You should have seen the look when I moved the Plutos with the subs into the living room and innocently asked "Don't these sound amazing in this big room." Needless to say, they are back down in the basement.
John, such a pity all that fine décor… relegated to the basement.
Hope you got a chuckle out of “The Audiophile’s Wife”.
Once you have the Manzi’s up and running for a while I’d love to hear about your impression of the trade off’s with the Pluto’s. I’m not sure if that discussion is appropriate on this thread, maybe Pano or John could chime in if they have a preference.
Marko
Hope you got a chuckle out of “The Audiophile’s Wife”.
Once you have the Manzi’s up and running for a while I’d love to hear about your impression of the trade off’s with the Pluto’s. I’m not sure if that discussion is appropriate on this thread, maybe Pano or John could chime in if they have a preference.
Marko
Vifa gasket?
My vifa's came with the gaskets stuck on the front of the drivers. Seems like they should be on the rear. Got one half up and running. Impressive so far. I needed the 15 ohm across the inductor ( with the 8 the highest highs sounded fierce ). Pushing it with NAD 150 watt seperates.
My vifa's came with the gaskets stuck on the front of the drivers. Seems like they should be on the rear. Got one half up and running. Impressive so far. I needed the 15 ohm across the inductor ( with the 8 the highest highs sounded fierce ). Pushing it with NAD 150 watt seperates.
Got about 10 hrs. listening in. To relieve some harshness in the vifa I increased R1 to 18 ohms. Only other change is R2 which is at 4.5 instead of 5. I have tinitis so there is a certain upper freq. which resonates or warbles in my head.
I did a trap on my EL70's which came in at .6 mh / 5 ohms. I started with a .65 mh coil but that brought out too much bass. I noticed little difference when changing the trap resistor. Amazing what a change of .05 inductance did with those drivers. If I had a meter I might order a 2.20 mh and unwind it to my taste.
My baffle is about a 1/2" narrower than plan ( goofed up ) and I changed the 8" bottom plate to a double thickness at 4-1/4" inches wide. I've got them sitting on metal stands that puts the tweet at 48" which is a bit high.
These pups really rock and do soft stuff nicely too. I really enjoy the bass and it seems just right on most recordings. The open an airy sound suits me well and is like my Connistons.
These are well worth the investment and effort. My wife likes them too. And they go loud for those live recordings I'm fond of. Will post some pics after I get wooden stands done and a finish on them. Thanks John & Pano for all your work!
Moto
I did a trap on my EL70's which came in at .6 mh / 5 ohms. I started with a .65 mh coil but that brought out too much bass. I noticed little difference when changing the trap resistor. Amazing what a change of .05 inductance did with those drivers. If I had a meter I might order a 2.20 mh and unwind it to my taste.
My baffle is about a 1/2" narrower than plan ( goofed up ) and I changed the 8" bottom plate to a double thickness at 4-1/4" inches wide. I've got them sitting on metal stands that puts the tweet at 48" which is a bit high.
These pups really rock and do soft stuff nicely too. I really enjoy the bass and it seems just right on most recordings. The open an airy sound suits me well and is like my Connistons.
These are well worth the investment and effort. My wife likes them too. And they go loud for those live recordings I'm fond of. Will post some pics after I get wooden stands done and a finish on them. Thanks John & Pano for all your work!
Moto
You are very welcome and glad that you're happy with them. I think it's just one of the best speaker projects around. You get so much great sound for so little time and money. And even outside those considerations, the Manazita is a great sounding rig.
Looking forward to seeing some pics. Have a lovely Easter weekend.
Looking forward to seeing some pics. Have a lovely Easter weekend.
H.E. version up date
ra7....
I have auditioned a half dozen 18's and it seems the Eminence Sigma is the best of the lot. Know there are better 18's out there, but they are cost prohibitive. I am now focusing on the P Audio 18" coaxials getting them ready for LSAF the weekend of 4-6 May. After LSAF I plan to return to the H.E. project and get it finished. As usual, it takes a lot of time to get the crossover where it needs to be. John
ra7....
I have auditioned a half dozen 18's and it seems the Eminence Sigma is the best of the lot. Know there are better 18's out there, but they are cost prohibitive. I am now focusing on the P Audio 18" coaxials getting them ready for LSAF the weekend of 4-6 May. After LSAF I plan to return to the H.E. project and get it finished. As usual, it takes a lot of time to get the crossover where it needs to be. John
Congratulations on getting your Manzi's up and running
Moto.... Thanks for the feed back on your Manzi's!! Your observations concerning the Vifa's dovetails with what I have noticed with the most recent one I received a month ago.
You can add a small .2 Mh or so inductor in series with the current 2.0 Mh and unwind it to suit. It's a balancing act adjusting the bypass resistor and inductor value. My hearing starts to tank at about 15K so I am not as sensitive to the Vifa peak. One thing you can do is run the inductor without the bypass just to see if the peak is reduced enough for you. If so, then the trap has the range to get you where you need to be. Don't be surprised if 50 or even 100 ohms in parallel ends up being best for you. John
Moto.... Thanks for the feed back on your Manzi's!! Your observations concerning the Vifa's dovetails with what I have noticed with the most recent one I received a month ago.
You can add a small .2 Mh or so inductor in series with the current 2.0 Mh and unwind it to suit. It's a balancing act adjusting the bypass resistor and inductor value. My hearing starts to tank at about 15K so I am not as sensitive to the Vifa peak. One thing you can do is run the inductor without the bypass just to see if the peak is reduced enough for you. If so, then the trap has the range to get you where you need to be. Don't be surprised if 50 or even 100 ohms in parallel ends up being best for you. John
Check the smaller lumber yards - this comes in 5' x 5' sheets and is generaly better quality than the 4' x 8' sheets at lowes or HD. Lots of sanding to get the machining ripples out.
I'll have to look into that, if I could get some good looking woodgrain like that I'd stop painting my boxes!
Very nice look with all plywood and the oil.
Went to Lowes and bought a sheet of birch plywood. The front grain looks decent. The pine boards for the wings are clear not too bowed. I also bought a 2 X 6 and a 2 X 10 for the stands. Tomorrow I will fire up the power tools. I am psyched just looking at the 12 inch drivers. I have never built anything with anything bigger than 10 inches (except maybe my four kids).
Went to Lowes and bought a sheet of birch plywood. The front grain looks decent. The pine boards for the wings are clear not too bowed. I also bought a 2 X 6 and a 2 X 10 for the stands. Tomorrow I will fire up the power tools. I am psyched just looking at the 12 inch drivers. I have never built anything with anything bigger than 10 inches (except maybe my four kids).
I updated the link to the summary of the plans and parts to include the cost of the parts. The total out of pocket was $466.
http://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh...e9e605c166a5/18b6b9b42bc1c1cd5d7a17468a9ce8c3
John
http://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh...e9e605c166a5/18b6b9b42bc1c1cd5d7a17468a9ce8c3
John
Thanks for the update.
These have gone up a bit in price since October 2007. Back then you could build a pair of under $300 - excluding lumber. But the woofer price has gone up a good bit and the skyrocketing price of copper had made the inductors rather expensive. We're using a bigger inductor, too.
Now we are at about $190 per side (excluding wood) up from ~$145 per side in 2007.
These have gone up a bit in price since October 2007. Back then you could build a pair of under $300 - excluding lumber. But the woofer price has gone up a good bit and the skyrocketing price of copper had made the inductors rather expensive. We're using a bigger inductor, too.
Now we are at about $190 per side (excluding wood) up from ~$145 per side in 2007.