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This Dayton H6512 is similar to the Pyle PH612 that is no longer available. Both of them are copies of the JBL 338800-001 horn that are found in the JBL JRX 200 and PRX 400 series speakers.
When I tested out the Pyle PH612 in the middle of last year, I couldn’t find any compression drivers that could give me a smooth response. Even the Selenium D220Ti response was too wavy for my liking. That’s why I never did any designs with this horn.
It was months later that I chanced upon the JBL JRX212. This model uses the JBL 33800-001 horn with a JBL2414H-C compression driver. Out of curiosity, I bought the JBL 2414H-C. I wanted to see how well this horn works with a dedicated JBL driver.
Dayton H6512 with JBL 2414H-C Frequency Response 
Mic at 36 ins, On Axis • Impulse Window=5ms • No Smoothing applied
I was stunned when I saw the response. This is one of the best horn/driver combo I’ve ever encountered. She’s flat all the way to 10kHz after which she rolls off gently. It looks like the 338800-001 horn and the 2414H-C were made for each other.
Toneburst Energy Storage of Dayton H6512 with JBL 2414H-C
Now that my interest is pique, I proceeded to the Toneburst Energy Storage measurement. It will show me the excess energy as the sound is emitted from the horn. That will give me an idea of how much “ringing” there is.
The Toneburst plot is unbelievable. There’s hardly any excess energy from 2kHz upwards. This is an amazing performance for the H6512/JBL 2414H-C combo.
Spectrogram of Dayton H6512 with JBL 2414H-C
I turned to the Spectrogram to see the behavior in a 2-dimensional plane. As expected, there’s no ringing from 2kHz to 20kHz.
Step Response of Dayton H6512 with JBL 2414H-C
The H6512/JBL 2414H-C Step Response is exceptionally smooth. There are no breaks anywhere. As is expected from a compression driver, the transient is fast. More than that, the decay is very well damped. There’s almost nothing by 1.5msec.
Impedance of Dayton H6512 with JBL 2414H-C
Lastly, I measured the impedance of the JBL 2414H-C with the H6512 horn attached. It showed a single peak at 2,276Hz. I will definitely need to apply a conjugate network to flatten this peak in my crossover. There’s no way I can avoid it because I plan to cross at between 1.8kHz to 2kHz.
Summary
The Dayton H6512 with the JBL 2414H-C is an incredible combination. The performance is up to HiFi level and best of all, it’s very affordable. The Dayton H6512 cost only $15. The JBL 2414H-C is $45. That’s $60 for a horn with a brand new JBL compression driver. With this discovery, I can finally design quality pro speakers. Exciting projects ahead.
Unless otherwise stated, all measurements were made in Full Space (4 pi) with the mic at 36 ins, tweeter axis. Impulse Window=5ms. No smoothing applied. |
