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dbx Soundfield V, Straight from the DAK catalog

tanker 200

tanker 200

Super Member
I picked up these beauties the other day for free and was not impressed but figured I could always take them back. They're made of particle board with 15" woofers, 8" mid woofers (needing surrounds and not the closed back like the originals if it ever had them), a couple mid ranges on top and a tweeter. I replaced the 8" with some 8"whizzers I had laying around and hooked them up to a Marantz SR-1020U (45wpc) with an open mind.

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They came with the separate 15" woofer (not an actual subwoofer) so I figured they might have some bass but I was wrong all they have is mid range, no highs, no lows, just horrible sound. Not sure what to do with them, but I won't be using them in the house.
 
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Hi I have the luck to have a speaker of this model. I have read criticism of them not favorable, HOWEVER change the front tweeter for about altec 150 w, and any change markedly. Excuse my English is not very good.
 
jose sashida said:
Hi I have the luck to have a speaker of this model. I have read criticism of them not favorable, HOWEVER change the front tweeter for about altec 150 w, and any change markedly. Excuse my English is not very good.
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Thanks, I'll try that. I'm going to try to play with these for a while before getting rid of them, they can't be as bad as I originally thought. I have seen some favorable reviews although most of them are negative.
 
Sorry you took the time to pick them up, very few speaker will I flat turn away....but those qualify! No redeeming qualities, even the driver magnets will fall off the fridge....
DC
 
tanker 200 said:
I picked up these beauties the other day for free and was not impressed but figured I could always take them back. They're made of particle board with 15" woofers, 8" mid woofers (needing surrounds and not the closed back like the originals if it ever had them), a couple mid ranges on top and a tweeter. I replaced the 8" with some 8"whizzers I had laying around and hooked them up to a Marantz SR-1020U (45wpc) with an open mind.

P6130165.jpg


They came with the separate 15" woofer (not an actual subwoofer) so I figured they might have some bass but I was wrong all they have is mid range, no highs, no lows, just horrible sound. Not sure what to do with them, but I won't be using them in the house.
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Too-bad you didn't have a couple old alnico Wharfedale Super 3's kicking around. They can be used in an upfiring position (Maybe you can reinforce the insides of the cabinet with high-impact nylon or... whatever ya' got lyin' around the house). :smoke: :D What else works that way? I know there are/were some, but I don't have a clue. Jeez, what were they thinking with that design? That speaker probably had a peaky treble, right? Were the original ones cheap Chinese-made?
 
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Flabby bass. Probably the worst speakers I have ever listened to. To the OP....if I were you I might reinforce those cabs. Pull all the drivers, close up the tops and use the cabinets for a DIY build.
 
Harvest some wood from that stand in your back yard and plank over the driver openings to make some lamp tables...........honestly I do not know why DBX put their name on these. I had to be a moment of great weakness for them!
I first saw them in a Sky Mall magazine several years ago, they would not allow me to leave the aircraft...while in flight....
I am sure they are fine with some folks- the pair I had given to me were passed on as well and are making eventual fuel in a methane pile somewhere.
DC
 
jhoyt said:
Nice yard!
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Thanks
I'm not sure what I'm doing with these yet, but whatever my plans are I'm not going to use the drivers. I'll paint them first and see If they're not as ugly. Then maybe think about another Parts Express order, reinforcing and maybe dividing the cabinets if they're too big for the woofers I choose (I've had good luck with the Series II, I may try those). I do think I'll get a decent subwoofer and plate amp for the Woofer box and see how that sounds after some bracing.
I'd like to try a set of speakers with a 15" woofer since there's lots of wood, glass, open space and bad acoustics. The biggest reason they'd never work as they are, Is with the 26" cathedral ceilings in the house, the upfiring drivers have nothing to reflect off of.
If they still sound horrible I'll put everything in a more conventional set of cabinets I have
 
goodolpg said:
Are those "Thunder Lizards"?
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No. I had a pair of Thunder Lizards. They did use the same 8" Polly midrange and a white cone 15" woofer like the DBX's though. For cheap speakers they took a lot of punishment. After 10 years of abusing them I wound up using the woofers in a speaker project. They lasted another five years. :D
 
Ah, perhaps DAK/BSR were the "Thunder Lizards".
Saw a pair at my local GW last year.
I left them there.
 
DCinDC said:
Do not put any more time or money into those.
Set them on the curb and hope they leave.
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I left them outside last night, There still here :tears:
The more I thought about it there's was less and less I was planning on saving on these, I was down to the grill attachment posts and sockets but I don't think it's worth it to pull them out. If they weren't so big and ugly I might have used the cabinets but I have others in better shape for DIY projects. I'm happy with the sound of the Advents and ESS Tempests I have in the living room, and they're too big to put anywhere else in the house.
 
I have a set of original dbx Soundfield V's I bought from DAK in the late 80s. Agree that the original drivers and crossover were pretty bad, a mediocre speaker at best. But I also thought the design and cabinet could work with the correct drivers and crossovers.

I describe in another thread my rebuild of the V's, which cost me about a grand. I put in decent components including a 15" Dayton Series II $130 woofer with 19 Hz resonant frequency, high-end Peerless $75 nomex 8" midrange and an outstanding $75 Hivi ribbon hi-definition tweeter. Changed the design to ported. Built a custom crossover using mostly large, heavy air-core coils and big paper capacitors (not the small ones most crossovers use that damp and muddy the high frequencies) and used pots for each driver so each could be adjusted separately except the woofer.

Paired with a Denon AVR-X3000, and after final tweaking using the receiver's options, the result is a spectacular-sounding set of speakers. The large cabinets were just right (3+ cu. ft.) for a ported design with the deep resonant frequency I wanted.

Due to the very flat frequency response they now have, and the "Soundfield" qualities of the speaker, you can walk around the room and the sound is very detailed, balanced, and real-sounding from every part of the room. Closest I've ever felt to being in the original space. Listening to a good orchestra or cathedral organ recording takes your breath away.

If you close your eyes you could not tell where the speakers are in the room, even walking around. They do not have a 'sweet spot' like a traditional surround sound system does, and I believe they disperse the sound into the room in a way much closer to a real "orchestra" or live sound source than most other, including surround sound, speaker designs. In most cases, in the real world, you are not sitting in the 'middle' of the sound source, it is mostly to one side of you and what you are listening to is also the acoustic of the space you are in.

Also with the modified design, there is a separate 15" woofer/subwoofer for each channel which is in the same cabinet and exactly in sync with the other drivers for its channel --- closer to what you have in the original source. I chose to put the ports on the top of the cabinet --- so the front and the top actually deliver the full range to the deepest bass, not like some of the direct/reflecting speakers with only the tweeters on top or on the sides.
 
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i almost bought a pair of DAK/DBx when they were going out of business, just to tinker with but i had my Carver ALS and thought it might be a waste of time. i regret now that i didn't get them they were being blown out for like 89.00 a pair.
 
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