Underwhelmed with Dayton Audio B652

PublicJohn

New Member
I am not much up on stereo gear. Pretty much like small radios like the Tivoli Model One. However I could not walk away from a Pioneer sx-780 for $20.00. I was going to use some Speakerlab 2s but those are toast for now. So I found some minimus 7s for $15.00. Very nice sounding. So I decided I needed something a little bigger but cheap. So I got some Dayton Audio B652s. I am not impressed at all. Am I missing something? Yes they are louder. Yes I get more range of sound. But they just sound, for lack of a better word, cheap. The M7s sound sooooo much better. Nice and warm. Is it just me?


John
 
I'm not surprised. If only Radio Shack would bring back the Minimus 7's. They would sell, I know they would.

What's wrong with your Speakerlabs?
 
the daytons were 35$ for a pair, they are basic speakers, far from high quality.

cheapest high quality sound in new speakers would be a set of infinity primus book shelf speakers, around 150 a pair.
 
I've never heard the Daytons, but I'm not really surprised. They're only what, $34.50 a pair? They have to have corners cut in the cabinet, and drivers are probably pretty poor too. I have some speakers I've bought used for that price that surely destroy those Daytons, but I'm comparing a $500 speaker bought used for $40 to a $34 new priced speaker.
 
Sooooooo

What I am hearing is maybe educate myself and shop used? Love buying used but speakers is one area I have never felt good about getting used. You should never know how badly someone has treated them before you.
 
What I am hearing is maybe educate myself and shop used? Love buying used but speakers is one area I have never felt good about getting used. You should never know how badly someone has treated them before you.

Definitely get educated here, then look at used speakers for great deals.

For a grand total of $275 ($200 after my RE25 profit) I have picked up the following used in the last several months:

1. JBL HLS-620 - $40 (my favorite of the bunch)
2. KLH Model 23 - $40
3. Boston T830 - $60
4. Pioneer CS-44 - $10
5. Sapphire Audio ST III mains with matching center and surrounds for my home theater - $100 (probably the best buy without a doubt as this set listed for about $1800)
6. Cerwin Vega RE25 -$25, then sold a few weeks later for $100
 
Well I may be in some luck

My father in law told me that he did a very bad thing while helping his parents move into a new house. He tossed some sort of Band and Olufsen tuner and an tube amp he thinks may have been Sherwood. I hate him now. However his brother may have kept the speakers. I am going to see if he would be willing to part with them. He also has some other speakers but no idea what they are yet.
 
Has anyone measured the Dayton B652's? Perhaps some mods would help as it probably has just a cap for a crossover.
 
To me, at least, speakers are one of the *least* scary areas in which to buy used! They either work properly, or they don't, and they're frequently not difficult to bring back to life even when they do have issues. Consider returning the Daytons (I know, that return shipping will be murder) and exchange it for one of the $20 Lepai Tripath amps PE is currently selling; that, combined with an MP3 player loaded up with your favorite tracks and some appropriate test sweeps and tones, is a glovebox-sized kit for on-the-spot speaker field testing. I keep my old Sonic Impact 5066 and some speaker cable at the ready in my car's center console for just this purpose.

Particularly in the last couple of years, I've found fantastic speakers for < $50 at flea markets and garage sales, even Craigslist on occasion-- old JBLs, Celestions, ADSes, and even Thiels (!). There's a set of Polk Monitor 5JRs on my local CL right now which will probably go for $30 or $40 and would likely destroy those Daytons. If you search aggressively for a short period, it shouldn't take you long to find a set for $40 that will make you very happy.
 
Zaph's measurements and mods:
http://zaphaudio.com/Dayton-B652.html

I would try padding the tweeter a bit more.

Zaph notes that the unmodified speaker has a VERY narrow sweet spot,
try tilting them to find it in your main listening position. Add more
poly fill (pillow stuffing will work) if you find the bass to be boomy.
 
Why yes

I do find the bass to be too boom. OK I will mess with them. Nothing to lose. So to help narrow my search for used speakers, what is one brand that new/old used vintage whatever that if I find in a thrift store I should grab. Reason I say it this way is because I know that there are brand that in years past made very good stuff but now are just a name and are cheap crap.

Oh and so I have these Daytons. The boxes are OK I guess so yeah I would be open to the idea of trying to upgrade them.
 
Large Advents are a good bargain speaker, but of course there are many others ... KEFs, DQ10s, and many more ... The Advents are robust and
sound good with the BSC circuit that I've mentioned in the past - some like them as is.
 
What I am hearing is maybe educate myself and shop used? Love buying used but speakers is one area I have never felt good about getting used. You should never know how badly someone has treated them before you.

This is true imo and one reason I will never buy used speakers or headphones (well, maybe headphones). I've seen too many "audiophiles" who "love" their gear blast out expensive speakers (and subs...oh man, forget it!) clearly wayyy past the point of distorting/breaking up just to show them off on many genres (like classical). :no: But when hearing them again they sounded just fine. So how can you tell if they are damaged or not? They should be, the woofers were flying, tweeters sounded like breaking ice, everything distorting...so some kind of damage had to be done right?

Either way I'm not taking the chance. BUT you can go to Audiogon and get some great "b stock" or over stocked speakers brand new from sellers for great prices. If you have $200 to $500 you can get a great newish speaker. (Or you can look here, or even at Audiogon, for vintage speakers if you prefer). I suggest spending a decent amount on speakers because they are really important. Yes there are good deals, but, at least on newish speakers, you need to spend at least around $200. Otherwise you will only end up buying a lot of cheap but unsatisfactory speakers that you will soon outgrow imo. (And I've heard many many vintage speakers a friend of mine gets for nothing--under $100--and restores and they all sound bad to ok at best...if he wasn't selling them back he'd literally be wasting thousands on low-fi speakers when he could just buy one pair of new speakers that would sound fantastic for the same amount of money).

Btw, I heard about the Daytons and almost tried them myself for that price. I suspected they were totally over hyped though and the last new cheap speaker I got for fun (BIC Venturi DV62si) for around $100 were ok but nothing special, yet they were (and are) hyped on many forums. After that I stopped playing around with cheap speakers. I really have no use for them anyway.
 
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I would suggest you look at used speakers, not only for the bang-for-the-buck factor, but for a couple other reasons. You might find that the kind of speaker you initially thought was good might not be the speaker you like later, IOW experimenting with used, inexpensiver, speakers will show you what's out there. Another reason might be to find, along your travels, a couple of replacement woofers for the Dayton's, should you choose to keep them.

There are still a lot of good used speakers that are being sold for very little compared to what some of the newer speakers cost. Some brands of used speakers that would make a short list would be Advent, AR, JBL, Altec, ESS, Thiel, Vandersteen, Dahlquist, KEF, Theil, EPI, Epicure, Genesis, Infinity. Others should be able to add to the list.

Good luck with the speaker hunt.
 
For $25, why not build Zaph's crossover? If you don't know how to solder or read schematics, this will be a great way to learn.
 
the daytons were 35$ for a pair, they are basic speakers, far from high quality.

cheapest high quality sound in new speakers would be a set of infinity primus book shelf speakers, around 150 a pair.

I have to respectfully disagree. I've found that there is a lot to like about the Sony SS-B1000, close to the Daytons in size & costing only a little more. There should be places where you could compare the Infinity's with the Sony's in the store.....
 
Just a couple others to consider that aren't all that pricey but should be much better than the Daytons you have:

Insignia NS-B2111 - at Bestbuy for around $88.

Polk Monitor 30 - Newegg for $89

Good luck with whatever direction you take.
 
I personally own these, while I am no audiophile I will say I am a bit disappointed, however I got them at $25 and I cannot really complain. I use them as rear channels in a surround sound system so their use is not heavy. Their drivers, especially the tweeter feel cheap and the grill covers are absolute crap. I do not mind them though, easily livable and would work for most who just need something that sounds better than TV speakers... Would I recommend them to an audiophile or someone close: No. Would I recommend them to someone in need of just something: Yes. I do not particularly mind them, but they could be much better...
 
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