Flattery never hurt right.
here obviously...
In terms of the following brands, how would you rate them on build, sound quality. Basically which are the better brands
Rainbow : okay.. stupid question.. moving on since I know they >*
Clif Designs... anyone ever heard of this brand? Are they good or do they fall into the jensen category. If not that bad then comparable to what "known bestbuy" brand?
MB Quart
Focal
Diamond Audio
Arc Audio
Eclipse
Polk


then the usual names you get like, JL, Pioneer, Kenwood and the like.

Looking for something at least 60rms, nothing to blow the bank. Trying not to spend more then $250 on just the components

 

If the GD via Don goes through...
SLC 265 $215
' ' kick $260
CMX 265 $280

any of those options are sick. For a more "aggressive" sound look at the CMX's...for a more "natural" sound the SLC's have a nice paper cone midbass driver. And for superb 80hz and up "midbass", the SLC 265 kicks I "hear" are great.

 

I had great experiences with the non kick SLC's they had ALOT of midbass, I can only imagine what the kicks would be like in a sealed door.

 

I'm in the same boat as you, budget/power wise, still trying to figure out which ones I want. My unused amplifier channels are making me

Rainbow - heard many great things about them, never heard them

Clif Designs - Used to be good, then went out of business. CD Technologies bought their name and now makes their stuff. No opinion

MB Quart - Always sound good

Focal - Not bad

Diamond Audio - Sound great, but not great enough to justify their high cost IMHO.

Arc Audio - Hit and miss I think. I've heard them sound wonderful, and I've heard them "tinny".

Eclipse - Eh. At least the grills are cool

Polk - Certainly good for the price! But

I've also been considering the eD 6000's...even though I've never heard them. The price is definately great and eD's customer service has treated me well before.

I had Infinity reference comp's before in a previous car and liked them. Certainly not the best out there, but probably the best you can get in the $150 shipped range.

 

ED 6000's= CDT

 

What's that? elemental Designs?

 

yep............

 

Rainbow = Ya just cant go wrong. So many options for every budget.


Clif Designs is still in business and an entirely different entity. CDT is run by the chief engineers/designers of the original Clif Designs.


MBQ is more hit or miss. If you like the lack of midbass and bright tweets these are for you. If not definately look elsewhere, better can certainly be had for the money.

Focal = read MBQ

DA = go back several years into their Eton/LPG comboed sets and they were worth every penny. Current stuff is poop for the money.

Arc = KAR series are not bad for the money. They dont excel particularly in anything, but sound good for the price tag. ACS (discontinued) are an excellent set incorporating the infamous Rainbow CAL25 tweet.

Eclipse = Great sounding set from a well established all around manufacturer. You can do better, but can certainly do worse within the same price point.

Polk = I'll pass.

eD = Erectile Disfunction. Need I say more?

 

LAWLZZZZ
Thanks Don
So Cliff I guess is still decent no?

And what can I get in the rainbow series in the up to about250 range? If anything?

 

Theyre meh now.

As far as what you can get...

http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...93&postcount=2

 

+1 for the rainbows. they sound pretty damn good. i also like boston acoustics...

 

Any specs on those 'bows?

 

http://rainbow-audio.com/

 

Thanks for straightening out my stuff, if you knew what kind of amp was in my car you'd know exactly where my knowledge/opinions lie

Is there a justified reason for the eD hatred on this site? Other forums worship them, just as rainbow's are here. Just curious.

 

Please show me a legit car audio forum that loves ED besides icixsound.com...

 

Knowledge gain has to start somewhere, heres as good a place as any. Look at it this way..its a Maxima-vehicle specific forum, not a brand specific one. Biased answers are typically far and few between.

The only forum Ive seen worship them is ISUX, which of course you can guess who runs/owns that one..BUT thats also because you get banned if you bad mouth em.

 

heres one

 

and another..

 

hey thats my homepage...you have a PM.

 

Now THAT is creepy.

PMed back.

 

I am personally running a full set of Diamond Audio Speakers including D661S components in the front, and D661I's in the rear doors with at D610D4 subwoofer. My amps are Alpine 4 channel amp and an Alpine Mono Channel amp for the sub. I am using a Rockford Fosgate 3Sixty.1 processor with the stock headunit and cd changer. The comment I have on the Diamond Audio speakers is: They sound great when you turn them up and amplify them properly. Don't buy Diamond Audio speakers unless you have good amps and plan to listen to music at high volumes on a regular basis. I love my sound system at high volumes, but it seems like the Diamond Audio Speakers sound their best primarily at high volume with good amps, and are not necessarily as good at low volume. All that being said.... If you are building a high end system, the Diamond Audio Speakers are great. I spend a lot of time alone in my car, and listen to music at high volumes. The Diamond Audio Speakers are very high quality, they sound great, and seem almost undestructible so far.

 

Don you are wrong about CDT.

 

Isnt that pretty much what I said? The same engineers/designers that once made em for Clif are the ones running CDT. Did I miss suttin here?

 

I think adampit did.

 

To sum it up, same guy running the company, it's just that he went the el cheapo route.

 

I'll be waiting on that GD. As for the other mass marketed brands such as Alpine, Infinity, Pioneer, JL, MA Audio(others I may miss, kenwood). How would you guys rate them in order of decent to uhh.. good enough for replacing stockers in Girlfriend's car. She's no audiophile, but would appreciate some decent sounds. (At least I would when I'm riding around with her )

 

i like alumapro for the front sound stage... reasonably priced, but they do eat alot of power. i have them up front eating about 170W per side (85W x 4 RMS bridged) great sound, clean midbass, adjustable tweeters for fine tuning your sound stage. The crossovers also come with set attenuations.

the rest of my system (which is changing actually)
eclipse headunit - switching out to pioneer dvh-p5000 for dvd playback on the microvision up front.
alumapro 6.5" midbass drivers in the rear for light rearfill
diamond audio m6 12" DVC sub in a custom ported box

I've had eclipse comps up front and diamond comps up front.
Eclipse comps just weren't strong enough for me...muddy midbass, but smooth highs from the silk tweets. The tweeters tended to overheat and kill themselves though. perhaps faulty x-over?

the diamonds were nice, but a little too trebly (word?) for me. a little tinny, but great midbass.

just my .02

 

You make it out to be that the people were working for Clif designs before working for CDT...

CDT was a oem build house that was designing speakers for Clif Designs.

If thats waht you meant im sorry but i dont understand it the same way you did.

 

I think you misunderstood bud, all I said was CDT is run by the chief engineers/designers. Never a mention of them being former employees or anything of the such. I been around a while and know a thing or two also.

 

I got what you said Don...and your comments were analogous to his comments; they were not contradicting.

 

Fan of the Jls I have VRS all the way around love it tons of clarity I think those are 60 rms exactly but can be overpowered a little more. Then there is the XR series which is insane that my friend has zero distortion on the highest volume off his eclipse headunit I am pretty sure those take like 80 rms.

Polk = eww

mb quart is not bad but expensive and I rather take the jls over those

Focals are amazing but good luck affording them

Infinity is cheap but not amazing

Diamonds are nice atleast the d6 series is the only one I heard gotten pretty cheap now too

 

How does Focal compare with DLS? I'm not a fan of bass-heavy speakers. All that matters to me is SQ.

 

First of all you need more periods and commas in your sentences.

Focals are NOT amazing...I used to have a set and NOW i have DLS speakers throughout my car. They cannot be touched by the FOCAL speakers (I had the polykevlar K2's and have heard Utopias). They were BOTH WAY too harsh to play loud

Infinity's are also very bright speakers...you have to turn down the tweets to -14 on your headunit for it to sound bearable.

The DLS speakers have superb sound quality. One main quality I love about them is that their tweets are EXTREMELY SMOOTH reproduction.

 

Read above post....

You'll love the DLS's if what you're after is sound quality. I had a pair of DLS Ultimate UP6's. I compared them to the Rainbow SLCs... Here are my thoughts.
MIDBASS on the rainbows are AWESOME! Really really strong. The tweets leave something to be desired comparatively to the DLS up6s. Both great speakers but I'd take the up6's over the slcs for the extremely smooth sound reproduction.

 

Ok, what about a lower-end DLS 3-way setup? cause i don't have the money for the Iridiums or anything in the Ultimate Line. How are the Classic C36 and Reference 6.3 setups? Thanks

 

And yet still after all these years, no one ever says a word about Dynaudio. I miss mine. I heard Focals, Rainbows, DAs, and others and fell in love with the Dyns. I miss my maxima! lol

 

Dyns are usualy out of peoples budget or not heard of enough.

Don' wouldn't hesitate to recommend the dyn system 360

 

you're going to have to ask don... I've only had the up6's and the iridium 8.3's right now.

 

Okaaaaaa I said nothing about DLS since I never heard them, no dealers around here. Not sure what Focals you had but the ones I have heard are very nice but come with a high price of 600 dollars, which is way out of my budget for components.

 

theres tons of options out here DONT TAKE ANYONES WORD FOR IT. Just go to some shops and listen to what they have, we can only give you an idea of what to look for, dont let us make a decision for you, but instead let us guide you in right direction. Most poeople dont want to break there pockets by spending 250+ on comps, which is fine if there not amping them and dont plan on amping them then there is no need to buy high priced components, because the effect will be minimal if just being run off a headunit.