kepone's Full Review: Cdt Audio Eurosport ES-630 Car Component System
Well, its about time i did this, people have been asking me for months to do one like my old HD review from last year.. I dont like to do " initial reviews" of speakers, ive always found them to be bullsh-it regardless of who does them. Usually people mistake "new" sound with " good" sound in an initial review..so i decided to give them about 6 months of listening before even attempting some sort of accurate review. But, I'll put some initial impressions in the review regardless...So, here goes..
First Impressions
"Holy crap, it comes in 2 boxes"
"Holy crap, those things are really really really yellow"
"Holy crap, those crossovers are really fuking big"
"Holy crap, it looks even deeper than the HD's"
That about sums up my reaction upon opening up the boxes... the speakers come in 2 boxes, the midranges are in one, and the crossovers and tweeters are in a second one.. yes, the crossovers are so big they require their own boxes.. they are 3-4 times bigger than the 2003 Satnet 456 xovers.
First thing i noticed about the crossover was definitely a good thing... a great thing even..the build quality is absolutely superb, looks like they use true top notch components to make those things. The next thing i noticed however, was a bad thing.. there is no tweeter attenuation control on the xover.. i dont understand why, but all the other CDT sets have attenuation controls, why would they leave that feature out on their most high end set? Regardless, it was no big deal, i just used LPAD's on all the tweeter outputs, and that took care of that little problem. The CDT Lpads that come with the IEK are very nice too, somewhat big, but they feel solid, and i believe they can attenuate to somewhere between -9 and -12db, which is plenty for any situation.
The tweeters felt solid, had good weight to them ( IMO, heavy stuff usually means its built well...haha, that seems to be a running conclusion with all electronics ive tested ). Tweeters come with flush and surface mount cups. The cutout for the flush mounts is huge however, and the surface mount cups are among the largest ive seen... i would describe them as bulbous, but not offensive in any way, definitely bigger than they need to be though.
The Mid's... well, incase it didnt sink in before, those things are REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY yellow..like... quite possibly the yellowest yellow ive ever seen...you know that yellow that every other redneck has his Mustang 5.SLOW painted in? its yellower than that. These drivers are DEEP, i dont recall the actual depth offhand, but it must be over 3 inches, maybe even closer to 4 inches. The basket, like almost all CDT speakers are oversized, and closer to a 7 inch than a 6.5 inch, something to keep in mind before purchasing. The cone of the drivers is also intensely yellow, but quite cool looking in person. They look like a Kevlar/Fiberglass/Pulp composite. It is opaque, but borders on translucent if you hold it up to a light, and is nearly sticky to the touch. Very cool. The suspension of the driver is very loose, which i definitely like. In my experience, drivers with a really tight suspension ( boston/quart ) excel a little in detail, but give up tons in midbass, this yet again proves to be true, as you will read later.
Installation
Before i get into the actual driver installation, let me tell you a little about my install. My doors are sound deadened to hell, at least 30sq ft in each front door, then on top of that i have wool type material covering all large surfaces behind the door panel to absorb any contact rattles, i plan to add deflex pads later on, whenever i have the time. Now that being said....
THESE THINGS ARE A PAIN IN THE BUTT TO INSTALL! ( They are just like the HD's in this matter, or at least what is now known as the HD Professional ) Make no mistake, these suckers are wide and deep, not an install to be attempted by a first timer, or non adventurous installer. You WILL have to make custom baffles, there is no escaping this unless your car has space for 8's up front from the factory. You WILL run into all kinds of clearance issues which will require a lot of creativity to get past. Dont bother with these if you own a honda, or if you own a honda, plan to do kick panels from the get go, dont even bother with your doors. I mounted the Mids in the stock door locations.
The Tweeters are a little large, but nothing to really complain about. Note though, that if you flush mount the tweeters, the cutouts are very large, so you wont be able to fit most other tweeters in that space later on if you decide to change speakers. The main tweeters were mounted in the door panels, just above where the mids are ( mids are NOT mounted to the door panel ). The IEK tweeters are mounted in the A Pillars, about 1/3 of the way up, aimed at the halfway point on the headliner, where the headliner meets the windshield.
The Crossovers, well these forced me to re-engineer my whole install. Yes, they're that big. The only crossovers ive seen that are bigger are the MBquart QSD crossover, and the Boston Z6 crossover ( which looks like a cinderblock, and is about as big as a cinderblock ). I had to redo my whole trunk to get them to fit in a way that looked good, but the end result was worth it, my trunk looks tight now see page 4 of my install at http://members.sounddomain.com/kepone for pics. The Crossovers are mounted on a custom amp rack, between my two tru amps which are mounted in an angled "floating" style.
Initial Impressions
I dont like the tweeter, its too bright. It has to go ( and it did, replaced with 2 sets of the HD 1" Deluxe Silk tweeters ). Imaging is vague, soundstage is ehhhhhhhh.. nothing special. I was not impressed, and thought i wasted my money, just like i did on rainbow pros before the eurosports. BTW, rainbow pros are hands down some of the worst speakers ive ever heard, totally overhyped. The only true hype about those is the midbass.. the midbass is CRUSHING, its to bad the speakers still sound like A-S-S.
anyway, so initially, i didnt like the euros..I did some research, and found out that the mids need a ton of break in time. The tweeters however, were way to bright for me, but then again, if you ask anyone, i like my music to be very very warm sounding. Most tweeters are offensive to me, so just because I didnt like the eurosport tweeters doesnt mean that you wont. Most tweeters that people on this forum called " detailed", i just call harsh...so take my tweeter opinions with a grain of salt.
Long Term Impressions
Once again, CDT does not disappoint. Just like my old HD review, the eurosports prove that with CDT speakers, installation and tuning is everything. After swapping the tweeters out with the HD Deluxe Tweeters, it was time to let these babies break in. I did not do any equalization adjustments at all in the break in period, which i set for 1 solid month, several hours a day playtime. These speakers sounded better and better and better every day.
I had to do some tweaking still, before i could really get the best out of them, and here is what i did..my imaging was still a bit indistinct, so upon consulting leon (dingaling ), he gave me the idea to play with the phase of the speakers. I got the best results by running both midranges out of phase, everything else in phase. This did wonders for my imaging and soundstage, really bringing these speakers to their full potential. I think i lost a little midbass in the process, but nothing bad enough to mention any further than this.
Crossover point- These speakers play cleanly down to 50hz, but i found best results were to cross the speakers at 63hz/18db, and cross the subwoofer at 50hz/18db. You might think that a 13hz gap in your crossovers would cause some issues, but i assure you, that is not the case. The eurosport Mids have such great bass output, that crossing the sub lower with a shallower slope just helps it blend better.. believe me, it brings the bass up front greatly and blends wonderfully.
Equalization- it didnt take much equalization to get these things sounding great once they were broken in. My EQ points are as follows. 80HZ 2db q1, 500hz 2db q4, 5hkz -2db q4, 16khz 3db q1. Thats all.
Once they were broken in and set up properly, it was time for some real listening tests. General Reviews First:
Midbass- Very Very Very strong midbass..I believe that Carmaster ( from this forum ) heard my car when i just had the euros up front and no sub yet ( was waiting for my w7 to come ). He can attest to the output of these things, they seem to be snappy, yet smooth. Strong, yet transparent. I can go on listing analogies all day, but it boils down to this. Best midbass ive ever heard, this is what midbass should sound like. Literally, you can feel the impact in your chest, but its never overpowering. Only downside ive found for the midbass end, is that acoustic bass guitars and/or stand up bass's dont have the kind of impact that they do IRL, they still sound great, but they come through a little subdued. Every little nuance of them comes through though, i suppose i would just like a little more presence.. i can probably add this with a little more eq'ing, perhaps a bump at 250hz will solve this. I'll give this set a 9.5/10 for midbass.
Midrange- Very Detailed and warm. Once set up right, its very easy to tell the placements of different instruments and etc..acoustic guitars sound fantastic, pianos have that emotional appeal that they have in real life. Overall, i have only one complaint about the midrange, its not really suited to "Heavy Metal" music. It depends on the bands too, and i believe it has to do with the high crossover point. The Xover point is either 4.8 or 5khz. That "crunch" you get in a lot of metal music, or actually any guitar based music that uses distortion or overdrive pedals, is mostly in the 5khz range. Having the Midrange roll off there definitely has some impact on that, making metal sound a little less "crunchy" than most would like. This is not a problem however, with bands that tune their instruments lower. Like Tool, Slipknot, Korn, etc... those bands' music comes through wonderfully unscathed, with every bit of that crunch intact. Other than that little shortcoming, i couldnt ask for a better midrange. This midrange is also very very very detailed 9/10 for midrange.
Highs- Well, being that the highs are the highs of a HD tweeter, i dont think i should comment much on them here. See my HD review for that, lets just say that i really like these tweeters, most people feel that they lack detail, i dont feel that way. I just think they are too laid back for most, but perfect for me.
Imaging/Soundstage- I think these things image fuc-king great. I dont know what competition winning imaging is supposed to sound like, but in my car, vocals come from the center of the windshield, a little below eye level. On well recorded music, like Sheffield Drive, you can really place the different instruments with ease.. drums sound like they are further back from the vocalist and etc.. the soundstage is very open and wide, giving the impression that the listening area is much more spacious than it really is. Yet, at the same time, these speakers are also very personal sounding, and emotional.
Test Material- As usual, Alice in Chains- Unplugged is my benchmark. But now, i have another benchmark, Sheffield Drive. No words can describe how amazingly well this cd is recorded ( except maybe that last sentence ).[begin rant] And ill say this now, and undoubtably catch a lot of crap for it, I AM OVER HOTEL CALIFORNIA! Frankly, Hotel California is not recorded that well, the bassline is way over exagerrated, and not to mention, the song is goddamned played out, it will not even be played in my car for at least another year, and only when ive remastered it and toned down that stupidly loud opening bass note. Hotel California= the riced out car of audiophile recordings. All of you should replace Hotel California with Fleetwood Mac- Big Love-Live Acoustic[/end rant][begin flame war]
I always use track 10 on Unplugged as one of my test songs, that track is " Would". In this track, the bass guitar is the most important instrument. If it comes through sounding "dry", something is up with your system. On the Eurosports, it comes through as it should, warm and full, nearly full to the point that it seems enveloping, but still, you can tell that the focal point is dead center in the windshield.. absolute perfection. When the vocals come in, you can literally tell that the singer and bass player must be very close to each other, the soundstage presents them as if they are less than five feet apart while on stage. It is a very pleasant effect, i will have to buy the Unplugged DVD to see if this is accurate to the original recording.
Moving on to Sheffield Drive..tracks 5,10,13 are used...
Track 5 is a bluegrassy sounding track called " After Midnight". Since this is a live studio recording, you should be able to place the different instruments easily, if not, your system sucks . In Listening, the female vocalist has a very dry voice, which is typical in bluegrass singers. Her voice seemed to be slightly to the right of the central imaging point however, maybe some time correction will fix that. You can easily place the harmonica when it comes in halfway through the track.. this track would put a lesser speaker system to shame, but not the eurosports.
Track 10 is " Puttin on the Ritz". A very personal sounding track, simple in composition. Female vocalist, piano player, and i believe a drummer and stand up bass player. When the singer starts singing, i almost want to cry. It sounds like she is in the car with me, i briefly have a flashback of my mother holding me and singing me to sleep as a child..snap back to reality and realize i must have had an acid flashback, but still..i cant say it enough, these speakers, like all CDT's, excel greatly at vocals. When the piano comes in during the climax of the song, it sounds like the keys of the piano are stretched across my dashboard. I am not sure if this is how the music was intended to sound, but its a very cool and pleasing effect, and adds even more to the personal sound of the speakers.
Track 13, the Sheffield Drum Track...i saved this one for last because its the most impressive thing ive heard on these speakers left. The impression i get when i listen to it is that the main microphone for this recording is somewhere around the drummers lap. You can hear the different drums all over the place in front of you, with the big bass drum perfectly represented by the combination of the eurosports and my 10w7. This impresses me more than anything else, these speakers are flat out fantastic, the best ive ever owned, and the best ive ever heard in a car. There are parts of this track where you can literally tell the different elevations of the different drums.. every cymbal crasgh, every hit of the toms, every snap of the bass drum is so clearly reproduced you would swear you were in the listening room.. the first time i played this track, i literally thought i had found mobile audio nirvana.. the perfect combination of tuning and audio equipment...i dont believe that anymore, because if that were true there would be no need for cars like Audionutz civic to exist.
Final Thoughts
1. These speakers reproduce every little nuance of sound in the original recordings. They WILL show flaws in your recordings and make you not want to listen to your favorite cd's anymore. Every little stroke of fingers across the guitar strings is recorded, sometimes you can even hear the bands talking in the background, or even the noise from the piano reverb pedals being pressed and released.
2.These things are not for the faint of heart to install, so if you're a ***** dont bother trying. Also, if you arent going to install them right, dont bother trying.. as a matter of fact, if you plan to do that, ill be happy to sell you some cyanide.. put yourself out of my misery.
3. Vocals, these things excel in vocals... the vocal presence is very strong, maybe to strong for some people, but IMO it is never overpowering.
4. If you have the room to run 2 eurosport midbasses per side, you might actually not need to run a subwoofer.
5. These speakers weakness is definitely metal, they are still very good but they lack that crunch thats necessary for metal music to have its intended impact. At the same time however, they're great for all the metal that matters.. ( tool )
6. The only other weakness is a slight lack of authority in stand up basses, but that can be fixed with some more eq'ing im sure.
Well guys, thats it I hope you enjoyed this, and that you dont think its too wordy or anything...
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