, but when I emailed polk customer service to ask if the speakers fit my car, they said they didn't have dealers in Australia so they didn't know the details of Australian cars

Greg Peters

BigSim wrote:

I'd at least consider getting them from an authorised dealer if I could, but when I emailed polk customer service to ask if the speakers fit my car, they said they didn't have dealers in Australia so they didn't know the details of Australian cars

I don't know the details of Australian cars either, but...if you are still considering the SR6500s, download all the info from the white paper and the owner's manual.

If you are intending to mount them in an existing speaker location in your car, pull out the existing speaker and measure against the Polk specs for depth, diameter of cutout, depth and diameter available where you intend to mount the tweeters etc. Then consider how much (if any) modification you are prepared to do for greatly improved sound quality.

I won't kid you- the magnet portion of the SRs require some depth, and the size is typical of a 6 3/4" speaker regarding the basket and required cutout diameter.

The SR tweeters are bigger than some common brands of upgrade speakers, and will not always be possible to mount in the typical locations. They may require new holes in your car to accomodate the flush or angle mount cup mounting options.

The SR6500 mids come with two 1/2 " spacers per speaker that can be stacked if necessary (which should take care of depth issues for most cars), but using them may require you to use the supplied speaker grills rather than what came with your car. They measure approx. 1" tall, and if that will not interfere with anything it may be the way to go. A custom speaker baffle can be made out of wood for mounting if your available room in the car is close to that required and you don't have room to use the supplied spacers.

I was also considering the MB Quart QSC/QSD 216 series of speaker before buying the SR6500s, and they have similar dimensions required for install. I was very dissappointed to find the SR6500s would not fit in my car (even with some serious cutting), but exchanged them for the SR5250 5 1/4" ones (which did fit). I have found them to be very, very good so far- especially the tweeters (which are identical to those in the SR6500 set).

No matter which replacement speaker you end up going with, the safest bet is to take your car apart first and measure the maximum sizes you can fit in that space, then go shopping.

As far as sound quality goes, the SR tweeters are very smooth, detailed, and clean, have provisions on the crossover that range from subdued to bright sounding (but can't really be dialled in to be as bright as the metal domes from MB Quart). If bright sounding is your "thing", Quarts may be the way to go, but might require some serious EQ use to take some of the harshness out of them that appears with some types of music at higher volume levels. Musical tastes (and the speakers required to achieve your preference in a car) are very subjective, so you'll have to think about what your goal is with your car system overall. I used to prefer the sound of metal dome tweeters (like those from Quart and JBL), but am very happy with the tweeters in my SRs. I find they reproduce a variety of music just as it should sound.

MacLeod

If you really want brighter sounding tweeters, you should consider bi-amping. This way you can adjust the gain of the tweeters in relation to the mids to get the output you desire. Me, I like a warmer sounding speaker so I have my tweeter gains turned down below the mids. This is a much better way to tune than with the 3 position attenuator on the crossovers. However I do use those attenuators to turn down the right side tweet 1.5 db since its more on axis to me than the left one and this helps equalize the balance.