# Dynaudio Esotar 650 and 1200 Tru Technology Super Billet 6 and SSLD6



## Sonny (Apr 26, 2010)

I have a 2002 VW Jetta TDI. I have had many systems in and out of the car and never was really pleased with them one way or another. I am a big home audio nut, with several different setups ranging from Vienna Acoustics to Definitive Speakers, and Parasound, Rogue Audio, and Marantz amps. As for past car audio setups I've had Kicker speakers, MB Quart, Focal, and now Dynaudio's with Image Dynamic Horns. By profession I am an electrical engineer and I enjoy tweaking stuff from time to time.

First I'll give my shout out to Don Amann with Unexpected Creations. I met him recently and have come to be pretty good friends. He is a very reasonable guy to deal with and very knowledgeable. In summary he's not one of those guys you meet at a shoddy car audio shop that tries to sell you the most expensive thing in stock, he tries to put you up with the stuff that will ultimately make you happy, even if it is stretching your budget a little bit.

I like to listen to rock, a little pop, some hiphop and r&b, dance/techno, oldies, classical, etc. Most would just say a little bit of everything.

Onto the car and it's stereo system. I have an Eclipse CD head unit and Ipod control unit, that is feeding an Alpine pxa-h700, which doesn't appear to be noisy. The output from the processor is fed into the Tru Technology Line Driver and finally into my Super Billet 6, as for op-amps I have all Burr Browns. I am a tube amp kinda guy, but don't really feel the practicality in a car. My horns are mounted underneath the dash, and Dynaudio Esotar 650s are in the stock door locations and the Esotar 1200 is ran infinite baffle on the rear deck. My entire car minus the firewall is deadend with CAE products.

As far as imaging is concerned, in a car I have not had a better install in my own car to date. The sound stage does not reveal the locations of the speakers, which I absolutely love, in fact several of my friends have commented on how impressed they were with the sound stage. It may not be the best that I've heard to date, but it is damn good, and ultimately not all that difficult to achieve.

The horns gave me a run for the money in terms of tonal balance, because they are just a lot more efficient than the mids, so I had to play around with that a lot, cross-overs and equalization tweaks, which probably would have been a lot easier had I been using the Esotar 110 tweeters.

I really can't give too specific of examples as I am still working out some of the kinks, but I can say that I absolutely love the sound of my system. In all honesty, I find reviews to be great and all, but in order for some one to spend the kind of money that we are spending on audio equipment you really have to give it a listen. I will finish this with, my recommendation is that anyone interested in purchasing a new set of speakers and amplifiers, should give Dynaudio and Tru Technology a demo, and if your in the area give Don Amann a shout.


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## Se7en (Mar 28, 2007)

Thanks for the review!

+100 for TRU Esotar synergy and Don Amann being awesome to deal with!


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## trigg007 (Feb 24, 2010)

the 650 & horn combo sounds interesting. Can you elaborate more about the 650's please?


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## Sonny (Apr 26, 2010)

My big thing when it comes to audio is the sound placement. I honestly like to feel like I'm not where I am at that moment, when I am listening to music. So far I have it where it sounds like sound height is around ear level, and width wise sounds feel like their coming where their supposed to be coming from. The 650s are set up to handle mostly the function of a woofer/midbass. I have their top cross over at 900 Hz. In this region I must say that the sound is nice and tight and neutral, but on the side of warmth. The blending with the highs, went a lot better than I imagined it would. Honestly I thought I was going to have to buy a pair of 110s, but the 650s sound great, wonderfully detailed and easy to work with, it wasn't all to hard to get them to play nice with the horns. I like to experiment with new things by nature, and I wasn't hard up on keeping the horns, I'm more glad that I don't have to shell out a few more bucks to replace them.


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## mark1478 (Nov 11, 2009)

Hey Sonny. Nice gear and equip. I myself bought andwas installed by Don. How do you like your setup? Where did you mount the 650s? I have esotec 362s right now and was debating on going two way with the esotar 650 in the doors and 130s in the tweets. Positives include one amp my super billet 6 ad no other equip. Negs would be loss of midbass, unsavory driver location etc. Can you chime in? Thanks!


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## Sonny (Apr 26, 2010)

My 650s are in the stock door location, to be honest, I think they sound great there. You also have to consider my car is not the quietest car on the block, and I am using horns. Oddly I still think it sounds great. A lot of people really like to have 3 way's here is my take, on that subject. I personally like 3 way, even 4 way, but when you go that far you can't cheap out anymore, careful selection of cross overs and time delays becomes important, in my opinion. I am usually listening to 2 way's since my pc setup is Rogue Audio Cronus (customized) and a pair of Paradigm Studio 20v4. Honestly it all comes to preference I will say if you are in search of something in particular, best that you know what it is or you will spend loads of money doing the same thing over again, also realize that if your like me and listen to all different kinds of music, I think that there is no perfect solution.


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## MaXaZoR (Apr 1, 2007)

Nice gear and review, and we need to start pestering Don to get a SQ event going here in NJ or at least a meet and greet.


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## meccanoble (May 20, 2009)

been very happy with my dynaudio/TRU equipment and Don is ok


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## chinaonnitrous1 (Dec 28, 2008)

meccanoble said:


> been very happy with my dynaudio/TRU equipment and Don is ok


I get very frightened with Don.

My wallet gets lost every time I think about talking to him.


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## antoniobai (Mar 6, 2010)

Hi!

Interesting setup!! I am willing to install and active setup with mw162, ID horns, and md100 tweeters (Not decided yet if I prefer this 3 way configuration, or a 2 way with just the mw162 + ID horns).

Sonny, was it difficult to match the output level of the Dyns and the Horns? 
did you need much eq?
What compression drivers are you using?

Congratulations for your setup!


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## Sonny (Apr 26, 2010)

The horns are CD-1 Pro's, which I'm not sure are still available. It was a bigger challenge than normal to match levels, but not unsurmountable. I feel like it took me a quite a bit of equalization, but I would imagine with horns every installation is very different.


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## HisHeirness23 (Jul 28, 2009)

Sonny, any chance you might be able to post some pictures of your setup? I really like the idea of ID Horns + Esotars.


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## Sonny (Apr 26, 2010)

I will when I get a chance to, however the installation isn't complete in the trunk and my car is a disaster, due to the fact that it is my commuter car.


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## SCtud (Oct 16, 2009)

+1 on pics!


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## KLoNe (Aug 22, 2009)

chinaonnitrous1 said:


> I get very frightened with Don.
> 
> My wallet gets lost every time I think about talking to him.


He's excellent to talk to and yes, you really want to hand over your credit card to him after all the info he gives out


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## iceman76 (Aug 17, 2008)

chinaonnitrous1 said:


> I get very frightened with Don.
> 
> My wallet gets lost every time I think about talking to him.


Yeah, I think I just lost my wallet. Or it ran away, knowing I was about to give some dimes on Don. Once again, great guy to deal with!!


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