33 replies to this topic

[sk456]

hi All,



As part of my split upgrade I was pondering over getting either Rainbow Vanadium 3 ways or the Dynaudio 342 3 way...



Can you guys give your valued opinions on which i shoudl go for?

I feel both have a similar sonic signature>>and are priced similarly>> althogh a tad over my budget



cheers.

[Surefire]

I'd go with whatever sounds best to your ears champ. Opinion on here will most likely be split to some degree and both sets of speakers are certainly high end do what they are designed to do very effectively, so you can't really go wrong with either purchase.

Personally I haven't heard anything in the Rainbow range but have heard the Dyn's. Having said that, such is Rainbow's reputation that I wouldn't buy the Dyn's without listening to Rainbow first.

[TEGBOY]

The last set of Rainbow's I heard = pure heaven. For a 2-way I have never heard midbass and midrange like it.

For those that have heard George (ICACHA's) Accord, will know what I am talking about.

I would take set of Rainbows over a set of Dyn's anyday.

I know Muzzy66 will give you the technical reasons as to why the Rainbows are so good. Mine is a simple and selfish one, they sound sweet to my ears and straight out of the box they are heaven.

[1point21gigawatts]

As far as I know you cannot listen to Rainbows in Australia, other than in someones car.
I run some dyns they are pretty laid back, but I feel they have much more potential than how they sound in my car atm, so installation is a big issue with them and all speakers for that fact.
Cant tell you much about rainbows though sorry bud. I know they have a desired sound to some and to others not so much, I assume its a warmer sounding speaker.

[Shreknos]

so you have room for midranges enclosures???

have you factored in price of install between the two speakers???

also, the rainbows have two crossovers where as the dyns have one, they sound similar, but it depends what range of rainbow you go for...

i think there a tad overrated


i wouldnt pass dyn for many speakers...

[trism]

ive only heard the rainbows without the 7"midbass driver, and they sounded fantastic. i beleive the midrange was HP at 80Hz, and it playd that low with all the authority of a 6.5" driver...

they sounded beautiful...

i havnt heard the dyns, so i cant give an opinion...

[Stooge007]

TEGBOY, on Apr 19 2007, 02:49 PM, said:

For those that have heard George (ICACHA's) Accord, will know what I am talking about.

yep, heard it, loved it.

couldn't agree more.

- Stooge007 out

[mad89]

TEGBOY, on Apr 19 2007, 02:49 PM, said:

For those that have heard George (ICACHA's) Accord, will know what I am talking about.

x2!

Stooge007, on Apr 19 2007, 05:23 PM, said:

yep, heard it, loved it.

couldn't agree more.

- Stooge007 out

x2!!!



sk; that white car that we listened to at round 1, with only the rainbow vanadium 4" and tweeters in the kick panels, will be partly finished by round 2 i believe. he has installed the monsterous midbasses into the doors, 'ghetto stylez' with chunks of MDF, just for round 2. so we can have a better/proper listen to get a better idea of how they should sound.

also, at round 2 there will be another car there running 3way rainbows (a lower/cheaper series) so u can compare the 2!

i was there wen sk auditioned some splits, and hes heard so far,
Boston Z6's
Dyn 240GT's
Hertz Mille MLK2
Rainbow Profi Vanadium 4" splits ( 3 way set minus the midbass)
(and i think a few others, but i cant remember them all)

however they were all 2 ways

hes after 3ways, but loved the sound of the rainbows, and im sure itll be awesome once the install is done.

anyways, thatll do

cheers

Edited by mad89, 19 April 2007 - 06:24 PM.

[808]

He listened to my dyns so that would be the 240gt's and the new sets are said to be better

Ive never heard rainbows so cant add much there but I dont think he will go wrong with any of those sets!

Edited by 808, 19 April 2007 - 06:14 PM.

[sk456]

mad89, on Apr 19 2007, 01:22 PM, said:

x2!



x2!!!



sk; that white car that we listened to at round 1, with only the rainbow vanadium 4" and tweeters in the kick panels, will be partly finished by round 2 i believe. he has installed the monsterous midbasses into the doors, 'ghetto stylez' with chunks of MDF, just for round 2. so we can have a better/proper listen to get a better idea of how they should sound.

also, at round 2 there will be another car there running 3way rainbows (a lower/cheaper series) so u can compare the 2!

i was there wen sk auditioned some splits, and hes heard so far,
Boston Z6's
Dyn 240GT's
Hertz Mille MLK2
Rainbow Profi Vanadium 4" splits ( 3 way set minus the midbass)
(and i think a few others, but i cant remember them all)

however they were all 2 ways

hes after 3ways, but loved the sound of the rainbows, and im sure itll be awesome once the install is done.

anyways, thatll do

cheers

yeah man the Rainbows even woithout the Mid basses were awesome.... although im curiuos how one will install such a monster midbass ..they were huge......

[1point21gigawatts]

Is there actually a place you can hear rainbows on a board in Aus? I knew people where running them but I thought there wasn't an Aus distributer? How do people get them?

[muzzy66]

I haven't been around audio for all that long, but I've heard my fair share of products ranging from entry level to ultra high end.

The list of products I've heard include Diamond (S600 HEX), Dynaudio (System 240GT), Focal Utopia (Be 3-way), Hertz (MLK2), Boston (Pro and Z6), Rainbow (Profi, Profi Vanadium and Power),Morel (Elate and Supremo) as well as many other somewhat less notable products.

I truly enjoyed most of these products - some more then others. The Utopia Be's impressed me with their outright detail and crispness, and the MLK's with there beatifull refinement.

But at the end of the day no products have left a lasting impression quite like the Rainbow's and Dyn's.

When I bought my Rainbow Power's, I (not long later) realised it would take a big bank account and a small miracle to get them into my car, and so was left with the need to get a set of temporary splits to last me a year or so until I could get the beasts in. My choice came down to the System 240 and Rainbow Profi's - and it proved to be the toughest decision i've ever had to make in audio.

In the end, I was so satisfied with how the Power's sounded (sitting in hi-fi enclosures in my house) that I decided to go with the two way Rainbow Profi (Phase Plug) set.

They sounded absolutely beautiful and I'd have to say that they are the closest to a "dyn" sound you will get from the Rainbow range. The Vanadiums sound very similar and very good also... they are slightly (very slightly) less refined overall in sound. but the metal dome tweets give them a tough more top end extension and detail. Overall I slightly prefered the Profi's. because to me they sounded slightly more natural.. but to be honest the two sets are so damn close that you'd need to know the both very well to pick the difference.

As a two way set, I'd say both Dyn's and Rainbows are damn impressive. You really CAN'T buy one or the other without hearing them both - and then after hearing them both it may just make the choice even harder. The Rainbow Phase Plug models will probably give a slightly better midrange then the Dyn's, whilte the Kick bass models seem to be the pick over the Dyn's for overall mid-bass attack. There is also a standard model in both Profi and Vanadium lines, which I'd say would probably be the closest to the Dyn's overall. Tough choice...

As a three-way set, the situation starts to change a little. The Rainbows use a 4" unsealed cone midrange, while the Dyn's use a (3" or 4", can't remember) sealed dome unit . The cone unit's need to rest in a properly sealed and dampened enclosure / chamber to work at their best and so they are a touch more complicated to install.

On the other hand when given the right attention, the Vanadium mids sound absolutely brilliant, and be genuinely surprised to see the Dynaudio dome match it's overall midrange performance. Power handling is another issue that will heavilly favour Rainbow's decision to use a cone based mid-range. As mentioned above, the 4" mids were low passed at 80hz for me at round one, and while they didn't put up a stunning mid-bass performance they did a far better job then they had any right to. Attempting that type of crossover point using a dome midrange unit would likely result in disaster very quickly.

So to conclude this essay... as a two way set, I would say this is one hell of a tough matchup. As a three way set, I'd personally go the Rainbow's.

That's just my personal opinion

1point21gigawatts, on Apr 19 2007, 11:21 PM, said:

Is there actually a place you can hear rainbows on a board in Aus? I knew people where running them but I thought there wasn't an Aus distributer? How do people get them?

Mobile Fidelity are the official Australian distributers for Rainbow, Sinfoni and Cerwin Vega at this stage

Precision Car Audio Engineering are currently the only official Rainbow dealer in NSW (to my knowledge) and they did have some Rainbow products running in their demo boardsThey have recently relocated, and I'm unsure of whether they yet have the demo board back up and running.

sk456, on Apr 19 2007, 10:58 PM, said:

yeah man the Rainbows even woithout the Mid basses were awesome.... although im curiuos how one will install such a monster midbass ..they were huge......

Solution: Three 16mm MDF spacers per side, and a big headache!

They are currently in the car in a 'temporary' form with only two spacers per side. That's 32mm worth of spacers on EACH door, and i still can't put the window down

I'm really surprised to hear how much people liked the car at round 1... the thing was badly out of wack.

Compared to now, It had a major lack of top end detail (tweets off axis), the image was off (thanks to varying axis of mids and tweets), the staging lacked depth and height, my speakers were out of phase, my time alignment was WAY off (tried to set it by ear) ... and then on top of it all I had no mid-bass detail.

Edited by muzzy66, 20 April 2007 - 04:16 PM.

[Shreknos]

how often does someone play thier 4 inch mids down to 80hz??

unless of course yourt rying to install an impossible big and deep midbass driver...





rainbow may sound ok, but they dont make it ewasy to install,

where as dyn i sall plug and play, shallow woofers, sealed mids, and good sized tweeters..


lets see you put m100's in the dash of most cars in appropriate sealed boxes???


now try the same with sealed dyns!!!




sound is broken up into the actual driver, and the installation, equakl parts...

rainbows sufferr heavily in regards to install, and dyns rock...



go dyn

[Stooge007]

muzzy66, on Apr 20 2007, 04:14 PM, said:

Precision Car Audio Engineering are currently the only official Rainbow dealer in NSW (to my knowledge) and they did have some Rainbow products running in their demo boardsThey have recently relocated, and I'm unsure of whether they yet have the demo board back up and running.

i was at the Precision workshop about 6 weeks ago, and the demo boards were in the shop, but weren't filled with speakers.

shouldn't be too long now though

- Stooge007 out

[Pulse-R]

listen to them.

simple.