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Bravox CS60CF Review

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Introduction

http://www.soundsolu...Components.html

http://bravoxaudio.com/

Bravox is a newer name to SSA, being recently just added to the store a few months back, so some of you may be relatively unfamiliar with the brand. According to the website, Bravox is a Brazilian company that was founded in 1953. From everything I could find they perform the full range of services in house, from engineering and design to driver construction. In this day and age of same-product different-name electronics, it's nice to see a company that still completely designs and produces their own unique products.

A few weeks back I purchased the Bravox CS60-CF component set, linked above, from the SSA store. At $445 I would consider these speakers to be in the middle of the price range.....more expensive than entry level products but not ultra-high end pricing either. The speakers arrived on my doorstep from the SSA store right at about a week after ordering, and as always the communication was great from the website and SSA staff.

Equipment

The CS60CF component set consists of 6.5" mids and 1" tweeters, and the packaging includes installation hardware, speaker wire and grills.

The mids are true 6.5" drivers, measuring exactly 6.5" from edge to edge. They feature a carbon fiber cone, butyl rubber surround and a sturdy cast frame with venting under the spider, which is a nice feature to see on a midwoofer as it aids in voice coil cooling and provides an additional escape path for air. The mids also feature a phase plug, which can serve dual purposes; it can aid in extending and smoothing the high frequency response by reducing cancellation and, when constructed of a heat-conducting metal, they can improve the driver's heat dissipation capabilities. The phase plug is coated so I can't tell the exact material, but it does have the feel of being a solid metal. Terminals are gold plated spade and the tinsel leads are fairly thick for being a midwoofer. The mid does not have a pole vent, and it's worth noting it also does not have a gasket. I'm guessing the lack of gasket is because of the grill-mounting ring that is to be installed behind the speaker.

It's also nice that the company provides T/S parameters for the midwoofer, as it's fairly rare for a company in car audio to provide those. With it's high Qts and moderate Vas it's apparent these 6.5" speakers were designed with the car environment in mind as results will be very close to optimal in a car door, which functions closely to an infinite baffle alignment.

The tweeters are 1" silk domes with ferrofluid cooling. The housing is plastic and there is about 6" of lead wires attached for direct connection to the speaker wire rather than any type of terminal. The packaging includes angle mount and flush mount options.

Crossovers are reasonably sized and feature blue polycarbonate plastic cases with venting on each side, a 0db and -3db switch and gold plated terminals. The manual states this component sets uses a 4th order acoustical crossover slope. Interesting to note their description of the crossover there. They state it's an acoustic slope, not an electric slope. The difference normally being the acoustic slope is the sum of the driver's response and the crossover, whereas an electric slope is the effect of the crossover only. The acoustic slope is actually a little more useful to know as it tells you what the response of the actual driver will be with the crossover, and not just what the crossover is doing to the signal. When most people are designing a passive crossover, they are aiming for a certain acoustic slope not a certain electrical slope. The electrical slope is essentially just a means to an end, not the end itself. The manual does not list a crossover frequency, but "LHP 3.5" is molded into the crossover. I'm wondering if maybe that means the low and high pass frequency is 3.5khz.

The installation materials included with the set is just about everything you would need to install the speakers; speaker wire, eight screws, four butt connectors for the tweeters, twelve spade terminals for connecting wires to the crossovers, and four female terminals that are supposed to be for connecting to the midwoofer.

The manual is semi-informative. The same manual is used for all but 1 of the component sets and gives a brief introduction to Bravox, some bullet points about the features of the products, T/S parameters for the different sets and a quick wiring tutorial. I would like to see it include a little more detail and possibly some suggestions on proper setup techniques and installation considerations for informational/educational purposes, but maybe that's just me.

Pictures

Who doesn't like pictures?

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Very informative! Looking forward to the listening results.

They look like very well constructed mid drivers.

:drink40:

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Hefty looking mid :) Looking forward to your review Brad!

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Updated the 2nd post with install and listening.

It's late & I didn't proof read very much, so hope everything makes sense :)

If, and that's IF, I get time this week I might try to figure out how to take measurements with my Dayton mic and HOLMImpulse to see if I can manage any kind of useful response graph.

EDIT: Damn, just realized that got kinda wordy :( Sorry if it's a long read.

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Yes a long read, yes an awesome review. :)

I might have to try a pair!

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With a review I like a nice thorough informative read! Yours was just right and descriptive for a basic installation.

This sounds like a great comp set. I will definitely consider these when I am looking for a new set up!

Thanks for the review!

:drink40:

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Conclusion

So really, how do I feel about these speakers?

Well, I'll put it this way. I had originally purchased the Bravox with the sole intent of reviewing them and then selling them with the hopes of atleast recouping my costs. After the past 2 days, my stereo may have just had an unexpected change of plans. The kickpanels I was working on are only half built and were originally intended to house some midbass to go with my horns......they may soon be the new home of this 6.5" component set instead. But for the past 2 days I have been taking every excuse I could find to have to drive somewhere, anywhere. And I find myself driving slower as well....I want to get one more song in before I arrive home. If I have enjoyed the speakers this much in a pretty average install with no tuning, I can only imagine how great they'll sound in an optimized and well tuned install. They don't do everything perfect, but they do it all well enough and without glaring deficiencies that they are an amazingly easy set of speakers to enjoy. These speakers just performed great no matter what I threw at them with music selection or output levels.

If you are in the market for a mid priced component set, I would definitely suggest you give the CS60CF set seriously consideration.

This is a very in depth review! Thanks for this, also very glad to see you are pleased with them. Thanks again for your business!

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Awesome Review !!! Very Imformative. DETAILS !!!

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That's a very positive review !!

Must be a very good speaker !

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Great review!! Lot's of info! When I hear that it sounds so good that you want to take the long way home to listen to another track, must be workin' for ya! Thanks!

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Wow! Excellent review. I was going to ask if they would stay in your car, and to see you admit that your plans might have changed, that is nuts. People know you are not going to give a fluff review, so when you give a very positive one, it speaks volumes (pun intended). +1 for sure on this review. Now you are making me think about going passive for the first time in a while. Thanks again for taking the time to do a very in depth review! :)

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Wow! Excellent review. I was going to ask if they would stay in your car, and to see you admit that your plans might have changed, that is nuts. People know you are not going to give a fluff review, so when you give a very positive one, it speaks volumes (pun intended). +1 for sure on this review. Now you are making me think about going passive for the first time in a while. Thanks again for taking the time to do a very in depth review! :)

Not you too huh? Great review man and it has me thinking because I was planning on doing ID Horns and some 6.5" speakers as well.

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Great review.

Thank you for taking the time to review and share your thoughts.

:drink40:

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Thanks for the kind words and taking the time read the review guys :)

Much appreciated.

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Wow! Excellent review. I was going to ask if they would stay in your car, and to see you admit that your plans might have changed, that is nuts. People know you are not going to give a fluff review, so when you give a very positive one, it speaks volumes (pun intended). +1 for sure on this review. Now you are making me think about going passive for the first time in a while. Thanks again for taking the time to do a very in depth review! :)

Not you too huh? Great review man and it has me thinking because I was planning on doing ID Horns and some 6.5" speakers as well.

I am not sure yet, but thinking about it. But then again, why do I have an 8053 and 880 then. :shrug:

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Interesting. I have seen the ads on the side of the forums and just kind of shrugged them off as some fly-by-night Chinese company. But when I saw you reviewing them, I figured I would give it a read. Most impressive, indeed. I saw you might be keeping these instead of reselling them, if i might ask, what are you planning on replacing with this set?

And this is definitely not too wordy. I like a very detailed and informative review. My reviews are typically twice that length :suicide-santa:

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Great read, I was considering these as a competitor of me buying some AA mids/highs. Now I have to take Bravox into serious consideration.

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I saw you might be keeping these instead of reselling them, if i might ask, what are you planning on replacing with this set?

ID CD2Neo horns, midbass would either be CSS Trio8 or JBL 2218H (have them both).

It's still up in the air, still trying to decide. I love the dynamics of horns, but they can be a bear to tune properly.

If I kept the Bravox in the car, I would run them active since I have that option and it allows for more control and fine tuning. Much simpler setup than the horns with better results much quicker and likely much less required tuning, and after using them I know I'll be more than satisfied with the results if I go this route as well.

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I saw you might be keeping these instead of reselling them, if i might ask, what are you planning on replacing with this set?

ID CD2Neo horns, midbass would either be CSS Trio8 or JBL 2218H (have them both).

It's still up in the air, still trying to decide. I love the dynamics of horns, but they can be a bear to tune properly.

If I kept the Bravox in the car, I would run them active since I have that option and it allows for more control and fine tuning. Much simpler setup than the horns with better results much quicker and likely much less required tuning, and after using them I know I'll be more than satisfied with the results if I go this route as well.

Thanks, dude! i appreciate the reply and the great review.

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I saw you might be keeping these instead of reselling them, if i might ask, what are you planning on replacing with this set?

ID CD2Neo horns, midbass would either be CSS Trio8 or JBL 2218H (have them both).

It's still up in the air, still trying to decide. I love the dynamics of horns, but they can be a bear to tune properly.

If I kept the Bravox in the car, I would run them active since I have that option and it allows for more control and fine tuning. Much simpler setup than the horns with better results much quicker and likely much less required tuning, and after using them I know I'll be more than satisfied with the results if I go this route as well.

Very nice. I just sent the link on to Bravox North America HQ. :)

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I have to say, I'm on about day 5 with the speakers installed. I'm past the critical listening stage, just listening for the sake of enjoying my favorite music while I'm on the road now. As I cycle through my music collection, I'm still noticing nuances in the music I hadn't noticed before. I had originally sort of attributed some of this to simply listening more closely to the music than I had before....but even now, when I'm just listening to rock out and not evaluate, these details are still catching my attention. I really hadn't expected I would enjoy these speakers as much as I have.

Very nice. I just sent the link on to Bravox North America HQ. :)

LOL.....Cool beans.

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Brad, any identification on the crossover components? Are they fused or bulbed?

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