Alutek ALP1602

Features:

The ALP1602 kit includes a 6 1/2" woofer, a 1/2" tweeter, a two way crossover with tweeter attenuation settings such as -2 dB & -4 dB. or a flat setting. Also included are a flush mounting bracket & wiring for the tweeter as well as spring clips & screws for mounting the woofers & tweeters. Grilles are provided for the 6.5" drivers.

Since these are a newly introduced brand the items are currently only available wholesale via mail/telephone orders. Ensuring the safe delivery of the package Alutek USA shipped the items double boxed & included styrofoam chips to prevent breakage. The goods were received in a prompt timeframe & in good condition.

Upon first appearance one notices the powdercoat finish to the stamped steel basket & the interesting cone material of the 6 1/2" midbass. This doped paper design that extends to the rubber surrounds allows both light weight & strength. Giving it the ability to respond quickly to musical transients while yielding a surprisingly high power handling capability. One also notices right away that this midbass uses a surprisingly light motor structure. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the tweeter is a silk dome design. One does not see many tweeters this size that use fabric materials. I was rather disappointed that the tweeter kit did not include an angled surface mount bracket & also that the package did not include crimped wiring for the midbass drivers. Nonetheless overall fit & finish was above par.

Installation:

We selected two vehicles to test the Aluteks in & two different setups. Vehicle #1 was Jason Gagne's (P1LoT) 1996 extended cab Toyota Tacoma. Jason installed the components with the woofers in the factory door location with the tweeters surface mounted on the kickpanels with 2 sided tape. In this setup power was provided by his Denon DCT950 headunit. Vehicle #2 was my 1989 Nissan Maxima. I also installed the woofers in my doors & the tweeters surface mounted on my custom kickpanels. Power in my setup was provided by my Orion XTR800 amplifier with the source signal being fed from my trusty Eclipse 5331 deck.

Jason's Install:

I decided to install these speakers temporarily, to get a feel for them while Stephen was busy with other things, seeing as I would have about a week to "audition" them. For the record, I decided to install them simply running off of deck power. That deck is the Denon DCT-950R. This route saved me from rewiring my whole truck for amps again, as I sold off my old power distribution blocks, and other necessary things for amp installations, because I am buying new stuff. The speakers currently in the truck are Orion XTR 5s 5.25" components, and those of you on top of the game will know that Orion and A/D/S are owned by parent company ADST. So, it is not surprising to find that the XTR component sets are actually A/D/S component sets. The ones I have are actually an A/D/S A5is set. I say this only to establish the "reference" speakers that I compared the Aluteks to.

First off, putting the drivers side by side, there are several notable differences. The Alutek 6.5" woofer has a smaller motor structure than the A/D/S 5.25". I was not surprised at this, considering the price point of these woofers, but it did lower my power handling expectations, for an install that would use high power amps of course, I doubt my review with deck power would stress them with anything but distortion. :) The Alutek drivers went into the truck fairly easily, no modifications required. The truck actually takes 6.5" speakers stock, so it was a bolt in affair. The crossover unit was nice and compact, easily hidden out of sight. I used the -2 dB setting on the crossover. ( settings of 0, -2 and -4 are available )

Jason's Listening Impressions:

The midbass capability of these drivers is not anywhere similar to the A/D/S drivers, not shocking when you see the size of the magnet. The tweeter is quite bright, not really like some MB Quart tweets, but similar in nature whereas "listening fatigue" is concerned. I found the Alutek drivers to have more midrange detail than the A/D/S drivers, but I have to wonder, did it seem like the midrange detail was so good because the midbass was so mediocre? I mean, do my A/D/S drivers mask some midrange detail with the midbass? I cannot say for sure, I can only speculate. The tweeter being so bright, I would often do the "squint flinch" on chinese cymbal crashes, and fingers on fretboards in source material, as I found it tiresomely bright, but then again, there is another setting on the crossover that I did not explore, that being -4 dB, but I think that overall volume of the tweeter was not the issue, it was the frequency response of said tweeter that was annoying me. Dropping it another 2db wouldn't help, IMHO. There seemed to be a gap at the lower end of the tweeters output, but maybe I am used to the A/D/S 1" silk tweeter, and this 0.5" tweeter can only do so much, right?

Jason's Conclusions:

Overall, these drivers were not bad at all, more than I had expected really. They have an open sound, great midrange detail, they are well built, look good, install easily and are easy on the wallet, they are simply lacking in the lower octaves. Source material was Dave Matthews Band, Jesse Cook, Pink Floyd, Creed, Jonny Lang, The Eagles, Pearl Jam, Wide Mouth Mason and AC~DC. After all is said and done, I was not disappointed with these drivers for the price, but I was eager to put back in my temporary A/D/S drivers. :) Jason Gagne #094

Stephen's Listening Impressions:

I was a bit wary of installing them to my Orion amp that delivers 2x200Wrms so I made sure that I turned the gain down to minimum. First I tried the crossovers wired to the -4dB tweeter attenuation terminal to be safe & then had a listen to a few CD tracks for about 1/2 hour. My sample recordings that included tracks from Jesse Cook's "Gravity" & "Tempest",  George Lynch's "Sacred Groove" & Sarah Brightman's "Eden" seemed too veiled. So I quickly made the adjustment & terminated the negative lead to the -2dB setting & things started to come to life. I found this setting to be the most pleasing overall. Jesse Cook's instrumental guitar was just as detailed & smooth sounding as on my Boston Acoustics 3-way setup that was removed for this review. I found the midrange to be quite open & there was no harshness noted from the tweeters. The ALP1602 had surprisingly enough midbass to satisfy me (moreso than my Boston Acoustics 6.4 midbass drivers) considering the minute motor assembly & light cone noted previously.

Moving on to different CD's such as, Metallica's black CD, Joe Satriani's "Crystal Planet", Jonny Lang's "Wander This World" & Colin James' "Bad Habits" the ALP 1602 proved to be a worthy performer. These speakers seemed to really excel on "in your face" hard hitting Rock & pop music. I was less impressed with the detail they delivered on recordings such as Jonny Lang's "I Am" track where the background drum beats did not have the presence I was used to with my Boston's. Moving onto Sarah Brightman's "Eden" I noticed a hint of sibilance that was not present on my Boston Neo4T tweeters as well. However they passed the test once again when I popped in my rock screamer vocals from Paul Laine's "Can't Get Enuff" which I find fatiguing on other less worthy speakers in the price range of these Aluteks.

Stephen's Conclusions:

A very good, capable speaker for an affordable price. Worth an audition. Excellent performer on Rock, pop or dance mixes. Found them to be less pleasing on female vocals & detailed Blues & Jazz recordings. Are they worth the reasonable wholesale price? Definitely. However unless Alutek is ready to offer a 30 day satisfaction guarantee for their direct sales approach or get the units into stores I doubt they will get much recognition from consumers.

Manufacturer info:

Alutek USA.

Email: alutekusa@aol.com   Website: http://www.alutekusa.com/