There are a lot of people who’ve never liked a/d/s/. That’s not a bad thing, that’s not a good thing. That’s a personal preference thing. Most found their $600 price tag unreasonable. The ones who paid the money (lonely guys without girlfriends) did so because they were looking for a smooth sound. They could get “bright” elsewhere, but nobody did smooth quite like a/d/s/. These are the customers who haven’t liked anything a/d/s/ has put out since the 325is. The 335/6is was released after the 325is and that’s when the drop in sound quality, in the opinion of these audiophile freaks, happened. With the 336is model, a/d/s/ made their speakers easier to install by shrinking the tweeter. They also changed the mid-bass to that stifflite II (blue) material. The tweeters got brighter, (which appealed to a wider market) and the grills were changed for better off axis response, but that doesn’t mean they were better speakers overall. These changes resulted in a loss of smoothness between the drivers. In other words, I agree with you; a/d/s/ 3 series haven’t changed much since the 336is. They’ve all been brighter, but they haven’t sounded as good. As far as a magazine putting the 336is ahead of Focal and a handful of other expensive-as-hell speakers, I don’t know. I’ve always been suspicious of publications that rank items on one page, and then run ads for those same products on another. Magazines awarding points based on their own arbitrary criteria can hardly be called car audio gospel. Sounds more like politics than quality picks.
“I would love to hear the Bostons to compare. My guess is that (there) won’t be much of a difference in sound.”
-Steven Kephart
Again, I agree with you. If the Kodas sound as good as you say they do, (and I’m sure they do) there won’t be much of a difference in sound, (hence my law of diminishing returns remark). Years ago, the Boston Rallys sounded 9/10s as good as the 325is. But to get that extra 1/10 you had to spend an extra $300. That’s time and a half what the Rallys were going for.
“What’s funny is that I feel that a real good change to those speakers would be to have a slightly brighter tweeter. They are very good sounding, but need a slight boost up very high.”
-Steven Kephart
That says it all. Your personal taste is different from that of these audiophile geeks. Again, that’s not a bad thing, that ‘s not a good thing. That’s a we-need-to-get-a-life-and-stop-discussing-this thing.
Oh, and as far as all the buy-out confusion, an a/d/s/ dealer who’s been in business since the early '80s says Orion bought out a/d/s/. A guy from DEI says that a/d/s bought out Orion. I’m guessing that the DEI guy and Steven Kephart are correct.
“Diamond Audio. I have a set of the 6 1/2 in components. got 'em for 200 on ebay. save your 800 bucks and go with something like this”
-laxman5399
I’m guessing you’re talking about the M661. I’ve heard them and they’re great. Pretty smooth and very detailed. I don’t think they sound as good as the Z6s though. Even at a low volume the Bostons are screaming detail.
Still, I’ll have to win the lottery, (you know that tax on folks who are bad at math) before I even consider buying the Z6s. I don’t actually own nor do I planning on buying, any of the products being discussed on this message thread. I’ll probably never be in the market for such extravagance. The people who are in the market for such extravagance aren’t looking for deals. If you’re quoting prices that means you’re grounded, you’re reasonable, and that you have a life and a sense of perspective on what things should cost, but it also means that you’ve missed the point of the Z6s. Look at the price on the Boston Acoustic site. It reads, $1000.00 for either the Z5 or the Z6. They could’ve put $999.95. But they figured, “what the heck. If you’re going to be swayed by price points, you’re not going to drop a grand on a coaxial. We want the crazies who are only interested in the product, not the deal.”
