# Polk Audio SR Ring Radiator Review



## 6262ms3 (Feb 27, 2008)

Sonicelectronix had these for $150 for the pair, I was curious about ring radiators but needed grills and mounting hardware which ruled out the vifas. They're angle-mounted on the sail panels of an '07 Mazdaspeed 3, getting 100 watts (somehow I don't think their using half that, yay headroom?) active from a JL Audio HD900/5, paired with H-Audio Ebony mids. HU is an Alpine CDA9835.

I wish I had been able to break these in before installing them, tuning was a pain in the ass as they gained a ton of output over time. For awhile I was dropping the gain every other day. I started at 3.2k/24db since that was roughly the same as in the passive SR set, but after awhile I realized they weren't happy with distorted guitars, especially on punk they'd get a bit screechy. I bumped it up to 4k/24db and they played considerably cleaner, look elsewhere if you want a tweeter that can play low. Their greatest strength is in having tons of detail without being harsh, though they are the first to start straining when I get carried away with volume. I did have a ***** of a time in tuning them, mainly due to their sibilance. For awhile I was thoroughly hating them, every "s" and "ch" would shred my ears, regardless of how on-axis I put my head. After tons of eq experimentation (my deck's eq is only 5 band parametric and doesn't let you put two frequencies very close together) I settled on a -5db cut at 8k at 1.5 Q. This and very careful gain adjustment managed to tame them without sucking the life out of them, though the occasional song recorded with exaggerated sibilance reminds me of this weakness. Apart from all that, they do sound great, blending very well with the mids and revealing wonderful little details like fret noises, string squeaks and mouth sounds. They're definitely not mellow, but they sound very clean and are nowhere near as harsh as my Focal TN-52's were. Cymbals are very crisp, though a little exaggerated sometimes. A -1db cut at 10 or 12k would be perfect, but I've run out of eq. 

From this review it seems like I don't like these tweets, but I do. In fact they come very close to doing exactly what I want a tweeter to do, and listening to most music on this front stage is pure joy. I just wish they were less sibilant and could play a bit lower. If I were running these passive I would hate them, needless to say I'm sold on active for life! They would benefit from a better eq. I like them enough to keep them, though if I ever get bored and feel like experimenting different tweets will be the first thing on my list.


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## MacLeod (Aug 16, 2009)

Just for the record, the cutoff point for the tweeters in the passive crossover is actually more around 6 KHz. 3.1 is just the crossover point for the mid and tweet. The tweet is at 18 db/oct and the mid is 12 db/oct IIRC. 

I agree that 4 KHz is the sweet spot for these. I tried them all over the place and always found myself coming back to 4 KHz @ 24 db/oct.


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## Jroo (May 24, 2006)

Do you know what scan speak model these were based off. I have been looking at all the ring tweeters out there and they have about 10 differnt models. I am trying to figure out how much the price plays into them.


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## 6262ms3 (Feb 27, 2008)

I believe they're Vifa based, but are a little different from the Vifa raw drivers. The Polks are 22mm (Vifas are 19 or 25mm), have a compact neo motor and the dome material appears to be different. I haven't used any Scans or Vifas so I'm not sure which model would be the closest match. Here's the Polk white paper, http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/whitepapers/sr6500.pdf hope that helps.


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## twocupsofbutter (Apr 20, 2009)

These are probably the best value going in car audio right now

after broken in they sound great


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Sounds similar to my setup, SPX-17PRO tweets and Ebonys. 

I pretty much agree with everything said, except I'll say that the SPX tweets seem to have less sibilance. I waffle between a cross point of ~3.5 and 4k, 24dB/oct. 

We are fortunate that the Ebony can play high without issue.


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