M500 Series
StageFront UpStage System
by Vince Cuffaro
I've been tempted. Everyday. I see ads, reviews, new products...just about anything the audio world has to offer. Some of it looks great, some of it just might BE great, but me?

I'll never know. I'm not interested, at least not anymore. Finding CDT Audio some 5 years back was like getting married for me. I can look, but I can't touch! Nor do I want to. I'm the proud recipient of CDT's new StageFront™500 series kit. And dang if these CDT Audio folks just raised the bar! As you already know, my vehicle of choice now for the past 4 years has been a 2000 Honda Odyssey, minivan.

A horrid platform for audio, low door speakers, huge internal environment...it's great for tossing in TONS of audio, unless you want to keep it looking relatively stock, and still hauling the kids, lumber and half the house! That is til now...

I've been happy. Well, until Ken at CDT calls or emails me with the latest new gadget, then I get itchy. Itchy for the new CDT audio product that's going to make my current CDT stuff sound that much better, go figure. And yes, alot of new stuff out there is tempting, but, I've been so excited about the CDT product for sooo long now, I'm sticking with what works. To be honest, I used to change audio like I changed my kids diapers, but for the past half a decade now it's been CDT all the way! And that for me is like a life time.
Their latest incarnation is the StageFront™ Technology UpStage System which replaces the older Image Enhancement Kit. The 'IEK' was great, note "WAS".
And i'll be using it in my 'old school' CDT install in a 4 door 92 Civic coming soon. But the new StageFront™ kit is just a BIT better. Well, maybe more than a bit...
The kit was designed to take the IEK to a whole new level. not only does it bring the sound to the windshield, as the IEK kit was to do as well, it disperses it a whole heck of alot better. The IEK was simply a way to vary the input to a set of tweeters to give the illusion of a raised sound stage.
The StageFront™ kit is actually a full crossover network and Titanium tweeters to bring the whole sound environment to the windshield. It moves the sound image towards the front, gradually shifting the higher frequencies alone to he front of the car/van, cross firing them inward and at an angle, using the windshielf as a ground plane. It takes car audio to a whole new level!
Something that the StageFront™ kit does as well is contours and shapes the mid frequencies to the doors. I was going to run the kit off of an unused set of channels on my amp, but CDT said "NO!, the crossovers actually change the sound to the doors, so you'll need to run them inline with the component crossovers."
Who am I to argue!

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