Stereo Integrity TM65 MkII drivers...
 

As I'm slowly building my SQ system, I'm pondering these Stereo Integrity TM65 MkII 6.5" drivers for my doors, and possibly upgrading my Memphis 2.75" dash drivers to the Stereo Integrity 1" XBL^2 tweeters.

So tell me about these mid-bass drivers. Anyone use them or heard them?

Years back, I had their 12" sub and that thing sounded excellent powered by a JL Slash amp in a small sealed enclosure.

Looking forward to your thoughts! Many thanks in advance!

Currently installed in my car.
I used his version 1, which were great, and pre-ordered the version 2, even better...
I listened to the v2's, and ordered a second set, just to have on the shelf for a rainy day.
I also use the 1" tweeters, and the MK4 Sub.
The v2's are excellent, and sound better than most that cost 5 times as much.
Any product that Nick puts out for Car Audio I will buy in a heartbeat. They are Just that good.
Check the thread at DIYMA for may other opinions. 99% match mine

I look forward to your FS thread on the Memphis' ;)

Just to update you, I bought a brand new pair of MkII's along with the matching tweeters from a member over on DIYMA. Really cool guy. He has an amp I might be buying as well. It's a barely used Arc XDi 1200.6.

And here I told myself a few weeks back I was "only" going to upgrade the head unit to get BT streaming... :facepalm:


LOL! I bet you do. You'll have first dibs on it! ;)

You will be pleased with both sets, I promise you.

I know I will be. They're excellent speakers from what I've read so far.

Also, I bought that Arc amp last night as well as Zenclosure spacers for the doors.

I guess this system isn't coming along too slowly, huh?... LOL

BTW, do you have any pics of your current setup? Just curious.

Nice! I see what you did there with the "Z" emblem. A good cover up. :tup:

How's that sub?

Lol. good eye... yeah, the emblems were cheaper than new door panels.
The Sub kicks *** from a SQ standpoint. Blends effortlessly with front stage, plays low, strong, and accurate.
Not for the SPL guys, though. The neighbors wont hear you 6 blocks away, but it gets the job done.

Where did he get these pods?

I'm in the market for a component set, have my heart set on those hertz for $400..

looks like a custom 1-off to me.

Indeed they are.
For some reason, im having trouble uploading pics of the tweeter pod build here. Ill add a few to my album...

I actually really like the sound stage and imaging I get with the dash speaker locations, so that's where I've be mounting the SI tweeters, and crossing those suckers over low at 1.6 kHz.

I have 2" Midranges in the dash locations, so the tweeter location was narrowed down to the sails...

Look what showed up today! And I'll be installing them tomorrow. :happydance:

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...70085009-5.jpg

Awwwww Yeah !

Never did get around to installing the speakers today, but did install one sheet each of HushMat on the door panels. Oh, and the amp showed up today. It looks nearly new!

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...71207818-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...71207810-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...71207811-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...71207815-5.jpg

And that's a piece of fuzz on the top left of the image, not a scratch.
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...71207994-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...71208000-5.jpg

Looks good. You may want to consider a higher x over point than 1.6k..... The tm65v2's are very capable of playing up well into the 2-2.5k range. Let the bigger cones handle the bigger part of your upper midrange. and your tweeters will love you for it.

My thing is, I want to keep my sound stage up high, which means more upper midrange and vocals up on the dash. That's why I like those Memphis drivers so much, because they allow me to do that, crossing over at 1.25 kHz.

I would probably have the M25's crossed at 2 kHz, which is still lower than most other tweeters out there. I tried the Memphis drivers at 2 kHz today for the heck of it, and it didn't sound too bad, although levels and EQ and TA would have to be tweaked for the new crossover points. I didn't bother but at least now know that it's doable.

I may be in the minority here,but I had the TM65 MKII in my car for a week and did not like them compared to my Hertz ml 1600 and ended up putting the Hertz back in.The TM65 did go a little deeper,but the Hertz had more slam,but the determining factor for me was the fact the Hertz just sounded more musical.

Not at all. Everyone's hearing and tastes are different. Since I've never heard Hertz speakers before, nor the particular model mentioned, I won't know if they sound better to me or not compared to the Stereo Integrity drivers.

All I know is that with the new head unit and all of the sound dampening done to the doors, the stock door speakers are performing amazingly well along with the little cheapie Memphis dash speakers. Treble is airy and smooth, midrange is crisp and dynamic, mid-bass is tight, punchy and detailed.

If I'm really enjoying what I'm getting now with around 15 watts of decent power and stock drivers in the doors and $40 drivers in the dash, then things are really going to improve drastically when I get those SI drivers in the doors and dash powered by 150 extremely clean and powerful watts.

In the end, no matter what you get, there's always going to be something else better out there. I'm not too worried about that. ;)


BTW, do you have a build thread anywhere of your system? Just curious.

I agree with you on all points,there is a lot of people out there that love the TM65,and I am very much in the minority.Don't have a build thread,but I have the doors dynomated on the outside and inside door skins,as well as some in the back area.Most of my audio stuff is in my signature.Sometimes I wished I never started with my system as its been about a year of fiddling around with some frustration,but I do finally have it at a point where I can honestly say I'm good,no more:)

Lookin good man. I'm very curious to see how the sound deadening you did works out when you put in the SI drivers and more power. I've been looking a lot into how much we really need to sound deaden to get rid of rattles. Did you by chance put any foam on the plastic panels where it meets the door?

everyone hears things differently, and at the end of the day, its only your ears that matter.
The ML1600 are some kick *** speakers as well.

Thanks!

I'm curious as well. The dampening I did on the doors and door panels made a very noticeable improvement, and that's just with the stock drivers. Of course, stepping up to much better, stronger drivers and stepping up from 15 watts to 150 watts, I'm certain things are probably going to start vibrating and making noise.

And to answer your last question, no I haven't added any foam. Thinking about it though, I just might have to. But again, this system isn't being built for "loud". It's being built for SQ. At most, I'll probably be running a couple of 8" subs under a false floor.

From my experience it's always a never ending battle, but the stock "system" I think does more hearing damage than anything else. I don't even bother with music on it, just some podcasts, as every other genre' = a painfully awful listening experience unless you're just sitting in your driveway.

Seems like a dedicated DSP may be a good investment for a car if you're really into it. I know having home studio speakers, it's really nice to have a flat fq response so there's more consistency from one type of music/song to the next. $$$.... Don't get into photography, it's the same never ending battle.

Random question: Is it better to apply the sound deadening to the door panel and outer door skin and to skip the inner door skin? Just want to avoid having to remove some to get the door panel seated back on properly. I have that GTMAT quadro, which is a lot lighter weight than I anticipated, but it may be enough to actually make a difference... or should I just buy a bag of concrete mix and fill the doors?

In my opinion the outer door skin is more important,it's amazing how different the door sounds when u tap your knuckles outside the door when finished.U have to take the door panel off either way,may as well do both,probably pulled my door panels off 10-15 times,takes 2 min.

Pulling the door panel off and putting dampening on it and the door is the easy part. But getting access to the outer door skin, not so much.

From what I gather, you can't simply remove the access panel. You have to remove the window, and then the window regulator which is attached to the other side of the access panel. A lot more involved than I care to attempt on my own.

I wish the access panel was removable on its own. If it was, I would have lined the outer skin weeks ago!

If u remove the speaker u can reach your arm in there and get the job done,not easy but doable.

:iagree:
even if you don't want to go through the task of removing the panel, ( and window does not have to be removed, by the way) reaching through the speaker opening and reaching what you can is far better than none at all.
you don't need 100% coverage for it to be effective.

You guys must be made out of rubber or something. I couldn't even get my hands past the window track. I can only reach that tiny area right above the speaker opening, just below the mirror.

Nope,just have to not only pull the speaker,but also that plastic frame that supports it.That gives you a fairly large opening to work with,I weigh 240lbs,not exactly a flyweight and could get my arm in there.

I did remove the entire speaker baffle, not just the driver. Then again, the skies were about to drop on my head, so I was in a hurry to get everything buttoned back up. It doesn't matter right now since I am out of dampening material. I'm sure I'll dig into it again soon enough.

Speaking of digging into things, here's a couple of "guts" shots of the Arc 1200.6 amp. It's amazing how small this little guy really is, especially considering the amount of power it produces. Not only is it built like a tank, it also uses quality Alps potentiometers throughout.

I can't wait to get this gear up and running!

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...75786849-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...75786848-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...75786924-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...75786977-5.jpg


Roku remote for size reference...
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...75786990-5.jpg

Amplifier porn!!!

Just for the hell of it, I ran the RTA on my system as it sits, nothing more than the Pioneer head unit, Memphis 2.75" dash speakers and bone stock base 6.5" door speakers.

I used my Dell laptop running Room EQ Wizard (REW) into the head unit via the new AUX input I installed in the dash cubby with an AudioQuest 1/8" cable, and the miniDSP UMIK-1 mic.

This isn't a perfect session as it's about 210*F outside as well as nosy neighbors wondering around (stinkin' apartment complex). So I had the engine running, AC running and me sitting in the passenger seat. I tried keeping my legs and laptop out of the way of the passenger door speaker as much as possible. This means I was sitting Indian style in the seat (which was a bit uncomfortable) and the laptop folded in half on my stomach.

To overcome ambient noise of the engine and AC running, I ran the pink noise up around 90 dB. With the pink noise playing, I really couldn't hear the engine and definitely not the AC as I had it running on its lowest setting. Though from the looks of the measurements, the mic was still picking up engine/exhaust noise, so just ignore the measurements from about 50 Hz down.

It's quite obvious in the graphs that I'm getting a fairly decent suck-out between 3 kHz and 6 kHz.

Other than that, it sounds amazingly good! Doing nothing else other than tweaking the EQ for a little flatter response, it made a huge improvement! I'm very impressed in the sound stage, imaging and width as well as the overall sound, all of which improved with the tweaking.

I know this sounds crazy, but I hope the Stereo Integrity setup sounds as good, only because I love all of the mids and vocals up on the dash.

Anyway, a few pics...
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...77011546-5.jpg

The red line shows the initial curve before tweaking...
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...77004727-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...77004728-5.jpg

And what the EQ looks like...
http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...77011547-5.jpg

not too shabby........

Spent the day over in Clearwater today getting the amp and speakers installed. No pics of the install yet. Maybe if I have time this weekend after work, I'll pop the dash grills off as well as the rear carpet to show the tweeters and amp. They made custom mounts out of 1/4" ABS for all speakers and the amp.

With that said, there will be a video on their site in a few days or so. Maybe tomorrow, I don't know.

Dean (the main installer) had never heard of Stereo Integrity before and thought I was nuts when I told him I wanted the tweeters crossed over at 2 kHz. After everything was installed and they dialed in the levels, he was quite surprised at the sound, especially with those tweeters being crossed over that low.

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...82614081-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/v...82614079-5.jpg

anxious to hear your thoughts on the SI's

Looks like you are in my neck of the woods... I'll have to check out this setup sometime!

When Dean (the main installer) set up the amp, he set the built-in crossovers to 2 kHz for both the mid and tweeter as I requested, and IIRC, 40 Hz for the low end. This is perfectly fine and it works flawlessly! The head unit is still in Network Mode, so I still have crossover control in that as well, which I'll get to in a moment.

So far, I'm loving them. I've played a variety of music through them and they do a great job. I'm still running the EQ flat, though I have been noticing a bit of "chestiness" to vocals.

So to help tune that out some without resorting to the EQ, I adjusted the crossover in the head unit. Since the tweeter crossover can not bypassed in the head unit, Dean had it set at 2 kHz @ 6 dB, but had the mid bypassed both on top and bottom. I left the bottom end alone, but activated the crossover on the top end (bandpass) and set it to 2 kHz just as in the amp, and started increasing the slope to see if I could work out that chestiness. I ultimately ended up on the 24 dB slope. At 18 dB it sounded just as good, but you could definitely hear a phase shift there, hence why I went to 24 dB.

I have no clue what the crossover slope is in the Arc XDi amp, but I'm guessing probably 12 dB. So if that's the case, then theoretically I should be running at a 36 dB slope at 2 kHz on the mid, and 18 dB on the tweeter.

Doing this and running both crossovers in unison, I have removed nearly all of that chestiness in the sound. All of that without ever touching the EQ, which is the way it should be done. The less manipulation you do to the signal, the better. I always prefer using EQ as a last resort, using as little as possible, and almost always using it by subtracting, not boosting. However, sometimes you have no choice but to boost a little.

So back to your question, yes, I'm loving the SI's so far. Keep in mind they are brand new, and only have a few hours on them at medium volume, so they have a ways to go before they fully break in and I can really evaluate them. But things are sounding promising already.

There's a couple songs that I did play pretty loud, and the funny thing is, they sounded even better! Not only that, I am also pleased to say that from what I could hear, or rather not hear, there are no rattles or buzzes in the doors! Nice snappy bass, great attack in the mid-bass, vocals crisp and clear, treble silky and clean. Of course, having plenty of clean power to back them up helps! :tup: