# My Seas neo textile review



## invecs (Jul 30, 2005)

This is a review for the Seas 27TFFNC/G textile dome tweeters. This is not mine but from my friend who asked a favor to break in his tweets and do a review afterwards. After reading a lot of threads regarding this tweeter and the hype surrounding it, out of curiosity I obliged to break in his tweeters.

I recieved the tweeters well packed and protected. Upon inspection, I find it well built as it was quite heavy for its size. But my friend noted that the speaker terminals are not solidly attached to the tweeter chassis since only the plastic ring surrounding the tweeter supports it. I did a search and it seems that a lot of people had issues with it so I tried to handle it with care as much as I could.

A brief intro of my system:

My system is composed of a RF 8250, dynaudio 220 mkI in custom mounted floor enclosures about 0.2cuft (well deadened with a variovent at the bottom) with the speakers firing upwards to the windshield. It is powered by a Genesis Dual Mono. I am running it with the Dyn mkI passive xovers which has a good amount of tuneablity for a passive…lots of tweeter level settings and midbass settings. The substage is handled by a single OZ 300L mounted in IB powered by a Sinfoni 90.2x bridged. I’m using an Alpine xover for the sub only which is low passed at 45Hz 24db. My frontstage amp is connected directly to the hu and I am using the builtin xover which gives a high pass signal of 70Hz with a 12db slope. My system is optimized to sound smooth without any eq. 

Now for the review…

I only did a direct swap of the tweeters…and flushed mounted the seas in my floor enclosure. First I only mounted one of the Seas tweeters on the left enclosure and used the Dyn md100 tweeter for the right. I used the balance control to a/b between the two tweeters. First I played some electronic music( DJ Tiesto’s In my Memory cd track 11, some Patricia Barber tracks,and some tracks in the IASCA 05 cd), I noticed that the seas output was weak, lacked top end detail and sounded thin vs my dyn md100s. Not really quite good as a first impression prior to breaking it in…but did not lose hope as of yet. So I proceeded to breaking in the tweeter…so I mounted the other seas tweeter on the right side enclosure.

I used a pink noise track from my IASCA 05 cd…I played pink noise for an hour at low volume after which I did some listening. I noticed the tweeter improved on its hi end extension. It also sounded so sibilant with female vocals when I played track 7 “Cancion” of the IASCA cd. The output is still weak considering the seas is abit more sensitive than my dyn md100s. Claire Marlo’s voice in “Too Close” sounded abit thin as well. 

After those impressions…I continued breaking in the tweeter with pink noise for another hour but this time at moderate volume after which I did some listening. I played some electronic music…and noticed that the tweeter output became louder so I had to attenuate the tweeter level by 1.5db at the passive xover. I still noticed the seas to sound sibilant. The lower treble seemed to have improved since Claire Marlo’s voice warmed up abit but still not as full bodied as it was when I had the md100s in. The horn section in the Planet Krypton track also sounded abit thin. I also listened to some Eva Cassidy tracks and noted that the acoustic guitar doesn’t pluck correctly it lacked some thickness and definition on the lower treble. In Michael Ruff’s “I will find you there”, the clash of the cymbals was so harsh and was unbearable.

I continued on breaking in the tweeter but now in moderate-high volume with pink noise…but now continuously for 3 hours after which I did some listening. The tweeters seemed to mellow down. The cymbals in the Michael Ruff track sounded correct…I loved the way it reproduced it and even the hi hat has lifelike metallic shimmer to it. The female vocals in the “Cancion” track sounded less sibilant. I find the need to eq down the treble at 10kHz to reduce sibilance. I tried to find the frequency response charts for the seas and saw a rising response at around 9kHz upwards…which could explain what I’m hearing. I listened to Patricia Barber’s Nightclub cd…it still lacked the warmth of her voice.

I did some further breaking in but there where no changes in the tweeter’s sound upon my listening tests.

Final thoughts:

I find the Seas neo textiles to be an excellent value tweeter with good clarity and excellent top end extension. I can’t imagine how cheap of a tweeter to sound very good. It betters my md100 in top end detail. But still I prefer my md100 since it sounds more warmer at the lower treble making images in the soundstage more palpable or lifelike. I also seemed to have less depth when I had the seas tweeters in…it wasn’t much as layered sounding like my dyn tweeters. I find the Seas neo textiles to sound good in rock or electronic music. Acoustic music and female vocal recordings sound better with the md100s. My friend heard the system and he enjoys every bit of the seas tweeters…and that’s all what matters.

Hope you guys enjoyed the review. Sorry for making it long I just wanted it to be detailed.


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## alphakenny1 (Dec 21, 2005)

hey man great review! i have the alums and enjoy them very much.


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## blue (Sep 5, 2005)

Nice, now to meet up with Tonio and hear it for myself


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

Great! Thanks for the review! I had the exact same thing with the textiles... 
I came from Aluminum tweets and found them too harsh. (JL XRs). Then the first time i tried the textiles, I quickly regreted my decision, they lacked the top-end and were too mellow!
After break in though, I found myself lowering the gain as they tend to reveal their high-end detail. I still have a lot of EQing to do, though but right of the bat, they indeed have great value for the price.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

Very informative, Invecs !

Excellent detail on how and why


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## invecs (Jul 30, 2005)

Thanks guys.

agentk98,

How do you have yours mounted? My friend plans to mount them in kicks in the new civic. Probably the best location since the dash isn't that symmetrical. I just wonder how bad is the off axis response in car. Some reviews that I've read that it lacks detail on the topend when mounted far off axis. My speaker mounting is kinda biased...what you see in the frequency response graph is what you get to hear.


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## Thumper26 (Sep 23, 2005)

the only problem i have with kicks in a civic is your foot will be blocking them a lot. that may not be an issue with a good midrange, but with tweeters your image and stage changes every time you move your leg.


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## invecs (Jul 30, 2005)

Thumper26 said:


> the only problem i have with kicks in a civic is your foot will be blocking them a lot. that may not be an issue with a good midrange, but with tweeters your image and stage changes every time you move your leg.


I agree...I used to run my tweeters in the kicks. I'm just worried about the top end...the FR graph shows that at 60 degrees off axis...the top end drops alot.


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## low (Jun 2, 2005)

awesome write up pogie!


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

That sounds just like what I heard out of the ones I used. Excellent review - very thorough.


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## CBRworm (Sep 1, 2006)

I found I had to cut the 10K region quite a bit with these compared to other tweeters, compared even to the metal version. 

I am in a quandry because I prefer the overall sound of the textile, but the metal is smoother and seems to be less ssssssibilancsssssse at high volumes. I am just so far off axis that the left side really suffers with the metal. The textile seems to be more 'full' off axis than the metal.


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## invecs (Jul 30, 2005)

CBRworm said:


> I found I had to cut the 10K region quite a bit with these compared to other tweeters, compared even to the metal version.
> 
> I am in a quandry because I prefer the overall sound of the textile, but the metal is smoother and seems to be less ssssssibilancsssssse at high volumes. I am just so far off axis that the left side really suffers with the metal. The textile seems to be more 'full' off axis than the metal.


I did decrease 10kHz by 2db with the hu treble control...it did help some. Since my friend will go active with a 9815...I plan to do a wide q cut centered at 10k...I think that would do it. The thing that I don't like with the alpine is that you can't really use bands close to each other...I may find the need to boost some at the top end to bring back some "air" since the tweeter doesn't have a good off axis response.


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## alg_alg (Jun 13, 2006)

great review!


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## agentk98 (Oct 31, 2006)

invecs said:


> Thanks guys.
> 
> agentk98,
> 
> How do you have yours mounted? My friend plans to mount them in kicks in the new civic. Probably the best location since the dash isn't that symmetrical. I just wonder how bad is the off axis response in car. Some reviews that I've read that it lacks detail on the topend when mounted far off axis. My speaker mounting is kinda biased...what you see in the frequency response graph is what you get to hear.


Used to be mounted like this:
















and just like the other reviews, top-end wasn't there. Now i have them on-axis and they're great. I'm still tuning though so the sound stage is still low. Hopefully when i get the time (whenever that is  ). Never seems to be enough time for work.


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Good review.


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## placenta (Feb 2, 2008)

agentk98 said:


> Used to be mounted like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I had some tweets in a similar spot once also. They dont get too muffled being that deep in the footwell? Also, they are a lot further away than the mids, does that hurt the imaging?


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

If i were you id take that driver side picture off. its exposing your brain location...just a precaution imo you never know who is watching


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