The 2026 GReat DIY Get Together was a blast, and I’m excited to announce that I’ll be hosting another one next year!
To make things a little more interesting, I thought we could add an Iron Driver competition to the event. This will mostly be about bragging rights, but if we have some sponsors or donations, we may be able to set aside a gift card or something similar for the winner.
I’d also like to make the listening portion a little more scientific than our usual listening sessions. I’m going to try to get some curtains so we can do blind listening, and we’ll work on better level matching between the speakers. The goal is to make the comparisons as fair and repeatable as we reasonably can while still keeping the event fun.
I’d like to get the driver selected before the holiday sales start, so there’s plenty of time for everyone to get their driver and start building.
For those of you who have participated in Iron Driver events in the past, I’d really appreciate your feedback. What rules worked well? What didn’t? What should we include, and what should we change or add?
I wonder if there is a driver that alot of folks already have in their pile? Like the MCM 55-5670… Though It seems the jury is still out regarding it’s viability for 2-way use? Maybe that is the challenge in it
I don’t think there’s any question of whether it’s suitable for two-way use. You may need to ensure you have a big enough venue for all the huge boxes.
I would vote for the MAC 05, good for both 2 way and a mid in 3 way. though for full bass extension needs a relatively big box, but slim towers look great. A few of us already have this driver, and for those that don’t it’s available at a very reasonable outlay, and the performance is definitely above the price bracket.
I think the rules were pretty simple, the iron drive needs to be be used. I think multiple was also allowed. There weren’t;t any box size limitation, unless you are shipping it, then it makes sense to keep it small. Blind testing was the feature of it. But of course it doesn’t have to be the exact rules, you can make up your own rules and take suggestions. Take a balance between too rigid (most design will be similar or not many participants), or too generic (though that might be interesting, but difficult to compare apples and oranges), but blind testing shouldn’t care anyways.
I’d agree a MAC driver would be a good option. Though a tweeter could be interesting if it is something other than your standard 1-1.125" dome. Like a 3/4" perhaps? I can’t realy decide on tweeter or woofer myself. I haven’t experienced an iron driver event.
I like the idea of the SB17CAC35-#. This may be the best value driver before getting into premium priced drivers. Not cheap, but at THLP, for 4+ units, they are EUR 55 which we might be able to leverage with Madisound (who we’d prefer to support).
Without knowing the driver, I’m not too worried about the other rules just yet. I will make a final anouncement with rules when I have the driver selected.
In years past, the driver was often a newer driver, so people could get some experience with a new product and hopefully find that the new product was either better or at least more intriguing.
There are a few woofers that I think fit the bill and should make for some great speakers.
And the only one I’ve ever heard is my own, I believe. I personally feel that choosing a $25-30 driver is a better reflection of the spirit of DIY than asking contestants to sink $250 just into their woofer. YMMV.
None of my business, of course as I won’t be competing, but I find it very interesting to see what people come up with using the same driver.
If you chose a coaxial, like the Dayton CX120 or SB, that would really be interesting as everyone would be using the same drivers,not just the woofer or tweeter. The differences would then come down to cabinet and XO.
However, that might also make for a dull competition; you guys have so much expertise in XO and cabinet design, so all would sound pretty good and no single design would stand out.
