# Review ScanSpeak Illuminator D3004/6020-00 Tweeter Textile Dome



## avanti1960 (Sep 24, 2011)

Review, ScanSpeak Illuminator tweeters, D3004/6020-00
(Noting the exact part number is important when referring to ScanSpeak tweeters)
These are the 1" textile dome tweeters sold at Madisound, the short chamber version. Thanks to all of the various tweeter reviews on this site as well as others for leading me to purchase them. I have had them running for about (3) weeks now mounted in the stock positions for my car, the upper front door panels, just below the sail panel. The position nominally fires each tweeter to the opposite seat headrest and I estimate that the right tweeter is about 5-degrees off from right ear axis and that the left tweeter is about 50 degrees from left ear axis. 
I initially purchased these in an effort to cross the tweeters at a lower frequency than my current Focal 165 V30 tweeter can handle. I made the assumption that I was hearing breakup distortion from the Focal mid bass drivers @ 4-5Khz and wanted to cross them as low as possible, est. 2500 Hz or so. I was also growing less than satisfied with the sound of the Focal tweeter. Although the detail was present, the sharp metallic like overtones was often too overbearing. Not horribly so but it was a coloration that I wanted to try and eliminate in a quest for the best possible sound quality that I could be 100% happy with. If I could maintain that level of detail in a tweeter and eliminate the metallic sharpness, that would be the ultimate tweeter for my preference. 
The reviews on DIYMA for the ScanSpeak tweeters tend to be very favorable, some are somewhat negative, but most are in need of an update. The tweeter shootouts are several years old. Reviews on Zaph and other sites tend to suggest these tweeters are accurate and have very low first order and multiple order harmonic distortion. So basically I rolled the dice on these, they are a little pricey but if they do the job IMHO it is worth the cost. 
There was some concern about the off axis response of the ScanSpeaks and also the high end roll-off. With these particular ScanSpeak drivers (it is important to pay attention to the exact part number and suffix) the frequency plots show that the high end response does roll off on axis by 2db @ 15Khz and 3-1/2 db @ 20Khz. In addition, at 30-degrees of axis the response @ 15Khz drops only 3db. First off, this performance on paper is quite excellent for a 1" textile dome tweeter. Secondly as most will attest the on-paper frequency plots are not necessarily an accurate prediction of a driver's sound reproduction quality. 
BTW the terminals are very fragile as some have mentioned. I accidentally lodged one loose during the soldering of the wire. The "thread" from terminal to driver was literally a thread. I wedged the terminal into the plastic recess on the side of the driver and wrapped tightly with electrical tape. So far so good, but do be careful when connecting to the terminals. 
After the install I adjusted crossover frequencies to try and play as low as possible. Given that these have a Fs of 700Hz, a crossover of 2Khz 36db roll off per octave on my DEX P99rs network seems very reasonable for this tweeter. Unfortunately while the tweeter can handle starting off at 2Khz, the reproduced sound was very nasal and confined. Also, the vocal image did not sound as sharp or centered as it did crossing higher (previous setting was 5Khz, 18db per Focal recommendation). I know there are contested debates about where to cross tweeters when running a two-way setup but for my money a higher crossover just sounded better- the smoothness of the sound, the reproduction quality and the vocal image. I settled on 4Khz for the first few days but eventually returned to the 5Khz crossover for these ScanSpeak drivers. As mentioned previously I thought I was hearing breakup distortion in my Focal midbass drivers. Ultimately this turned out to be just plain old amplifier clipping. I bridged my amp to double the power and this distortion was eliminated from the midrange output. Therefore there was no reason to cross the tweeters low and the 5Khz frequency was set in stone from all points of view. 
At first I liked the sound of these tweeters but the drop-off in output from the Focals was noticeable. They just did not sound "alive". Not bad, but not great. Nothing objectionable but nothing special. 
After the first week they were starting to break in and were sounding better. They were starting to come alive. After the second week they really started to shine. I could detect their "imprint" now, what qualities they were bringing to the table. They were starting to brighten up. The detail was emerging. The vocal clarity was becoming obvious. Just completely pleasing and bright. However, there was still nothing to complain about- there were zero objectionable overtones or coloration effects from these drivers. The off axis response and roll off "concerns" just did not become apparent. These drivers are clean, bright and offer nothing objectionable. They can be driven to very high volume levels as well. I have them running with 100 watts (clean watts, <0.1 THD @ 100 watts) and they are not breaking a sweat. BTW these are rated at 130W RMS long term level when crossed @ 2.5Khz, so 100 Watts @ 5Khz is nothing for me to sweat about either. 
I love these tweeters. There are so many times when I am playing them that I just get very happy about the sound they are delivering- clean and bright, no bad artifacts, clear vocals, percussion, cymbals, strings etc. Even when the music contains exaggerated treble, these tweeters still shine and deliver without becoming over driven or harsh like many metal domes can. 
I am absolutely 100% satisfied with the sound quality, power handling and lack of objectionable content that these tweeters deliver.


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## WLDock (Sep 27, 2005)

Thanks for the review.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk 2


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## bbfoto (Aug 28, 2005)

Thanks for the detailed review! ...and for including the specific model number! As you stated, there are just too many variants in the Scan-Speak lineup and it's very easy to confuse two or more similar models. Isn't it nice to find a tweeter that you can thoroughly enjoy, with just the right balance of detail without fatigue, and that work in your particular install?


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## adrenalinejunkie (Oct 17, 2010)

I've Read many great things on these tweeters.


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## subiemax (Nov 19, 2007)

I have the exact same tweeter and pretty much the exact same results. That is, broken terminal, a ***** to solder the thread of a wire back, but ultimately an awesome sounding tweeter.


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## Golden Ears (Jul 18, 2010)

Well,

I guess that decides it for me...

I'm ordering a set.

I have a set of d2004/602000 that are too deep for my install in the dash but likely I will use them elsewhere....though a swap would be awesome.

Ideally I would use a shallower neodymium magnet tweeter of similar diameter or smaller...of similar high quality I just can't find one.


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## thiag-o (Aug 20, 2012)

Thanks for the review.

Today I have the Focal 165 v30, and not like the sound signature metal. I've been trying to get rid of these big coloring tweeters.


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## Golden Ears (Jul 18, 2010)

thiag-o said:


> Thanks for the review.
> 
> Today I have the Focal 165 v30, and not like the sound signature metal. I've been trying to get rid of these big coloring tweeters.


I like the sound of Scan Speak tweeters (silk domes) because they are not glarey "in your face screeching" like so many metal dome tweeters. I suppose some people who have a sharper roll off of their HF in their hearing plot might get some benefit without the glare.

I find the scan sound seems to get out of the way of music without adding any extra undue Hiss or harshness that is not in the recording.

Though- listen to a sax close mic'ed and they will have that hot sound of a sax....but hey... the real sound is the sound we are after.


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## avanti1960 (Sep 24, 2011)

thiag-o said:


> Thanks for the review.
> 
> Today I have the Focal 165 v30, and not like the sound signature metal. I've been trying to get rid of these big coloring tweeters.


I had the V30's and replaced them with these Scans when I had the 2-way setup. I too was tired of the Focal metal sound. 
After several weeks I actually thought I missed the sound of the Focal detail. 
I recently replaced the ScanSpeaks with some HAT L3SE drivers in an effort to bring the midrange and high end into a single high mount driver. The HATs have a clear midrange but not enough extended high frequency content- so- i re-added my "old" focal V130 tweeters to the mix for a 3-way setup. they are crossed above 8K and attenuated 3db. the detail is outstanding on most music but can be overly bright / metallic on other music. now I am looking to add some small silk dome tweeters to replace the Focals. 
i am beginning to believe you just cannot ever be 100% satisfied with your installation.


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## thiag-o (Aug 20, 2012)

avanti1960 said:


> i am beginning to believe you just cannot ever be 100% satisfied with your installation.


This monster upgrade, which forces us to change our equipment is inevitable ... always looking for something better.
I recently bought a DRZ9255, how I recover ($ $ $), I will replace these tweeters from Focal V30. I'm seriously considering leaving for the tweeters ScanSpeak, in this case the Scan 7000.


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## avanti1960 (Sep 24, 2011)

thiag-o said:


> This monster upgrade, which forces us to change our equipment is inevitable ... always looking for something better.
> I recently bought a DRZ9255, how I recover ($ $ $), I will replace these tweeters from Focal V30. I'm seriously considering leaving for the tweeters ScanSpeak, in this case the Scan 7000.


i just replaced my focal tweeters with boston acoustics 1" dome tweeters (see review) . the focals were harsh and metallic off axis, the bostons are smooth and detailed on axis. 
i did not have enough room to mount the scanspeaks on the sail panel. 

the bostons actually sound a little better!


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## Jcharger13 (Jul 12, 2013)

Sorry to bring this out of the DIY grave yard.

But thought this was coincidental. Put "high end auto tweeter review" into google just to see what came up as I am looking for a new pair of soft domes. This review came up right around the very top of the results. I couldnt believe it, the Scans in this review are the exact tweets I was planning on purchasing from Madi. Had to look over the pt#'s a few times to be sure though. This further confirms my original thought on the purchase. Will be buying them this coming week. 

Thanks for the review.


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## Hanatsu (Nov 9, 2010)

They are good performing drivers. Clean low-end, 2kHz/24dB is not a problem. They should be mounted somewhat on-axis imo, they have not much energy above 10-12kHz otherwise. Used them in two installs with good results. My only complaint is the terminals... they suck. Be careful with them.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy 3 via Tapatalk.


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## Jcharger13 (Jul 12, 2013)

Thanks Han. I'm planning for on axis. Low end at 2k sounds nice. I have a a couple dome mids that I was planning on using but I may skip using them at first and use as a 2 way only. Will be a much simpilar install this way too.


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

http://medleysmusings.com/scan-speak-illuminator-d3004602000-tweeter-testing/

http://medleysmusings.com/driver-tests-master-list/


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## Jcharger13 (Jul 12, 2013)

^^^^^^^ Thanks for the link. 
Erin is the man! (also sent a small donation to him as a way to say thanks for all his hard work.)


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## avanti1960 (Sep 24, 2011)

I remember seeing a thread about how to remove the flanges of these tweeters. I searched for an hour but no luck. 
If anyone knows where it is I would appreciate it.

I just ordered some replacement sail panels and want to install my idle scanspeaks on them. Thanks.


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

avanti1960 said:


> I remember seeing a thread about how to remove the flanges of these tweeters. I searched for an hour but no luck.
> If anyone knows where it is I would appreciate it.
> 
> I just ordered some replacement sail panels and want to install my idle scanspeaks on them. Thanks.


First part is the how-not-to and then the how-to. 

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/technical-advanced-car-audio-discussion/82182-scan-speak-d3004-grill-removal.html

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/technical-advanced-car-audio-discussion/62171-peek-scan-speak-illuminator-d2004-60200-tweeter.html


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