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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: 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.

Test Bench: B&C Speakers DCX354 High-Powered Coaxial Compression Driver and Horn

August 2, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: B&C Speakers DCX354 High-Powered Coaxial Compression Driver and Horn

The B&C Speakers DCX354 ring radiator coaxial dual-diaphragm compression driver is a similar design to its big brother, the B&C Speakers DCX464 that was featured in the October 2019 issue of Voice Coil. The DCX354 has a 3" midrange diaphragm and a 2" and is good down to 400Hz. The horn tested with the DCX354-16 was the new B&C ME464, a very large horn device made of durable polyurethane plastic with an 80°×60° nominal coverage pattern. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2023.

Test Bench: SB Audience 44CDN-PK 1" PEEK Diaphragm Compression Driver

July 26, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: SB Audience 44CDN-PK 1" PEEK Diaphragm Compression Driver

The SB Audience Rosso 44CDN-PK is combined with the H250 90°×60° exponential horn. The driver features a 44.3mm (1.75") diameter voice coil driving a single piece PEEK diaphragm and surround, and including a FEA-optimized neodymium ring magnet motor structure, annular phase plug design, and a cast-aluminum damped rear chamber. This driver has a 60W AES power handling rating (120W maximum), with a 1.8kHz recommended crossover frequency.

Test Bench: Wavecor’s TW045WA01 Coaxial Cloth Dome/Ceramic Cone Tweeter

June 21, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Wavecor’s TW045WA01 Coaxial Cloth Dome/Ceramic Cone Tweeter

This Test Bench characterizes the innovative TW045WA01 dual-diaphragm coaxial tweeter from Wavecor. This driver's dual-diaphragm assembly combines a 22mm coated textile dome for high-frequency extension and a 45mm ceramic/aluminum cone, which adds low-frequency output and efficiency. The hybrid design incorporates a dual neodymium magnet motor structure and sculpted foam damping ring attached to the faceplate. A very unique driver that is certain to appear in new two-channel high-end audio loudspeakers.

Test Bench: Faital Pro’s 10HX230 Coaxial 10" Pro Sound Driver

June 7, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Faital Pro’s 10HX230 Coaxial 10" Pro Sound Driver

The 10HX230 10" coaxial professional driver from Faital Pro is another interesting example in the category, particularly well-received in professional audio applications. The Faital Pro 10" 10HX230 driver expands the company's extensive 12 model coaxial line. The driver is built on a proprietary six-spoke cast-aluminum frame, a curvilinear uncoated paper cone woofer, driven by a ferrite magnet, and a compression driver driven by a separate neodymium motor attached to the back plate horn mounted coincident with the woofer. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2023.

Test Bench: The Radian Audio 475BEPB-8 1" Beryllium Compression Driver

May 10, 2023 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: The Radian Audio 475BEPB-8 1" Beryllium Compression Driver

This Test Bench centers on the Materion beryllium version of the popular Radian Audio 475PB 1" ferrite motor compression driver, also available with Radian’s outstanding sounding proprietary aerospace-grade aluminum alloy. These beryllium diaphragms are produced by Radian at its Pomona, CA, facility under license from Materion. This Test Bench offers a comparison analysis of the aluminum alloy with the beryllium model. An insightful characterization for speaker builders, designers, and manufacturers. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2023.

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