Your next compression driver?

IMO this is an interesting compression driver for a number of reasons.

1. Inexpensive,
2. Built via Tymphany (..better expected quality control)
3. "Strong" output below 1.5 kHz for a 1" exit driver
4. Pretty linear impedance above 1 kHz.
5. Metal diaphragm (and generally better detail production) but with:
6. Plastic surround (for better performance at lower freq.s)

Transducer Detail | Tymphany

Tymphany DFM-2535R00-08 1" Compression Horn Driver 2/4-Bolt 8 Ohm


Basically this looks like a 1" exit driver that you can cross-over as low as 1.4 kHz and still get good lower treble (..which is unusual IMO) - at a price that's actually more than reasonable. :)

..bug screen should be cut-out.
 
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Selenium D220Ti is also in that price range and sounds and measures pretty nice

Most of the parameter's I listed, are not attributes of the D220Ti. :eek:

Because of its integrated surround - it's a driver I wouldn't cross over lower than 2.6-2.2 kHz. It's not that it can't do this, rather for best sound with a driver of this type it shouldn't be done (IMO). It tends to "flatten-out" depth a bit and give a more "strained" character to the lower treble.
 
that strained character sure can be apparent - PRV's D280ti is a nice inexpensive driver with more body than say ASD1001 when used on coax - it does best ~2K5 - even the tough old Eminence CD sound strained with a generic 1K6 network. This Tymphany looks good for the money and may make a very good K-tube driver.
 
No mention of which horn the response was generated on?

Could be an enormous flare to reach that low. Pretty cheap though. If you like plastic diaphragms, the Dayton polyimide diaphragm compression drivers may be good too?

The Selenium was used quite happily fairly low(some were as low as 1.6k) in some 'econowave' designs.

If you want a 1" to go stupidly low, the selenium D250 will do as low as 400hz on a huge horn BUT needs a tweeter above(bullet/slot or smaller 1" driver) The Klipsch guys love them at least.
 
the bug screen may or may not be providing resistive loading...

looks interesting, but it's likely not good above about 16-17khz, and the break-up above may or may not be objectionable - IF you can hear that high (many can not).

a look at the innards and the diaphragm might be instructive.
depending on what the diaphragm physically is, it may or may not be retrofitable into another driver! which may or may not yield better or worse results depending on unknowns like the phaseplug geometry, etc...

the response curves may be smoothed, caveat emptor.
but they are inexpensive enough for someone to buy and do some tests, put up the curves and results...

fwiw, a typical top mfr will do compression driver tests on a plane wave tube, not on a horn.
 
the bug screen may or may not be providing resistive loading...

looks interesting, but it's likely not good above about 16-17khz, and the break-up above may or may not be objectionable - IF you can hear that high (many can not)..


..the response curves may be smoothed, caveat emptor..


..don't think the bug screen is an issue in that respect, the standard phasing plug will utterly dominate that. (..if it was a ring-type like BMS then it might considering there isn't any real phasing-plug, don't know - but BMS does use very shear fabric for their screens.)

It's showing good behavior to 17 kHz, BUT there may well be some added intensity due to a very small diffraction slot (for the horn) affecting that 14.5 - 17 kHz section (..which is "up" in level on the 0 & 30 degree axis relative to the 60 degree axis; the similarity between 0 and 30 degrees suggests a diffraction slot to me.) The resonance at nearly 22 kHz shouldn't be audible (..in part because it's so high in freq., and also because it's below the average). Basically then it's fairly linear for a titanium driver up to at least 14.5 kHz - and decent above that to 17 kHz without an effect that would be disturbing.

The response curves look to be no more than 1/24th octave smoothing (if that). But I'd say they definitely look smoothed - their coating just isn't going to lower the "hash" that much below the top octave. (..and likewise, the driver's very minute "hash" on the lower-end doesn't look much like ripple from the horn, more like a modestly smoothed condition when considering how narrow-band the "hash" is.)

One of the more interesting things to me in their graph is the Impedance trace.. That's a low fs and I'm not seeing higher freq. deviation due to the mouth's exit. To me that suggests its either a very deep narrow-directivity horn or a very wide and shallow waveguide. I'm guessing the former based on the output at lower freq.s and the substantial directivity.
 
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that strained character sure can be apparent - PRV's D280ti is a nice inexpensive driver with more body than say ASD1001 when used on coax - it does best ~2K5 - even the tough old Eminence CD sound strained with a generic 1K6 network. This Tymphany looks good for the money and may make a very good K-tube driver.

+1 on this driver. Even though budget priced and same as subject CD from Tymphany - it extends even lower has metal Ti diaphragm, same sensitivity, and a cleaner top HF extension. I really like it and highly recommend it for your next project. Does not have sibillance.

PRV Audio D280Ti-B 1" Titanium Horn Compression Driver 8 Ohm 2/3-Bolt
 
I'd like to see real measurements on that, and would like to know what the surround is made of.

One of the things I think is particularly important is Impedance. Many compression drivers (lower and higher priced offerings) have Impedances that require so much compensation for a decent result that using nicer passive components in the design results in a compensation network that is more expensive than the driver itself. This is that "cart before the horse" thing that can make an otherwise inexpensive build turn into something costly (both monetarily and quite often subjectively - ie. poorer sound).
 
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I'd like to see real measurements on that, and would like to know what the surround is made of.

One of the things I think is particularly important is Impedance. Many compression drivers (lower and higher priced offerings) have Impedances that require so much compensation for a decent result that using nicer passive components in the design results in a compensation network that is more expensive than the driver itself. This is that "cart before the horse" thing that can make an otherwise inexpensive build turn into something costly (both monetarily and quite often subjectively - ie. poorer sound).

The D280Ti measures very close to factory curve with a kink in the LF but smooth above 1200Hz. If you look at a photo of the replacement diaphragm, it looks all titanium with a what appears to be a pattern of diamond shaped dents around the surround to allow the metal to flex.

PRV Audio RPD280Ti Replacement Diaphragm for D280Ti

Here is the measured impedance in a PRV WG16-25-B waveguide:

499121d1439868583-your-next-compression-driver-d280ti-wg16-25-b-impedance.png


Here is the measured response (in green) but with a highpass at 3500Hz for the Harsch 3-way XO. I did not save the response below this XO frequency:

499122d1439868583-your-next-compression-driver-harsch-3-way-xo.png
 

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You can't compare the tymphany to any other compression driver unless it's done under the same conditions.

No one knows which horn was used on the tymphany and a compression drivers response, low end limit and high frequency behaviour are extremely heavily dependant on the horn design.

Comparisons based on unknown test procedures are utterly meaningless.
 
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You can't compare the tymphany to any other compression driver unless it's done under the same conditions.

No one knows which horn was used on the tymphany and a compression drivers response, low end limit and high frequency behaviour are extremely heavily dependant on the horn design.

Comparisons based on unknown test procedures are utterly meaningless.

Utterly meaningless is a bit much don't you think? You will probably have what is representative from Vifa/Tymphany perhaps the most favorable waveguide or horn that they have for the results they post on their data sheet. So don't expect better performance. Tymphany is pretty good about their frequency measurements being fairly accurate and not put through some sort of PR image enhancement campaign like some manufacturers. (Like 120dB vertical scales)

Shame on Tymphany for not stating waveguide used. PRV does on their data sheet. On my measurement you can see what the waveguide did to the impedance - put a big peak at the 1500Hz design cutoff frequency.
 
Utterly meaningless for comparison with different horns yes. Horns dramatically shape almost all aspects of a drivers performance as far as raw frequency response is concerned.

You can make a few rough guesses like the tymphany graph is likely a radial horn due to fairly linear on axis response and sagging off axis response as frequency increases. If it were a constant directivity horn, on axis response would have a similar droop.

As a really random example, a paudio ph220 gives a midrange hump in its response which is present on different compression drivers on the same horn but not present on different horns. You could put a weak compression driver on this horn and push a frequency response chart below 2khz not knowing it's horn related and on a different horn would lose 8 to 10db at 2-3khz.

So yes, unless you know how that driver was tested, it means very little.
 
IMO this is an interesting compression driver for a number of reasons.

1. Inexpensive,
2. Built via Tymphany (..better expected quality control)
3. "Strong" output below 1.5 kHz for a 1" exit driver
4. Pretty linear impedance above 1 kHz.
5. Metal diaphragm (and generally better detail production) but with:
6. Plastic surround (for better performance at lower freq.s)

Transducer Detail | Tymphany

Tymphany DFM-2535R00-08 1" Compression Horn Driver 2/4-Bolt 8 Ohm


Basically this looks like a 1" exit driver that you can cross-over as low as 1.4 kHz and still get good lower treble (..which is unusual IMO) - at a price that's actually more than reasonable. :)

..bug screen should be cut-out.

Been thinking to buy that tymphany
haven´t found out much thoughts that from the web

PD.CD1N
this interests me too