A couple of months ago I decided to scrap my Infinity Kappa 60.5cs components and install the Image Dynamics CD1E-pro horns and 6.5" 4ohm mids up front. What a pain in the ass that was. I've got less than 1/8" clearence between the magnet and the door glass. The spacers I made are 1" thick which means I can't get the door panels to pop in the bottom front corners. After the pain of getting the mids to fit I turned the system on and found one of the mids had a defect. I'm waiting for it's replacement now. The mounting brackets for the horns were the most difficult part of the whole project to fabricate. There are hardly any solid mounting locations for the brackets. The ideal locations for the horns are up against the firewall and as far left and right as possible. Can't do that in the TL's. Too much stuff in the way. So they are mounted just under and flush with the dash. I've heard this setup in a Prelude and it was the nicest sound I've ever heard with the least number of speakers.

I'll tell you, with crude tuning and missing the right mid, it still sounds much nicer than the components I replaced. Also, there are no speakers in the rear doors. It's all up front. Imaging is a little off due to the missing mid but the horns dominate the mids right now so I can still hear better imaging than the Infinity's. It is sooo loud and doesn't breakup. The issues I have with this setup are; install is difficult, leg room suffers just a little, but most of all I'm begining to notice differences in how CD's are recorded. Good recordings, no matter what kind of music, sound great. If there is an imperfection in the recording or the levels are off this setup doesn't mask it. I bought the IASCA sound quality competition CD and the recordings they have on it are great. Now I'm on a quest to find similar recordins to showcase my system.

Currently, I have a Nakamichi CD45z head unit, Alpine RUX-4280 multi amp controler, 2 Alpine MRD-M500 amps running 2 JL Audio 12W6v2's (sealed), 1 soundstream 500.4VG amp, 1.2 farad cap, Image Dynamics CD1E-pro mini-horns with 1 pair of their 6.5" 4 ohm mids, and a whole bunch of wires.

Let me know if anyone has a similar setup so we can swap install issues and hopefully capture some ideas to improve things further.

 

i never cared for ID horns sound

 

Welcom to the world of horn-loaded speakers. I use a pair for my home system (Klipsch) and by nature of the horn design they are more sensitive than the wide firing dome speakers that were in there. A well designed horn speaker needs little more than 2 watts to reach 103db/1 meter.

Klipsch doesn't make a car speaker set up but I think there's a reason for that. Paul W. Klipsch once said about his horn loaded speakers "If it doesn't good, change the room not speaker design." (paraphrase)

Horns are VERY sensitive to their enviroment so there's no way to get a very accurate sound reproduction in a car unless you change the configuration of the interior.

Here's one of the other boards I go to:

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/default.asp

Yes, I like horn-loaded speakers but I don't think the car is the place for them.

 

exactly...not in cars

 

Weren't horns the thing in the umm 90's because of imaging, not sound quality? Why did you decide to install horns in your TL?

 

Treble horns in cars were very popular in the 70's (where I'm from). They have both imaging AND sound quality if there set up correctly. They are sensitive and very revealing to imperfections in the source recording and equipment short-comings. It takes very little power to drive a horn (that's my hand held megaphones exist).

If you have achance to listen to a nice horn set up with a tube amp, take them up on it. If doen correctly it's like the second coming of Christ.

 

I don't know everybody's background and direct experience with this setup, but my own experience with the horns is wonderful compared to the Bose that I had to replaced and the Infinity set that just didn't have the dynamic range that I was searching for. I'm sure all of you can appreciate a hobby. That's exactly what this is. I'm looking for experience and knowledge in the relm of car audio. I'm pretty sure there is a better setup than the one I'm working with. If I ever decide to compete I'll probably end up replacing more stuff. I've got to tell you though, I'm pretty happy with the equipment I have now.

What systems have you guys heard in our cars that just blew your mind?

 

mine....

 

Would you believe it was in a tow truck about 20 years ago??