Dayton or Scan Speak for Musical Subwoofer

[scaramoucheii]

Hi All

I'm about to embark on the construction of 2 subwoofers to create a 2.1 Music system.

The primary objective is deep tight bass for critical listening. A friend of mine has Wilson X2's and the bass there is other worldly, now I know that I will be hard pressed to recreate that, but ... gonna try on a limited budget.

So the question is, from you home audio critical listeners who have experimented with Sub Woofers ...

Anybody compared the Scan Speak and Seas drivers with the Dayton stuff ?

Scan speak and Seas have some nice offeringss, available from Madisound, in the 250=270 $ range, and Parts Express has the Dayton drivers at approximately 100 less per driver.

The specifications are comparable, but I don't see much in these forums comparing the tonal characteristics of each.

any comments or suggestions from personal experience ?

Regards

[revboden]

Technically that would be a 2.2 Music system.

For subwoofers the box design has much more to do with the sound than the drivers. I've used the Dayton subs a lot in the last few years, they do what the reviews say they do, move air, good quality, excellent service. I'd stick with the HF line btw. The 12" seems to be the sweet spot in that range. Although the 15"HF is really good in a sealed box.

I am not affiliated with them in any way, i just like them.

[scaramoucheii]

Yes, 2.2 if you must.

Your comment about the box seems like a reasonable statement, as I'm leaning towards the less expensive drivers, and more time on deciding on the box size and configuration.

I have considered the 15" in a sealed box as well, but a little concerned about the box size, I'll have to that model it in WinISD and see.

I like the Idea of Large and Sealed.

I'm planning on using a old NAD 218 to drive them.

[Michael Chua]

I haven't tried the Dayton or Scan Speak but I can attest to the "musicality" of the new VIFA NE265W Subs. Click HERE for thread.

[scaramoucheii]

Thanks Michael

I have read through your thread.

I search through the forum but somehow missed your "Musical Subwoofer" thread.

I guess I wasn't searching for what I was actually looking for :-)

Looking at the Vifa NE265W on Madisound it does look very good. Interesting design and good looking specifications for a 10"

[Michael Chua]

Vifa has a 12" too, NE315W-08. Parts Express have them (to NE315W). I haven't tried them. Too costly for me. I bought the 10" when PE had them on offer. Can't remember the exact amount but I think it was about $160 each. Paying for a pair was painful enough.

What I really like about these new VIFA subs is their control. I'm able to get good detail in the the mid-bass which I find is crucial to music. Most of the bass information resides in 70-100Hz. Very few woofers are outstanding in this region.

In my quest to find affordable subwoofers, I discovered JBL car subs are surprisingly good. I have a pair of JBL 10", the ones with double magnets and they cost about $60 each.

[panduro]

I also looked at the15" dayton rss390hf, models very well in very large sealed cabs. qtc 0,7 160L/5,7cf3 , 0,6 280L/10cf3. read some really good reviews about that woofer.
Have never heard a dayton woofer, just found out the europe audio actually sells dayton.

in your cant stomach the large cabs a peerless xxls 12 does a good job in a much smaller sealed cab 1-1,25cf3. it can sound very well, but it needs eq in low extension.


best regards

panduro

[PaulWanamaker]

I've used the 15 inch, 500 watt Dayton RSS390HF-4 15″ Reference driver in a sealed sub, and I can say it's very nice indeed.

You can see my sub in the System Pictures gallery for subs.

[scaramoucheii]

Hi Paul and Panduro

I have read all that I can over the past few months, as I plan this project, so reading more reviews is not required. Most personal reviews state stuff like "I Love Them" and such. Not very articulate info to base a purchasing decision on.

I have actually seen Paul Wanamaker's sub on a different site when doing this project research, Very impressive, heavy, and more complex to build. But, the question remains, would a more expensive woofer sound appreciably better ...

So what I'm asking is ... Anybody directly compared different drivers ?

Michael Chua's response, though admitting he hadn't directly compare against other drivers, did state that the reason he chose the Vifa was it's ability in the 70-100 hz range. And the fact that it was on sale for a price compareable to the less expensive choices. This seems some constructive advise suggesting the Vifa range, and looking at the 12" Vifa, I'm thinking that this may the way to go.


But also noting Michael's comment, that he got his on sale, the question remains, can I justify, sonically on a limited budget, spending 100$/driver more. If I was to purchase them on sale the question would be mute.

But ......

My original question was as follows

Originally Posted by scaramoucheii

So the question is, from you home audio critical listeners who have experimented with Sub Woofers ...

Anybody compared the Scan Speak and Seas drivers with the Dayton stuff ?

So perhaps to re-ask, with the simplification/clairification

Anybody directly compared more expensive Subwoofer drivers ie: Seas, Scan Speak, Vifa to the less expensive ie: Dayton and Peerless and, have you concluded that there are appreciable improvements to justify the additional expense of the more expensive drivers.

Regards

[5th element]

High quality, low distortion bass is always about the ability to move the required amount of air whilst keeping the motor linear. It doesn't matter how good a woofer you've got, if it's pushed too hard it's going to sound bad.

No doubt the scan speak probably has the edge when it comes to raw distortion performance when used within it's capabilities, but the 15" Dayton will be far more capable when it comes to producing lots of low bass.

Besides this the other important factor is the room and the subs interaction with it. Often you will get better results using multiple smaller subs, then using one more capable one. If your priority is music then this would be the way to go in my opinion.

As to the vifa unit, this isn't a proper sub, it's more of a woofer.