# New sytem...my thoughts on a few drivers I have



## AWilliams (Mar 28, 2007)

Ok, first off, I am in NO WAY some golden eared audio snob or have any sort of of musical experience to speak off. These are just my impressions of a few drivers I picked up to do a new active system with. I'm still a huge newbie and I couldn't quite get the full active set up figured out thru my 8053 so I ran it thru the x/o in the amps (Arc Audio xxk 4050/1500)

CD's listened to:
Maroon 5
Sting-Live
Sade
311
Eagles-Hotel Calif.(original)
Kenny Chesney

Mid: Dynaudio mw160 (6.75")
I am familiar with the Dyn sound as I have a nice set of Dyn bookshelf speakers (Audience 50) As these were NIB when I recieved them I'm assuming they will loosen up a bit after some hours but first impression is this is a great midrange/midwoofer. I was leary about getting the 160 because I knew it was going to be a tight fit vs. going with the mw150. But I'm glad I did. The bass output is very good from this speaker. Midrange is as good as ever with these as well. A bit forward sounding at first but after some tweeking...much better. I'm anticipating it progressive getting better as time goes on.

1st tweeter: Morel mdt12
This tweeter paired with the Dyn mw160 I believe has the potential to be a very good combo. As I stated earlier, being a newbie I couldn't seem to get the settings right going full active thru the 8053. I got fusterated and went thru the amps x/o. Getting the active settings correct on the HU I believe will yield better results as well. The mdt12 is definately a tad laid back and full sounding with an almost slight chesty sound to it. The way I had my x/o set it seemed too much vocal was coming thru it. I wouldn't call this on lively or shimmery on top but it did exibit a cleaner sound and a lower noise floor on the source material.

2nd tweeter: Dayton md20
What can I say about this little guy? This has got to be one on the best, inexpensive tweeters out there. A definate price leader in the sub $10 market. I paired these with the Dyn and was pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded. Both mid and tweet are baffle mounted on the doors, next to each other about 1/2 mid way up and about 10" in front of my knees. (Ford Excursion) I tried putting it on-axis, on the sail panel but found it too bright...but the slight brightness it exibits seems to work OK for off-axis door applications...firing across the cabin. It has a sparkle in the top end and doesn't really get harsh until it's really pushed very loud. I did notice a tad bit of sibilence with the nd20 and it will let you know if you have a bad recording. The mdt12 seemed more forgiving in that dept. and I could detect no sibilance.

I think I liked the sound of the nd20 better because the Morel has an fs of 1000 (FR 1800) and the Dayton has an fs of 1800 (FR 3500) and with the Dyn playing up to 2500 or so off axis the nd20 is picking it up from 3500 or so. With the Morel it seemed to me that the mid and tweet were playing alot of the same frequencies and overlapped quite a bit. The Dayton allowed a little bit of an underlap that seemed to sound more natural.

As I stated earlier, if I can figure out how to go full active and set all the x/o thru the HU points I can get the Morel to pick up the FR at closer to 3.15K, I think it may sound better.

These are just my humble and amatuer findings.


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