10/16/05

The RS Hi-Fi 12" woofer maintains the standard of performance to price ratio of the original Dayton Reference Series drivers.  Now the Reference line is complete from bottom to top with the addition of these high excursion drivers.   The so called, "High Output" version will be measured later but preliminary results suggest that the Hi-Fi version will be the best for those wanting the best in High Fidelity.  

Getting a little sidetracked here... "High Output" version???    They both have the same surface area and they both have the same linear excursion.  Neither posses any magical powers...so, the output capability is the same at low frequency unless you create a new lower limit by placing either in such a small enclosure as to make the thermal capacity of the VC the limiting factor.  So the, "High Output" version is really a, "Small Box" version since its heftier VC will enable it to reach its excursion limit in a smaller enclosure without first smoking the coil.   Requiring a massive amount of power to bottom the woofer due to the small enclosure is a bad thing, not a good.  The less power required to reach maximum excursion the better!   Requiring less power to bottom the woofer does not mean lower power handling, it means higher efficiency.  Like I said before, both woofers have the same surface area and the same linear excursion and neither has magical powers so if you are moving the Hi-Fi version +/- 14 mm at 20 Hz with 100 watts in a large box and you are moving the Hi-Output version +/- 14 mm at 20 Hz with 1000 watts in a small box, they both have the same output...it just takes ten times more power to achieve it with one of them.  Prevent bottoming with a rumble filter, not with a stiffer suspension and a smaller box.  It just makes no sense to think a small box translates to, "high output" or greater power handling.

I'm trying something new here.  Instead of just posting a bunch of data with thumbnail links, I'm going to try posting a zip file with the data.

Download Data:

We'll see how well this works and if it doesn't then I'll just go back to posting it in the usual format.

Anyway, one amazing thing about this woofer is its ability to perform well up to several hundred Hz.  This is a little unusual for this kind of heavy high excursion driver.  I guess if you are not too critical you could use this driver to 1Khz but personally I wouldn't use any 12" driver that high except in certain pro-audio applications.  I would feel very comfortable however using this driver to 300 Hz.  In most of the applications I have planned for it I will not use it above about 140 Hz but that is more because this is what the application calls for rather than any concern with using this driver higher in frequency. 

I think this driver will be a first rate performer in both di-pole applications and box applications.  It seems about as good as the XLS in the mid bass region with some frequencies possibly better on the XLS and others better with the RS.  Generally the two are close in the mid bass region.  The RS is better at very low frequency and will also be better than the XLS at frequencies above 100 Hz.  The RS is also the quieter of the two making it a much better choice for any dipole application than the XLS.  

I have a new dipole in the works right now.  It will be using two of the RS 12" Hi-Fi drivers in the botom of the main dipole panels and another two in each of twin sealed enclosure subwoofers.  The pcb I have made for the crossover will have selectable crossover points between the main panel and the subwoofer for a stand alone mode and two crossover points to the sub.  For example in the stand alone mode the main panel rumble filter might be set to about 15 Hz with the option to set it to 30 Hz or 40 Hz to the sub.  The subwoofer output section of the board has two settings that could be set to match the 30 Hz and 40 Hz setting. 

So in conclusion, I have the one sample RS 12 Hi-Fi right now and will be ordering ultimately at least eight more of them.  I see this as a woofer of choice for both dipole and box applications.