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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: Radian Audio Engineering 745PB 1.4” Compression Driver

March 27, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Radian Audio Engineering 745PB 1.4” Compression Driver

In this Test Bench I characterized the 745PB 1.4” compression driver from Radian Audio Engineering. Based in Orange, CA, Radian is a serious player in the OEM loudspeaker component business, the sound contractor/fixed installation market, and the portable/tour sound industry. The 745PB has the expected rich feature set of other Radian compression drivers. Subjectively, this speaker is incredibly musical, detailed, and extremely easy to listen to — certainly a goal for all monitors. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, December 2018.

Test Bench: Celestion CDX14-2420 1.4” Compression Driver

March 20, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Celestion CDX14-2420 1.4” Compression Driver

In this Test Bench I characterized the CDX14-2420 1.4” compression driver from UK Pro Sound OEM manufacturer Celestion. Designed for use with 1.4” throat horns, the CDX14-2420 has a 35.6 mm (1.4”) throat diameter driven by a 60 mm (2.4”) diameter voice coil wound with edgewound copper-clad aluminum wire (CCAW) on a high-temperature fiberglass non-conducting former, which drives a deep-drawn titanium diaphragm and polyimide surround. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, December 2018.

Test Bench: Eighteen Sound ND4015BE Beryllium Compression Driver

March 13, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Eighteen Sound ND4015BE Beryllium Compression Driver

This Test Bench examines Eighteen Sound's ND4015BE beryllium compression driver, which was mated to an Eighteen Sound XR2064 60° × 40° horn. This compression driver is available in two versions, a 1.5" throat and a 2" throat. This review focuses on the 2" throat model. The ND4015BE has a 4”-diameter edge-wound aluminum voice coil on a nonconducting Nomex former, a 4" pure beryllium diaphragm with a polymer surround. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2014.

Test Bench: Celestion AN2075 2" Full-Range Compact Array Driver

March 7, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Celestion AN2075 2" Full-Range Compact Array Driver

The Celestion AN2075 has a 2”-diameter aluminum cone neodymium motor full-range transducer primarily intended for use in line source arrays. The AN2075 is built on a proprietary six-spoke molded-glass reinforced ABS frame. The cone assembly consists of a black anodized aluminum cone with a 19-mm diameter aluminum dust cap and whizzer-type extension. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2014.

Test Bench: SEAS Excel T35C002 Dome Midrange Tweeter

February 27, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: SEAS Excel T35C002 Dome Midrange Tweeter

This month’s Test Bench driver is the T35C002 1.5” tweeter from Norwegian high-end home audio manufacturer SEAS’s home audio driver Excel line. The T35C002 is basically an Excel line version of the company’s Exotic line T35 Alnico V tweeter, but it uses a neodymium magnet, with a 1.5” coated cloth diaphragm sourced from German high-end diaphragm manufacturer Dr. Kurt Muller (DKM). This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2014.

Test Bench: Punktkilde FSA621520-2300 2” Full-Range Driver

February 20, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Punktkilde FSA621520-2300 2” Full-Range Driver

Compact 1” to 2.5” diameter full-range drivers (micro speakers) are unquestionably one of the most used transducers in consumer electronics, finding broad applications in smart speakers, soundbars, and portable Bluetooth speakers. For this Test Bench we characterized the Punktkilde FSA621520-2300 2” diameter 3 Ω full-range driver. This article was published originally in Voice Coil, November 2018.

Test Bench: Punktkilde FSB611015-1400 1.5” Full-Range Driver

February 13, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Punktkilde FSB611015-1400 1.5” Full-Range Driver

Compact 1” to 2.5” diameter full-range drivers (micro speakers) are unquestionably one of the most used transducers in consumer electronics. They are finding broad applications in smart speakers, soundbars, and portable Bluetooth speakers. This Test Bench examines the FSB611015-1400 neodymium full-range driver from Eastech's "designed in Denmark" Punktkilde line. This is a 1.5” diameter 4 Ω driver built on a proprietary stamped frame that is fully vented below the spider mounting shelf. This article was published originally in Voice Coil, November 2018.

Test Bench: Dayton Audio RS180P-8 7” Reference Series Midwoofer

January 30, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: Dayton Audio RS180P-8 7” Reference Series Midwoofer

The 7” RS180P-8 Reference Series midwoofer from Dayton Audio uses a nice six-spoke cast-aluminum frame with narrow 10-mm wide spokes to minimize reflections back into the cone. The cone assembly is composed of a three-part lightweight paper cone that combines Kevlar and glass fiber with the paper slurry. Cosmetically speaking, this is very good looking driver. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2014.

Test Bench: BMS 4507ND Dual Diaphragm Coaxial Planar Wave Driver

January 16, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: BMS 4507ND Dual Diaphragm Coaxial Planar Wave Driver

The BMS 4507ND is a unique transducer that uses a neodymium coaxial compression driver to drive a planar waveguide intended for use in line arrays. BMS Speakers patented the two-way compression driver technology in 1997. This month’s Test Bench subject, the 6.5” 4507ND features a 300-Hz to 22-kHz bandwidth (6 to 22 kHz for the tweeter and 400 Hz to 6.3 kHz for the midrange). The rectangular planar waveguide is optimized for 0° to 15° vertical dispersion and up to 120° in the horizontal plane. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2014.

Test Bench: A 12-Inch NBR Pro Sound woofer from B&C Speakers

January 9, 2019 by Vance Dickason

Test Bench: A 12-Inch NBR Pro Sound woofer from B&C Speakers

In this Test Bench I characterized the 12BG76-8, a high power handling 12” NBR pro sound woofer from B&C Speakers. This month’s sample submission is in the upper range of power handling in this extensive group with a continuous power handling rating of 1000 W (500 W nominal). Applications range from two and three-way PA speakers and compact two-way designs for high SPL in limited spaces. Features for the 12BG76-8 are similar to most high-performance pro sound drivers, fairly substantial. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, October 2018.

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