Review of some cheap speakers 

Thanks for this video, I love that you are looking for cheap and good audio devices. I've bought the Dayton Audio B652 and I really appretiate them. I bought from SoundImport in the Netherlands and they sent them to Germany.

Hi! Quality components matters more than their number. I own a pair of Infinity Primus 153 and the sound was shut in and dynamically constipated. The crossover had nine parts ( if I remember correctly ), a third order attenuation for both woofer and tweeter plus and impedance/Zobel device. I changed it for a simpler second order filter with better parts, not to expensive, but much better than the iron core inductors and electrolytic caps. The quality of sound jump quite noticebly. Sometimes too many parts choke the sound. With quality drivers, you don't need so many parts to compensate for a bad choice of drivers. I'm now a subcriber!

The little dayton sounded a bit veiled to me but that could be youtube compression or whatever. I really liked the big box dayton audio from the samples... It's just a shame dayton audio often isn't cheap anymore if you wan't to get it in the EU. for example the mk402x costs 120 euros around here which according to google is around 128 dollars

Dayton Audio does a heck of a job coming up with good speakers for the price. I think i have a half dozen of them. My 402s are still my second best jazz speakers next to my Dynaco A10s. But the Dynacos win by quite a bit. I'm talking about under $1k small room speakers.

Crossover quality makes a big difference an almost any loudspeaker.

Nice one

For me (considering what I heard from the video), the winner is the first/left one. This loudspeaker offers the better balance and sound clarity. I must say I like closed speakers. Their response is much more "flat". The second and third ones have an odd colored rendering, in my opinion. The last one may have better basses, but (in the video) it seems there is a lack of high frequencies. Interesting comparison though. Even if I'm not sure if those speakers are available in my country!

Ppl always down dayton speakers im no rocket scientist but that 6.5 sound Better than 300 dollar speakers I've heard

I've always thought that some cheap speakers can be some of the best on the market. I had a set of JPW Mini Monitors for a long time, a British product made in a prison (!)... they were rough and ready but the punchiness of the mid-range was something I've never found again. They were sold for as little as £30 from Richer Sounds in the UK.

I have an endless sea of cheap speakers, and a solid bundle of high-quality speakers with the latter in respect to how they're marketed. In the end, the cheap stuff performs the best from some simple "poorman" tactics. I built custom cabinets from furniture grade birch, installed internal ducts, band-pass and band-trap architecture, and focused on pro audio resources. My 3-way/2-way system with a ratty Boss audio chromed poly15" woofer, Goldwood horn tweeter, and 2 brand-x bullet tweeters demolishes the 3-way expensive vintage Kenwood set I have, and in every measure. The woofer does amazingly well up to about 3.5Khz, and the tweeters have a capacitor and the cheapest attenuators on the earth. A 1.8K metalized film resistor on each one lol. The goldwood horn starts at 1,800 Hz, so it's marketed as a mid-horn. I also have some expensive pro audio crossovers, bullet tweeters and woofers, but my "junk" Boss 15 arrangement dominates it all. In the end, I have a background in engineering and could design and build high order x-overs and a soft knee, or use the vintage P.A. ones I have from Carvin, but the boss set even blows away the vintage Bose I have.

The Dayton TCP115 is an incredible woofer for the price, i'm not surprised you're happy with that speaker system.

The bigger one Dayton Audio B652 has " longer deeper cleaner breath". Imagine if you design a proper cross-over filter for them ...... Hmmmm. I like the idea (glad to see you again)

I am listening to this on some cheap headphones. 402 sounds best to me.

Sir you r video very valuble ...im srilanka ❤

b652 is the best with even tone throughout the frequency range, mk402 can compete with it only in the bass, the other two are garbage.

The last one to me sounded like you were listening to it from another room. There was no presence. The first one seemed to have the most natural sound, but I think I liked the mid boost of the MTS ones, except I would probably trim some of the very tinny top out. Having said that, I don't really listen to much music nowadays and listened to this on the built in speakers of my iiyama monitor as I just haven't got round to doing anything else.

I haven't heard a lot of different speakers but i have those dayton b652 i really don't see how much better speakers can sound.

Nice comparison.

Its quite impressive how small money can buy very decent sound My only suggestion is to check the cap in series with the tweeter Putting a plastic one usually improves sound quite a bit Thanks and kind regards gino

I have two sets of Dayton speakers, the BR-1 kits, which sell for a bit under $300, so not technically budget speakers, and I have the B542's you show here. I originally paid about $24 for the pair on Amazon. I have since upgraded the tweeters, and put in slightly upgraded crossovers I had on hand in the B542's, and they fit the bill for what I wanted them for, which is mostly bench testing lower-power amplifiers. I love the tone and general performance of the BR-1's, but the can be a bit bright in the upper midrange.

First one sounds best of all, very balanced and natural. The one (the last one) you prefer sounds muffled, very compressed.

I did a bargain 2 years ago, €20 for 2 B&W DM110, with one tweeter dead. So I bought 2 diagrams and repaired these. I pair them with a 10" subwoofer and the use of an active digital crossover. They sound almost as good as my studio monitors that cost €700 per piece. Only downside is they are passive speakers, and my monitors are active ones. There I have a 4 channel Class D amp for. And they can get loud as well, without distorting much. I'm happy.

I miss my Infinity SM 102's. I remember paying $45 for the pair at the base exchange in the late 80's. Movers stole them when I came back to the States from Guam.

You need a calibrated mic like a UMIK and run REW tests on them. I had the Dayton B652's, they're awful. They're made of 3/8 low density MDF, if that. I replaced them with Wharfedale 12.0's for about 300 dollars blemished. I don't think you can beat them with anything that retails under 200 dollars. The best place I found for speaker reviews is the Audio Science Review forum.

large speaker wins... always

Thanks, I knew it. Keep on going mate.

I have a pair of B652s on my desk right now, which I used to watch this video. They were closer to $60 with sales taxes and shipping from Parts Express when I bought them (around the same time as yours, I think -- ~2014 time frame). I ended up with two pairs. The first pair came with a non-working tweeter. To their credit, Parts Express sent another set out without delay, but one of which which also had a non-working tweeter. They directed me to just toss the two bad ones. As a viewer of your channel, you can probably guess what happened next. 😁 I took the bad speakers apart (supposed to toss them anyway, right?), and immediately found a cold solder joint in each, which must have broken during shipping. Reflowed those joints, and all four of those speakers are still serviceable almost a decade later. I still buy things from Parts Express, so it's not like they haven't made their money back since then, either. I've considered going down the rabbit hole of building a proper crossover for them, but just never got around to it. They work well enough for what they are.

Good day John - non related question, but do you need 2scope channels to use the fundamental/pilot test files, or does the FFT respond with the 1khz sinewave, using one channel? Thank you kindly. Your channel is utmost intuitive. Regards, Erwin

Your cheap speakers are really cheap😄

John, maybe you could make a video about power losses in passive crossovers? Is it something to worry about?

I like all, but then again I am junk collector 😂😂😂

Thanks!!!

I have some Kef Coda 3s from the 1980s. Paired with a diy sub, i don't think I'll bother upgrading again. They are detailed, non-fatiguing and look very cool. Cost me £45 (less than $60).

9:45 I completely agree

I buy a lot of speakers at thrift stores. That or garage sales. Have you ever tried putting crossovers in speakers that don't have them?

Nice speakers

👍♥️🫂