# Reference level



## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZD5.html

Something he whipped up !
"Not using the 1/4 cost Asians"
edit}
These aren't the cheapest drivers in the world, so the emphasis for the project is performance over value. To the point, I expect this to be the highest performance 5" 2-way I've ever designed and also the most expensive. Still, it's not too expensive, and these drivers live up to their price while most other big dollar drivers are easily outperformed by Asian manufactured drivers at 1/4 the cost.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

Little bit o lovin for the tweeter.
edit}
has some tweaking benefits to be shown later. The XT25 is a tweeter without ferrofluid and it has a huge, sharp impedance peak. The conjugate notch is required. Without it, the tweeter will ring at the Fs, causing audible distortion.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

The real deal on your x-over
edit]
The parts I recommend are as follows:
Eagle Metal Oxide Film for all resistors. Madisound medium bobbin standard air cores for all inductors except L14, which can be anything you want as long as it's DCR is .3 ohms or less. A Solen Perfect Lay 14 awg will do for L14, but a Sledgehammer Steel Laminate 15AWG will do even better for less money if you can unwind a 2.0mH to 1.8mH and have an LCR meter to confirm the value. Madisound can also unwind it for you for a small fee. Bennic Poly capacitors for all caps except for C10 and C20, which can be electrolytic. If you're afraid of using electrolytics, I recommend Solen Chateauroux Poly Fast Caps for C10 and C10. For C1, you will have to parallel a 1.0 and 3.3uF. 

R12's value is listed as 4.7 ohms, but when you order it should probably be a 4.0 ohm, considering the series resistance of L11. That's what the green note means on the schematic. 

Don't feel locked into these brands, they are just what I use myself. Whatever components you pick, don't get sucked into the snobbish audiophile hype regarding excessively expensive crossover components. This crossover doesn't have to cost $600 a pair, and you couldn't tell the difference if you did spend that much. The drivers are expensive because they do make a difference.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

Hic said:


> http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZD5.html
> 
> "Not using the 1/4 cost Asians"
> edit}
> while most other big dollar drivers are easily outperformed by Asian manufactured drivers at 1/4 the cost.


So , has anyone tried the money saving drivers he speaks of ?


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## BLD 25 (Apr 13, 2007)

n/m


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## Dangerranger (Apr 12, 2006)

Hic said:


> So , has anyone tried the money saving drivers he speaks of ?


Depends on the drivers in question, but for the most part asian drivers are getting a lot better, and at the same time a lot of the traditionally "high end" manufacturers have gone to sleep on advancing their product. Look at the Hi-vi D6.8..it is a Morel/Dynaudio clone, yet it outperforms both of them and costs $60. While Hi-vi has a pretty good driver there, I'd really blame more on the fact that Morel and Dyn (Dyn moreso) getting lazy.

SEAS, Scanspeak, and Peerless are still the manufacturers I'd consider to be at the top of the curve, SEAS being the one that's making the most ground because they've covered such a wide range of products lately with excellent results all around. I saw the test of the new W16NX driver and the motor looks just like the test of the W18NX driver did-in other words, linearity as flat as a ruler, inductance variation was excellent, and most importantly it's been consistent in numerous independant tests instead of just being "factory freaks"


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

just curious , is all .

more for less is the claim!


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

Guess nobody is running these , darn , 0.25 cents as opposed to a dollar  

1/4th the cost


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## thadman (Mar 1, 2006)

Usher, Dayton, Tang Band, Fountek are all Asian I believe.

The Ushers are VERY high performance and quite cost competitive. They retail around $110 and cost around ~$70ish on sale as compared to $200+ for Scanspeak, while providing the same level of performance.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

thadman said:


> Usher, Dayton, Tang Band, Fountek are all Asian I believe.
> 
> The Ushers are VERY high performance and quite cost competitive. They retail around $110 and cost around ~$70ish on sale as compared to $200+ for Scanspeak, while providing the same level of performance.


That is kinda close , 55.00 times 4 equals 200.00 plus.

70.00 times 4 equals 280.00. so in my mind if you could buy a 280.00 speaker for 1/4th the cost it would be 70.00.


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## thadman (Mar 1, 2006)

a$$hole said:


> That is kinda close , 55.00 times 4 equals 200.00 plus.
> 
> 70.00 times 4 equals 280.00. so in my mind if you could buy a 280.00 speaker for 1/4th the cost it would be 70.00.


I don't believe he was speaking in absolutes, price varies with the Asian drivers. If he was, he probably would've included an example.


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