I have considered several different drivers for the DNA horn which can be found in the design notes for the DNA horn.

https://www.decware.com/newsite/paper120.html

You may use this as a guide when you consider drivers for the DNA horn.

I did try a less expensive Tang Band driver, the W5-1611SAF 5" Full Range Speaker with the world's worst results.  Please don't waste your time with this one.

I also tried my small Lowther DX55 drivers and they sounded good, but are a primarily a midrange driver so there isn't any real bass weight.  I will say, that the DNA horn made that driver, as well as the 4 inch foster drivers used in other horns, have more bass than they did in any other cabinet, but considering what this cabinet is capable of it would be a waste of a good design.

To that effect, I have found a driver that I like 95% as good as the TangBand IF you're going with lower powered amplifiers.  In fact the bass was actually better, more correct, less colored.  The highs are rolled off, but I still enjoyed it for an evening by itself without adding a tweeter, which it will obviously need.  But I think that is fine.  A tweeter floating on top of the cabinet would be very nice.  

The driver is an AuraSound buy out at Madisound, so who knows how many they have or how long.  The price is right a 3.60 ea.

http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-5-fullrange/aurasound-ns525-255-8a-5...



Again, this is the best sounding driver I've heard compared to the original, and the bass extension is the same.

-Steve

Sarah can take care of you on the plans, or just e-mail me and I'll attach the pdf to the response.

Thanks,

Steve

Well, I got the 'recommended' drivers for the DNA, and downloaded the plans. I'm afraid I will have wait some time before building due to the weather not cooperating 'till spring. I will keep in touch and add photos when the time comes.
I am building these for a friend, and hope he is patient.

I can't help but be suspicious of a driver that costs under $50. But I am trying to keep an open mind.

I really like the fact that they use rectangular wire for the voice coil. I thought that nobody would ever try it, yet, it would be a more efficient winding. Hope Steve looks this one over. I would be game if he is.

I agree, there are better situations for choosing a driver. The thought occurred to me that if this project was big enough and the interest existed, some drivers could be bought by a collective community here. Then, as need be, drivers could be swapped between community 'owners', allowing for a base of experience. Just a thought. When a conclusion was reached, the extras might still be useful to some of the members here. I love to experiment, and wouldn't be afraid to buy a leftover.

Dank,  Thank you very much for posting this photo. It helps me with the visualizing of this project. Now, I did notice some 'guidelines' drawn on the side panel that would help establish the correct positioning of the internal panels. Let me ask you,,,were some of the angles a bitch? Would seem so to me.

Zygi

Its 1" between top and horn at the front baffle and 1 1/4" (1 15/64") between top and horn at the rear just before it angles downward.  So its only 1/4" of taper over a 10 3/4" span.  That's how I read the plans anyway, am I wrong?


Dan

Dan,

You have the taper correct, and yes Donnie that is a 1-1/4 degree angle.

If you look at the plans, (if I have the same set of plans you get when purchasing the plans)  you will see that the dimension is from the top of the side panel of the cabinet to the underside or bottom of the first piece. So you should have a 1" gap in your pair, which is what grabbed my attention The gap should only be 1/2" not 1"  Funny thing, I did the exact same thing on Steve's pair and have been building them that way ever since. To remedy the problem add another 1/2" piece, attached to the top of the piece you have already in place. I did this but instead of the 2" port hole I used a 5" whole, so it wouldn't be adding length to the 2" port.

However in this case, it also looks like at the first bend where you have added the 45 degree wedge. it is also larger than the 3/4" you need. Again that could be a illusion from the photo....

Hope this helps,
Zygi

I got my air gap fixed, at least on the first part of the horn.  Had to cut a 2" strip out of the top of one side to open it up, glue in the spacer piece, and then seal it back up.  All the while I was asking myself "why am I doing this?  This isn't going to make any difference!"  But it did!  The darn things sound pretty good now.  Before they sounded like a cheep transistor radio (in stereo - twice as bad!! ).  Then I added a $10 bullet tweeter I had lying around and that made a huge difference also.  These guys are worth listening to now!

Dan

Aura driver at $3.60 from Madisound and a $8.99 bullet tweeter from Electronix (p/n 11-110).  Plus a 8 uf cap for the tweeter and a 4 ohm resistor because the tweeter is a little too loud.  So, less than $15 per side for the speakers and crossover.

Dan

I just got the plans for these and would really like to keep this thread going....I think I'll try the cheap Auraosound's also and add a floating tweeter on top (maybe a tractix). Someone mentioned a ribbon tweeter. Any suggestions on tweeters from Madisound that wouldn't break the bank. (I am a total newbie to crossovers).

I look forward to suggestions about lining, stuffing, cat litter etc.

Here is an earlier post I moved over from another thread to keep things together on this subject of replacement DNA drivers.  Zygi has come up with an alternative (but more costly) set of drivers.

I have the W5 driver, but was looking for something that would play a little louder with my amp while preserving the imaging, bass and detail of the W5.  I believe Zygi's configuration does all this plus some.

Here are the instructions I worked from:

The drivers are SB acoustics...sb15nrxc30-4
                    Vifa...xt25sc90
          Coils are 0.1 16 gauge sidewinder
          Caps are 4.7 I would start with the PX4.7 Clarity Cap (Personally I like, for a cheap cap, the Jenzens from Parts Express there next up from the cheapest. If you like what you hear and they work, I would then proceed to the Mundorf Supreme, not worth while unless you like the system as a whole.

Note: Cap is on the tweeter, coil on the woofer.  The tweeter is wired out of phase.  Hole for the W5 is 122mm and the hole for the SB is 123mm (or vice versa) so it will fit if you have already made the hole in your baffle. I had to re-drill the mounting holes because I couldn't get the new driver to line up with the W5 holes.

Go to your local Home Depot/ Lowes and buy some fiber board (Cylotex) like they use for house wrap. It's black on one side and natural on the other side. This was what I used, from the outside to cut my inclosed volume down to almost half.

Note: I cut two peices of material slightly wider than the chamber width and put them in through the existing hole, then wedged them against each side to form an upside down V and pushed them down into place.  Then I taped the seams.  You want the new floor of the chamber to be just below the driver.

For the tweeter hole, Bob suggested 1/2" distance between the flange of the tweeter and the flange of the woofer.

If you are interested in the theory behind the crossover, the white paper is available from this guy:  http://howtodesignaspeaker.com/

I just bought the DNA Horn plan. Would the Tang Band W6-1916 be a good enough replacement driver for this cabinet ? It's a 6.5 inch driver though.

Here is some more information on drivers for the DNA.  I cut a slightly bigger hole and tried some 6.5" speakers:

1)  I found in my 2-way DNA with the inexpensive 5" AuraSound driver and a bullet tweeter that a 0.33 mh coil before the woofer (about 4000 hz) made the system sound a lot better.  I don't know why or understand this.  I normally run the woofer full range, but in this case it looks like the woofer is happier not doing this.

2)  I tried the 6.5" Audio Nirvana, Super 6.5, with the worlds worst results.  I like this driver in other cabinets but it does not work in the DNA.

3)  I tried the Dayton 6.5" full range, Parts Express PS180-8, duplicating the worlds worst results.  I like this driver in other cabinets but it does not work in the DNA.

4)   I tried the Dayton 5" full range PA speaker, Parts Express PA130-8,  with mediocre results

5)  I found a used pair of Fostex FF-165k on Ebay (my first Fostex ever), and they sound pretty darn good.  They can run with or without the coil so I'm running them full range.  They seem to benefit when the tweeter is added in,  but that's probably just my 60 year old ears.

Dan

Zygi

It wasn't the bass, as I'm using a sub and too much / not enough bass from the DNA's probably wouldn't even be noticed unless it was causing a conflict somehow.  It just sounded bad.  I noticed immediately that I didn't like it, and that's pretty unusual for me (I usually can't tell the difference).   It may have been a range of frequencies that were too loud or too quite, possibly too loud as its very possible it sounded tinny.  I didn't spend much time listening to them.  I've had those same speakers in other cabinets with moderate to good success (if I ever had superior success with them, they would still be in those cabinets) but they did not do well in the DNA.

So, why use a folded horn design if you are not all that interested in bass output I hear you thinking.  The design makes a difference in how the speaker sounds in the non-bass range too.  My best sounding speakers are a bigger set of back loaded folded horn design with the Dayton 8" full range speakers.

Dan

BTW, I have a set of the Tang Band, W5 1880's for sale.  See the classifieds.

Cliff,
Did you ever try the E.J. Jordan EIKONA 2 in a speaker? DNA? What have you learned about them?