Page description

About Vance Dickason

Vance Dickason has been working as a professional in the loudspeaker industry since 1974. A contributing editor to Speaker Builder magazine (now audioXpress) since 1986, in November 1987 he became editor of Voice Coil, the monthly Periodical for the Loudspeaker Industry, today published by KCK Media Corp. His globally acclaimed book Loudspeaker Design Cookbook is now in its 8th Edition, published by KCK Media. A life member of the Audio Engineering Society, Vance received the 1995 AES Citation Award for his long term contribution to audio education, and the 2013 Beryllium Award, Lifetime achievement from ALMA (Associating of Loudspeaker Manufacturers and Acoustics, now ALTI Association). Since 2001, he also does business as Vance Dickason Consultancy based out of Portland, Oregon, working as an independent engineering consultant to loudspeaker manufacturers.

All items written by Vance Dickason

Neotera Audio Introduces Ultra Flat Series Woofers

November 24, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Neotera Audio Introduces Ultra Flat Series Woofers

Neotera Audio, which has manufacturing in Italy and engineering in Sweden, has recently released two rather interesting thin-profile 10" woofers, the UF295CBS, and the UF295FAS. Both woofers have a voice coil and motor structure located around the rim of the cone assembly, and both use and front and rear facing NBR surrounds for compliance. The UF295CBS was designed for small closed box subwoofer applications, while the UF295FAS is a a pure dipole woofer with a Fiberglass/Rohacell dome suspended directly on the voice coil.

Voice Coil Test Bench: The 18ME/9642T00 6.5" Midrange from Scan-Speak

November 22, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Voice Coil Test Bench: The 18ME/9642T00 6.5" Midrange from Scan-Speak

For this Test Bench, Vance Dickason measures the Scan-Speak 18ME/9642T00 Ellipticor 6.5" Midrange, the first driver to be offered only to Scan-Speak's OEM customers, not available on the DIY retail market. Benefiting from the oval (elliptical) voice coil shape that characterizes the Ellipticor range, this midrange also features the AirCirc motor structure, and Symmetrical Drive SD-2 motor format.

Voice Coil Test Bench: Wavecor's WF182BD13-04 7" Midbass Driver

November 15, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Voice Coil Test Bench: Wavecor's WF182BD13-04 7" Midbass Driver

The Wavecor WF182BD13 is a midbass driver that utilizes a unique proprietary cone material made with interwoven Kevlar/Carbon fibers with beneficial properties for midrange reproduction - a combination of low mass, rigidness, and damping. Unique features include a vented inverted dome-type phase plug (no dust cap), a shallow profile low loss high Qm NBR surround, accompanied by a flat 4” diameter black cloth spider.

Voice Coil Test Bench: The 10NMFS 10” Subwoofer from Beyma’s Near and Mid Field (NMF) Line

November 8, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Voice Coil Test Bench: The 10NMFS 10” Subwoofer from Beyma’s Near and Mid Field (NMF) Line

Beyma's Near and Mid Field (NMF) line includes this compact woofer aimed at the studio/home audio market, one of three models with a similar feature set that includes carbon fiber cones and dust caps, Malt Cross cooling technology, triple aluminum, and copper shorting rings, dual Bimax spiders, and Quattro inside/outside voice coil windings. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, August 2023.

Vance Dickason's Loudspeaker Design Cookbook Celebrates 46 Years in Print with Expanded 8th Edition!

October 20, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Vance Dickason's Loudspeaker Design Cookbook Celebrates 46 Years in Print with Expanded 8th Edition!

More than 150,000 copies in print and acclaimed as the loudspeaker engineering "bible," Vance Dickason's Loudspeaker Design Cookbook celebrates 46 Years with an expanded 8th Edition. Vance Dickason explains what is new in this much expanded edition, published in color for the first time, and available softbound or hardbound.

Test Bench: Fountek Electronics' NeoPro 5i 5" Diaphragm Ribbon Tweeter

October 3, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Fountek Electronics' NeoPro 5i 5" Diaphragm Ribbon Tweeter

This Test Bench article characterizes a ribbon tweeter from Fountek Electronics. This company from Shanghai, with manufacturing operations located in Hefei (Anhui Province), sent its NeoPro 5i high-end ribbon tweeter, which combines a large 145mm × 15mm reinforced sandwich ribbon diaphragm with a closed-back injection-molded rear cavity, two aluminum heatsinks and a built-in transformer. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, July 2023.

Test Bench: The Stereo Integrity M25 mkII Surface-Mountable Tweeter

September 27, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The Stereo Integrity M25 mkII Surface-Mountable Tweeter

Founded in 2001, Stereo Integrity is an OEM speaker driver manufacturer from North Carolina that also designs its own range of hi-fi amplifiers, sold directly to consumers online. The company sent its M25 mkII high-end tweeter, which features a 25mm silk dome diaphragm and surround, a dual-magnet neodymium motor, a black anodized aluminum motor housing with a tuned rear chamber, two-layer CCAW wound voice coil, and a compact 50mm diameter face plate with a steel anodized grill. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, July 2023.

Test Bench: The SB29SDNC-C000-4 29mm Compact Neo Cloth Dome Tweeter from SB Acoustics

September 20, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The SB29SDNC-C000-4 29mm Compact Neo Cloth Dome Tweeter from SB Acoustics

This Test Bench characterizes the SB29SDNC-C000-4 29mm cloth dome tweeter from SB Acoustics, a shielded neodymium motor driver with a compact 72mm diameter injection-molded face plate and large surround, featuring a copper cap shorting ring on the pole piece, internal pressure equalization, and a flow resistor for non-resonance cavity coupling. Another characterization of the innovative tweeter designs launched by Sinar Baja, developed by Ulrik Schmidt and Frank Nielsen at Danesian Audio.

Test Bench: The TW29BNWG Beryllium Dome and Waveguide from SB Acoustics

September 13, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The TW29BNWG Beryllium Dome and Waveguide from SB Acoustics

The SB Acoustics TW29BNWG is a great evolution of the Satori TW29BN tweeter. The new high-end 29mm beryllium diaphragm neodymium dome, this Satori driver incorporates a 170mm (6.7") diameter aluminum waveguide, an 8mm wide coated cloth surround, a 29mm (1.14") beryllium diaphragm, dual copper caps on the T-shaped pole piece, dual balanced compression chambers, non-reflective optimally damped rear cavity, and CCAW round voice coil wire. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, June 2023.

Test Bench: The D8404-552000 Ellipticor Cloth Diaphragm Dome Midrange from Scan-Speak

September 6, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The D8404-552000 Ellipticor Cloth Diaphragm Dome Midrange from Scan-Speak

This characterization is the sixth Scan-Speak Ellipticor driver to appear in Test Bench. The Scan-Speak D8404 is a large dome midrange with a large diaphragm area and respective voice coil diameter. For a motor system, Scan-Speak basically scaled up its currently successful AirCirc tweeter motor with 12 neodymium slugs, with a titanium voice coil former, all part of the patented Symmetrical Drive SD-2 motor format. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, June 2023.

«
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
...
30
31
»