Joined the Receiver club w/ Dayton BR-1 bookshelf speakers

J

J Macker

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jan 25, 2001
Messages
10,167
Alright. Just finished assembling my new Dayton BR-1 speakers a few hours ago and have been listening in pure bliss.

I cannot believe how great these speakers are. This all started out because I was sick of the crackling from my Logitech z-560 control pod and feedback from the onboard audio.
I am a changed man now.

First, I purchased a used Onkyo TR-SX 601 receiver off of Ebay for ~$120. Grabbed another S/PDIF optical cable from Monoprice and set it up. I waited for about 2 months watching the pricing on the Dayton speakers and reading about other speakers.

I decided on the Dayton BR-1 pair of speakers largely due to their 6.5" woofer and low frequency response range from 43 Hz - 18 kHz. Coupled with the 1 1/8" silk dome tweeter these specs easily beat out anything else I could find for <$200 for the pair.

I don't consider myself an audiophile, these speakers seem comparable to my Polk Rti-8 speakers on my home theater system. They're so clear and the mids are rich. The bass is there too: I have my 8" subwoofer from the Logitech z-560's still plugged in and I can't tell a difference in the bass output when I have the sub turned on or off ! That's how much bass these bookshelves are putting out!

I own an HSU VTF-2 MK 3 subwoofer for my home theater, and while these bookshelf's don't have THAT much bass, they are respectable. I'm probably not going to be able to convince the wife to let me buy another subwoofer since these have such great bass.

For testing, the only flac files I have are from "The Little Mermaid Soundtrack". It sounds phenomenal. All my regular mp3s sound so much better now too.
I forgot to take pictures during assembly, but here's the completed setup:





To give you an idea about the size of these things here's the M-Audio AV40 speaker and a Ratpadz XT in the picture.


 
Nice! Looking pretty sweet! Hopefully you can get better flac than that in the near future lol.
 
J Macker said:
I have my 8" subwoofer from the Logitech z-560's still plugged in and I can't tell a difference in the bass output when I have the sub turned on or off ! That's how much bass these bookshelves are putting out!
Click to expand...

Well that, and kit subs are just generally puny. OTOH at least they offset Logitech's puny 2" drivers...it's more a case of including a monolithic midwoofer in the system. A very muddy one. Weird.
 
Oh no, the midwoofers in these are definitely not muddy.
Okay, I just checked again, it seems as though there's a slight difference. The sub definitely adds a little more rumble. The specs for the z-560 sub go down to 35 Hz, so it's reasonable to expect to hear the sub a little.
 
What? No. The "sub" in the z-560 does work that normally a good midwoofer should be doing, thanks to the small drivers in its sats - but does it poorly.
 
I think we had a misunderstanding. I thought you were referring to my the 6.5" woofers on my Dayton's being "muddy".

I had no idea that bookshelf speakers were capable of delivering such low frequencies.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of hi-end computer audio... and say goodbye to your disposable income. :p
 
J Macker said:
I think we had a misunderstanding. I thought you were referring to my the 6.5" woofers on my Dayton's being "muddy".

I had no idea that bookshelf speakers were capable of delivering such low frequencies.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that. I was just trying to explain why the old Logitech "sub" does little for the sats. The Dayton's are good at LF to start with, and the Logitech "sub" isn't that great, so between the two...

And now you're hooked, bwahahah!
 
Very nice, the Dayton's offer great value for the money. I've always wanted to build one of their DIY subs but they're just so much $. :eek:
 
I see the date the last post was from but I was googling these speakers and this thread came up. I too purchased these from parts-express.com and should be getting them this week. I'm pretty excited for this project and to get these up and running. These aren't for my main PC but a smaller machine I use in the basement for streaming audio from my WHS. I'll be upgrading from a pair of Dell USB speakers, no sub lol
 
how hard is it to build these for someone that has never built anything beside his own pc before?
 
Ladic, I'd just go the Swan/M-audio speakers talked about in the other thread.

This is another option, but it will probably a bit more difficult for someone who isn't experienced.. I'm not sure how hard they are exactly, but still - you can't lose going with either.
 
You’ll need to know how to solder and read an electrical circuit diagram. The instructions were a bit unclear on one step, but good enough. The only other soldering I've done is modding xboxes. This was the first set of speakers I've assembled.

I highly recommend this kit and am really enjoying my pair.

The M-Audio AV40 speakers don’t even come close in sound quality in my opinion. My wife likes them too, but they’re a bit too big for her desk.
 
J Macker said:
I decided on the Dayton BR-1 pair of speakers largely due to their 6.5" woofer and low frequency response range from 43 Hz - 18 kHz.
Click to expand...

I feel sorry for you if you believed this. 6.5" drive cannot have a frequency response range as low as 43 Hz, it may still make little sound but I'd bet it start to drop sharply at 60-80Hz, and by the time it gets 43Hz it will be something like -20db.
 
sskk said:
I feel sorry for you if you believed this. 6.5" drive cannot have a frequency response range as low as 43 Hz, it may still make little sound but I'd bet it start to drop sharply at 60-80Hz, and by the time it gets 43Hz it will be something like -20db.
Click to expand...
That is not true statement. It all depends on the quality of the driver and the enclosure it's installed in.
 
seanmcd said:
That is not true statement. It all depends on the quality of the driver and the enclosure it's installed in.
Click to expand...

The second part of your post is right, but there is a limitation, 6.5 is just too small for 43 hz.
 
Hmmm, nice review.
I just replaced my old Onkyo 575x with a new Denon for my home theater. The Onkyo is just sitting in a corner doing nothing. I have always wanted to connect a receiver to my PC to get better sound. What are the specs on your 601. Wonder how my 575x would sound with some decent speakers.

The link you provided says the Dayton speakers are no longer available. Seems like a decent deal too.

And how do you still use the sub? I also have the z-560's and the control pod thing. Just not sure how the sub connects to the receiver??? Although it's been under my desk for years so I may not remember the connections on it.
 
There are 1/4" stereo cable (male) to RCA male) cords available at Radioshack. Then, just plug the Logitech control pod into a 1/4" coupling.

It looks like the THD is a little high at 0.08% on my receiver, but I can't hear any feedback with the volume at 70%.
http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=TX-SR601&class=Receiver&p=s

I was curious about the actual range of the Dayton's, so I downloaded a test tone generator and played with it last night. There seemed to be a slight dropoff at 40 Hz, and became really noticeable at ~35 Hz.

My wife wanted some speakers to hook her laptop to upstairs, so I pulled the Logitech z-560's (with sub) and am no longer using it with the BR-1s. I always like bass, so I had the Dayton "Elite" 10" subwoofer (150w RMS) delivered yesterday. It says HSU10 all over the box and states that it was designed by Dr. Hsu.
I played with it for a couple hours last night as well and found it to be quite satisfying. I would like to hear the Energy 10" sub, but don't know anybody who has one. My only reference for comparing is my VTF2-MK3 12" sub.

The HSU10 is very solid and sounds great. At ~$180 shipped, this would be a great sub for an entry level home theater. I popped in Master & Commander at the 4th chapter and it does a pretty good job with the bass. I also used the Test Tone generator with it along with some of the audioholics bass tests and the Chemical Drive track. The dogs started shifting around uncomfortably, it was quite funny. It is placed in the corner of my basement on a tile floor next to my computer. I haven't played with the phase dial much yet, but everything sounded pretty good. My wife was just shaking her head and looking at me puzzled. "It must be a guy thing" she kept saying. She doesn't know how much it cost. ;)

So, $120 for the receiver, $130 for the speakers, and $180 for the sub.... yeah, it's a little more expensive than a Logitech system. But soooo worth it.
 
J Macker said:
There are 1/4" stereo cable (male) to RCA male) cords available at Radioshack. Then, just plug the Logitech control pod into a 1/4" coupling.

It looks like the THD is a little high at 0.08% on my receiver, but I can't hear any feedback with the volume at 70%.
http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=TX-SR601&class=Receiver&p=s

I was curious about the actual range of the Dayton's, so I downloaded a test tone generator and played with it last night. There seemed to be a slight dropoff at 40 Hz, and became really noticeable at ~35 Hz.

My wife wanted some speakers to hook her laptop to upstairs, so I pulled the Logitech z-560's (with sub) and am no longer using it with the BR-1s. I always like bass, so I had the Dayton "Elite" 10" subwoofer (150w RMS) delivered yesterday. It says HSU10 all over the box and states that it was designed by Dr. Hsu.
I played with it for a couple hours last night as well and found it to be quite satisfying. I would like to hear the Energy 10" sub, but don't know anybody who has one. My only reference for comparing is my VTF2-MK3 12" sub.

The HSU10 is very solid and sounds great. At ~$180 shipped, this would be a great sub for an entry level home theater. I popped in Master & Commander at the 4th chapter and it does a pretty good job with the bass. I also used the Test Tone generator with it along with some of the audioholics bass tests and the Chemical Drive track. The dogs started shifting around uncomfortably, it was quite funny. It is placed in the corner of my basement on a tile floor next to my computer. I haven't played with the phase dial much yet, but everything sounded pretty good. My wife was just shaking her head and looking at me puzzled. "It must be a guy thing" she kept saying. She doesn't know how much it cost. ;)

So, $120 for the receiver, $130 for the speakers, and $180 for the sub.... yeah, it's a little more expensive than a Logitech system. But soooo worth it.
Click to expand...

Interesting you think it only start to drop off from 40Hz. Can you please post the link to the test tones?

I tested over 30 book shelf speakers with 6.5 " drive and none of them can do anything below 50Hz at a reasonable lv. I also talked to some people working for respectable speaker makers and all of them stated that you have to use very big tolerance lv to able to say a 6.5 inch can go below 50Hz, something like +-10 db, when normally people use +- 1.5 or +- 3db.

Anyway, congratulation on your complete system now! It sure is A LOT better than anything Logitech. I had a Dayton 100 W RMS 10" sub before and worked really well for me, I think yours can only be better!
 
http://www.tucows.com/preview/240287

Test Tone Generator 4.2

I'd suggest you order a pair for yourself and test if it were possible. Since they were discontinued, you'll just have to take my word for it.
I don't feel like shelling out $90 for a SPL meter to get accurate results.
 
J Macker said:
http://www.tucows.com/preview/240287

Test Tone Generator 4.2

I'd suggest you order a pair for yourself and test if it were possible. Since they were discontinued, you'll just have to take my word for it.
I don't feel like shelling out $90 for a SPL meter to get accurate results.
Click to expand...

I used that one before, if you were using sine wave when you tested and get "There seemed to be a slight dropoff at 40 Hz, and became really noticeable at ~35 Hz. ", then either you were really close to the speakers or the speakers are very very very impressive. If you were using other wave such as square or sawtooth, then all I can say is it doesn't mean anything. My speakers, M-Audio Bx8a, which rated by manufacturer as 40-20K Hz,(which is marketing BS made without tolerance lv) can go to 10 HZ loud and clear on square or sawtooth wave.

As for buying it, I am on tight budget now, I really want to build my old setup, but had to get what I have now, which is good but not great.
 
You are indeed correct. The speakers are 2 ft. from me right next to the LCD. Even at 4 ft. back though, there didn't seem to be much difference in the bass. It's all a moot point now though with the HSU 10" sub down there. It'is just plain awesome.

It's messed up though how parts-express keeps messing with the prices. When I ordered it 2 weeks ago, the sub was on sale for $138 + shipping (which turned out to be $50). Now, they're charging $230 free shipping. Crazy.

I don't know if I would have bought the sub at $230. It's nice, but that's getting a little steep for a 10" compared to the ESW-10
 
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