# Average Joe Review: AD Vipera F10, W60 and T1FR tweeters



## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

I apologize for the delay but my shop has been nuts and finding several hours to get my thoughts in a somewhat coherent order sometimes proves problematic at best. lol

So my great friends Jerry and Emilios got me sent out some more speakers I was patiently awaiting for my 2003 Audi RS6 to complete its build. These components were a pair of AD W60 6.5" mid-woofers for rear fill and a pair of T1FR ribbon tweeters to take the place of the silk AD T10 front tweeters so that the T10s could be placed in the rear. The T1FR is accompanying a pair of AD M35 midranges and AD Vipera F6 nid-woofer. System is running active with a Mcintosh amplifier and the tweeters are taking over at 5000HZ.


Here are the tweeters in question:










Now these tweeters are very very small and can be fit pretty much anywhere. They are surprisingly heavy for such a small tweeter as well. All AD components seem to be deceptively heavy for their size.

These tweeters were installed in the factory Audi door locations but aimed directly between the headrests of the car. They are ribbons after all so I knew they would be very directional.

First impressions, wow. They were insanely bright and crisp. So there went the next couple hours retuning the tweeter channels. They did not need the power the T10s took and they did not need any boost in their entire range. That managed to bring them in line and allow the break in to begin.
Over the next week they did become more tame and all the sudden reminded me of the real old Infinity EMIT tweeters in the Beta speakers but with a tad more effortlessness to them. 
Time from Pink Floyd sent chills up my spine, they had that extra zing in the bells that I have only heard on Focal TBes before. Eager to hear more ear splitting songs I hit some bag pipe music someone on here gave me and it sounded like the damn thing was sitting on my dash to where I could reach out and slice open the bag. Hate that sound but know many ribbons have a hard time and get blurry with that particular instrument.
I then threw in some Supertramp "Dreamer" just to hear the triangle get played. Brought a huge grin to my face as it sounded just how I thought it would. Next to que up was Robert Plants "In The Mood", I use this track due to the high hat in the instrument solo. Its supposed to have this almost reverberating carsh as it comes to a peak and the hat is closing. Its a sound that only a couple tweeters I have ever heard have been able to reproduce properly. Focal TBe, Illusion Carbon Berrylium (for the brief moment they function), the older EMITs from Infinity (rectangle, not round) and the AMTs are the only tweeters that really grab you (or me I should say) in that particular track. The Sinfoni Maestoso comes close but falls just a tad short.
Well the T1FR hits it and hits it hard! Crisp and shimmery just like I so hard have looked for.
All other songs were just gravy. never once did the tweeters become harsh or annoying. They stayed very smooth and relaxed when needed to be and grabbed frequencies above 10khz with ease and threw them straight at you.

These get a big thumbs up!



Next up was the AD W60s running two way active with the AD T10 tweeters in the rear of the car. This time I moved the forward seats up, turned off the fronts and sat in the back. I knew i would have stage and height issues even with the TA so I limited testing to tonality and accuracy.



















Now compared to its big brother the Vipera F6 the AD W60 looks down right dainty. Again it weighs much more than it looks. It has a composite basket with a fiberglass cone. They are rated for 70 watts RMS and have an 18mm XMAX (both ways) with a useable response from 50hz to 3,000. I have them set with a 55hz high pass at 12db and a 6db low pass at 2600hz with the tweeters taking over there.

Due to their smaller size and surround I wasnt expecting a whole lot out of them compared to the Vipera F6 but they quickly surprised me. After 20+ hours break in they sounded quite impressive. I should note prior to break in they had minimal mid-bass and were a tad hollow in the midrange. But after break in they were completely different animals. If i didnt know better I would say i was listening to Boston 6.5 Pros (old black cones). They had kick and vocals sounded so natural I found myself hapily sitting in the back seat enjoying them.
The drums in the live version of Hotel California were solid and accurate even when throwing all of the Mcintosh's 100 watts at them.
For one of their more entry level speakers these easily rival many high end drivers out there. 
After more tuning I found 63hz high pass at 12db worked best as they do not like to play below 60hz and maintain composure at higher volumes so if you like to rock out then thats a better choice.
Vocals on them are just great. In "Leave A Trace" the female vocals always sounded as they should and never got dull in the upper octaves. The tube instruments in Blue Man Group songs like "Get Ready" are really impressive and make you feel like you are there (I have heard that song live twice and these did it perfect justice) and reproduce the strange sound wonderfully. 


That brings us to the last link in the chain. The one part I was very hesitant of using. I had a CDT ES SQ-1000 subwoofer in this car and loved it. Played so deep and clean it was just perfect. Well I figured since the car had 10 other AD speakers in it I may as well try the Vipera F10 subwoofer in its place.












Seemed to fit right at home in my tiny .39 sealed fiberglass enclosure built into the car:










Now I was very skeptical about this sub as it weighed half what the ES SQ did and had half the motor structure size. I had even said in my head "I am not gonna be happy with this" but went ahead and installed it anyway. I instantly wasnt happy. Poor output, nothing below 30HZ but it had nice kick. Hoping it was in need of break in (it was VERY stiff out of the box) I went ahead and fed it a 40-50hz sweeping tone at 50 watts overnight. I was welcomed the next day by a completely different sub. I simply could not believe how much the sub had changed and continued to change over the next few days. It became this hard hitting, deep bass grabbing monster. But it had that dual personality I have come to expect in AD speakers. Playing songs like Alice in Chains live was a pleasurable experience with the woofer easily keeping up with the drums and never getting muddy or distorted even when the JL 500/1 was throwing all it could at it. 
Moving to tech music like Brain Stew or Bonexkiller (sp?) really made that woofer just shake the car and give deep satisfying gutteral bass.
Now it wont hit that 7hz note in "Bass I Love You" but it does growl the 17hz note well even in that tiny tiny box. The more I played with the sub the more I discovered it was significantly more accurate than the ES SQ sub while also being able to play to a much higher output. There have been many occasions where I have demod the system and after getting out people expect to see a pair of 12' woofers out back. Their face is priceless when they see that tiny 10" setup. lol


In a nutshell I have been very impressed with every AD speaker I have tested so far. For their prices they are hard to beat and due to their shallow mounts and tiny tweeters they are very easy to install almost anywhere. They look tiny but sound huge. If you want that high end sound and dont have that high end budget then there is no better choice IMHO. These will not dissapoint across the board.



Next Reviews:
1: AD W600 woofers, AD T100 tweeters and the AD 6.5" coaxials
2: Sinfoni Grandioso Opus speakers, La Prima amplifiers and Sinfoni subwoofers


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## WhiteL02 (Jul 25, 2014)

Another great review but the real question is do you like them more than Sinfoni? I know you give them high praise and get to try a lot of different brands. Always enjoy your reviews!


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

I like them different from the Sinfonis. The AD line is more of an SQL speaker and it makes them more fun. With Sinfoni you can really get into the infinite detail of a song and enjoy every nuance. With the AD you can just crank the hell out of them while enjoying 90% of the precision of the Sinfonis. 

Think of Sinfoni as that $2000 an hour brunette call girl with blue eyes in the $10,000 dress. She looks spectacular, charms everyone, says all the right things and makes everyone not with her jealous. Everyone flocks to her just to stare and hear her.

Think of the AD speakers as that $1800 redhead call girl with green eyes that wears that dress that makes you wonder if there is underwear on down there, drinks you under the table, knows all the dirty jokes but when she sings to you your eyes water at the sound....... and then you have sex.

Both great, just in their own way.


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## WhiteL02 (Jul 25, 2014)

Haha


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