Dayton Mini Speakers

[Adam_G]

I was wondering if anyone got a chance to play with the dayton audio mini speakers yet.
More specifically: THESE, the Dayton Audio CE28A-4R 1-1/8" drivers.

I like the fairly generous 1.1mm xmax and the concave aluminum diaphragm. Looks like a good time.

If you did get your hands on these, what did you think? Have any fun with them?

The price is right, so on my next order (the next few days) I plan on picking a few up in order to reach the free shipping.

You could get a whole bunch of these for fairly cheap! Pair a bunch of them up with the 6.5" poly buyout and you may have something fun on the cheap.

[SirNickity]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

I bought a few of them to compare. With a very crude cardboard box test, the paper one (IIRC, it was the CE52P) sounded better to me than the aluminum one(s?) I tried. I would have to look through my stack of parts to see what I actually ordered. I also picked up the smallest of the ND series drivers -- I think it was the ND90 -- for comparison, and as you might expect, it appears to be considerably more capable. Using one ND90 as a "subwoofer" with a pair of CE52Ps has some potential for an office / bathroom / desktop radio.

That's all I have so far -- it's a back-burner project.

[Adam_G]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

I bought a few of them to compare. With a very crude cardboard box test, the paper one (IIRC, it was the CE52P) sounded better to me than the aluminum one(s?) I tried. I would have to look through my stack of parts to see what I actually ordered. I also picked up the smallest of the ND series drivers -- I think it was the ND90 -- for comparison, and as you might expect, it appears to be considerably more capable. Using one ND90 as a "subwoofer" with a pair of CE52Ps has some potential for an office / bathroom / desktop radio.

That's all I have so far -- it's a back-burner project.

At twice the price I'd hope the CE52P sounded better!

I think I'm going to play with a bunch of them in an array, say 6 per side, and fiddle around with my miniDSP. They're pretty decent across a rather wide bandpass, so I figure it couldn't hurt.

I make some legit cardboard baffles, that's for sure. I've got a ton of triple-thick cardboard left! :D

[Melby Audio]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

I bought a pair of the CE46P, and was disappointed. After breaking them in, and trying them out in a crude cardboard enclosure, I decided that they were not worth my time. I ended up going with the Vifa TC7FD00 for about $3 more per driver, which sound outstanding. YMMV

[SirNickity]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

Sure, it's larger and more expensive -- but when we're talking about fractions of an inch and a price difference that couldn't buy you a soy latte, I'm not inclined to assume much. ;-) Interestingly, it was the mid and highs that I thought were notably better. That could be more of a construction or cone material thing than size.

Certainly an interesting experiment though. I love toying with esoteric designs. There are enough competent 1cf vented 2-way designs with 6" midwoofers to last us a lifetime.

[Adam_G]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

Well, as of now it looks like I'll be picking up 12 of them to fill in to free shipping, worst case scenario I return them if they are bad. :rolleyes:

They seem like they could be fun, and maybe I'll work on my passive crossover design with them! Haha.

[SirNickity]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

Cool. Please come back and post your thoughts when you've had some time with them. There's not enough info on those little guys around here.

[Adam_G]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

I haven't had an opportunity for a critical listening session, but I was abke to do a photo shoot.

These things are hysterically small.

A penny is a good source for scale!

Here they are:









One thing I don't like is the terminals aren't flexible at all. It seems they are meant to be soldered onto.

[Adam_G]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

More pictures:

[craigk]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

wow, that is small. let us know how they sound. this is interesting.

[johnnyrichards]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

I always thought one of those plus those flat piston HiWave with a crossover around 1K (to help with the really nasty distortion spike there) would make for a unique, very affordable "2" in a 2.1 desktop system.

[ameuba10]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

A penny? I knew they were small, but geez

[dcibel]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

Could be a nice line array driver if the performance is there. You'll need a bunch to get the sensitivity up to a reasonable level, but at the price you can afford to buy them by the crate.

[Adam_G]

Re: Dayton Mini Speakers

I wish I could measure them for you guys, but I don't have the gear to do it!

Here's my listening impressions, playing around with my computer's EQ to find trouble spots:

They are very good from 250hz up to around 7k (in my opinion), as you could probably tell from the graphs, but you really need to take it down from there because there is a simbilance to the very top end that needs to be removed.

They are very fun to watch flex below 250hz, but letting them do that = lots of distortion in the rest of the bandwidth. :p

I just bought them to have fun, but I may make a super simple crossover for them to roll off the top end and limit the low end. It would be really cool to pair them up with one of the tiny subwoofers or something.

If I were to go for a real line array with them (I've got very little experience in this field), I'd go with something like this:

o= these mini speakers
T= ribbon tweeter or something
W= woofer for bass-300hz

o|||||||||||||||||o
o|||||||||||||||||o
oW||||||||||||Wo
oT||||||||||||||To
oW||||||||||||Wo
o|||||||||||||||||o
o|||||||||||||||||o


Of course with many more of the mini speakers than I put there, but you get the idea. Could be a lot of fun!

My current idea, I'm not sure if I'll do it or not, is to either mount these in a plexiglass baffle, with either a U frame made of plexi behind it or half of a piece of black PVC or something to give it a cool look, maybe put LEDs in behind it that go with the music. Not sure yet. Could be a really cool desktop system to plug my lady's laptop into on her glass desk.

Surprisingly enough, my lady, who hates speakers, doesn't dislike these one bit! ( They're not replacing the mains in the living room any time soon though. :D )