MB Quart PSD216

Price Paid:  $12000.00 from San Francisco

Year / Model Reviewed:
1997 Lincoln Mark 8

Strengths:
Nice imaging. When tuned to hell and back they sound nice above 125Hz.

Weaknesses:
Lack of Midbass and diffuculty melting into the sub. They exibited a pronounced thud (terrible sound) with a hard bass drum kick.

Summary:
Pretty nice above 125Hz. Below 125Hz is in my opinion pretty weak (midbass leaves a lot to be desired). I even tried Bi-Amping with a JL 300. to no avail. There was a improvement tho.

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer, JL, Diamond, Kenwood, Sony ect...

Price Paid:  $300.00 from SENOR STEREO FLORIDA

Year / Model Reviewed:
2002 MB QUART PSD 216

Strengths:
Excellent imaging Excellent tonal accuracy Adjustable tweeter level settings

Weaknesses:
No swivel mount for tweeters.

Summary:
I was using Infinity Kappas before changing to the MB Quarts. The Infinitys were great sounding speakers but when I made the change, the difference was like night and day. My music virtually came alive and this was only after proper tuning. I was running two channels of a 4 channel Jbl LCA504 to the Quarts at 50 watts apiece. However I decided to do away with rear fill and bridged the amp which sent 100 watts per channel. I must say that the transition was awesome. I heard detail in my music that I never heard before. This is not to say that they weren't great before, but just that it appeared that the more power these puppies get the better they sound. I entered an Iasca competition having installed them the same morning as the competition. It was a foolish thing to do because the speakers hadn't been broken in as yet. I came 5th among the novices. I entered a second Iasca competition in the Street Smart 601+ category. This time I placed 3rd. I was very happy. Another competition is coming up and I will be entering once again. I have since moved the tweeter level from the -6 position to the -2 position. I found that in the previous position the music was too laid back. The present position has improved my imaging and raised my sound stage. I am looking to purchase another set of MB Quart tweeters to put in the A pillars to raise it even more. I can say only good things about these speakers. I really would love to purchase the Q series but the prices are putting me off. The only complaint I have involves the tweeter mountings. There should be a swivel mount a la Infinity so that the tweeter could be angled better. However these tweeters were designed to produce sound in a 360 degree field so the angle is not that important. I have never heard speakers from other manufactuers such as CDT, Focal or DLS. I know these are top manufactuers but to be honest, I think that if I were to change from Mb Quarts I would regret it. I am simply sticking with what I have until I HEAR something better. At first

Similar Products Used:
Infinity Kappa 5 and a quarter two way components.

Price Paid:  $400.00 from Discount Auto Sound

Year / Model Reviewed:
1993 Nissan Altima

Strengths:
Excellent tweeters Great midrange good for jazz, classical, and acoustical types of music

Weaknesses:
tweeters can be a little too bright poor midbass music sounds grainy at times rock music (alternative and heavey metal) doesn't sound as good with these speakers

Summary:
I went to another car audio store in our area - called The Sound Shop - and compared these speakers up against the MB Quart QSD 216 components and the JL Audio XR 650-CSi components. All three sounded great but the best sounding was without a doubt the MB Quart QSD series -WOW! However, all three sounded very comparable and considering how EXPENSIVE the QSD series is, I just didn't think it was worth it to spend the extra $$$. I was very impressed with the PSD 216's in the store and actually bought them at another audio store for $400. That was mistake number one. If I had to do it over, I would buy them on Ebay. I've seen them all over Ebay for $199. The extra $200 could have gone towards a nice JL amp! Mistake number two was thinking that they would sound as good in my car as they did in the store! in the store, they are in an enclosure (which helps tremendously) but in your car, they're just dropped down into the door. Overall,I've been fairly happy with them, but I emphasize fairly. In my opinion, they have poor mid bass - almost nonexistent. I took it back to the store where I bought them and had them installed and they tinkered with the settings (so did other shops) but honestly, it's never sounded satisfactory to me. I added a JL sub (10 W3v2)and that helped give me some (low end)bass, but I'm still missing that needed midbass. I am not running an external amp at this time and several audio people tell me that's the problem. They're probably right, and if so, I will post another review - a follow-up - to this one and let you know how things turned out. I've had several people tell me that I needed to Dynamat the doors, so I bought a ton of that stuff (Dynamat Etreme)and am getting ready to do the doors this week. Hopefully it will make a difference. Also, I'm getting ready to (hopefully) buy a JL 300/2 and hoping that will help bring them to life. Eventually, I plan to move these speakers to the back of my car and in the PSD's place, put a pair of JL Audio XR 650-CSi (or the three -way) (I've heard that they have much better midbass) or possibly the MB Quart QSD series with the midbass kit.

Price Paid:  $215.00 from Internet Site

Year / Model Reviewed:
 2002 MB Quart PSD 216

Strengths:
Great sound quality.

Weaknesses:
Very bright tweets unless you bi-amp. Plan your system carefully before you invest in these. They're still great speakers, but you have to incorporate them into a complete system to take full advantage of their potential.

Summary:
I've always been a fan of MB Quart. Their Q series line is phenomenal. This is my first experience with their Premium line. I'm not sure how I feel about them so far. I replaced my front mids and tweeters in a 98' Infiniti QX4 which had a premium BOSE sytem which sounded pretty good. With the MBs my midbass is completely gone (I could feel my stock system bass pound if my arm was on the armrest) and the tweeters are VERY bright. So be carefully how you put your system together. The quality from the MB is fantastic. I can blast my system with no distortion whatsoever. But no midbass. You also have to make sure you set your tweeter attenuaters to -6db or they will blind you. In addition to this, I've found that the only way to bring up the midbass is to bi-amp the system, so that I can control the gain on the tweeters separately from the midbass. This obviously means investing quite a bit more money than I already have. Anyhow, if anyone has any specific questions beyond this, feel free to e-mail me. My system is composed of: Sony MEX1-HD (45x4) which run only my rears (Kicker 6rc midranges). My PSD216 comps are run by a Phoenix Gold TI500.4 (75x4) with the two rear channels bridged to run a single stealth JL 10W6v2 sub (sounds awesome) and the front 2 channels running the components. I'm thinking about bi-amping the fronts, and possibly adding some Kicker 8MBs to bring up the midbass in my front stage. We'll see...