Dayton DC160 Modifications?

GeoffMillar

Hello

I've also posted this on PETT, but not all DIY people read that, so here I am.

 I know many people don't like this driver, but I enjoy my Classix II and hope to build the 2.5s.

A recent customer review for the DC160 suggested that the mid range response could be improved by placing strips of tape on the woofer's dust cap. That seemed to make a small difference to the midrange response, according to the posted measurements. The reviewer thought that they might in future also use glue stripes, as per some Scan-Speak woofers (?)

I assume that once either mod has been done, it can't be undone, so I'd appreciate your ideas on whether either mod might work, or harm the drivers. They're not cheap in Oz any more so I don't want to ruin them.

Thank you!

Geoff

dcibel

Careful taking advice from random online reviews - there's a lot of people out there that don't know what they're doing, and some are even equipped with microphones.

That reviewers images look nothing like a DC160 frequency response, and the only change the tape appears to have made is at 3kHz, and fairly minor at that. Hopefully you are crossing the DC160 well below 3kHz. Anyway, if you like the DC160, then don't fix it if it ain't broke, especially if the risk involved can be quite costly.

If it were me and I wanted to stiffen the dust cap, I'd probably tape it off and spray some lacquer on it to harden it up with minimal added weight and hopefully without disastrous visual side effects.

FWIW on the glue comment, Satori MR16 have what looks to be a bead of glue around the back side of the cone near the surround edge, to help tame the cone breakup. I don't know of Scan-Speak doing anything like this, other than the iconic slit cone design of course.

You can see the glue bead clearly in this photo:

GeoffMillar

dcibel said:

Careful taking advice from random online reviews - there's a lot of people out there that don't know what they're doing, and some are even equipped with microphones.

That reviewers images look nothing like a DC160 frequency response, and the only change the tape appears to have made is at 3kHz, and fairly minor at that. Hopefully you are crossing the DC160 well below 3kHz. Anyway, if you like the DC160, then don't fix it if it ain't broke, especially if the risk involved can be quite costly.

If it were me and I wanted to stiffen the dust cap, I'd probably tape it off and spray some lacquer on it to harden it up with minimal added weight and hopefully without disastrous visual side effects.

FWIW on the glue comment, Satori MR16 have what looks to be a bead of glue around the back side of the cone near the surround edge, to help tame the cone breakup. I don't know of Scan-Speak doing anything like this, other than the iconic slit cone design of course.

You can see the glue bead clearly in this photo:

Thank you, that makes a lot of sense.  I think the DC160s in the Classix II are crossed at about 2,000 Hz.

Perhaps the take-out from this is that, as per another recent post, 'you can't polish a turd', although that's being unkind to the DC160.  Paul Carmody has worked wonders with it in his designs and I wouldn't wish to mess them up after reading an on-line suggestion.

Geoff