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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

Test Bench: The SIG180-4 6.5” Woofer from Dayton Audio’s Signature Series

July 10, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The SIG180-4 6.5” Woofer from Dayton Audio’s Signature Series

Dayton Audio’s SIG180-4 is part of a woofer series with five cost-effective, high-performance models, ranging from 4” to 10”. All drivers include single-piece concave aluminum cones, polyimide vented voice coil formers, open cast-aluminum frames, plus indexed shallow transition NBR surrounds. Rated for 80W RMS power handling capacity, the SIG180-4 woofer features a FEA-optimized ferrite motor design and a 1.25” voice coil wound with round copper wire.

Test Bench: Eighteen Sound’s 8NTLS2000 8" Pro Sound Woofer

May 22, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Eighteen Sound’s 8NTLS2000 8" Pro Sound Woofer

Eighteen Sound's latest 8NTLS2000 8" high-power handling woofer, designed for professional audio applications represents the latest Tetracoil technology from the brand. It maximizes benefits in terms of thermal dissipation and Bl symmetry, making the 8NTLS2000 ideal for small volume subwoofers, high-quality line arrays, and compact multi-way systems. The 8NTLS2000 benefits from its substantial cooling vents that allows air to move past the voice coil and across the front side of the neodymium motor assembly. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2024.

Test Bench: The Excel 29mm T29X001 Home Audio Tweeter from SEAS

May 15, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The Excel 29mm T29X001 Home Audio Tweeter from SEAS

The SEAS T29X001 tweeter, from the company's high-end Excel line of transducers, is a wide surround format type, like the original Vifa DX/XT tweeters, and combines the latest Composite Sound metamodal thin-ply carbon diaphragm (TPCD) technology with the seriously outstanding SEAS Excel radially charged Hexadym motor structure. This new tweeter makes the Norwegian manufacturer effectively the first company in the market to offer the latest metamodal TPCD diaphragm solution.

Test Bench: The New LM10n Wide Band Midrange Ribbon Transducer from Radian Audio Engineering

May 8, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The New LM10n Wide Band Midrange Ribbon Transducer from Radian Audio Engineering

This is the eagerly awaited characterization of the new LM10n planar ribbon from Radian Audio, one of the most interesting drivers launched in 2023. Like all of Radian's latest planar transducers this one was designed by 35-year loudspeaker engineering veteran Igor Levitsky, with the LM10n being the latest and larger sized model, described as a wide range 120Hz to 20kHz ribbon planar transducer, which excels as a midrange and can be utilized in both open-back (dipole) and closed-back (monopole) formats.

Test Bench: The New DE350-8 Ultra-Compact 1" Compression Driver from B&C Speakers

May 1, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The New DE350-8 Ultra-Compact 1" Compression Driver from B&C Speakers

This Test Bench characterizes an ultra-compact (under 60mm diameter) compression driver, along with the B&C Speakers ME10v2 90°x60° coverage horn. The really cool feature of the DE350-8 is the patent-pending phase plug. Inside, the DE350 has a round symmetrical outside channel, and an inside channel with a patent-pending twist for overall improved frequency response. Weighing in at a mere 275 gram, it is an ideal candidate for the new generation of lighter, more compact line array loudspeakers.

A Visit to Audio Precision to See the New APx516 Analyzer

April 24, 2024 by Vance Dickason

A Visit to Audio Precision to See the New APx516 Analyzer

Vance Dickason visited Audio Precision's headquarters in Beaverton, OR, where he met with Dan Knighten, AP's Product Line General Manager, to talk about the new Audio Precision APx516 Analyzer. This is a new relatively economical analyzer for the company, with a base price of $6000, which means that the APx516 is ideal for use with remote engineering staff, making it practical for companies to have high-precision test and measurement work being done in multiple locations.

Test Bench: The Purifi Audio PTT8.0X04-NAB-02 8” Aluminum Cone Woofer

April 10, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The Purifi Audio PTT8.0X04-NAB-02 8” Aluminum Cone Woofer

The PTT8.0X04-NAB-02 is the fifth Purifi woofer to be examined in Test Bench. The new 8" aluminum cone woofer includes the same constant Sd surround, cone edge stiffening ring, and low magnetic hysteresis motor design as previous models. The addition of the unique Purifi NBR surround, make the PTT8.0X04 like no other in the history of woofer development. The PTT8.0X04e is rated for 350W IEC268 long-term power handling, and a 9.3mm Xmax.

March 13, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The UF295FAS Thin-Profile Dipole 10" Woofer from Neotera

This new 10" thin-profile woofer comes from Neotera, a new company headquartered in Sweden, founded by a diverse group of loudspeaker/electronic design veterans. Maurizio Servadio is the engineer who invented the Neotera Ultraflat technology and is based in Italy where the UF295FAS is manufactured. This thin-profile woofer with a depth of 2.6" and with a low-frequency response down to 29Hz, is specifically designed for dipole system applications. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, November 2023.

Test Bench: The New 6” WF152BD09-04 Midbass Driver from Wavecor

March 6, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The New 6” WF152BD09-04 Midbass Driver from Wavecor

This Test Bench characterizes the 6" WF152BD09-04 midbass driver from Wavecor, part of a new line of midbass models using a unique proprietary interwoven Kevlar and carbon fiber cone material. The WF152BD09 has a generous feature set that includes a vented inverted dome-type phase plug (no dust cap) and a shallow profile low loss high Qm NBR surround, accompanied by a flat 4" diameter black cloth spider. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, November 2023.

Test Bench: The D2008/2010 Revised Classic Dome Tweeter from Scan-Speak

February 21, 2024 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The D2008/2010 Revised Classic Dome Tweeter from Scan-Speak

Vance Dickason measures the Scan-Speak D2008/2010, the revised version of the classic dome tweeter from the Danish brand. The D2010 and the D2008 are two revised classic Scan-Speak 19mm soft dome tweeters, originally launched more than 35 years ago. Scan-Speak basically discontinued production of the original 19mm ferrite magnet soft dome models and replaced them with these new 19mm textile dome neodymium motor versions.

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