I didn't have those specific Rainbows. I had cheaper Rainbow woofers plus Seas Neo tweeters that I crossed over with my JL Audio amp.

I'm not going to really comment on the Rainbow vs. Focal vs. CDT. I think Rainbow is great. CDT is still good. Will you be happy with the CDT? Maybe. But it's a fact that the Rainbow, with the 8mm of Xmax, will have much higher output capabilities.

 

Make sure to to use the Luxury Liner Pro inside the doors since it uses closed cell foam. The regular Luxury Liner uses open cell foam which will retain water, so unless you doors are water tight use the Pro.
Great stuff!

 

Oh, forgot to talk about the LL... you don't have to use it at all if you don't want. Just use mat on anything that buzzes. The foam just cuts down on road noise. I liked it. I probably added 100+ pounds overall though.

 

If weight is a concern OverKill Pro works really good too(OKP .39 lbs.sq.ft.).

 

The model number for what I have is Rainbow Platinum CS275.28. The 275 is the mid and the 28 is the tweet. This set retails for anywhere between $1500 to $2000 for just the components, no crossovers. To include the crossovers would be over $3000. Like I said, I got mine for a ridiculous price! I actually won the auction for $255 and with shipping came to $285 I could not pass that up.

The Pioneers that I have are worth a look as well. They are the TS720PRS components. They used to retail around $500 but you can get them on feebay or some of the other sites for around $250-$300. I got mine for $180 used. These were the best speakers I personally have used until I got the Rainbows. I certainly would run them again which is why I probably won't sell them and maybe use them in my second car when I get my cam and other parts installed.

Hey Dragon, what speakers you running now?

 

Wow, didn't think anyone had speakers like that on this board. Anyway, I got a PM asking some more about the speakers, and I figure some of you guys might like the info as well, so I am going to paste my response here as well.

I never tried just one layer of LL, so I don't know how 1 layer would be compared to the 2 I used. The only things I tried were 2 layers of Ensolite (1/8" each) and 2 layers of LL. Both configurations also had almost 100% coverage of RAAMMat as well (1 layer). LL is thicker to begin with so of course it's much better than Ensolite. (At the same thickness, I'd imagine LL would still be better - but heavier). All I can say about that is if you're happy with 1, then stick with that. If not, I'd probably actually use Overkill [Pro] rather than more LL.

By the way, I DO NOT recommend doing what I did with the RAAMMat. It does not notably help with road noise and it's very heavy. Save yourself some money and weight and only use it where you get a resonance. In addition to hearing any buzzes, if you take your carpet out, you can use your hand or whatever instrument to knock on the car in various places. It should be a short, dull sound. Anything other than that should have mat applied.

I actually have very little experience with Diamond speakers. I've heard good things. I can recommend several speakers with way more output capability for sure, but not many fit in our doors. I'm always recommending the specific Rainbows that I do to people because they have a reverse magnet configuration and are very shallow. But I have some cheaper Rainbows, I think the CMX, and the woofers are still nice with 6mm of Xmax.

Almost any 6.5" component set on the market has an Xmax of 2-3mm, including CDT. (Their 12mm 6.5"s you see are "subwoofers" so can't be compared)

To get good bass, you need both good Xmax and good thermal power handling. The thermal power handling is only an issue with really cheap speakers, with small speakers, and with powerful subwoofers. So 6.5"s are pretty much dependent on Xmax only. Depending on what woofer you use, it may not have high bass response by itself, so equalizers are sometimes necessary. But if the driver has the output capability then the potential for good bass is there.

 

educate yourself. These speakers are capable of some amazing things at a reasonable price. From personal experience the build quality is second to none. The crossover has 4 different attenuation settings. I probably wouldn't suggest these to anyone not running an amplifier but if you already have an amp with the power they require I wouldn't hesitate to give them a run at all. One of the best "out of the box" component sets I have used for sure. The first link will give you some really good information. Look for the yellow highlighted paragraph if you want a very brief summary.
http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/sr6500_eprint.pdf
http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/sr/index.php?s=sr6500
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-MWZzcEj...iclegroupid=80
http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/pr...500/?reviews=1

Make sure and keep us posted with whatever you end up going with.