Dayton DS215-8 Designer Series Woofer Review

Dayton DS215-8
8″ Designer Series Woofer

Frequency Response in 20 liters Bass Reflex. Baffle Width=10-1/2″

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

Blue plot = Nearfield

Brown plot=Port Output. Port DIA=2″, L=2-3/4″

Bass Reflex Modeling

DS215-8 Bass

I hooked up the Dayton DS215 unit with the Swallow-TCP for this review. To speed things up, I used an active crossover for the DS215 and the Swallow-TPC. Frequency was set at 120Hz (24dB/oct) High and Low Pass.

I liked what I heard. The DS215 didn’t sound flabby. Bass was fairly tight. She didn’t have the control of more expensive woofers like Seas but her bass wasn’t a blurry mess. In fact, this DS215 bass sounds better than the 10″ Dayton DA270-8. That woofer has deeper bass but lacks the upper bass. If you’re into Home Theater, the DA270 is more suitable but for music, it’s the DS215.

2-way

It appears the DS215 can be used in a 2-way. The highest crossover frequency is about 1.5kHz. The problem with that is it severely limits the number of tweeters available. The easiest way out is to use the Fountek FR88EX, a 3″ full range driver. With that, you can cross anywhere from 125Hz to 350Hz. That’s an elegant solution.