Rainbow Audio [Archive] - Saxperience

Derbyshire80

28th April 2011, 09:40

right so ive destroyed my drivers side component (due to to much power running from the amp..) and been looking at getting a really god quality set of new components. i was looking for planet audio but they no longer do a 5.25" in components so the next step up from them is Rainbow Audio. was wondering if anyone has had dealing's with this make and if they are worth the money. i know they are on the pricey side (i.e £300 for speakers, fitting and set up) but the money isnt an issue :P

cheers ant

Ashleyp

28th April 2011, 14:21

Rainbow are amazing, ive run a set of SLC 230 kicks for the past 2 or more years.

some of the highest quality components around (below £1000 anyway)

i spend a lot of time around quality speakers, home / studio / car etc. and i always have been extremely impressed with the build quality and acoustical quality they provide.

they provide a very nice mid bass (dont expect any real lows) and the tweeters are as good as my KRK studio monitors.

a few pointers regarding them:

- make sure youre using the highest quality wire you can get hold of (why spent £200 on speakers and use £5 wire!)

- make sure your doors are sound deadened adequately (really tightens up the quality of the mids and enhances them throughout the cabin [saxo doors are also shite])

- run them off a good amp, they can take over 100wrms, but you wont need more than 80wrms to get a very very nice sound out of them. something like an old JLe2150 would be a very nice match if you can get hold of one. alternatively, an audison SR2 or a more modern JL XD200/2. the alpine PMX-t320 might also be a good purchase, i've never used an alpine amp so can't comment on their performance, but i've not heard a bad word about them.

dont be afraid to look at DLS speakers either, again another brand providing a very warm sound. they, like hertz sing happily off 60wrms and provide very nice tonal definition, the rainbows for me provide that same warm sound but they just sound a bit tighter and a bit more refined (of course, thats all depending on the model in question)

oh and something i forgot to mention. its really hard to blow a speaker through too much power, in fact; near impossible (unless running at least 3x the reccomended RMS). To blow the speakers you must have set them up wrong.
often its a case of the wrong filters set on the amp. ie, LPFs on for components is a big no no as it'll create a lot of subsonic frequencies (bass lines sub 20Hz) that components arent created to deal with.
another reason for speakers blowing up is incorect matching of impedances ie something as simple as running a 4ohm speaker through a 2ohm set up. (this is more so the case within subs where they have dual VC's)
The third and most common way of blowing speakers is having an incorectly scoped gain setting on the amp; people just assume gain means volume, whilst on a lot of home audio this is correct, in a car its a frequency signal matcher - for example; my headunit has a 7v output, and thus the gain on my amp is set to 7v. set it higher and it's a sure fire way to enhance the lovely smell of melting VC's.