# Dayten RS180 + Northcreek D25-06



## 86mr2 (Apr 29, 2005)

*Dayton RS180 + Northcreek D25-06*

Inspired by this site, I decided to try a cheap upgrade to my 1986 MR2 sound system. 

The original system was an 8 year old Sony CD player with (alleged) 35 WPC driving Infinity Reference 4.5 " coaxials mounted in the stock dash locations. This was supplemented by a 20+ year old Visonik 6.5" subwoofer mounted in the driver's door driven by a 20 year old Alphasonic 60 watt amp with a fixed 24 db crossover at 160 hz. This system basically sounded like strident crap. The main impetus to the upgrade was the fact that the foam surround of the sub finally gave out. 

My "new" system is a straight 2 way using the same 8 year old Sony CD player driving two PPI Sedona amps, one a 100ix (2x50W @ 4ohm) low passed at 1.6 khz - 12db/octave for the RS180s, the other is a Sedona 100 (2X50W @4 ohm) high passed 2.4 khz -18 db/octave using a POS Profile Audio Q110 crossover. 

The RS180s are door mounted using 3/4" MDF baffles screwed over the stock door panel. Sort of simple door pods. The RS180s do not interfere with the window mechanism and still have their magnetic shielding intact. The doors are moderately damped, and there is a little acoustic foam behind the driver to cut down the midrange glare that otherwise reflects from the door skin. 

The Northcreek D25's were a pair of tweeters I purchased used from someone on the Madisound forums a few years ago. They are installed in the stock dash speaker location using MDF inserts to bring them flush with the dash. I tried them in the stock recessed location with grills, but clarity suffered. Flush, they sound quite lovely, and a PC rta program shows reasonably flat response using pink noise. 

When first installed, the system sounded poor, because the doors were not well enough damped, and a too-high crossover freq (2.4 khz) mixed with a reflective door skin to yield a "midrange monster" (term stolen from zaph). Adding acoustic foam and dropping the crossover freq made all the difference. The system now sounds great, the bass is very articulate, and the midrange and highs are clear and undistorted. There is more tuning to do - the tweeters should be crossed lower, maybe 1.8khz, and the mids should have a highpass to cut down some excursion but I will need a different crossover to do this.

The big revelation to me has been to hear the big difference low distortion drivers can make in the auto environment. I am also pleased with the imaging provided by the northcreek tweeters. At the prices of these drivers, the performance is really gratifying.


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## trike (Sep 22, 2005)

86mr2 said:


> The original system was an 8 year old Sony CD player with (alleged) 35 WPC driving Infinity Reference 4.5 " coaxials mounted in the stock dash locations


man, i'd kill for a 4.5" stock dash location for my CSS Full-rangers!!!!
sounds like a great budget DIY setup, congrats.

trike


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## 86mr2 (Apr 29, 2005)

Not deep enough for the CSS FRs, and waaaay off-axis. A better choice for domes I'm afraid.


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