Rainbow Platinums..OH MY GOD!

[Jonathan]

First off, this is a semi-review, I didn't feel it was good to do an official review because I don't own the set and this is based on a somewhat lengthy first impression. I hope the admins understand that, but if you think this should be in the review section, by all means feel free to move it. Anyway, I saw a guy sitting in a parking lot today listening to music, and noticed a Rainbow decal on the back of his car, as I talked to him I found out he had the Rainbow Platinums :thumbsup. I asked if I could listen because I was down to those and the Dynaudio 240 Esotar set, and since he was waiting on his girlfriend anyway he was really cool about it and let me listen to them for about 30 mins. :) Just glad to meet someone that knows how rare Rainbows are, especially the upper eschelon of their components. I put in a couple of the discs I use for SQ purposes, Tori Amos Little Earthquakes, Eric Clapton Unplugged, Eagles Hell Freezes Over, and Pink Floyd DSOTM.

Anyway, of course the first thing you notice about this set is the aesthetics. It is a beautiful set, albeit a little flashy, but nonetheless some people do like their speakers to look good. I really don't care as I'm after SQ, but I don't consider aesthetics a negative quality. Didn't get to see the overall speaker for it's construction, but having seen the Profis, Profi Vanadiums, I am sure that these better in build quality, of course they are much more expensive.


Tweeter:
VERY smooth and transparent, pleasing to the ear on all the reference material I used and was never sharp, aggressive, or abrasive, even at high volumes, while integrating very well with the woofer. Clarity and definition were top notch, as good as or better than any car tweeter I've heard, metal or soft dome. Overall it had a very sweet sound and added a lot of ambience to the system, while still containing the ability to disappear.

Midbass:
Very revealing of nuances in the material and very musical throughout. Tonality was warm, but didn't sound hollow, resonant, or fuzzy in any range. Clarity overall was excellent, no information was missed and everything was detailed without being aggressive. Upper midrange performance was stellar, without a sign of tinny sound or breakup, just a smooth transition with the tweeter. Midbass is very, very good, packs a lot of power and is still very accurate, clear, and not overly aggressive.

Crossover:
Didn't get to go into detail looking at the crossovers internals, but as far as sound quality, it integrated the drivers together very well. The higher order does give very good off axis performance, and there wasn't any hint of ringing or harshness at certain frequencies.

I have to say it was one of the most pleasing and non fatiguing music experiences (in a car) I've had, Dynaudios are up in the same category and I love Dynaudios components, they differ in tonality mainly. I am definately saving for a set of the Platinums in the future once ends meet. Fantastic components, and compared to the Focal Utopias I had before, these spank them in every possible way for my preferences. I can't really state a single flaw in the sound, but again this was an initial impression and not a long term listening experience. I guess you could complain about the set being a bit pricy, but for the sound I'll pay every penny once I get the chance.

[Justin from Detroit]

Now listen to a 3-way Rainbow component set and hear something even better.

[nist7]

I would imagine that he also had quality head unit, amplifier, and install.

So what powered those platinums?

And how were the midrange and tweets setup? Both in kick panel enclosures? Woofer in door with tweeter in pillar?

What subs, if any, that complimented his system?

In any event, the Platinums are definitely one of my dream comps. They are the top of the line stuff from Rainbow right? Or am I crazy thinking that they got something better?

[Ryan from Ohio]

They have the refference line.

But who has $10K to throw out at them?

[nist7]

They have the refference line.

But who has $10K to throw out at them?

:surprised

Multi-million dollar lottery winners?

[Jonathan]

The Platinums don't come in 3 ways, doesn't really bother me, a good set of 2 ways can do just as well. I do love my System 360, though :). Anyway, head unit was an Alpine 9835, said he planned to upgrade to something nicer (didn't clarify). Had a Kicker KX400.2 amp powering the comps and he plans to upgrade to Arc, US, or Zapco one of these days. Doesn't have subs now, he sold his previous system to get the cash for the Platinums. Everything isn't complete, but I respect the fact that he's taking his time to plan out the system instead of rushing to get everything finished. The mids were installed in door, car was a 02 Grand Prix. Tweets were flush mounted right above them. Imaging wasn't dead on, but really good for factory spots and could improve with kicks or custom door I'm sure. Justin, I saw you used the Vanadium subs from Rainbow, what subs would you compare them to? That's the one thing I haven't heard from Rainbow, their subs.

[Justin from Detroit]

With component systems, the ideal way to have them is all speakers within 6" of each other. The Vanadium's are nice subs. The sound quality on them is excellent, very accurate. They get decently loud, but nothing that'll hurt your ears. Nothing I can really compare them to, honestly. I've never heard a sub more accurate then these.

[Jonathan]

Awesome, I'll have to try to hear them one of these days. The tweets on that install were directly above the mids, I'd say roughly 2" above top of the mid. Didn't use the stock tweeter spots on that car, and I can't blame him. I especially wouldn't do it with the Rainbows since it has a x-over frequency of 2.2 khz, usually you can't get away with tweets up in pillars until you start crossing over around 6khz.

[William from NOLA]

I've always preferred to have the sound in front of me so to speak. I placed my tweeters in the sail panels and kept the woofers in the stock location. I really like the "raised" feeling.

[Jonathan]

There's nothing wrong with using the sail panels, you'll see that the majority of competitors are using 2 way component systems, be they conventional 2 ways or a midbass and horn setup. The conventional setups will typically have the mid in kicks and the primary tweeters in A-pillars, but you usually see them crossing the system over around 5-6khz since it is getting out of the crucial vocal region and more into presence range, and doesn't affect the vocal tonality as much. Female vocals and piano are very quick to give away any phase differences between drivers, I typically use them as a reference for setting up components for that reason.

[GlassWolf]

well said.

my old car had a 5" mid and two Peerless soft domes in each door. the mid was 50Hz-5KHz. soft domes were 5KHz-15KHz. I had 4 hard domes (Orion) in the dash just below the windshield aimed toward driver/passenger, set at 15KHz up. Mostly to cover things like symbols and such.. nothing else really in that range so it gave a nice dispersed effect for instruments without throwing off the vocals, which were all contained by the door speakers which were clustered together.
subs handled everything from ~60Hz down.
worked out well.

thanks for giving the details on the guy's car and the rest of his system.
I was about to ask the same things when I saw the initial post, but someone beat me to it.

With my system 360 right now I'm still pondering if I want to fiberglass pods for the lower front portion of each door, or if I want to make whole new door panels for the car to house the speakers and hold the controls for the power windows, locks, etc.
If I go with whole new panels, even though it's a lot more work, I can pack up the factory door panels and leave them untouched if I want to restore the car to stock later.
tough decisions.