D220Ti vs. DE250 Tone Burst showdown

[gainphile]

Both compression drivers above are arguably the most popular for DIYers. D220Ti is the darling of Econowave, and DE250 is used extensively in Gedlee Speakers.

Having built the Econowave I wanted to get that "extra smoothness" so popularised by DE250 reviews. After finding out that they had good polar response with Econowave, I bought a pair and lived with it for a while. Indeed they sounded very smooth.........But after a while I thought D220Ti is more resolving and DE250 is too "mellow" ?

Anyway after multiple swap between these two drivers I decided to test them using tone burst (because distortion test is boring and DE250 won the CSD.. he..he..). Read about Tone Burst test here.



SO the key summary:

1.5khz - 6khz: DRAW, they are practically the same although DE250 had small win. But not enough to differentiate at all.

6.5khz - 8.5khz: Winner: D220Ti. DE250 is having a hard time to return to zero amplitude. I think this is a major factor why D220Ti sounded more resolving (being metal?). At 7.5khz the DE250 output is quite deformed.

9k - 13k: DRAW, D220Ti a bit better

14k - 15k: Winner: DE250 by miles D220Ti falling apart at 15khz

16k - 20k: Winner: D220Ti picked up and left DE250 behind. The tests were not audible to my ears anymore.


So the conclusion is D220Ti performs better in Tone Burst test. The test itself could be improved by less increments of frequencies to cover more differences but this one should be enough.

D220 is confirmed to be more resolving, and while DE250 is smoother it is at the expense of resolution and accuracy.

The good news is D220Ti is much cheaper. The bad news is ... I've invested in the DE250s

[pos]

Very interesting, thank you!
Would you mind sharing your tests signals?

EDIT: that one is a good start, and can be resample to higher frequencies

[fergs1]

Greetings Gainphille, if you decide to sell the de250 let us know cheers fergs

[gainphile]

Originally Posted by pos

Very interesting, thank you!
Would you mind sharing your tests signals?

Not a problem

Attached is the 1.5khz - 20khz tone burst of various frequency steps.

[gainphile]

Originally Posted by fergs1

Greetings Gainphille, if you decide to sell the de250 let us know cheers fergs

Sure. I'm just not done with them yet

[dantheman]

Great job Gain! Thank you for posting.

Dan

[fergs1]

Gainphile what are you doing up at this hour? Insomnia too?I'd still love to hear your system next time i'm in Melb cheers fergs

[gainphile]

Hi Fergs,... measurement needed quiet lol

Yes, please let me know and come over suburb is Bonbeach.

[zog666]

great work! I keep pondering upgrades to my d220ti but then they just sound so nice already, so good to have some justification for staying with "Econowave Classic" type layout.

[gainphile]

Hi Zog,

Do you still have D2500? That would make a great study!