Modding the Dayton RS52

[Daveis]

I've seen posts online about using felt discs to alter the RS52's peaks around 13khz.

But what happens if you take the back cup off it?

And has anyone used the RS52 in a Unity Horn Waveguide?

Is there anyway to improve the response of the RS52 down-to 500hz? It seems most people cross over at 700-800hz. Can you go lower? Zaph's THD testing indicates it would start struggling quickly at 500hz.

Any way to horn load and get one more lower octave?

[dwk123]

I used the RS52 in a Unity style prototype. It was the 'tweeter', and I used a pair per side dayton RS150-4's in the 'mid' position. It worked 'OK' for a prototype, but you don't get all that much low-end extension from the horn. The setup was good from ~300 up to ~6k or so. I had really hoped for more low end, but I didn't iterate on the design so I'm not sure if it could have been improved.

FWIW, I bought the Yorkville U15's after doing that prototype. That probably says something.

[Daveis]

One more thing...

The RS52 sounds clean, but somehow a little metallic. I suspect I am hearing the 13khz peak even though I'm using a 24db/octave electronic crossover at 4000hz. I'll switch to a steeper crossover and see if that tames it.

Any way to tame that acoustically with foam without messing up the response down low? I suspect I will eventually tire of the sound because of this one aspect. (I don't usually like aluminum dome tweets) It's a shame because over 800-3500hz this is a very nice inexpensive driver.

[Daveis]

What are the major sound qualities you associate with the unity horn?

[angsuman]

Hmm, I use 3rd order passive crossover on my RS52 and I get an effectively 4th order acoustic slope, my peak at 13khz is down about 32dB from the main bandpass area. I haven't really noticed this peak. I have listened to the RS52 by itself and it sounds very clean, but you hear extra sibilance and sizzle when the peak is undamped. Maybe its your tweeter that is contributing to the "metallic" sound?

[Daveis]

Originally posted by angsuman
Hmm, I use 3rd order passive crossover on my RS52 and I get an effectively 4th order acoustic slope, my peak at 13khz is down about 32dB from the main bandpass area. I haven't really noticed this peak. I have listened to the RS52 by itself and it sounds very clean, but you hear extra sibilance and sizzle when the peak is undamped. Maybe its your tweeter that is contributing to the "metallic" sound?

I was using this combination(below) until I swapped out the planar for the RS52. In general it (the RS52) was an improvement in imaging coherence, vocals, bells, drums. Pretty much a win-win all around except for a slight sense of metallic sizzle.

Having dome dispersion for upper midrange is a new experience. It may take awhile to get used to that. I will double-check levels with RTA pink noise. It could be that I have the mid up a few db's. I've found that I'm pretty sensitive to any treble being even a few db's too high.

50-800 hz two Scanspeak 8554 8" woofs
800-4000hz BG RD40 planar
4000-20khz Scanspeak 6600 textile coated tweeter

[dlneubec]

Zaph's test of the RS52 show a pretty good sized F3 harmonic distortion peak at around 4200hz. Perhaps you should try crossing a little lower and maybe steeper, if your tweeter can handle it.

[DSP_Geek]

Originally posted by dlneubec
Zaph's test of the RS52 show a pretty good sized F3 harmonic distortion peak at around 4200hz. Perhaps you should try crossing a little lower and maybe steeper, if your tweeter can handle it.

The F3 peak is a direct consequence of the 13 kHz FR peak, since the FR peak will amplify motor distortion. The original poster might be on the right track with wanting to clean up the peak instead of hiding it in the crossover.

[Daveis]

I've tried crossing over the RS52 at 2000,3000 and 4000 with 24db/octave.

It definitely sounds less metallic at 2000 and 3000 so maybe the 4200 peak should be dealt with if possible acoustically through felt pads.

I haven't figured out how to use a driver for such a small range like 800 to 2000. You have the tweeter and woofer overlapping so much the mid is getting clobbered on both sides.

[Hartono]

Hi,

This might be of interest, have a look at Enabl+Mamboni thread. I've applied Enabl pattern on a couple of paper driver, and Soongsc did experiment on fullrange aluminium driver (Jordan).

Hartono