# Rainbow CAL26 Titan Review



## alphakenny1 (Dec 21, 2005)

Okay so i've had these tweeters for about a week now. I'll say this, this is my subjective review so if you have any comments that don't agree with me, i could care less . I will also say this is one weeks worth of listening, so i can change my mind if i need to in the coming weeks of tuning. 

Let me rundown what my system consists of RIGHT NOW in my car! I must say this is a sad day though as this is my last listening session with the Lotus 8's . I'll miss these frickers. Also my last time using the JL 450/4. Both have been sold i need to get them out asap for the people who bought them. 

W200/h701
JL 450/4 (150 x 2 + 75 x 2) ---> Lotus 8, rm110
PPI a200 (50 x 2)-----> CAl26 titan
Lotus RM110 (220hz @ 24db, 2.8khz @ 24db -2db)
Lotus 8 (50hz @ 12db, 200hz @ 24db)
RAinbow cal26 titan (2.8khz @ 24db, -2db)
no sub

I just threw these in without much tuning. the eq is flat. just set the crossover points. 

I have the lotus 8's installed in door pods ib. both midrange and tweet in kicks cross firing. so these are severely off axis. 

*Listening Test*

I popped in a few songs that i think i know decently well. so here are the songs:

Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up

This song starts out with the violin and man its so detailed and open. My head was just knocking back and forth while listening to the violin (stevie wonder head type action, no offense to him, lol). The violin sounded very natural. So as the song starts, you can just hear Josh's "breath" as it echos when he finishes off a verse. These things image very well. it was damn straight on the center of dash and very focused. when the song gets to its "climax", he's "yelling" and it goes on forever. which shows there isn't a huge roll off on the top end. This is also the sign of the tweeters excellent off axis response. Rainbow has a great rep for having tweets with good off axis and this tweeter is a good representation of that. 

Josh Groban - My Confession

Again good God, these tweeters are airy, lol. You can easily spot the guitar in this song. The plucking of the guitar has plenty of shine and shimmer. Much more shine than the lotus alum and cal27s. 

Celine Dion - My Heart Goes On (I know, but its a good recording )

The tweeters opened up in this song. There are no signs of sibliance at all and this song has plenty of "ssss" sounds. She easily just smoothed out the sibliance. The song sounded very natural and easy to listen to. Once i again, airy (i think thats a theme of these tweets, lol). There is just plenty of detail on these tweeters for my tastes. It really sounded like she just sitting on my dash signing to me . 

Metallica - Unforgiven

As the music starts you can easily tell where the guitars are on the stage. The plucking of the guitars is exacting and detail, crisp. It is very open and alive. There are definitely no worries about detail in these tweeters. Okay when James Hetfield starts to sing, it is easily heard that the lowend treble isn't quite as full bodied as let's say a lotus alum tweet or rainbow cal27 tweet. But much fuller than a seas neo alum tweet (thanks john!). I'm just being very picky here though. it's relatively full but as full as others. 

Tool - Vicarious

The instruments on this song is reproduced very accurately. It's not like an in your face detail, but the tweeters sing "Hey i'm damn detailed" and does it very loudly (is this a word ?). i turned it up to about 30/35 on my hu and it was way too much, especially for a song like this where there are lots of things going on. maynard just sounds so real in the song, again on the center of dash, just yelling at me . 

New Edition - One More Day

Now this was a real treat for me. I've been listening to this song for over 10 years and when i popped this song on there was something i've never heard before in my life. The song starts with him saying "Yeah." Before i just heard just him breathing out the worth at the end, but listening to the cal26 titan what i heard was him saying "Yeah", in the background fading says "Yea, Yea, yea" slowly (if you get what i'm saying). I was like OMG, i never heard that before. That just put a smile on my face . The one thing that this song did was show very little sign of sibliance, but thats just being picky. 

*So in the end what do i think?*

These tweeters are best compact tweeters i've used so far for MY INSTALL. I might just say the lotus has a similar detail and exactness to them but the off axis isn't so good on the lotus'. Which is why i say for MY INSTALL. I'm just a sucker for top end shimmer and detail. Very crisp and exacting, especially if you want to hear the instruments like they are sitting in front of you. These tweeters just play so effortlessly, detail for these things is no sweat. The only thing i didn't like was the lowend treble wasn't as full as i would like. I can probably account for this by raising the xover point on the lotus and let the rainbow play from 3.5-4khz and up. 

Are they worth it? The retail for these at $320 or so might be a bit too much for most of us diy'ers (i didn't get them at this price though, thanks don!). I chose these tweeters for a few reasons: they are black (matches my kicks), rep of rainbow has great off axis response and was a metal tweeter i wanted to try. Like i said, i'm a sucker for detail. To me they are worth every bit i paid them for and fall in to what i wanted in a tweeter. I'll be sure to update any other things i see that'll be worth noting in the up and coming weeks.


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## 3.5max6spd (Jun 29, 2005)

Told ya they were some airy sons of bishes 

I enjoyed your review Peter, as much as I enjoyed breaking them in for ya


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## zfactor (Oct 19, 2005)

so who here was it that sells these??? they sound right up my alley.... nice


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## STI<>GTO (Aug 8, 2005)

Thanks for the review Peter. If the weather cooperates, I should have my set installed by the end of the weekend.

I'm a little worried though, as my passenger side tweeter will be firing right at me from the factory location. They gonna be too bright/harsh?

Rick


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## FoxPro5 (Feb 14, 2006)

zfactor said:


> so who here was it that sells these??? they sound right up my alley.... nice


He was mentioned in the review. Also, look up one post from yours. 

Yo, Assman! Nicely done. Can you take some pics to see how they match your kicks and how they are set up?


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## alphakenny1 (Dec 21, 2005)

well they don't exactly match the kicks, its just i have black grill cloth covering up the lotus 4's so i wanted a tweet that was black as well, thats what i meant by matching. 

the tweeters are setup really ugly right now. i previously cut a hole for the cal27. but the cutout on the cal27 is about the od on cal26s. haha. so right now they are duct tape to the kicks. if i have i'll take pics for you guys to see how they are setup right now, lol.


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## FoxPro5 (Feb 14, 2006)

alphakenny1 said:


> The only thing i didn't like was the lowend treble wasn't as full as i would like. I can probably account for this by raising the xover point on the lotus and let the rainbow play from 3.5-4khz and up.


I'm really interested in this, naturally. If you experiment with this please post back your findings. I probably sound like a spoiled brat here, but it's like....should I cut off the sweetness of the Lotus midrange top end or the full body of the bottom of the tweeter?? 

Did you use any T/A?

How's the off axis vs the Neo's??

Ok, nuff questions. :blush:


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## alphakenny1 (Dec 21, 2005)

STI<>GTO said:


> Thanks for the review Peter. If the weather cooperates, I should have my set installed by the end of the weekend.
> 
> I'm a little worried though, as my passenger side tweeter will be firing right at me from the factory location. They gonna be too bright/harsh?
> 
> Rick


Hope you like them . Honestly i don't think it'll be harsh at all. off axis, on axis, shouldn't matter. these things as i said are easy to listen yet very detailed. let us know what you think of them. 



B-Squad said:


> I'm really interested in this, naturally. If you experiment with this please post back your findings. I probably sound like a spoiled brat here, but it's like....should I cut off the sweetness of the Lotus midrange top end or the full body of the bottom of the tweeter??
> 
> Did you use any T/A?
> 
> ...


well the thing i might have no music for a bit. i just uninstalled the 450/4 and we'll see what motivation i have to install the pdx amp and kickbasses especially with the hockey playoffs . but i'll definitely report back once i get a handle on things. you should do it first, since you got it all setup already. 

yes i did use some t/a. its about .40ms for both midrange and tweets and like .70ms for midbasses. 

so far, off axis the rainbows are much better and it shows on josh groban songs. when he's yelling with the rainbows, it just extends so far. with the neos, it extends pretty far but doesn't do it as well as the rainbows. any more questions joe thornton lover ?


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## FoxPro5 (Feb 14, 2006)

alphakenny1 said:


> any more questions joe thornton lover ?


Yes, may I please join your fan club!?!?  

I'm still playing with my x-over pts. Right now I belive I have the mids LP at 4k with a 36 db slope and the tweets HP at 4k with a 24db. Seems to keep the low end on the tweet, yet still get the midrange to fill out the stage. It's not as lively as when they are both at 3.15k, but then it's not so in my face either. Nice thing about the P9 that I can flip though the presets and hear the differences right away. Expensive toys FTW! 

Now stop posting and put those midbass in!!!


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## shinjohn (Feb 8, 2006)

Hey Peter,
Thanks for the review. You gotta let me hear these tweeters too! We should all hook up again, but I'm totally busy this weekend, but maybe the following. I'll see if I can organize a little mini-meet again. Get those amps and Rainbows installed though, or you're not allowed to come over.   BTW, glad to see you're becoming a Josh Groban fan.   My favorite male vocalist!


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## jearhart (Jul 28, 2006)

could you compare the cal26s and cal27s more in debth please. im trying to decide between those.


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## alphakenny1 (Dec 21, 2005)

here are the ghettofied pics, haha.. sorry it wasn't duct tape, it was blue tape :





















shinjohn said:


> Hey Peter,
> Thanks for the review. You gotta let me hear these tweeters too! We should all hook up again, but I'm totally busy this weekend, but maybe the following. I'll see if I can organize a little mini-meet again. Get those amps and Rainbows installed though, or you're not allowed to come over.   BTW, glad to see you're becoming a Josh Groban fan.   My favorite male vocalist!


yea that'll be sweet, just let me know. i'm trying to install these so i can at least listen to music in the car. i'm looking forward to installing the rainbows. also yes josh groban is pretty sweet. you introduced me to him but my dad has been a fan of his for a while, so i borrowed a couple of his josh groban cd's and loved it. he's pretty damn sick! 



jearhart said:


> could you compare the cal26s and cal27s more in debth please. im trying to decide between those.


i can't go in depth yet as i have no time. for my tastes if you want all the shine and shimmer, detail i'd go with the 26s. the off axis on the 27s are better. the 27s are more natural and smoothe. also its a bit more full than the 26s. its detailed and has a nice top end for a silk dome. very very easy to listen to. out of the box though the 26s are a bit better. i had to tune the 27s for a good while get them where i like them. the 26s i basically just popped in it and it sounded very good.


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## Genxx (Mar 18, 2007)

Great Reveiw Peter. Glad to know your, I mean my Lotus 8" sounded great paired with the Cal26 as that is the set up I will running. The Cal26 with Profi Van 4" in kicks. Good to know that it will work great together. Thanks for the review. When are you getting the PDX installed, its been long enough. LOL

Brian


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

Peter, I think I am going to have an install day at the house after close of business today. Wanna drop by? The tools and workspace are a total, total mess. But I live a bit closer now than Sunnyvale. Call me after 5 if you wanna come by and work. I can show you want I scavenged at weird stuff. need some grille material? =D


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## wedoca (Apr 6, 2007)

alphakenny1 said:


> here are the ghettofied pics, haha.. sorry it wasn't duct tape, it was blue tape :
> 
> 
> 
> ...


So Peter, do you miss the cal27? Sounds like the 27 is better, according to the way you described. So even the cal26 is a metal dome, it doesn't sound harsh at all? Now that you've heard the 26, any regrets on getting rid of the 27? If I were you, I'll keep both of them just for collection.


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## alphakenny1 (Dec 21, 2005)

wedoca said:


> So Peter, do you miss the cal27? Sounds like the 27 is better, according to the way you described. So even the cal26 is a metal dome, it doesn't sound harsh at all? Now that you've heard the 26, any regrets on getting rid of the 27? If I were you, I'll keep both of them just for collection.


umm well overall for my tastes, i like the 26s better than the 27s. as i stated, i'm a sucker for detail and airyness. the 27s are again very smooth and natural but didn't have the detail as i would have liked. and yes the 26s are not harsh at all. and no i don't have any regrets .


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## wedoca (Apr 6, 2007)

alphakenny1 said:


> umm well overall for my tastes, i like the 26s better than the 27s. as i stated, i'm a sucker for detail and airyness. the 27s are again very smooth and natural but didn't have the detail as i would have liked. and yes the 26s are not harsh at all. and no i don't have any regrets .


Nice! A man knows exactly what he wants. Two thumbs up for you, sir!


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## 3.5max6spd (Jun 29, 2005)

So what are you impressions after some more time with them Peter?


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

peters got those 4" lotus drivers too. no problems mating to a small format metal dome tweeter


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## npdang (Jul 29, 2005)

What's the difference between the cal25, cal26, and cal27?


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## 3.5max6spd (Jun 29, 2005)

npdang said:


> What's the difference between the cal25, cal26, and cal27?


dome size, housing, FS..
http://car.rainbow-audio.de/files/dynamic/downloads/rainbow_tsp_tweeters_en.pdf



cal27silk VOF.. sealed off/ accoustic volume ,FS 840hz
http://car.rainbow-audio.de/products/technology.php?lan=2&pro=1&lin=5&kom=2

cal26titan VOF...Fs 950hz
http://car.rainbow-audio.de/products/technology.php?lan=2&pro=1&lin=3&kom=2

cal25Silk VOF...chambered, Fs 820hz
http://car.rainbow-audio.de/products/technology.php?lan=2&pro=1&lin=17&kom=2

cal25fabric...Fs 1400hz
cal25titan...Fs 1480hz
http://car.rainbow-audio.de/products/technology.php?lan=2&pro=1&lin=6&kom=2


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## alphakenny1 (Dec 21, 2005)

unfortunately, the day i wrote the review was the day i took out my 450/4. i only have the tweet amp hooked up and well i dont wanna just listen to tweeters. hopefully sometime this week i'll be able to at least install the amps to have some music in the car.


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