well today i installed a set of Phoenix Gold RSD 6.5" comps in my Scion tC. the install was fairly easy and painless for the most part. i installed the woofers in the doors and the tweeters i flush mounted in the stock kick panels. the set is being powered by a kicker zx550.2 amp with the gains set with a -3db 1khz tone to 150wrms per side.

once i got it all wired up, before i even had the tweeters in their spot i turned it on and made sure everything was good to go. the first thing that popped into my head was "wooooowwww listen to all that mid-bass". just like all the reviews say, the mid-bass is absolutely amazing. especially for the size of the driver and the price you get the set for. the woofers really don't look very beefy but they sure sound like they are. my doors and deadened and sealed though, so if you just drop them in w/o doing that the results might not be the same.

now onto the tweeter, at first i didn't know what to think. i had a slight imaging problem right off the bat. but the guys over at phoenix gold saved me with the sweet pivoting the tweeter offers. i first tried pointing the right side at me(the driver) and the left side at the passenger headrest. but that really made the stage sound weird. it sounded very to the right side of the car. but even with the tweeter mounted down in the kick panel i was able to easily make the sound stage sound like it was much higher than it looks. now when female vocals are played they sound like they are coming right from the center, kinda like the bottom center of the windshield or right at the top center of the dash. everything sounds very good and very centered.

for the EQing right now i have 50hz and 80hz boosted by 2, and 125 boosted by 1, and that's it. i don't think the midrange or high end even needs to be messed with. my head unit also has time alignment but i already had it set for the factory speakers so that was done already and seems to be fine so far. i have the fronts crossed at 63hz at a 12db slope, and the sub also crossed at 63 at a 12db slope, and the factory rears i have off head unit power but faded out pretty low, crossed at 100hz. i played a few rap songs just for the hell of it and i think crossing them over at 63hz is to low. i feel if i really give them a lot of volume with certain songs i might be pushing them a bit much. but for any rock song that point is fine, i even played them full range and they were perfectly fine.

i already played them for probably a good 3-4 hours at least, maybe even 5. i listen mainly to rock, alternative, and metal(but not crazy death metal). everything i threw at them sounded excellent. on more mellow songs like stuff from 311's cd Transistor, or ****ation by opeth, everything sounded very crisp, detailed, and clear. when i play stuff that was a little faster and i don't wanna say harsh but stuff with a lot of crazy highs they sound good as well but the tweeters really come alive and sound really loud. maybe even a little bit bright (but not harsh), but i am going to assume that they will mellow out a lil bit over time. but really the tweeter is great.

overall for the money i have no complaints yet at all. well worth the $87 shipped they were on ebay.

now this is only my second set of comps that i have owned. i had a set of Infinity kappa perfect 6.1's a while back. i honestly at the time i kinda liked them but that was before i really had a lot of experience with car audio. the infinity's were definetly very harsh and had no midbass what so ever. i will leave off with a couple pictures, if anybody has any questions or comments let me know and i will answer them the best i can. i will update this after i get more time on them as well, i'm sure the sound will probably change as with all speakers.




(the left tweeter isn't angled all crazy like that anymore BTW.)







***TWO WEEK UPDATE***

I have had these RSD's in for exactly 2 weeks now. i must say, they have to be heard to believe! they really live up to all the hype they been getting on numerous car audio forums. after 2 weeks of playing with tweeter angles, time alignment, crossovers, and the EQ on my Pioneer deck these things(and my whole system in general now) sound absolutely ammmaaazing IMO.

like i have said before, i have not used a lot of different component sets in my time so i might not be the best person to give a review but for the price or even maybe 2 or 3 times the price these things are awesome.

the mids and highs still sound nice and smooth but also very detailed even when played very loudly, and the mid-bass, MY GOD the mid-bass is insane. the mid-bass seemed to be getting louder and louder as time went on, at first i had 80hz and 125hz boosted a good amount on my EQ, not anymore. i am constantly turning off my sub just to hear what they sound like with out it and several times i have forgot to turn it back on thinking it was already on. i don't have my sub turned up to extreme levels though. i'm trying to go more for SQ than SPL, so no extreme bass for me. i have also played the rsd's for short periods of time in full range at pretty good volume levels and they handle it perfectly fine, no distortion or bottoming out. even when i have them crossed where i normally have them they can shake all three mirrors in my car pretty nicely. with the sub off you can still feel bass drum kicks in your chest, it's really amazing that these little guys can make this much bass. they truly have to be heard to believe.

in my case they didn't really need a lot of EQing IMO, just some slight changes here and there. i have messed with settings quite a bit and this is where i am at right now. i have 315hz cut by 1(there seems to be a decent peak there), and 2k and 3.5k also cut by 1, and i have 31hz boosted by +2, and 50hz boosted by +1(for the sub), and 80hz boosted by 1, and 12k boosted by 1.

i have the rsd's crossed at 63hz at a 12db slope and the sub at 50hz at a 12db slope as well. the rsd's have plenty of low end extension which allows me to do this. it really brings the stage forward when you can cross the fronts and the sub this low. in certain songs that don't have a lot of low low material my sub is hardly even playing.

i highly recommend these comps to pretty much anybody looking for awesome component speakers at an awesome price!

 

VERY well done!

 

thanks! you probably remember me asking you where i should mount my tweeters. i decided to just go for the kick panel. i wanted them flush mounted and wasn't gonna cut my pillars or my dash, and i kept hearing people talk about tweeters sounding harsh because of reflections off the glass and dash. so i just put them there, it sound sweet!

 

:-) a little more.... i just drove around so i could hear a couple more songs. i put Metallica's cd "and justice for all" in and listened to some of that. i listened to "one" and "and justice for all". they both sounded amazing, so detailed and clear even when i cranked the hell out of it. i heard things in those songs i don't remember hearing before.

and for some reason my sub also sounds a lot better now, not really sure why. i reset my gain pretty much the same way as before just to a lower volume on the head unit. it seems to hit a lot harder now though.

i deff recommend these comps to anybody, no matter what your price range. even if you have money for rainbow or something expensive don't waste it.

 

Lookin' good. I partially deadened my doors and rear panel wells and that little difference was night and day! I have a Profile Amp and it kicks **** for what I paid for it.

 

yessir, deadening is awesome.

 

well since i have had some time on them i have played with some settings on my head unit and they seem to sound even better now. i played with the EQ a lil more and also messed with the time alignment a bit. i now have 50hz at +1, 80hz at +2, 125hz at +1, 315hz at -1, and also have 8khz and 12khz at +1. so the EQ is still pretty flat for the most part but i messed with it a lil.

i also took a few inches off the right side on the time alignment, which brought the stage a little more to the left. BTW time alignment is sweet, you can actually hear the vocals moving around when playing with the settings. i never really played with it before, (i just set it and thats it) and i was shocked at how nice it works.

so after a couple days with them i still love them and they keep sounding better and better as time goes on and as i continue to tweak things a bit.

 

yay for good metallica! thank god u didnt say st. anger...

 

i have every one of their cd's except st. anger. hahaha i also listened to the black album last night on the new setup and that sounded sweet as well. the older metallica stuff seems very well recorded.

 

****TWO WEEK UPDATE****

I have had these RSD's in for exactly 2 weeks now. i must say, they simply have to be heard to believe! they really live up to all the hype they have been getting on numerous car audio forums. after 2 weeks of playing with tweeter angles, time alignment, crossovers, and the EQ on my Pioneer deck these things(and my whole system in general now) sound absolutely ammmaaazing IMO.

like i have said before, i have not used a lot of different component sets in my time so i might not be the best person to give a review but for the price or even maybe 2 or 3 times the price these things are awesome.

the mids and highs still sound nice and smooth but also very detailed even when played very loudly, and the mid-bass, MY GOD the mid-bass is insane. the mid-bass seemed to be getting louder and louder as time went on, at first i had 80hz and 125hz boosted a good amount on my EQ, not anymore. i am constantly turning off my sub just to hear what they sound like with out it and several times i have forgot to turn it back on thinking it was already on. i don't have my sub turned up to extreme levels though. i'm trying to go more for SQ than SPL, so no extreme bass for me. i have also played the rsd's for short periods of time in full range at pretty good volume levels and they handle it perfectly fine, no distortion or bottoming out. even when i have them crossed where i normally have them they can shake all three mirrors in my car pretty nicely. with the sub off you can still feel bass drum kicks in your chest, it's really amazing that these little guys can make this much bass. they truly have to be heard to believe.

in my case they didn't really need a lot of EQing IMO, just some slight changes here and there. i have messed with settings quite a bit and this is where i am at right now. i have 315hz cut by 1(there seems to be a decent peak there), and 2k and 3.5k also cut by 1, and i have 31hz boosted by +2, and 50hz boosted by +1(for the sub), and 80hz boosted by 1, and 12k boosted by 1.

i have the rsd's crossed at 63hz at a 12db slope and the sub at 50hz at a 12db slope as well. the rsd's have plenty of low end extension which allows me to do this. it really brings the stage forward when you can cross the fronts and the sub this low. in certain songs that don't have a lot of low low material my sub is hardly even playing.

i highly recommend these comps to pretty much anybody looking for awesome component speakers at an awesome price!