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B&C DCM50: Best Horn Driver for Compressed Recordings?


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I've been struggling to settle on horn/driver combinations to use atop my pair of sealed Altec 416-8B midwoofers. The most likely candidates are SB Audience 65 CDNT, Yamaha JA6681B, B&C DCM50 and Radian 745neoBe.

 

Regarding the DCM50, I seen posts such as here https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=169189.0 https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/search/&q="dcm50" &quick=1&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy ,where it seems as if others like me also have struggled with the dilemma of owning or wanting the benefits of high res horn speakers but troubled over how your less than pristine recordings will sound on them.

 

Indeed, so many of my treasured 60s pop and soundtrack music-many of which otherwise respectably recorded (fairly low noise and distortion)-were then deliberately mastered with lots of compression. No doubt this was done to make them playable on cheap vinyl players, or even the SOTA turntables of the day.

 

But in Troy Crowe's review of these drivers, please take time to watch this video entirely from 17:15 to the end.

 

Notice that during his listening test ratings, Troy gives the DMC50 a less than 10/10 rating for dynamic range. My question is would the B&C DMC50 be a much better choice for playing our over compressed recordings than one with more higher sensitivity, and thus more dynamic range, such as the Radian 745neoBE?

 

Comparing basic specs:
https://www.bcspeakers.com/en/products/hf-driver/archive/dcm50-8
https://www.usspeaker.com/radian 745neoBepb-1.htm

 

And might the DCM50 also be a better choice for playing compressed recordings because it uses a "composite" or paper diaphragm, rather than a beryllium one, like the 745neoBE?

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Troy is very thorough... been listening to him for years.

my response always is... measures great, sounds terrible.

 

don't use measurements to determine whether or not something sounds good... USE YOUR EARS.

if you want a baseline or ballpark, then start/begin with specifications.

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Thanks all for replying. But why wasn't I notified via email? I was sure that I checked to be so.

 

While Troy does rate drivers by measurements, and is very thorough about doing so, as I said, if you watch and listen to the above video from 17:15 to the end you will find Troy's LISTENING tests. And note where he then rates the sound of the DCM50's dynamic range 9/10 or 8/10 below that of the other drivers.

 

That's what got me thinking that unlike, say Pierre's superb but way more dynamic speakers page-764    (posts 15266, 15276), the DCM50 would therefore make my compressed recordings sound less compressed. True or false?

 

And if true, would that still be so even if, like Troy did, I added that Fostex Alnico tweeter?

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