Speaker Review - MB Quart Reference Series RCE 216
July
2,
2003
By: Paul Sonoda
MSRP $339.99
The MB Quart RCE 216 offers outstanding flexibility and performance at an attractive price
Compromises. That is what we make when we choose a speaker system for our cars. What are the installation requirements? How many amplifiers do we plan to use? Often the choices we make are really the lesser of evils. Well no more. The MB Quart RCE 216 offers all the flexibility needed so we no longer have to make compromises.
First Look
The MB Quart RCE 216 is a 2-way speaker system with a 6.5” midrange and a ¾” tweeter. The polypropylene midrange is housed in a composite basket that uses a combination of polyamide ABS composite reinforced with extremely short glass fibers. According to MB Quart, the result is a basket that is lightweight, rigid and resonant free.
The ¾” (19mm) tweeter is made from titanium. Originally designed for the aerospace industry, titanium is extremely lightweight, strong and a major contributor to the high extended frequency response of the RCE 216. The tweeter comes with all the accessories needed to install the tweeter in a surface, flush, angled or angled coaxial mount installation.
The crossover is a well-executed simple two-way 12dB per octave design. The connections are provided with nicely appointed gold plated screw connectors that accept either bare wire or “U” shape connectors. Its decorative clear acrylic cover incorporates vents to expel heat generated by normal operation. Given its size and design, it would not be recommended to install the crossovers in the doors.
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topCloser Look
This speaker system has so many cool features it’s surprising the RCE 216 is not MB Quart’s flagship model speaker system. First of all, the crossovers are bi-wire capable. Bi-wire simply means that the signal path for the tweeter crossover and midrange crossover are completely independent. This gives you the ability to use separate amplifiers to power the midrange and tweeter. Some audiophiles also believe running separate speaker wires to the tweeter and woofer crossover sections will yield a noticeable sonic improvement.
The RCE 125 has other cool features that center on installation flexibility. The grill ring for the midrange can be configured for flush mount installation. This uncommon installation ability provides serious cosmetic appeal. When not used in the coaxial mode, the midrange utilized a bullet shaped phase plug in the center of the midrange. This is said to maintain smooth frequency response for the midrange.
When configured in the coaxial mode, the tweeter, mounted on angle, is three position rotatable in quarter turn increments. This is great to fine tune the dispersion of the tweeter. For tonality adjustments, the RCE 216 has four selectable tweeter level settings. The RCE 216 crossover also includes tweeter protection in the form of a resistive light bulb. When clipped amplifier power is sent to the crossover, the tweeter protection bleeds off clipped output of the amplifier and converts the energy into light and heat.
Installation
The RCE 216 is supplied with nearly all of the necessary mounting hardware needed for most installations. Just add speaker wire. For my installation, the RCE 216 was configured in the coaxial mode. I decided to use this configuration for two reasons. First, I wanted to see the performance of these speakers when used as a coaxial speaker. Second, it did not require any additional cutting for my installation. Having the ability to fine tune the angle of the tweeter in the coaxial mode is a nice touch. The installation went very straight forward with no problems.
I only have one complaint about the crossover. To access the tweeter level control, you have to remove the four machine thread screws on top of the crossover. This is also the hardware that holds the crossover together. What you get is loose parts. This makes it necessary to finish adjusting the tweeter level before mounting the passive crossovers vertically. For optimal results, I would recommend an Authorized MB Quart dealer install these speakers.
Manuals/Web Support
At first, I was a little taken aback how quickly the installation manual directed the customers to the web. Don’t get me wrong. I believe highly in the web. Today, many people do their research about the product they intend to purchase. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised when I came across the technical section of the website. http://www.mbquart.com/mbtech. I placed some questions about the product and was pleased by how quickly they responded. (By the way, they informed me the angle on the tweeter when used in the coaxial mode was 9 degrees). I was also able to download the installation manual and full line product literature.
Sound Q & Performance
The most important aspect to any speaker review is the sound. Here the RCE 216 does not disappoint. The sound is smooth, detailed and transparent. The sound quality was especially satisfying considering that the speakers were mounted low in the door in the factory speaker locations. The sonic performance is on par with speakers costing much more.
A little minor tweaking of the source unit’s tone controls yielded excellent in car frequency response. (See chart 1) The frequency response varied only plus or minus 6 dB from 160Hz to 20kHz. The frequency extension of the system was impressive resulting in usable frequency response down to 50Hz in the vehicle. The efficiency of the system was also impressive needing less than 1 watt of output to achieve 90dB of full bandwidth pink noise.
Summary
The MB Quart RCE 216 offers the sound quality you would expect for speakers in a higher price range. The bonus is the flexibility of installation that allows the speaker system to perform competently as either a separate component system or a coaxial speaker. In either configuration, you will treat your car to some great sound.
5
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