# P.E. Dayton III Upgrade help



## jboogie (Jan 2, 2009)

I built the P.E. D3's a while back and they really sound nice. However, they don't quite play loudly enough for my taste. They are pretty loud, but they don't fill the room when the wife is away. (You know what I mean?)

Anyway, I was wondering if there was anyway to upgrade the drivers or add drivers..etc. Remaking the enclosure is no problem. I am a cabinetmaker with plenty of tools. (Never enough though)

Thanks in advance.

Link to the speaker if you are unfamiliar with them.

http://www.parts-express.com/projectshowcase/indexn.cfm?project=daytonIII


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## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

Are you running these with or without a subwoofer? 

Matt


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## 1Michael (Nov 2, 2006)

What do you mean by louder?


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## evilskillit (Oct 7, 2008)

In what way are they not loud enough? Are they distorting? Or if you turn the volume up to 10 are they simply just too quiet?

Either way its probably the drivers themselves holding you back. If you want something louder and are willing to build something else build something with bigger more sensitive drivers. Or something with some PA drivers in it


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## jboogie (Jan 2, 2009)

Yes, I am running them with a Mach 5 Audio IXL 15 with an OAudio 500 plate amp.

As far as them being loud enough...

I have a mid 90's Pioneer reciever that is said to deliver 125 w RMS per channel. It has an LFE output, but no audio programming as far as I know. Consequently, once I turn up the volume to around 4 (out of 10) the woofers can occasionally bottom out. (Bad news) So, I may be limited by my equipment, and these speakers may be much louder than I can achieve, or they are playing as loud as they can, and I want more.

I would love to simply add a few parts to the crossovers allowing me to add a couple more drivers. (But the naivety of that statement probably has some laughing right now.) Or, keep the crossovers and replace the drivers with newer better drivers.


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## evilskillit (Oct 7, 2008)

jboogie said:


> I would love to simply add a few parts to the crossovers allowing me to add a couple more drivers. (But the naivety of that statement probably has some laughing right now.) Or, keep the crossovers and replace the drivers with newer better drivers.


Yeah bottoming out is bad. Adding an 80hz high pass filter would help this problem. Something like that might be the most economical solution. At that point they could play much more loudly.

Sadly both of your other proposed solutions can not work. This link does a great job of explaining why.
http://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-mfaq

I modeled your speakers with 100 watts input with and without an 80hz highpass filter. Attached at the bottom is the excursion and port air velocity with and without the highpass filter. You can see a huge difference the D3 would sound a lot better and be able to play a lot louder. At max volume on your amp you might run into a combination of clipping and thermal power handling issues, but at that point you're probably starting to lose hearing anyways.

If you don't want to get a new receiver with capability to highpass the mains you could look into something like one of these items.
http://www.creativesound.ca/details.php?model=F-1M $99
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-CX2310-Stereo-Frequency-Crossover/dp/B0002Z82LM $79

and there are other solutions. The highpass seems to be the way to go, it'll be simpler and cheaper than trying to mod/upgrade the speakers, and it won't fail you.


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## fbov (Aug 28, 2008)

jboogie said:


> Yes, I am running them with a Mach 5 Audio IXL 15 with an OAudio 500 plate amp.
> 
> As far as them being loud enough...
> 
> I have a mid 90's Pioneer reciever that is said to deliver 125 w RMS per channel. It has an LFE output, but no audio programming as far as I know. Consequently, once I turn up the volume to around 4 (out of 10) the woofers can occasionally bottom out. (Bad news) ...


I am assuming these are the DIII woof bottoming here? You have a subwoofer. Have you told your amp you have it? 

I, too, have a 90's Pioneer receiver with a sub output, and it will allow me to select "big" or "small" speakers. You want to pick "small" for all your speakers so it applies the ~80Hz cut off and sends all the low bass to the sub. 

Simply put, these speakers are not up to producing this much bass by themselves; evil's modeling shows you why - they can't handle the excursion required for low bass. Start sending all your low bass to the subwoofer and I bet you'll get the sound levels you're looking for.
Frank


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## jboogie (Jan 2, 2009)

Thanks Frank. I am wondering if you can tell me where you found the function to set the speakers to small? I have looked through my manual and don't see that addressed anywhere.

Thanks.


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