# Seas ca21 retv 8"/ Hi-vi A2s



## Preacher (May 8, 2006)

These are the 8" readily available on ebay. These were oem'd for Triad audio. Seas reported to me in an email that they were a 3ohm model. As I was first researching them I ran across one who benched them at 2 ohms (now I don't remember where I read that). I had difficulty getting my gains set and I believe this is why. First Debucking was a chore- you can find threads on this debucking this particular driver. $55

The Hivi-s are an extended range cone purchased from Parts Express on a special for $7 each

My goal in this setup was to put together a fair fullrange 2way uber cheap which could be installed which could be used with crossover's on amps. Any amp with a variable xover up to 250 would handle this setup for a great budget setup. 

The seas is a nice woofer well made. In my improperly deadened door it behaves nicely. If you are looking for a nice woofer to play low this is it. If you are looking for a nice woofer to play high its a winner. It doesn't do either with authority. You start to notice degradation in clarity above 2k, and I wouldn't recomend using past 3.15. If you raise the high pass you improve the performance on the top end noticeably. Overall the performance is clean. 

The Hi-vi is a squirelly beast. I first installed it in my kick panels. It worked there, but low sensitivity, lack of top end and dispersion made me want to move them to my a-pillar. The kick installation was pretty nice and easy to tune, but not up to par performance. I moved them to the a-pillar with a makeshift fiberglass mount on axis. I played with aiming for a while and my first impulse was to crossfire. I don't think the cones liked the crossfiring. Getting them tuned was a pain. If I got them playing loud enough there was bad breakup. Taming 8kz was a mess and the response between 4and 12 was not smooth. For these things to shine you'd really need a nice PEQ. 

The last setup I had was the 8's low passed at 1.6 with a 24db and the as2's high passed at 2k with a 6db. This was a nice setup for slow acoustic music and not at moderate volume. I like lound music with solid impact so my criticism of volume should be taken lightly. The thing I noticed most with this setup is how it did not like complex or fast music. Metal especially suffered on this set. The woofer could not react fast enough and the "tweet" spit on the metal. 

In the end I've decided to go a different direction for a few reasons. 1) huge warts on the A-pillar are not for me. I like having the high stage, but not cones and not these. 2) A setup like this needs a lower xover point than the prs 880 offers and I'm unwilling to use a separate xover or leave all that processing power untapped + I got lazy. 

I'm going to keep the 8's in the doors and put my kick panels back in for a cheap three way. All in all I'd still recomend this super cheap setup to someone looking for an alternative to big box audio. There are tons of in dash eq's on sale at ebay and some have high to low converters making installation a snap. The xover on these could be used in a subless setup or a budget amps xover could still be used. 

Its late, but if you have questions ask away I'll learn something. On to the next experiment for me.


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

Can you point me out to a good guide on debucking these?


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## Preacher (May 8, 2006)

We used a heatgun then screwdrivers to pop off the cups and after a bit of heat we beat off the magnet with a hammer and chisel. It made me nervous and mine perform well, but I wonder in the back of my mind if they'd sound better now if I hadn't. You wrote on the thread where I gave my experience. That's about all I know. You might go back and reread the tutorial on the Dayton rs-180's. Sorry I don't know more it gave me butterflies beating on them like that. 

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10409&highlight=debucking


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## blacklabel (Jan 26, 2006)

great review. nice to see someone to step out and buy some drivers that are not talked about a lot. i have always wanted to read a review on the ca21s. thanks


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