A Subjective Blind Comparison of 2in to 3.5in drivers - Round 5

Select the driver that sounds best to you.

  • A

    Votes: 10 32.3%
  • B

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • C

    Votes: 1 3.2%
  • D

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • E

    Votes: 5 16.1%
  • F

    Votes: 6 19.4%
  • G

    Votes: 6 19.4%

  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
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Founder of XSA-Labs
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Please do not discuss your selection (vote) or what you think the identity of any particular driver is prior to the reveal. Be considerate and allow others to listen and make up their minds without undue influence. It is fine to discuss your process, your thinking and generalities of the driver characteristics. Just avoid labeling Driver X as brand Y etc. If you must prognosticate and want your selections to be recorded for proof of your amazing abilities to pick and name the drivers presented, please do so by creating a text file and uploading that with your post. Add lots of carriage returns to your text file so that the answers are at the bottom and require active mouse movements to reveal the spoiler. Otherwise, an accidental mouse click shows all.

Round 5 begins with a whole new set of drivers shown below:

505475d1442938731-subjective-blind-comparison-2in-4in-drivers-round-4-round-5-lineup.jpg


1. Tectonic Elements TEBM46C20N-4B BMR 3in (4 ohm Nd magnet paper cone)
2. Alpine OEM p/n 68223392AA 3.5in full range for Jeep Wrangler (4 ohm Nd magnet poly carbon cone with aluminum dustcap)
3. Fountek FR88EX 3.5in (8 ohm Nd magnet aluminum cone)
4. Vifa TC7FD00-04 2.5in (4 ohm ferrite magnet paper cone)
5. Tymphany NE65W-04 2.0 in (4 ohm Nd magnet aluminum cone)
6. Tang Band W2-852SH 2.0 in (4 ohm Nd magnet paper cone)
7. (center position) Fountek FR58EX 2.0in (8 ohm Nd magnet aluminum cone)

Factory specs and prices for above drivers here:
A Subjective Blind Comparison of 2in to 3.5in drivers - Round 5 - Page 2 - diyAudio

Measurements of the drivers here (look only if you don't think it will affect your voting, or vote first then look):
A Subjective Blind Comparison of 2in to 3.5in drivers - Round 5 - Page 4 - diyAudio

Methodology is identical to Round 4, so please look there for details. With these changes: recordings are left channel only in mono. So you are listening to mono for files below.

The level-matched reference sound clips are available here:
A Subjective Blind Comparison of 2in to 4in drivers - Round 4 - Page 6 - diyAudio

Please select the driver that you think sounds best and provide your ranking in order of the preferred driver in a separate text file uploaded and attached to your post.

Have fun!

Spoiler - answer key here:
A Subjective Blind Comparison of 2in to 3.5in drivers - Round 5
 
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Founder of XSA-Labs
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Thank you X, did a quick first listening and wow except for one particular driver the bass region this time seems much closer to replicate bass region in the level-matched reference sound clips http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full...-2in-4in-drivers-round-4-a-6.html#post4442444.

EDIT now notice this round recordings is at same sampling rate as as reference clips at 44,1kHz.

The recordings were made at 96kHz and down sampled to 44.1k during conversion to MP3 in Audacity.

Glad the level matched samples and bass are similar. I plotted the response for all and overlay is 99% match for bass up to 300Hz before the XO.
 
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Hmm, I could live with all but one! However one is slightly better for me, but would never hear it if listening separately!

The third clips sound awful, like a broken driver.

Peter

I will have to take a careful listen. What do you mean it sounds broken? Is it a recording or setup error or just a bad driver?
 
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Thanks I will look at it tonight and see if a fix can be made.

Ok, I listened to all clip 3's for all drivers and that's just what it sounds like. There was no clipping when I recorded it and the final was saved as -0.5dB below clipping. It might just be the dynamic nature of the fake synthesizer drums on this pop track. Does it sound worse than clip 3 from Round 4? Since all clips 1, 2, and 3 were recorded at the same time (one long test track from CD) the levels are pretty much set. I just had to make sure mic was not clipping during recording and I did that - typically -5dB below max.
 
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I hope the cheaper ones win. Thanks for your efforts (once again) XRK!

Cheapest is certainly the TC7FD at $9.75, and it is not a bad driver on paper if you happened to look at its published response.

In order of ascending price...

TC7FD00-04 ($9.75):
http://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/264-1144--tymphany-tc7fd00-04-spec-sheet.pdf

TEBM46C20N-4B ($18.39):
http://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/297-2157--temb46c20n-4b-2-spec-sheet.pdf

FR58EX ($18.65):
http://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/296-725-fountek-fr58ex-specifications.PDF

W2-852SH ($21.58):
http://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/264-808-tang-band-w2-852sh-specifications-45644.pdf

ALPINE Jeep Wrangler 3.5 FR (circa $22):
no data sheet

NE65W-4 ($32.95):
http://www.madisound.com/pdf/spec_sheets/tympany_08172011/NE65W-04.pdf

FR88EX ($37.80):
http://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/296-719-fountek-fr88ex-specifications.PDF
 
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A-clip-1 and F-clip-1 open as 48kHz.

Of remaining for clip-1, C has shortest lead in.
B needs 6633 samples trimmed,
D needs 1706 samples trimmed,
E needs 2093 samples trimmed,
G needs 7319 samples trimmed,
and then these tracks are time aligned.

Hmmm...

Thanks for doing this. It's very strange and frustrating that the sample rate is not 44.1khz for all. That was the setting I had it set at. The workflow is that I take a long wav file at 96khz which contains all 3 clips recorded in one take. I select each clip and apply level set amplification then export selected clip as MP3 at 320k and the option of sample rate 44.1k vs 48k comes up where I click OK. I always click OK and never touch the drop down rate toggle between 48k and 44.1k. It's especially odd that it is 48k for clip 1 then 44.1 for rest except for A and F clip 1. Must be fat fingers that did it.
 
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