# Rainbow Home Audio?



## BCF150 (Jan 18, 2008)

Hey Guys, I know that many of you run "home" audio raw drivers in your cars. Well, I want to know how a set of "car" audio drivers would do in a home. Any thoughts on how well this would work?

I have a set of Rainbow Germaniums ( 6.5" woofers, 1" silk dome tweeters, crossovers) + a Rainbow Vanadium 10" subwoofer.

I'm just wondering if I could turn these into a decent 2.1 home stereo using a receiver like the Onkyo 2 channel.

I'm asking because I've been told by someone I trust that the Germs sound best in an IB setup.

Also please don't say, you could sell those and buy better drivers for cheaper. I have been trying to sell these drivers for the last 3 months.


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## DasBot (Jun 1, 2008)

Those should sound nice, though maybe a little sparkly for home audio. Make some mockup cabinets out of cheapie particle board just to hear the mids inside enclosures. If you don't have the Parts Express woofer tester, I highly recommend it. It's usually on sale for $100 and free shipping. This will allow you to play with enclosure size and maybe port it to experiment. Chances are though, they'll sound great from 100hz and up in .1 or .2cf. This will keep them nice and tight. You can mount the tweeter flush, if you can, keep it as close to the mid as possible.

Sub box can be a pre-built off ebay to save time and money. Add a terminal and some coils for a passive setup. A couple of 200uf caps for the mids and the component crossovers to divide between mid and tweeter will of course sound great.

Remember to get an older receiver from a pawnshop or swapmeet that's 4ohm stable. I've had a like setup in my garage for years.  Love my $15 Pyramid DUAL CHANNEL 10" sub.


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## Spasticteapot (Mar 5, 2007)

DasBot said:


> Sub box can be a pre-built off ebay to save time and money. Add a terminal and some coils for a passive setup. A couple of 200uf caps for the mids and the component crossovers to divide between mid and tweeter will of course sound great.


You'll likely want to buy a DVC sub. You can buy passive sub crossovers on eBay very cheaply.

That said, I would sell the lot of them and build a pair of Silver Als - an inexpensive speaker using the DA175 and Dayton Silkie tweeter. Although the drivers themselves are not excellent, the crossover gives remarkably flat response from 50hz to 18khz - much better than that of any car-audio gear.


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## BCF150 (Jan 18, 2008)

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate them, however I have since moved in a different direction. I purchased a Harmon Kardon HK3490 stereo receiver (4ohm stable) and a Harmon Kardon DVD48 (dvd, sacd, dvd-a) player.

I'm currently considering the following setup:

Polk Audio RTi A7 --> front speakers
SvS PB12-Plus --> subwoofer

I haven't auditioned either of them though, so it could very well likely change as I am also interested in Paradigm's offerings.


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## Vorlon (Nov 17, 2007)

Actually to kinda piggy back on this.....could one some how make these into a nice set of speakers for a computer?


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## Spasticteapot (Mar 5, 2007)

Vorlon said:


> Actually to kinda piggy back on this.....could one some how make these into a nice set of speakers for a computer?


Step 1: Sell them.

Step 2: Buy used studio monitors on eBay.



BCF150 said:


> Thanks for the responses. I appreciate them, however I have since moved in a different direction. I purchased a Harmon Kardon HK3490 stereo receiver (4ohm stable) and a Harmon Kardon DVD48 (dvd, sacd, dvd-a) player.
> 
> I'm currently considering the following setup:
> 
> ...


I'm not a big fan of Harmon-Kardon stuff - you usually don't get much for your money. However, I would strongly recommend a pair of Paradigms over the Polks - they really do sound excellent.

I'm not an expert on subwoofers, but Hsu is generally considered the best manufacturer of budget subs. However, building your own is so simple (just a car sub with a plate amp) that you really should build your own. The Dayton RS series subs are quite popular for this.


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