The DR250 is the flagship of the DR line. At about 22 inches cubed, and weighing as little as 40 pounds, it is small enough to be easily transported, while its 106dB average sensitivity makes it one of the most powerful loudspeakers available. This high average sensitivity means hauling around half the number of cabinets you used to need, and half the number of amps to power them.
Note the dual cross-firing vertical tweeter arrays. They deliver unsurpassed
high frequency performance, with off-axis response that no commercial speaker
can touch. Check out this 1m/1W SPL chart:
Why is off-axis response important? In the high frequencies crucial for
intelligibility most speakers have output at 45 degrees off-axis at least
9dB lower than on-axis. The DR250 is no more than 6dB lower, even at the
highest frequencies. In fact it's usable high-frequency dispersion is over 120
degrees.
For your audience wide dispersion means that there
isn't a bad seat in the house. Here's what builder Marko Ursin thinks about
his DR250:
I built the DR250 in the 4 piezo tweeter version. This cabinet works great
as a bass cabinet. The sound is clear and sharp, very punchy and has nice,
growling lows for this size. I can't see a need for Tuba at least in rehearsal use. This cabinet makes the floor shake with very low volume setting on my 130W amp. I don't even want to try how loud it can be! Thousand thanks to Bill for a great design and even better customer service on the Forum. The way this cabinet works made me build 2 DR200's for our band as vocal/keyboard cabinet.
The DR250 is suitable for electric bass, keyboards or main PA. It may be built
with tweeters for full range operation, or without, for a more traditional
electric bass sound. The cabinet side profile is trapezoidal, allowing vertical
splaying of multiple cabinets in a line-array PA configuration. The cabinet
may be built with a sealed or vented driver chamber, frequency tuned for use
with or without separate sub-woofers. And if you prefer compression HF drivers the
DR250 can be loaded with a pair of Eminence ASD1001 drivers on a wide dispersion
vertical horn array that delivers a full 100 degrees of usable horizontal dispersion.
Energized by a single 250mm woofer, the DR250 can be built for less than $250, depending on driver, hardware and finish choices, yet it offers performance superior to commercial pro-sound loudspeakers costing hundreds, if not thousands, more.
Construction Degree of Difficulty: 8
Performance Quotient: 10
Suggested Audience Size in PA Applications:
Two cabs to 200; four cabs to 800; six cabs to 1200; eight cabs to 2000
Equivalent Retail Value: $ 1499
Recommended Sub-Woofer: Tuba 24, Tuba 30, Tuba 60, Titan 39, Titan 48
34 Pages, 69 photos, 14 diagrams.
Plans are $19.95, delivered within 24 hours as email attachment in MS Word
format. PDF available on request.
