DerrickM

I got the Diamond M661's the other day and put them in today! They sound great! I haven't spent but a few minutes listening to them, so I'll have more of an opinion tomorrow night.

The mids went in easily enough, although I had to make new spacers because my old ones didn't fit. I just used six 1.5" self-tapping sheetmetal screws.

The tweets were pretty easy too. I cut holes in the door panels in front of the door release levers.

The crossovers were a b**** though. There is simply no place in the doors for them, and there isn't anyplace outside of the doors either. I ended up taking them out of their fancy box and screwing them directly to the door metal underneath the speakers. I had to measure VERY carefully, as there was less than 1/16" clearance. I have pictures, but evidently don't have rights to post them here.

The big bummer right now is that my Sony XDP-210EQ has apparently just stopped working for no reason. Since that's my crossover network (in addition to the EQ) I have no sub.

More listening impressions tomorrow.

DerrickM

Okay, I decided to use a free photo hosting service to try to start posting pictures.

Don't hold it against me if this takes a few tries until it works...

DerrickM

cool it worked.

What you're looking at is the M661 mid mounted with a 3/4" plywood spacer, with the stripped-down crossover mounted below.

The white stuff is caulk to keep the screws from turning from vibrations.

Update on the xdp-210eq: if you remove constant power the POS resets itself and works again. Not sure what the problem is...

PS - you only see four wires because the tweeters aren't hooked up yet in this picture.

AcuraX2

Told ya you would love them. Post pics of the tweets when you can. I have mine mounted to the black sail panel. Sunds great but, looks kinda bad. Would love to see how yours turns out.

DerrickM

I decided to cut the door panel and flush mount them. It came out pretty good, but I wish they weren't so prominent. I considered flush mounting them underneath the speaker cloth, but that was too much work for a bad tweeter location. I need to get some matching cloth and cover the tweeters, but i'll probably never happen now that the doors are back together...

DerrickM

So now I have to decide what to do with the rear fill. For now I'm leaving the JBL coaxials, but at some point I'll need to get something better in there.

AcuraX2

That does look good. I have always been nervous about cutting into the door panel. What did you use to cut the hole?

DerrickM

Okay, they sound awesome! I've been driving around today trying to listen to different kinds of music. The biggest difference was listing to "full" metallic music, such as Bush--they can really sound clear with all that stuff going on at once. On vocal tracks sibilance was no more than originally recorded.

They're extremely bright, and even though I installed them with the tweeters set to -2dB, I still needed to turn it down even more with the EQ. I found them to not emphasize midbass as much as I would expect, but they reproduce it accurately after adjusting it up a bit with the EQ.

Car environment is a very tough place to create good sound. I think the tweeters pointing at the windshield is my personal choice.

I'm very pleased with the Diamonds.

DerrickM

AcuraX2 - Sorry. I used the tweeter to draw a circle on the inside, then cut the vinyl with an exacto knife. I peeled the vinyl off the plastic and then drilled big holes all around the edge. Clipped out what remained and then carved the edges smooth with a very sharp knife. (The Knack--it's a utility knife that holds 15 blades for 30 new blades each cartridge. A great tool, if you see it at Home Depot).

AcuraX2

Thanks for the tips. What I really want to do is flush mount them into the sail panel but, I do not think there is enough depth without cutting. I really like the look of yours though. Nice job.

DerrickM

Now that i've been listening to the new speakers for several days, I have more observations.

The cheaper rear speakers are affecting the sq. I've currently got those turned down. I'm planning to buy a second set of diamonds.

The treble is way too high for my tastes. I have the higher frequencies attenuated a lot, and they're still too powerful to be that close to my ears. I think I probably should have mounted the tweeters lower than I did. Problem with that is that the sounds doesn't go through people's legs.

I'm hoping by installing another pair in the rear, I can use the EQ to get more air between my ears and the higher frequencies.

I think not replacing the stock speaker wire is having a lessening effect on the speakers' bass output. I think I'm going to need to bit the bullet and pull new wire into the doors one of these days.

AcuraX2

I replaced the front door speaker wire but, I kinda cheated on the rears. I ran new wire from the factory harness at the head unit. For rear fill, I think it is not a problem.

One of the reasons I chose the sail panel was distance. The mid and the tweet are almost the same length from ear level. I think they sound great. I just do not love the look.

DerrickM

How hard was it to fish a wire through the rubber boot?

AcuraX2

Pain in the arse but, doable. I hate running wires like the plague but, it has to be done. I used a utility knife and slit the rubber boot going into the interior and removed the door boot and then slit it.

DerrickM

Great, I guess I have that to look forward to. I think I'll try to get away with just doing the rear doors when I replace those speakers. (As I keep saying, I'm not a fan of rear fill--I want most of the noise coming from further away).