For those who have bought the DCA 5.5 M drivers

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Posted by akhilesh [ 63.166.222.232 ] on May 31, 2007 at 17:58:04:

HI everyone,
Dave told me a lot of folks are buying his drivers. I've also been getting emails from folks about what to do with them, so I thought posting here would be helpful to all.

For those who have bought the drivers, Here are some thoughts to keep in mind:

1. The box is very imoprtant! I use mine in a PAWO horn (simple to build and a real Back loaded horn). YOu could try an Onken horn, or a zigma hornet too, but I don't know how they will be in that. Bass reflex may work as well, but I doubt if you will get the same bass quality as the PAWO horn.

2. The room is important! Smaller rooms are better, and well damped rooms are better

3. PLacement is important. I liked them about 2-3 feet from side walls, about 3 feet from rear wall, and only slightly toed in

4. Listen to them about 15 degress off axis (the slight toe in does that for you). They have abump over 5000 Hz, and the off axis listening will mellow them out.

5. Make sure they are not too far from you...maybe 5-8 feet away is best.

If you do all of tis, you have a speaker that is the ideal we all seek: a reverse microphone with decent frequency response! Imaging & coherence will be of course what you would expect: pipoint.

YOu may be tempted to put in the usual stuff: baffle step correction, subwoofer, etc. My advice: DON'T. The main reason I like these is becuase they are the only speaker drivers I have found that have decent frequency extension on both ends and can be run PURe full range, with no EQ stuff in between, except for the box of course.

PLaced PROPERLY, these will bring a coherence to the music that is hard to describe but you will fell it. PLaced wrongly, they can sound not too good. So play around. The PAWO horn is really light to move around as well.

The PAWO horn should cost you about $200 to build with a decent wood worker. PLans are available for free on web.

THese speakers sound great with a push pull tube amplifier, like an el34 or el84.

Of course, as most of you know, I have nO COMMERCIAL interest in these whatsoever. Just sharing my experiences!
Enjoy!
-akhilesh




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