It's a while since I posted a review!!! So here goes:
I've had a bunch of different speakers come through the shop either to test, installs or friendly recommendations and there are three 6.5's that really stood out to me. A few months ago we had a customer bring us a CVO that had some Beyma 10's in them, and he said he really liked the sound quality of the Beyma products so we figured this was an opportunity to do an all Beyma install!! I had the Beyma rep bring me a few 6.5's to test out. The catch with Beyma is they have around 20 different 6.5 offerings, some 4ohm some 8ohm, some both. We landed on the Beyma 6G40Nd. Review --- these things are NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!! These speakers are rated to play lower than most PA speakers they are rated down to 70hz. We used a MMats HiFi 6150 to power these speakers so they were crossed a bit higher but it wasn't the bass that stood out it was how rich and warm the vocals sounded. Not strained at all but the lower vocal range was so smooth it made just about every vocal sound fuller. These speakers don't play as high up in freqs as other PA speaker but that didn't matter. The volume and fullness these had were very impressive and they should be at a cost of 169.00 retail each. We paired these up with a set of Beyma SQ tweeters that are a cross between a tweeter and a horn. Best of all, no cutting into a CVO fairing. Here are some pics and a vid, you can really hear in the vid how the vocals play thru the rest of the sound. That separation in sounds is impressive in person.
Next up FAITAL PRO 6PR122!
Ok these are kinda the opposite of the 6G40's. These things are LOUD and play high up in the frequency range, these play so loud up in the freq range I might even say you can run these with the right tweeters. The were also very clean, and precise sounding. Instantly you can tell they are a high end speaker. With many of the PA speaker that play higher in the freq range if they are not crossed or EQ's correctly the higher freqs just break up because they're not tweeters/horns. Not these speakers, that higher range really shines so precise. These speakers are also very light and shallow, with a smaller magnet than most speakers so that's a nice advantage when installing, you don't need to cut anything. Now both the Beyma and Faital rep told me that their speakers are deisgned/treated as water resistant speakers. My guess is that since many of these are used as outdoor loudspeaker they don't quite mean Marine Rated, but instead able of playing the elements. You can see in the pic there is different material used around the surround of the speaker. I really like these speakers for a loud application. I've used a few speakers in the Faital line up and also liked the 8's and 10's. The 10's are nice with a rubber surround similar to a subwoofer. These are Italian made speakers and cost a tad less than the 6G40's around 150.00 each.
GROUND ZERO GZCM 6.5 PRO
A few months back GZ USA / SOUNDIGITAL asked us to do an entire GZ and SD build for their booth at a show. We could pick anything we wanted so surely we chose their best 6.5's! Hands down these are one of the most accurate 6.5 speakers I've ever heard. The closest thing I can compare these to are Hertz SPL......but better!! Ok so what's the catch you are asking. So they don't play really low, but to do sound warm'ish. The don't play really high either but they are don't break up either. So what's up? Well, the do require more power than either the Beyma or Faital to get similar volume out of them. The basket is also HUGE. We had to cut the pods on a RG to fit and we had to make adaptors for them to fit in the lowers. I'll say that the GZ bike was one of the smoothest and cleanest bikes we've EVER done but powering it with a 1200.1 for the bags and a 1200.4 for 6.5's and horns wasn't enough. The bike while it sounded fantastic was not as loud as we would've liked. So my recommendation is either run some serious power to them or understand you are getting an extremely accurate sound speaker that just isn't as loud as others....but man do they sound nice. Cost for these bad boys are 189.00 each (and they're built like a 189.00 speaker! strong metal basket).
Hit me up with any questions guys. I'm always trying new stuff, and the stuff I like I either stock the shelves with or open an account so I can try more of the line and with these three lines I've tried their 6.5's, 8's, 10's, coax, etc. and plan to use them when possible or when it makes sense. Remember that one speaker may be perfect for one set up and just a bad match on another bike.....it's why I need to adapt, and learn like everyone else so I can keep up with the rest of the awesome guys a shops pushing the envelope every day. Enjoy and ride safe!
Nice post! I posted about those Faitals a little while ago and really like them. The Pro series is waterproof and weatherproof and they've held up nicely in my lids so far. They have some new ones coming out at the end of this mounth with some impressive numbers. The 6PR160 is 80-8k at 95dbs and the 6RS140 is 60-6k at 93dbs. They are both just over 2 pounds too. I plan on testing out the 6PR160s when they start selling them.
Got a question for you, does the GZ have slight thump on the bass? I considered this exact same model of GZ because I have easy access to get them in my country, steered away because of the high frequency range making this a true midrange speaker?
Great post! What is your impression of the Faital 10rS350? The specs look good, but you never know till you try them.
I've had that speaker for a while and messed up by not moving faster on it. They're very good but bikes running that 10 haven't really won many shows for what it's worth. I'm going to post another review thread on 10's. What I hope some of these review threads will generate is a dialogue regarding what speakers are better for what purpose or what should be used when. I'll give you an example if you have a 6 compression drives on a bike that play stupid loud, the 10RS350's may not be a good choice, you'll likely want a 10 that plays louder even if it doesn't play lower. Similar pairing should be considered when choosing the right 6.5, and really that's what lead me to chose three 6.5's for this review that all play very different but could be perfect on the right set up but not so right on another.
09-06-2018, 09:29 PM
Review: 6.5 Beyma vs. Faital Pro vs. Ground Zero!
