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New Danley Studio Monitor: TDH-3

voodooless

voodooless

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Looks interesting! As usual per Danley, it’s a 5” coaxial and an 8” woofer. Setup as a synergy horn, only smaller. And it’s passive.


tomdanley.com

TDH-3 | 3-way Passive Studio Monitor - Danley Sound Labs

The Tom Danley Home Stereo Speaker - is a true masterpiece of audio engineering and craftsmanship. It’s not just the internal components that make this speaker so special. The solid wood cabinetry provides a beautiful, natural finish that adds an air of sophistication to any living space. The...
tomdanley.com tomdanley.com

I would love to have one of these measured by @amirm.
 
This appears to be a passive speaker. I don't see the 8" woofer. It must be internal.
 
voodooless said:
It’s right there at the bottom..
Click to expand...
If we take Danley's spec of 11" cabinet width at face value, then that bottom woofer is 5.5" (cone), or 7" (cone+surround).

Does the basket OD count towards driver size?

That seems a bit silly. Keep the same cone size, but make an oversized basket rim for mounting to sell a 5.5" driver as 10+"?
 
Hey, I’m just regurgitating the spec sheet, don’t shoot the messenger ;)

If it’s really 8”, the VC is massive.I haven’t found the model yet… only a matter of time..
 
Passive and yet still $2.5k more than my KH310s.
Not for me.
 
Last edited:
Based off previous danley designs, the 5.5" driver will be the coaxial driver at the top of the cabinet, probably behind some kind of waveguide arrangement that marketing says solves all the world's problems.
I agree that the 11" cabinet isn't lining up with the 8" driver spec, at least so long as I am measuring it right. - It's possible that the woofer is internal, but then the coaxial driver claim makes no sense.
One plus is that though the sensitivity is low, it can take some power, which implies decent dynamic behavior.
The major issue to me though, aside from the finish (I prefer black), is the hard edges and abrupt geometry changes. Those could cause issues, but IDK.

So basically, these could be good, but I would need to see more specs or a proper review before I draw any real conclusions. -- Though given that they are passive, they better have pretty good performance if the quoted price above is accurate. I mean, for $6600/pair without amps I am well into the high-end studio monitor or home bookshelf speaker scene....
 
For reference, the Danley TDS-1 (Link) uses the B&C 6HCX51 Coaxial Driver (Link). The 8 midrange taps are drilled into the removable horn, secured by two Allen screws. The coaxial driver is mounted to the underside of the front baffle with the small horn peeking through. The black fabric covering the horn adds a nice touch and can be removed. The crossover network is very well designed, as one would expect from Danley.

Hope that helps.
 
Looks like an 8" woofer on an 11" baffle. These will typically have ~210mm bolt circle, 220mm outside diameter. The Danley appears no different. Here are some 8" drivers and cabinet, compared roughly to scale:
1721759378435.png
 
I'm disappointed with the pro audio coaxial approach they keep taking with their studio line. What I would rather have is a 2x
6.5", 4x6.5" or 2x8" low diffraction Synergy.
 
Ilkless said:
I'm disappointed with the pro audio coaxial approach they keep taking with their studio line. What I would rather have is a 2x
6.5", 4x6.5" or 2x8" low diffraction Synergy.
Click to expand...
Yes, a more traditional Synergy horn / "Multiple entry horn" design would be really cool in this form factor.
However, chiming in with my own personal experiments and research in this area, there are a few issues with it:
First, you have to get the midrange taps close to the horn throat, which can be an issue when you are trying to run higher crossover frequencies common with smaller tweeters (which you need in order to get good HF dispersion). You could theoretically use a dome tweeter and small midrange drivers, but then you compromise on dynamic capability.
The second issue, and why I abandoned my pursuit of a "bookshelf sized" unity horn, is that the horn itself, in order to have any loading down to 1khz-ish, takes up a lot of the space in the speaker. Obviously, you need space in the enclosure for the crossover / amps, damping material, drivers, separation between the bass and midrange driver(s), and the air volume for the bass drivers.

So theoretically it is possible, as seen here: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/unitized-image-control-waveguide.319698/ However, it has a number of compromises, and in this case they used a dome tweeter and the midranges aren't very powerful. You'd also need a separate enclosure for DSP amps and a decent woofer. Basically, a PA coaxial driver with a compression driver tweeter and high-power midrange driver will blow the above design out of the water in everything except possibly stereo imaging and frequency response thanks to the use of the JBL ICW geometry.
 
AwesomeSauce2015 said:
Yes, a more traditional Synergy horn / "Multiple entry horn" design would be really cool in this form factor.
However, chiming in with my own personal experiments and research in this area, there are a few issues with it:
First, you have to get the midrange taps close to the horn throat, which can be an issue when you are trying to run higher crossover frequencies common with smaller tweeters (which you need in order to get good HF dispersion). You could theoretically use a dome tweeter and small midrange drivers, but then you compromise on dynamic capability.
The second issue, and why I abandoned my pursuit of a "bookshelf sized" unity horn, is that the horn itself, in order to have any loading down to 1khz-ish, takes up a lot of the space in the speaker. Obviously, you need space in the enclosure for the crossover / amps, damping material, drivers, separation between the bass and midrange driver(s), and the air volume for the bass drivers.

So theoretically it is possible, as seen here: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/unitized-image-control-waveguide.319698/ However, it has a number of compromises, and in this case they used a dome tweeter and the midranges aren't very powerful. You'd also need a separate enclosure for DSP amps and a decent woofer. Basically, a PA coaxial driver with a compression driver tweeter and high-power midrange driver will blow the above design out of the water in everything except possibly stereo imaging and frequency response thanks to the use of the JBL ICW geometry.
Click to expand...

Loading and directivity control on a dome tweeter would already provide significant SPL capability for domestic situations.

Basically, a PA coaxial driver with a compression driver tweeter and high-power midrange driver will blow the above design out of the water
Click to expand...

Not with the modulation by cone movement and general FR raggedness of a PA coax. I love what Danley stands for but all indications are whoever is managing the domestic/studio products has no clue about the acceptable tradeoffs and preferences for a domestic/studio environment. So many false starts since the Hyperion!
 
Why does it get described as a synergy horn when it's a coax with a woofer underneath?
 
3ll3d00d said:
Which bit exactly answers my question? Just saying "it's a mini synergy horn" doesn't make it into a synergy horn
Click to expand...
Apparently because it follows the same design principles as (for instance) the Danley SM60, using a coaxial to seamlessly combine both high and midrange frequencies through midrange taps in the horn, as well as some Danley crossover wizardry.
 
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