# Hybrid Audio-pipe Tweeters Photos



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

Okay, they are actually called the Audiopipe ATX-100 tweeters. They are suppose to be direct knockoffs of the Hybrid Audio L1 Pro from what I can tell. I shall test them and give you the results if I ever get the time to. Here are photos for now.


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

Have you seen the hybrid video addressing these?


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## bafukie (Nov 23, 2007)

looks good?


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

JOey Knapp said:


> Have you seen the hybrid video addressing these?


They took it out of their forum before I could see it. 
Got a link for it? or maybe you saved it? 

Kelvin


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

"100 Watts Output Power"

Sweet they have a built-in amp


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## ChrisB (Jul 3, 2008)

Notloudenuf said:


> "100 Watts Output Power"
> 
> Sweet they have a built-in amp


Gotta love that language barrier. Kind of like "_All your base are belong to us":laugh:_


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## CulinaryGod (Jun 5, 2008)

Sub'd. Does anyone know of any knockoffs of their products other than just the tweeters?


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## rommelrommel (Apr 11, 2007)

I seriously doubt that they are more than cosmetic copies but interested to hear listening impressions.


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## mdcruz88 (Dec 24, 2010)

Haha raise your hand if you've got your finger on the Buy button if the listening tests are good?


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

Mir, from our other chats, I see you're not trying to do any comparison testing, correct?

Might want to make that clear here before it gets too late (ie: the haters come in blasting you and the product).


Not that I'm advocating copyright/patent/intelligence theft, but I just want everyone to understand that, AFAIK, *Mir's not looking to compare these drivers to the Hybrids.*


Having said that, can you throw up an impedance sweep for us so people will know the parameters?


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## Brian_smith06 (Jan 31, 2008)

Are the housings metal or plastic?


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## Reach (May 12, 2008)

I struggle with why one would buy knockoffs when there is plenty of cheap equipment out there that works just fine... without feeling the need to rip someone else off.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

Yea I'm not trying to compare the two. Just want to hear these for myself. They were cheap enough to play around with.


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## bafukie (Nov 23, 2007)

go ahead and play with it... u might like it


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## turbo5upra (Oct 3, 2008)

me likes the crossovers they came with..... have to tame that 100 watt on-board amp somehow!


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

Reach said:


> I struggle with why one would buy knockoffs when there is plenty of cheap equipment out there that works just fine... without feeling the need to rip someone else off.


They want something that at the very least looks like the real thing from afar.


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

What if they sound BETTER than the HAT tweets they're knocking off?


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## IBcivic (Jan 6, 2009)

Hillbilly SQ said:


> What if they sound BETTER than the HAT tweets they're knocking off?


That would affect the HAT trade-in value


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

in for the info 

good stuff mir!


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## Streetbeat Customz (Mar 19, 2011)

In for the review!


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## instalher (May 13, 2009)

hey guys our other installer bought a set of sleezebay and now we are testing them against the hat.. test is done with a pioneer ts-m171prs in a ported .7cubic ft. box with the tweeter above it in its own sealed box.. that way no possible rearfaction from pioneer driver.. we have both transducers running off the diamond audio S6.0X passive network now one tower has the audiopipe and one driver has the hat. L1 proSE. amp is a denon avr891. power comming thru a monster hts1600, power conditioner, source unit was a pioneer,pd-d6mk2-k off to the denon. speaker wire was phoenix gold zero reference 11 series. the optical cable is a dynex from the c.d. to denon.. the drivers are seperated by 5 ft and we sit about 8 ft from them dead centre.. for this test we will set the volume with our rta to 85db then break the knob off!!! lol. for reference we are just going to use the remote and balance right to left... simple lets go....


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## instalher (May 13, 2009)

ok lets start the test with one of my favorite songs..... If i could sing your blues, sara k...... sax very nice... little to bright on audiopipe..... but other wise tracks right on with the hat... 
2. isent she lovely, livinstone taylor... hummm slight crakling off audiopipe on the begining whistle.. interesting... not on hybrid.. guitar sounds natural on both very good test..... audio pipe does quite well, hybrid does excelent.. 
3. latest trick. dire straits,, very natural sound by both smooth horn section.. no complaints from either tweeter on this track.. audiopipe is definitly a more sensitive speaker tho.. that might be why its a bit britter on some of the tracks and cant handle the really dynamic highs.. 
4.carla lother, 100 lovers. nothing bad at all.... very very nice on both speakers... the hat, well its just got that little sparkle that is so smooth, and not dry.. the audiopipe is just a bit britter and sharper.. this is of couse just my taste. you might like that.. 
over all very good tweeter FOR THE PRICE, and no one would ever tell the difference in a sound off vehicle.. EVER!!! now that being said.. i was curious to see how these handled some power.. so for this test i grabbed my motley crue c.d. dr. feelgood recored in triple d and cranked up kickstart my heart.. NOW threre is a difference.. the audiopipe just couldnt keep up and stated to smell funny very very quickly...you decide now which one to buy.. oh and with audiopipe no tech support.. so for whatever thats worth to you... enjoy


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

What's the Xover point on the DA passive? With slope please 

Kelvin


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## instalher (May 13, 2009)

as long as everything is the same for both tweets any differences would be from the driver itself, unless driven past peak perormance which i have not done.. but to answer your question here is the info,
1.35k 12db/2end order
1.8k 18db/3rd order


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

instalher said:


> as long as everything is the same for both tweets any differences would be from the driver itself, unless driven past peak perormance which i have not done.. but to answer your question here is the info,
> 1.35k 12db/2end order
> 1.8k 18db/3rd order


Do you have the ability to use an amps Xover? Let's say around 3kHz? 
Who knows, maybe there won't be that much difference if the tweeter is relieved from it's low end 

Kelvin


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## instalher (May 13, 2009)

no .....amp is a true amp no xovers.. home theatre stuff.... but you are missing the point of my experiment... i wanted to show that a cheap speaker, when disguised can sound equally as good as an expensive one.. as long as you follow proper listning practises... now i am sure i could have configured different xovers and slopes to pull the audiopipe even closer to the hat. but not everyone who is going to drop a cool 25 bucks will have enough money left over for a fancy xover. So i change the xover to a 6db/oct cap at 5k.. and the hybrid as well... now there really isnet a lot of sound detail comming from the tweeters to make a really good assessment of the tweeter..just not enough music up there that i can really critically evalutate.. thats why i chose the diamond.. ialso have the mb quart psd xovers, pioneer prs, energy, boston aqustics, and some home made ones with very high end caps coils, zobel networks from solen.. i chose the da because i felt they played in a range that should be acceptable for most tweets..


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## [email protected] (Jun 12, 2008)

For a proper comparison in a listening test, its crucial to have each speaker playing with the same sensitivity. Done by padding one or the other to be equal with its challenger. Without that, I dont think it would be a fair comparison.


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

BeatsDownLow said:


> For a proper comparison in a listening test, its crucial to have each speaker playing with the same sensitivity. Done by padding one or the other to be equal with its challenger. Without that, I dont think it would be a fair comparison.


Second that ^ 

Also, I suggested 3kHz but 5kHz would have been even better. A lot of people on this forum use 3 way systems and a few of those have an active processor. 
5kHz or higher is actually quite common but I understand that listenning to just 5kHz and up might be fatiguing. 

Kelvin


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## mulletboy2 (Aug 17, 2006)

instalher - in the interests of fairness and disclosure, can you state your background and any affiliations please?


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## [email protected] (Jun 12, 2008)

Maybe we can get someone like Megalo or Bikini to give us their thoughts on these tweets if we bought them a pair (someone that can describe in depth), which I am assuming are some sort of ring radiator. I really like the thought of testing out cheap gear to see if any of it performs well. Looks like a rind with the fatter surrounds on it.

350 Watt Pair Super Silk Dome Tweeters 2.4in Gravity 50 - eBay (item 390299094911 end time Mar-24-11 21:59:17 PDT)


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

a 2.4" tweeter that plays down to 2khz?


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## instalher (May 13, 2009)

all i wanted to due was take a well know and respected tweeter, and a knock off and just do a quick a/b comparison.. now i could have set the tweeters up for optimal sound, but thats not how i recieved them.... i got the audiopipe with a cap and the hat, with nothing so thats why i picked the passives that i had.. this way its a true test. each speaker is being played outside there perfect specs, but then again thats the way 99% of them are going to be used... make sense. 
my background is in mobile audio.. my first iasca show was in 1989 in Havre montana. i was the 2004 2005-2007 usaci canada sq champ, 2005-2006-2010 iasca cnd champ, worlds loudest sq car 2008. been doing mobile audio since 1986 and professionally since1989. been with future shop for the past 6 yrs, been featured in iasca newletter, featured in car audio mag, fully mecp certified, rtti trained, trained under Dexter Jackson, Larry Fredrick with p.g., Darin Belanger. i have built demo cars for beamriders langley, future shop, jbl cnd, mtx cnd, pioneer cnd.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

so why would you play the tweeter so low? 

i mean, thats ridicliously low for a conventional tweeter. Hybrid states this in their manual for the tweeter;

Recommended *Minimum *Crossover Frequency
2,000 Hz at 24 dB/octave highpass

if you could put it at that, or a bit higher then i would consider your A\B compairason a little more vaild, because im sure the knock off speaker would break up hard lower than 2k. i just dont understand why you would blatently drop the crossover 500hz+ below where it should be at just because you didnt have the hardware to change it, then say that its breaking up, its going to break up - because its not built to play that low, period.

i dunno, it looks like audiopipe totally ripped hybrid off pretty bad, but obviously they dont use the same build materials for the speaker itself.

but im guessing that they arent too bad of a tweeter considering that. *shrug*


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## sqcomp (Sep 21, 2009)

instalher said it himself:

the AP had slight crakling, can't handle the really dynamic highs, brighter, sharper (shrill perhaps?), and the audiopipe just couldnt keep up and started to smell funny very very quickly.

That says it all for me.

I'll keep my L1 Pro SE.


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## [email protected] (Jun 12, 2008)

sqcomp said:


> instalher said it himself:
> 
> the AP had slight crakling, can't handle the really dynamic highs, brighter, sharper (shrill perhaps?), and the audiopipe just couldnt keep up and started to smell funny very very quickly.
> 
> ...


Ya but what if the actual sensitivity is 3db more than the hybrid? It would have been twice as loud and could induce crackling. Or if it was crackling becasue it was crossed over way to low. Nothing against the guy that compared them, but that all should be thrown out a window as its not a proper test. Without pulling the t/s for both speakers and properly matching them, you cant go by anything he stated. Anyways is a opinion review, no real data showing anything like a frequency graph.

I dont think that anybody has said it is or will be a better tweeter than Hybrids. But can the performance be close for a fraction of the price?

I am looking forward to Megalo's review.


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## sqcomp (Sep 21, 2009)

Could one even trust the published specs from Audiopipe anyway? Klippel them both...


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

matching the levels shouldn't be an issue with an RTA. 
Additionally, to get the sensitivity, just use a dmm, set the amp gain to get X voltage and measure the response level at X distance. Then play the new driver at the same distance, measure in dB level. SPL difference. 

You can, of course, just set the output voltage to 2.83v and measure at 1m - Just like most specs are given in (2.83v @ 1m) - and simply compare the difference in output levels. 
Yes, the power will be different, but the key here is the voltage out of the amp doesn't change. This is what gives you the baseline comparison since amps put out voltage and not wattage. That's why you'll find lots of home audio diy'rs using 2.83v because it's an easy way of base-lining what they're discussing as opposed to saying "watts" and the user having to guess at the driver impedance. IOW.... ohm's law, yo!
You can even do this with your cell phone's spl meter (jl audio app for iphone FTW!) if you can slow it down enough to get a meaningful reading. All you're doing is comparing. 


If anyone wants to ship me one of each of these drivers, I'd be happy to do an impedance & t/s comparison. No klippel or FR as I'm not set up for that. But an impedance sweep is easy cheesy and will certainly help you determine how the two compare. Would take me 10 minutes to do both. Just tossin' it out there...


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

right on. lets get these drivers over to test 


so who is going to send them in for testing lol!


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

I'm sure mir has software that can do this (I think fuzzmeasure does impedance sweeps and I think Mir has this program)


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

i dont know, mir is from _texas_, you know what i mean??


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## jmil1974 (Dec 24, 2007)

How hard would it be to dismantle and slip a nicer 1" silkie in these housings?


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## instalher (May 13, 2009)

alpine jp. has a tweeter that looks identical to the hat ring radiator as well hummmmm intersting.... which looks exactly like the vifa xt25 hummmm lets get the klippell machine up and running boys... and see just exactly whats going on. whos making whos stuff...


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

instalher said:


> alpine jp. has a tweeter that looks identical to the hat ring radiator as well hummmmm intersting.... which looks exactly like the vifa xt25 hummmm lets get the klippell machine up and running boys... and see just exactly whats going on. whos making whos stuff...


Don't see the similarities at all... other than the copper color. 








Terminals are different 


































Kelvin


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## Scott Buwalda (Apr 7, 2006)

One simply needs to look at production and release dates to see who's copying who. 

The L1 Pro SE was designed in late 2008 and 2009 and released 11/15/2009. The Pro R2 tweeter took the same 2008/2009 design elements, and was released on 03/26/2010. The L1 Pro was designed in 2007, and was released 02/04/2008. 

The Audiopipe knock-off was released about six months ago, and the JDM Alpine set, as of four weeks ago, hadn't been released yet, but that may have changed now. The Rockford set has not been released yet either. Why does a company need an R&D department when a small, family-owned company is already doing the innovating, and is a mere copy and paste away from production?


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

Scott Buwalda said:


> One simply needs to look at production and release dates to see who's copying who.
> 
> The L1 Pro SE was designed in late 2008 and 2009 and released 11/15/2009. The Pro R2 tweeter took the same 2008/2009 design elements, and was released on 03/26/2010. The L1 Pro was designed in 2007, and was released 02/04/2008.
> 
> The Audiopipe knock-off was released about six months ago, *and the JDM Alpine set, as of four weeks ago, hadn't been released yet*, but that may have changed now. The Rockford set has not been released yet either. Why does a company need an R&D department when a small, family-owned company is already doing the innovating, and is a mere copy and paste away from production?



Scott, AFAIK, alpine has had their tweeters out for a while. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding what you're talking about, though. 
I remember a thread on here a couple years back that discussed their tweeters. I also actually just sold 2 pair myself.

Edit:
This thread is over 5 years old and discusses the alpine japan tweeters in question.
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...advanced/1515-tweeters-alpine-japan-site.html


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## instalher (May 13, 2009)

Scott Buwalda said:


> One simply needs to look at production and release dates to see who's copying who.
> 
> The L1 Pro SE was designed in late 2008 and 2009 and released 11/15/2009. The Pro R2 tweeter took the same 2008/2009 design elements, and was released on 03/26/2010. The L1 Pro was designed in 2007, and was released 02/04/2008.
> 
> The Audiopipe knock-off was released about six months ago, and the JDM Alpine set, as of four weeks ago, hadn't been released yet, but that may have changed now. The Rockford set has not been released yet either. Why does a company need an R&D department when a small, family-owned company is already doing the innovating, and is a mere copy and paste away from production?


 sorry scott i guess my thread lost its literal meaning because you cant see my sarcasim in words.... alot of tweeters may look the same.. ie m.b. quart and the focal utopia, but thats where the similarites end.... i realize that the vifa xt25 has been out for years and is a good tweeter, yours came out later, but if the concept is good then you implement them but put your own flavor in your design, which is what you have done. now the alpine has been out in japan for a while and is not avalible in north america, and yes its a ring radiator but its theil small are different, also you can see my review of the audiopyle and make your own assesment of how it stacks up to the hybrid tweeter, my point was to let people know to BEWARE of what you buy!! dont assume nothing.


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## Scott Buwalda (Apr 7, 2006)

Sorry guys, I thought the Alpine tweeter was brand new out this year. My bad. I know the Rockford tweeter is brand new though.  And the forged AudioWaterPipe tweeter is too. 

It's hard to keep up with what everyone is doing. I can assure everyone that one was not based on the other. The SE/R2 designs are completely fresh, not rebadged.

Installher, yeah, I read the sarcasm in your post. Please be careful to not let the factory-installed smoke out of the AudioOilPipeline tweeter out, because I fear you'd never get it back in, once its escaped.


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## Scott Buwalda (Apr 7, 2006)

Edit, Erin, thanks for the link. Now I feel like a fool that those Alpine's have been out for a while. And here I got my feathers all ruffled a few months back thinking they were copying me.


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

It's cool. I didn't want you to take my post the wrong way. I was just pointing it out. 

They are pretty nice looking tweeters. personally, I'd love to get my hands on them and yours and some other ring revs for comparison purposes but my budget is blown... for the next 2 years. lol.


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## jimmy2345 (Jul 12, 2010)

Scott Buwalda said:


> Sorry guys, I thought the Alpine tweeter was brand new out this year. My bad. I know the Rockford tweeter is brand new though.  And the forged AudioWaterPipe tweeter is too.
> 
> It's hard to keep up with what everyone is doing. I can assure everyone that one was not based on the other. The SE/R2 designs are completely fresh, not rebadged.
> 
> Installher, yeah, I read the sarcasm in your post. Please be careful to not let the factory-installed smoke out of the AudioOilPipeline tweeter out, because I fear you'd never get it back in, once its escaped.


If you can't get it back...buy another set for $25.00.


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## aV8ter (Sep 4, 2009)

instalher said:


> all i wanted to due was take a well know and respected tweeter, and a knock off and just do a quick a/b comparison.. now i could have set the tweeters up for optimal sound, but thats not how i recieved them.... i got the audiopipe with a cap and the hat, with nothing so thats why i picked the passives that i had.. this way its a true test. each speaker is being played outside there perfect specs, but then again thats the way 99% of them are going to be used... make sense.
> my background is in mobile audio.. my first iasca show was in 1989 in Havre montana. i was the 2004 2005-2007 usaci canada sq champ, 2005-2006-2010 iasca cnd champ, worlds loudest sq car 2008. been doing mobile audio since 1986 and professionally since1989. been with future shop for the past 6 yrs, been featured in iasca newletter, featured in car audio mag, fully mecp certified, rtti trained, trained under Dexter Jackson, Larry Fredrick with p.g., Darin Belanger. i have built demo cars for beamriders langley, future shop, jbl cnd, mtx cnd, pioneer cnd.


BOOM! Nice! Impressive resume!


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## The A Train (Jun 26, 2007)

did anyone try these yet?


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

No sir.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

lol mir.


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