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Phoenix Gold M25

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:27:31 +0000

The Phoenix Gold M25 has long been a benchmark amplifier. It and the M50 2 x 50 watt amplifier. The M25 2 x 25 watt amplifier can do up to 100 watts in 4 ohms, with its 20-volt capacity unclipped.

In its time, and even today, many have regarded this as one of the best sounding amplifiers. That and the fact that it is definitely underrated. Many car audio testers and writers use this as a reference simply because it as been around forever. Most can channel its sound just by closing their eyes and remembering all the listening sessions they have spent with it.

Nowadays, if you’re lucky, you can score one of these bad boys for around $100. Best place to get one in good condition are the car audio forums.

Some photos (compiled from various sources)

We will update this post with more information soon. In the meanwhile, please hit the comments if you have something to add.

Phoenix Gold RSd65cs Review

MTX Thunder 8000

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:46:36 +0000

Presenting the next generation of “superwoofers” from MTX—the Thunder 8000 series. MTX chose to describe these subwoofers as “aggressive,” and with one look, they claim that you’ll get a sense of their performance.

The woofers have enormous 12-leg, die-cast aluminum baskets with machined front and back plates. Each cone comes with MTX’s proprietary 12 stiffening ribs. Asymmetrical Linear Drive technology is once again used in this series, which pairs low distortion with high output. Its enormous magnet structure weighs 102 ounces, and a 2 1/2″, 4-layer voice coil handles power and dissipates heat effectively. This combined with Spider Plateau Venting—various small vents all around the frame—adds to the woofer’s cooling.

The speaker’s gasket is made from NBR rubber. Nitrile Butadiene Rubber is a synthetic that is extremely resistant to ozone and UV rays, which means it is plenty durable. Another unique feature of the sub is the radius on the pole which also contributes to minimizing turbulence during large excursions.

The Thunder 8000 comes in 10″ to 15″ sizes.

Models

T8104 — 4 ohm, 10″, 400 watts RMS, 1,000 watts total, 5″ mounting depth
T8108 — 8 ohm, 10″, 400 watts RMS, 1,000 watts total, 5″ mounting depth
T8124 — 4 ohm, 12″, 400 watts RMS, 1,000 watts total, 5 9/16″ mounting depth
T8128 — 8 ohm, 12″, 400 watts RMS, 1,000 watts total, 5 9/16″ mounting depth
T8154 — 4 ohm, 15″, 500 watts RMS, 1,500 watts total, 6 7/8″ mounting depth
T8158 — 8 ohm, 15″, 500 watts RMS, 1,500 watts total, 6 7/8″ mounting depth

Sample Reviews

“These things sound amazing and they get really loud with little power. I am only pushing 100 watts to each one and they sound as if there getting 300 watts each.”

“If this speaker rattles, or seems weak or whatever, that person has not installed it correctly. Do your research. Pick the right amplifier and box. If you do, your hair will move when you fire them up. I have 2 MTX 10″ with MTX 750W amp. These speakers just rock! The bass is SUPER clear. These subs really need a non-ported small box for a nice tight bass that will rock the car next to you. I am a big SQ fan and have 4 Focal 165V. The BAND is right in my car! If other guys are disappointed then they don’t have the right equipment! I truly believe MTX makes a great product, and your not going to pay the big price like some of the others for the same sound.”

Sands A6 Conductor

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:35:15 +0000

Here is another Asian car audio product

Sands—a Thai (Thailand) brand developed by a certain Khun Ravat Arkradejdachachai, brings vacuum-tube technology amplifiers to the market. But more on that on a later post, as the A6 conductor is actually their 6.5″ separates.

Khun Ravat has been the sole distributor of SEAS speakers for over 10 years in Thailand. In 2005, he set out to design a car amplifier that will reveal the best potential of his SEAS drivers. The V235 pure class A, pure tube, dual mono amplifier was born.

Five years later, he has developed a car audio portfolio that satisfies the needs to discerning car audio enthusiasts worldwide.

Enter the Sands A6: Conductor

The A6 uses handmade Usher midbass and SEAS Prestige-based tweeters. The Passive crossover uses nothing less than Munforf and Interteknik capacitors and resistors.

The A6 retails for about $300 USD. More information coming soon.

Danish Acoustics Pristinum Series

Danish Acoustics Pristinum Series

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:18:41 +0000

Here’s a new player in the serious-audiophile side of car audio

Danish Acoustics is a line of SEAS-based speaker components made by a company in Singapore called Acoustic Technology. Yes, the Singapore car audio segment is dead serious. So first things first, SEAS you say? These must be good.

Pristinum literally means pure, uncorrupted, and in original condition. Clever.

From the Acoustic Technology website: “Accuracy is achieved when a system remains true to the intent of the recording. This is achieved by having very low levels of harmonic distortion with minimum time smearing and coloration.”

The Pristinum is offered as a 2-way passive set—the Pristinum 6.1, and as a 3-way semi-active set. The components are listed below.

Tweeter – TW2701

A high-resolution, wide bandwidth fabric dome tweeter using Scandinavian technology. High grade neodymium magnets are housed in an optimized tuned chamber. Inside the chamber are damping materials such as felt and acoustic wool. Free-air resonance goes as low as 1,080 Hz. Comes with a wedge mount kit for direct mounting.

Mid-woofer – PW165

A polypropylene cone midbass drive unit with a powerful and linear motor system. The copper clad aluminum voice coil increases power handling, bandwidth and lowers inductance. The voice coil is surround by powerful barium ferrite magnets keeping the flux energy concentrated at the magnetic gap. Rated at 80 watts with a maximum short term power of 250 watts. It has a frequency range of 50 to 4,500 Hz.

Crossover – XP 6.1

The crossover has an advanced serial network topology, and not only acts as a filter, but minimizes phase and lobbing errors. The tweeter and woofer are cascaded with reactive components which results in very minimal phase problems. This achieves a stage that is deep into the dash and not forward.

The Pristinum 6.1 2-way sells for around $700 USD.

Hertz HSK 165

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:07:57 +0000

Hertz Hi-Energy series 6.5″ component set

After a long thought of review of the Hertz MLK 165, we now take the time to check out the next in line—the Hertz Hi-Energy HSK 165. This is not an actual review, just a brief overview of how it may compare with the MLK 165.

The HSKs are sold in the sub $300 price range, making it around $500 less than the MLKs. Basing for that observation alone, it might not have half of what the highly-regarded MLK has to offer. It uses the HT25 neodymium tweeter, which we know is a decent tweeter with decent materials, which is 3-way adjustable.

It has a maximum wattage rating of 250 watts, 50 less than the MLK, and an RMS handling of 125 watts (25 less than the MLK). As with frequency response, it goes as low as 50Hz, as expected, because the MLK can go as low as 35Hz. But surprisingly, it goes upwards of 22 kHz compared with the MLK’s 7kHz (what’s up with that?).

It would be great to listen to one of these and see for ourselves what kind of mid-product Hertz offers. We’ve been awed and amazed with the MLKs so we’re really itching to listen to one of these. Once set up, we will post a full critical review of the HSK 165. Stay tuned.

Hertz Mille MLK 165 Review

Hertz Mille MLK 165 Review

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:47:57 +0000

The Hertz Mille is the Italian company’s top product offering. If you want to spend $1000 dollars on a component set, going with the Hertz MLK 165 means you’re getting the company’s absolute top of the line—unlike with the Focal 165 KRX2, with which you realize you’ve been duped after finding out they have a better set only gods and goddesses could afford.

The MLK 165 is built like a tank, looks gorgeous along with its packaging, and installation is as standard as any 6.5″ component set. That’s about it for those aspects in this review, so let’s concentrate on the most important part—the sound.

Playing live recording on Hertz is like watching a video track of the recording itself. You can position each individual player—guitars, drums, other instruments to their exact location on the stage. You can hear the softest instruments in the mix, yet you can still single out the notes and lines they are playing.

The bass response is really low on the MLKs, going up to 35Hz. Playing it without a sub at first, my colleague thought I was merely lowering the volume of my JL. He was surprised (as was I) when I told him I turned off the sub entirely.

Instruments such as shakers and percussion sounded clear and natural, without the slightest bit of harshness. If I were to describe the highs of this set, I would probably use the words “smooth” and “lifelike.” It would be something you would consider as a set not having any listening fatigue.

Cymbals are very clear, metal-like without over emphasizing its harsh qualities. You won’t get fooled if there was a recording of a cymbal and you were made to distinguish a real one with the recorded track, but they make them sound like you would want to listen to them all night. Horns sound bright but not harsh with the appropriate timbre—just the way I like them to sound in recordings.

Conclusion

I realize this review sounds like a Hertz commercial but in reality we just can’t find anything wrong with this set. Bass response is excellent and goes way low, mids are full-bodied, fast and alive, and highs are bright but smooth. We’ve heard so much more detail on the cds we’ve played that no other component succeeded in reproducing—people in the audience (live recordings) talking, the sound of the pick touching the strings, brushes (drums) tapping the skin of the snare as opposed to the rim—we can go on and on but they just keep on exposing these “new sounds.” I am in awe of this set, and, what I like about it even more is that it is Hertz top product and they gave it all they have without sacrificing any aspect just to earn a couple of bucks with a so-called “higher” model; plus all that with a price that is so competitive—$999.

Focal 165 KRX2 Review

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:58:29 +0000

Focal K2 Power 2-way 6.5″ component set

The latest, and probably the most famous set from Focal’s K2 Power line, the 165 KRX2, does not come cheap. Retailed at $1,299.00, you would think that this set would come with the words “top” and “line” but no, Focal has something more to offer at 4x the KRX2′s price—the Utopia Be.

Now, for us mere mortals, listening to, or even owning one of those Utopias would seem a rare possibility, we can consider the K2 Power as Focal’s top honcho. One that has a good balance between materials used, bling, sound & performance, and price.

The 165 KRX2 uses Focal’s proprietary K2 composite sandwich cone technology, and uses the TN53K tweeter, which has aramid fibers in an inverted dome format. It has an impedance of 2 ohms, a maximum power rating of 200 watts with a nominal power rating of 100 watts. Sensitivity is at 93 dB and frequency ranges from 70 Hz to 20 kHz—mighty plenty.

What people are saying

“So finally I bit the bullet and bought these speakers after listening to them against the Focal VRs and some Boston Pro 60s. These had the better detail and clarity in the highs without being too harsh—which was what I was looking for. I’ve had them installed now for about 3 weeks and they seem to have just opened up after some tweaks with the gains. The sound is pure awesome. Like I mentioned, very detailed/articulate sound that is crisp and crystal clear and is more on the warm natural side, almost to the level of my home theater speakers by B&W. The mids are good but probably not as deep as the boston’s but if you have a sub, that’s not a big deal if you crossover correctly. Anyway, these speakers are phenomenal and have a lot of flexibility with the passive crossover like a few additional switches Focal gives you in the crossover (extreme highend freq settings, -12 or -18 slope for tweeters). They are expensive but worth the money if you are an audiophile and value SQ.” — ougrad1, Dallas

“I bought these pair for a awesome price. I didn’t expect it to sound too different from my Focal KF or my friend’s Focal KP. And boy was I wrong! These things sounded completely different. The tweeter that this baby comes with is so much smoother. You can hear the vocals, background music, and various other things so much clearer. These puppies are surely the latest and greatest Focals out there. So for the price it is actually a bargain. You just have to hear hear them to believe the difference Focal makes from other brands.” — Anonymous, Oklahoma

Scosche FD2080

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:14:19 +0000

Car Audio product catalog

This post is a reference to Schosche Industries part #FD2080.

Scosche dash install kits, model FD2080 will fit Mazda, Lincoln, Mercury & Ford vehicles manufactured after 1995. It has a retail price of $12.76 and weighs 12.5 ounces.

Links

Search ebay for FD2080 deals.
Search Amazon.com for Scosche FD2080 availability.

Scosche TA021

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:05:25 +0000

If you need a wiring harness for your Toyota vehicle’s radio, you can use the Scoshe TA021. It is a 4-speaker stock replacement connector for your car’s headunit, as long as it was produced after 1987. The TA021 is available in most Walmart stores, but another option is to go to Circuit City-type stores and ask for a Toyota harness. This will make sure that you won’t go through any wire splicing for your project.

We are currently on the lookout for a photo of these as all of our previous encounters have already been installed. Please hit the comments to help out future searchers.

Look for other Scosche deals @ Amazon.com.

Pyle PLVS7HM

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:03:57 +0000

The Pyle PLVS7HM is a 7″ headrest monitor with multiple mounting options. Its screen is a high resolution TFT LCD with active matrix display, with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1440 x 234 display resolution. Its controls are on the front panel, and it sells for just under $211.05

Other features

The PLVS7HM comes with a slim and handy wireless remote control, two video inputs, headrest mounting bracket and stand-style mounting bracket, plus a headrest and sun visor mounting shroud. It displays a blue screen when a signal is not present.

Pyle PLVS7HM manual

Click here to download the Pyle PLVS7HM’s manual.

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