Dayton DA215-8 Aluminum Cone Woofer Review

Dayton DA215-8
8″ Aluminum Cone Woofer

Frequency Response in 24 liters Bass Reflex. Baffle Width=13-1/2″

Mic at 36 ins • Impulse Window=5ms • No Smoothing applied

Blue plot = Nearfield

Brown plot=Port Output. Port DIA=2″, L=6-1/2″

Bass Reflex Modeling

Sealed Box Modeling

DA215-8 Bass

As before, I biamped the Dayton DA215 with the Swallow-TCP for auditioning. An active 24dB/oct crossover set at 120Hz divides the bass and the midrange.

Since my objective is reviewing the bass, I played albums that has bass like Jaime Valle ‘Round Midnight, Santana Supernatural and Bela Fleck UFO. Surprisingly, the DA215-8 bass sounded quite decent. The first thing that struck me is the DA215 has deeper bass when compared to the DS215. But the bass is slightly bloated, like with some overhang. And this is with a box tuning (Fb) of 36Hz. If I were to tune her like in the DS215, the bass will lose more definition. 

This DA215 cost only $34. Personally, that’s an exceptional performance for such a low price. I would certainly use this woofer for a budget 3-way.

2-way

The DA215-8 midrange is more extended than the DS215. This makes it easier to design an 8″ 2-way because I can cross at 2kHz. There are a multitude of tweeters that I can use at this frequency. What immediately comes to mind is the DA215 with a Peerless XT25TG30-04. Or how about a compression driver with a horn.