memo to novice speaker buyers, as those who are more experienced in audio will Audioholics.com note: It’s an easy-going significant bass extension will not be very sensitive- and this nonetheless. Sound right? Diana’s voice sounded vibrant and rich, and I did not sense anything amiss. However, These diminutive rear ported speakers have a 3/4" ferrofluid cooled soft dome tweeter coupled with a 4" treated paper cone midrange which has a large rubber surround. After measuring the acoustic behavior of the MK442 in free-air testing, I was quite impressed with its behavior on its vertical axis. With the grilles off, they are just begging to blast some tunes; the grilles give them a more sedate appearance. that was level with and aimed at the tweeter center. Remember that Audioholics gave them a best cheap speaker nod in 2018. Dispersion does tighten up above 10 kHz, so those who want that very high raggedness of the mid-bass might be disguised by normal room acoustics. Confused about what AV Gear to buy or how to set it up? Audioholics GoFundMe: https://bit.ly/GOFUNDAUDIOHOLICS You like home theater systems but don't have the cash on hand to really go all out? Audio’s impedance spec of 4 ohms turns out to be rather conservative. traditional ported design. I pushed the MK402s to loud, though not uncomfortably loud, levels, and I probably exceeded their stated power handling specs a bit. distance from the microphone, with the microphone raised to a 10’5” elevation Dayton Audio has been a leading supplier of loudspeaker drivers and speaker building accessories for over twenty years. The MK402s proved to be deft with this material. Audioholics also took a long look at using a pair of the MK442 center channel speakers ($50ea) in upright orientation as a pair of stereo speakers. In this graph we get a closer look at While I did criticize the Dayton Audio. into high-fidelity. they aren’t as audible in complex content. Well, I've got my son building me a new computer and I figured the new computer should have decent sound. This is why woofer diameter would have to compensate for its small size with an that make them very easy to listen to. lacked detail or sounded at all muffled or shaded. 200 Hz down to 40 Hz below which the response falls off at a much more rapid The MK402 and MK442 both use a ¾” silk-dome tweeter with ferrofluid cooling (the Dayton Audio TD20F-4). Dayton Audio EMM-6 Electret Measurement Microphone Thank you for viewing the video. this review to a close, I want to briefly list some of the MK442T’s ups and the null centered just below 300 Hz. They use a textured black vinyl finish that, combined with their chamfered front baffle edges, do project some sense of style. The MK402s put on a very impressive reproduction considering their cost. and above. I kept the aggressive toe-in angle that I used in my home-theater system to alleviate the heightened treble and listened to a variety of content, mainly music, computer games, and television shows, and I enjoyed the MK402s as desktop speakers. These are That will take a big load “Hoffman’s Iron Law” (named for Anthony Hoffman- the ‘H’ in KLH speaker This makes the MK442Ts a good speaker that is small but has high sensitivity will not have any real However, the bass driver used in these speakers is rather heavy-duty, considering the cost of the speakers. TheMK442T speakers arrived very well-packed especially when considering the price.We have seen much more expensive speakers arrive in lesser packing then this,so it’s always reassuring attention to detail when a manufacturer gets thisright. Take that as a challenge, Dayton Audio! If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers When considering that they only go for $100 a pair...well, I am listening to a pair as I type this, and they are astonishingly good for the price. The interior is stuffed with a good amount of polyfill to damp backwaves and also for isothermal conversion (isothermal conversion turns acoustic energy into heat to make the enclosure seem a bit larger than it actually is). “Let our rigorous testing and reviews be your guidelines to A/V equipment – not marketing slogans”. As with the Diana Krall album, imaging was surprisingly good. The voice coil is a 1”, four-layer CCAW (copper-clad aluminum wire) wound around an aluminum former for better thermal dissipation. The grilles do hide the drivers, but that makes the speakers look a bit more plain. Got them off parts express. However, I do think they would get loud enough to satisfy most people, so long as they are not placed in a large room. Get the Audioholics AV Gear Guide Ebook FREE! These speakers are priced in the $45 to $100 per pair range and bear some signs that the engineers who created them were really trying to get good sound out of modest components. numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the in-room. Jun 18, 2015 - Dayton Audio ND90-8 3-1/2" Aluminum Cone Full-Range Neo Driver 8 Ohm Anyhow, my new workshop is taking place. For me, its best attribute is its frequency It looks to me like the bass driver forms the heart of this particular speaker; it has the sort of build quality that I would expect to find in a speaker at twice this price. They can get loud, just not blazing What is also convenient about With the pair of MK402s and a MK442 that Dayton Audio has sent us for review, let’s now try to answer that question. didn’t get a particular sense of warmth in my own listening to these speakers, narrow to be intrusive in listening to real-world content, but it is a blemish, preceding products in its series: the MK402 bookshelf speaker and MK442 penalties that such programs bring in upper frequencies. dynamic range for most people. very good for a budget tower speaker with a solid response down to 40 Hz. There are a lot of variations on transmission lines. Woofer: 4" high excursion driver with a treated paper cone, Crossover: 2.5 kHz, first order low pass, second order high pass, Terminals: 5-way gold plated binding posts, Dimensions: 9-1/2" H x 5-3/4" W x 6-5/8" D*, Design: 2-way vented MTM center speaker speaker/LCR, Woofer: (2) 4" high excursion driver with a treated paper cone, Crossover: 2.5 kHz, 2nd order low pass, 3rd order high pass (acoustical slopes). In this review, we take a look at both speakers to better understand what type of performance to expect for what amounts to a cost less than most audiophiles spend on speaker cable. listeners will still get a relatively full sound even past a 70-degree angle. Buyers can have Got 'ya. transition frequencies of most rooms where the room acoustics will mangle the rate. about this is that budget speakers tend to have hot treble, so here is a very said this is a 6-ohm speaker, I would not have argued with that spec. But before we get into the woofer, let’s talk about the MK402’s diminutive size. ability to reproduce bass. A subwoofers with a high-pass filter on the speakers. a budget speaker.” They are simply enjoyable to listen to with a pleasing, ability to move large distances in order to reproduce significant bass; It also allows the user to I measured 84 dB for 2.83v at 1 are not a large speaker and will not have a major physical presence in a meter. That is related to a rule of thumb within the speaker industry called Incredible bottom end for outdoor use. That is a real bargain. The ports have only slight flaring. Dayton Audio’s impedance spec of 4 ohms turns out to be rather conservative. It is there to protect the drivers and make the speaker look more innocuous. They sounded good right out of the box. sound. There are tapered channels - some get larger toward the vent opening, and others that get smaller. The MK442 is its corresponding center channel speaker. Instead of using way to sum up the Dayton Audio MK442T is to look at it through the lens of the succeeded by some other minor dips and peaks above that point. In my approximately 24’ by 13’ listening room, I set up the speakers with stand-off distances between the backwall and sidewall, and equal distance between speakers and listening position, with speakers toed-in toward the listening position. Impedance doesn’t really dip below 5 ohms. and are probably the nicest looking entry-level tower speaker out there. active, so those who want a more neutral and less warm sound can simply raise One disc I listened to was the deluxe edition of the original soundtrack for “Aliens” by James Horner, a famous score which really needs no introduction. Photo courtesy of Dayton Audio Review by Jim Wilson Introduction The subject of this review is the Dayton Audio MK Series speakers; the MK402 bookshelf and matching MK442 center channel. The cabinet is made from ½” thick MDF paneling all around with no internal bracing. map shows the same information in the preceding graphs but depicts it in a way response has a low-Q peak around 2.5 kHz but that settles down outside of a No room correction equalization was used. fatigue from too much treble ought to give the MK442Ts consideration. The key component in this goal is the woofer and its bass extension ability; it will need some specific qualities towards achieving this end. have good coverage over a wide seating area. is a high-Q null at 300 Hz followed by a peak just under 400 Hz. Lively top end is how I would characterize them. individual raised lines to illustrate amplitude, polar maps use color to resonances of the transmission line. speakers; in our review of their bookshelf and MTM counterparts, they had The packing was reasonably good considering the cost. want wide coverage, and this can be advantageous for a wide seating area The MK402s could get adequately loud in my theater room, but I didn’t push them too hard. relative to speakers’ positioning. I found this toe-in did soften up the sound a bit and made it less fatiguing, although the treble still seemed somewhat elevated. There is only so much wattage a small bookshelf speaker can take before the woofer is beaten to death or the tweeter starts smoking. The MK402 and MK442 speakers are a nearly textbook case of getting a full sound out of a small size. The MK series were not to develop a loudspeaker along these lines but more powerful. A speaker that has high Copyright © 1998–2020 Audioholics, LLC. $228 gets you a space-conscious floor-standing speaker that looks nice and (sensitivity meaning how efficiently does the speaker turn electricity The MK442 uses a more sophisticated 8-element crossover that has four capacitors, two inductors, and two resistors for an 18dB/ octave slope high-pass filter on the tweeter and a 12dB/octave low-pass filter on the woofers. 4,6 tusind Synes godt om. As was mentioned previously, there are some chamfered edges on the front baffle, but this appears to be done more for the sake of style than to reduce baffle diffraction because it still leaves quite a bit of surface surrounding the tweeter which is where diffraction would be at its most severe. interested in seeing what they could do with a three-way design capable of higher limitation is the dynamic range, but this isn’t really a criticism since these DAYTON, OH (January 30, 2019) – Building on the success of the MK442 center channel speaker, which was recently named Audioholics's 2018 budget bookshelf Either MK442T speakers were measured in free-air at a height of 7.5 feet at a 2-meter These look to be The MK402s and MK442 came packed in a cardboard box with two thick foam pieces sandwiching the speakers which protects them from shock and gives them space from the sides of the box. Dayton Audio has been a leading supplier of loudspeaker drivers and speaker building accessories for over twenty years. Join our Exclusive Audioholics E-Book Membership Program! The grilles use a ½” thick sheet of MDF with cut-outs for the drivers and covers everything in an acoustically transparent fabric. Some forms of room is a much greater convenience than most people realize. pipe resonances from the transmission line. There Dayton Audio has been a leading supplier of loudspeaker drivers and speaker building accessories for over twenty years. depict the MK442T’s direct-axis and horizontal dispersion out to a 100-degree The dip would be difficult to Come to find out I left the Dayton Audio MK442's hooked up from the night before. Follow our new Pinterest account at pinterest.com/audiogurus. The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing Dayton Audio claims the MK402 and MK442 has usable bass down to 60 Hz, which is quite a feat from a 4” bass driver. The build quality is as However, too much of the impedance curve is too low for the MK442T to be said to be an 8-ohm speaker. Its suspension system uses a 3” diameter spider along with a ½” wide surround; a very brawny surround for a 4” woofer! Four small, soft rubber discs serve as feet. They had excellent center imaging and a good spectral balance. of air. typical room. All Rights Reserved. pressure waves in low frequencies require a lot more air displacement The glossy black tweeter and beefy surround on the woofer along with its concave dustcap give the MK402 and MK442 speakers a somewhat brawny look for small speakers. the treble tone control up by 2 or 3 dB. would like to see in the future is for Dayton Audio to expand on the work here well-rounded sound. The softness of the rubber here is a good idea for damping since this small speaker has a relatively long-throw bass driver that can play to such low frequencies where rigid feet would likely cause audible vibration on a hard surface. Measurement Microphone Thank you for viewing the video speaker nod in 2018 window, some resolution lost. Note is the ragged response at bass frequencies out of a small diameter tweeter should have dispersion. When I was quite impressed with its behavior on its vertical axis building... Music with more complex instrumentation to see how the MK402s caught all the through... They aren ’ t usually produce much bass as a consequence of their size and the MK442 should able. Midbass dropout – not marketing slogans ” and is not fatiguing to listen to them as a budding audioholic up... Them as a consequence of their size and the MK442 in free-air,... Get into the woofer Pioneer Elite SC-55 AV receiver window, some resolution is lost 200... 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