Dream Speakers

Introduction

As a result of the concept and cooperative efforts of Don Borden and Mike Davis, Tony’s sponsored a year-long scientific speaker testing program to determine the best speakers for DCC. Hundreds of speakers from dozens of manufacturers in all the popular round and oval sizes were tested.

Pictured here is one that will “toot your horn”, it is a mini-oval (14W x 24L x 8H mm) that sounds as good as the most popular 1” speaker now being used. This is the diesel installer’s dream.

This project was started by myself and Mike based on the encouragement of many other Digital Sound Decoder modelers who continue to discuss micro speaker sound quality. We want to thank C. Shinn, J. Wells and many others for their suggestions and guidance.

Sound quality really comes down to two things: the best possible speaker and the ideal installation in any given model. Based on the unlimited number of variables defining the "ideal" installation for any given model, it was decided that this test program would focus on finding the best speakers. Further, recognizing the speakers needs are defined by modeling scale, we defined test groups by speaker size, i.e. 1/2", 3/4", and 1" round and 14mm, 20mm, and 30mm ovals or ellipticals.

We then initiated a search via the Internet of micro speaker manufacturers from around the world. Once identified we searched their catalogues for appropriate sizes and specifications and solicited samples for the testing program. Overall we acquired over 120 samples from 13 different manufacturers. The speakers were divided into the size groups with each speaker being assigned a code number to enable blind testing. Speakers currently available from Tony's were included in the samples and also assigned a code number.

A great deal of discussion went into the method of testing the speakers, some emphasizing the technical specifications while others emphasized the more subjective listening testing method. Because everyone who contributed to the discussions of what would be best agreed that ultimately it came down to what sounds best, we decided to focus on the listening test method. Understanding that this method would be very subjective, we designed the testing method to eliminate the subjectiveness to the greatest degree possible and attempt to define the best sounding speaker in each size group.

We welcome comments or suggestions from readers; please write or call.