Bravox CS60K Component Set Review!!

[Mark LaFountain 1,054]

This text was pulled from this great reivew http://www.bravoxaudio.com/download/05.pdf

As always, you can buy these great products from the SSA store. Thanks for your continued support!

http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/store/categories/Speakers/Bravox-Audio/

Overview

The Bravox company is located in Brazil and was founded in 1953 by a group of engineers who wanted to manufacture high quality loudspeakers for a variety of clients. They have been successfully doing just that ever since, turning out eceptional quality loudspeakers for many establishedbrands of home audio, as well as their own line of quality car audio products.

The company is vertically integrated, which means they basically design, tool, produce, and manufacture all of the individual parts and components that go into the speakers they produce. This technique allows for excellent quality control and consistency in the performance of the finished products.

This time we're going to take a look at the company's best selling 6.5 inch componentsystem, the CS60K. After unpacking this component system, I found pretty much what you'd expect to find in a midpriced quality product.

In addition to the pair of mids, tweeters andpassive networks, there is also the obligatoryselection of flat and angle surface mount cupsfor the tweeter, and as a nice surprise, some quality crimpon connectors, and actual 14gauge speaker wire, not the 20 gauge junk you find all too often. A delicatelooking pair of trimrings with pressinmesh grilles are included totrim out the edges of the midrange basket and they are held in place by four mounting screws. A brief but wellillustrated owner's manual provides an explanation of the components, and offers good advice on system design.

Midrange

The hand-assembled midrange driver in the Bra vox system uses a composite nylon mate-rial for the frame to minimize basket-induced resonances. The cone is a woven Kevlar mate-rial for high-strength, good rigidity and light

weight. The suspension of the mid-bass driver is made up of a heat-resistant Nomex spider and a butyl rubber surround for better long-term reliability . The 1-inch copper voice coil is wound on a Ka pton former , and the gold-plated terminals are the standard push-on spade variety . The ma gnetics of the motor assembly are designed using a high-tech process called FEA (F inite Element Analysis), which provides the engineer the ability to model the magnetics and voice coil beha viour and adjust the design to get optimum linearity and minimize distortion. The motor uses a vented pole piece and bottom pla te. Other areas show a ttention to detail as well, with woven insel leads covered in nylon insulation, and sewn to the spider to prevent unwanted tinsel lead noise or “slap.”

Tweeter

The tweeter in the Bravox CS60K system is a 25mm (1inch) aluminum dome type that uses a silk surround. The tweeter is fairly small and will be easy to mount in a variety of locations, including most of the OEM tweeter locations. It uses a neodymium magnet, and the 0.75 inch voice coilis ferro fluid cooled for better power handling. About 8inches of wire is connected to the tweeter at the factory, and saves some of the hamfisted installers the

trouble of breaking off the always fragile connections on tweeters. As I mentioned earlier, it can be flush or surface mounted with the supplied mounting hardware.

Crossover

The crossover networks use -6dB / octave filters for the midrange and -18dB networks for the tweeter, and there is a Zobel network impedance compensa ting circuit for the midrange as well. A Zobel network or filter is used to com

pensate for the rise in impedance caused by the inductance of the voice coil of the midrange, and helps keep the crossover filters working at the proper frequenc y and filter slope. The capacitors are high-performance polypropylene-film type, and the inductors are a combination of air - and iron-core parts. Automa tically-resetting Polys witches are used to protect both drivers from over-current situations. The crossover housings are polycarbonate plastic, and have gold-plated screw terminals. Selecting the 0dB or +3dB tweeter terminal allo ws the user to adjust the output of the tweeter for best sonic balance. The housing is mounted with four screws, which are also inc luded in the kit.

Listening

Recently, I have been working with some very expensive, ultra-high performance loudspeakers here in the Cogent lab, and I was a bit concerned that I had become spoiled by this exposure to excellent designs and top-notch performance.But when I first fired up this Bravox system, my fears were put to rest, as it performed quite admirably when compared to systems costing as much as three to four times the price! As I usually do, I performed all my listening in the lab under quiet and controlled conditions. I listened to a wide variety of some of my favourite music, as well as some difficult tore produce tracks that Ilike to use toput good systems to the test. I began listening with the tweeter level at the +3 dB position and as it turned out, I liked it there, so that's where it remained.

The Bravox CS60K system actually surprised me with its smooth, "round" sound. The tweeter was quite polite for an aluminum dome, and did not exhibit any sibilance or brittleness. On a few tracks, such as the amazing acoustic guitar in Stanley Myers' Cavatina, I found myself wishing for a little bit more detail, but overall it was quite good. This track was recorded in a mission at San Juan Capistrano, and if you have not heard it reproduced on a good system, you owe it to yourself to track it do wn and give it a listen.

Simply stunning acoustics! Moving on to other tunes, the lower registers sounded very pleasing if not absolutely accurate timbre. The bottom end was strong and full, with good definition and detail. Plucked bass strings in Glen Miller's Little Brown Jug sounded full and vibrant. Drums and snare were very articulate, nice and tight, and well-controlled, even at fairly high volume levels.

I did notice that the timbre of the system was a bit lower in the middle and upper midrange than I might have liked, but most people will never notice it, especially when the system is installed in a car! Don't get me wrong; you can still very easily tell a Les Paul from a Stratocaster with this system, a Bösendorfer grand piano from a Yamaha might be a tad more difficult. Or as my buddy Allen likes to say: "Sure, you can tell it' s a Gibson Precision Bass, but what kind of strings are on it?"

A note on "timbre" – pronounced "T AM-ber." For a few of our readers, this word is something you already know well, but for the rest of you, it means our ability to distinguish different sounds, voices or instruments, even when they are playing the same note and at the same amplitude. It' s what makes a saxophone sound different than a clarinet, or two voices singing in harmony appear distinct and different.

CONCLUSION

From a typical listener' s point of view, the Bravox CS60K system sounds very good, with a smooth, warm sound with good clarity and depth. Very critical listeners might note a bit of a dark timbre shift in the upper midrange, predominately most a pparent in well-recorded vocals. But this is a minor gripe and again, for the price, the overall sonics of the Bravox CS60K system is one of the best I've heard recently. T ill next time… Good Listening!

[Mark LaFountain 1,054]

Screen Shots from that review...

[Mark LaFountain 1,054]

on a side note, I cannot wait to see who copies this for their own personal gain. As I have about 1 hour into coping this from pdf format.

[Impious 1,476]

on a side note, I cannot wait to see who copies this for their own personal gain. As I have about 1 hour into coping this from pdf format.

Thanks for taking the time to benefit the community here on SSA

[Kanaworm$ 292]

Nice job Mark! Looks great!

[lightingman117 8]

I know now what I'm asking for as an early Christmas present to go along with my 2 DCON's

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

[Mac N Cheese 90]

thanks!

these would be the next components i purchase

[Shogen 325]

Out of curiosity, are these speakers in-stock and ready to ship???

[bcst86 5]

thanks for this.

Edited November 21, 2010 by bcst86

[Mark LaFountain 1,054]

Out of curiosity, are these speakers in-stock and ready to ship???

yessir, we have a few left

[nem 2,019]

Great review, I ordered these for my son. So maybe we can do a little build log in the coming months.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

Great review, I ordered these for my son. So maybe we can do a little build log in the coming months.

Way to go dad!

The more I read of the reviews I am thinking more and more about buying something from Bravox for my next upgrade!

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Great review, I ordered these for my son. So maybe we can do a little build log in the coming months.

[Larams 0]

I've been rockin a set of these in my f150 for a week and love them. At first I had them going off the stock head unit just to try them out and was worried they were going to suck after hearing them. Once I hooked them to a Sundown 100.2 they started to sing. Awesome sound from these speakers for the price. Wish my truck got better MPG so I could listen to them more...

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

I've been rockin a set of these in my f150 for a week and love them. At first I had them going off the stock head unit just to try them out and was worried they were going to suck after hearing them. Once I hooked them to a Sundown 100.2 they started to sing. Awesome sound from these speakers for the price. Wish my truck got better MPG so I could listen to them more...