Hi Jp,What drivers are you using? Any pics? The cabs must be very good looking since you know woodworking.
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When I first hooked up my DEX2496 I noticed a new clarity just by having the steep slopes on each driver. The opamps used in the xover are not very clean. So I took the dex out and went passive again.
Reciently I put the LM4562 opamp in the output board and removed the other opamps in the signal path. The improvement is very large.
The second way to get a good sound out of the DEX2496 is to send a digital signal into it. I have the SRC2496 feeding the DEX2496.
The third way is to keep the output level of the DCX high and use a preamp to limit the volume.
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For normal listening levels a low priced driver in a line array (8 per side) will be used with very low wattages. 6.25 watts in 8 drivers will replace 50 watts in one driver. The cone sound color (resonance) will still be there, but since the excursion is so low, the driver will sound very clean. The voice coil will stay in the gap. The suspension will stay very linear. The air when compressed distorts some. This effect is also reduced by having more cone area. The expensive drivers place a large amt of the construction cost in a suspension and magnet that stay linear at higher wattages.
My first array was with the $.98 NSB drivers.
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-Linc