My Second Tannoy Autograph enclosures

[maxlorenz]

Hi dear fullrangers

By now it should be apparent that I'm crazy about the Autograph enclosures, the masterpiece of the late G.R. Fountain.

I'm enjoying my first Autograph more and more. See my thread here:
My first Tannoy Autograph

No new photos until the rainy season is over: I have to "sand" and varnish them.

There you can see that I made a 1:4 replica of the enclosure to hear what was the sound like. I was astonished by the naturalness of the presentation with my tinny 2" "full range". Then I planned to make someday a true, filterless, full range, if I ever get good transducers.
I thought about Fostex 206E but then I found the Audio Nirvana's 8" speakers, that are cheaper and got good reviews recently. When I was ready to go, the Audio Nirvana 10" was released!

Cost: US$200 + US$ 50 for surface shipment to my country.
Six weeks after, here they are!

[IMG][/IMG]

Sorry for the bad quality of the photo. Cell phone camera
Here you can see the size compared to my 8" Tannoy's.

There's more...

[maxlorenz]

Another photo showing the size of the magnet, compared to a well known CD:

[IMG][/IMG]

The photo was cut somehow...
Appart the size of the magnet you can see that the metal frame is not so sturdy. Any idea about how to get it stronger is welcome!

[maxlorenz]

And the last one...showing the AN10 à côté of the replica that started this adventure...

[IMG][/IMG]

The surround is made of fabric. The cone is paper.

Why Autograph with full range???
I'm new to this stuff but it was obvious to me that the "climbing" frequency response of the full rangers is complemented well by the reinforcement pattern of the Autograph: front horn enhances midrange/midbass and rear horn enhances bass.
These beasts must be corner loaded to get the full effect.

I have two possible choices for driving amps: "My Reference", excellent amp from Mauro Penasa, wich has a balanced sound with very good bass output for his 50W; Hypex UCD180 wich sound very good and doesn't care about impedances.

Now, the real 15 incher costed me US$850. For this 2:3 replica the budget will be tighter, or at least I hope so...I expect less than US$500, with lower quality but strong plywood ("structural plywood").

Please goto:
http://www.nirvanaspeakers.com/nirvana.html
To see the full driver info.

Cheers
Mauricio

[Scottmoose]

Nice one. I like the idea of that. Oh yes indeed. I'm not much of a fan of the 6 1/2in & 8in AN drivers, but the 10in covers a market that no-one else does at the moment (good on them for taking the plunge), so I reckon I might try some at some point in the future when budget permits.

In 2:3 size Autorgraphs? I'm thinking BIG sound, effortless, and dynamics. And bass. A lot of bass. Sort of thing you can relax to with a glass of your beautiful country's finest in-hand, the sun setting, and your favourite piece of classical washing around the room.

Poetic license! Sorry. But I bet they'll be great, and I really look forward to hearing your listening impressions. FWIW, the rear chamber might need it's damping playing with, though Vas looks roughly on the right lines for a 2/3 size 15in Tannoy DC, so I suspect thart it shouldn't need any major changes.

Best
Scott

[qi]

Hi Mauricio (and Scottmoose)!

What a great idea, Mauricio.

I wish you the best of luck with this project.

I have been flat out at work (horrors!) so have not been around much.

I hope to put some time in this next week on your "rectangular" Autograph enclosure suggestions that you posted a while ago...

[phn]

I don't know if you are familiar with this site: http://www.german-vintage-loudspeakers.com

Vintage german speaker elements are usually relatively cheap. (There are extremely expensive ones, like Siemens coaxial.) Ask SY what he thinks of them.

Go to "Siemens 36 cm coaxial project (SOLD)" on the For Sale page. Neat home-made FR element.

[Scottmoose]

Fantastic. I like the monsters in the photograph on the for sale page too.

Just done a design for a trad. type 8ft Voigt pipe for these AN 10in drivers. Very little ripple for one of these boxes, though properly mass-loading it will completely flatten the response and add a fair bit of extension too. Bit of fun.

[phn]

I rarely venture into the speaker section. I have no workshop, so DIY isn't really an option. Meaning, I don't know if I post something old or obvious.

Anyway, as for the dirt expensive Siemens coaxial I mentioned, it can be found on the bottom on this page: http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand...acksystem.html

[chrispenycate]

Back when I was working for Tannoy, the GRFs and Autographs were really difficult to get right; just about every one needed rattles or grill flap detecting, locating and curing (though the rectangular GRF didn't give anywhere near as many problems)
I myself owned a corner GRF (15" red, rebuilt crossover), which sounded great in mono, but not only could I never have bought the pair, where would you find a room where the corners were spaced right for stereo?
Still, it's nice to know that there are still those who apreciate high efficincy designs; perhaps it's time to look into Lowther plans?

[maxlorenz]

Hi to all my dear Tannoyites

Glad to hear about you. Here I am, pushing you again to get your hands dirthy

Yes, Scottmoose, a 2:3 Autograph should be equal or better than the "Turnberry", wright? I heard that speaker once. Old fashioned, relaxed, fat sound.
Well, about wine, I won't be able to buy the finest for a while, due to my projects...but my everyday 0.9GBP red wine would have make Homero call it "sweet wine", with reason.

While you go to commonsenseaudio.com please take a look at the P Audio 15" coaxials. The magnets are huge and the 2" driver goes lower than my Beyma. I could possibly use this as my next project! I mean, my house has about 8 rooms to be filled...

Hi Qi,
I hope you find the time to play a little...but don't repeat it was my idea in front of these gentlemen that know for real the art!

Hi Phn,
Thanks for this interesting link. I had a quick glance to them.
Must sound good but the boxes seem too little to me

I rarely venture into the speaker section. I have no workshop, so DIY isn't really an option.

You should get into it! Good "occupational therapy"
Don't make me expose my theory about character and DIYaudio inclination...

Hi chrispenycate,
So you really know what it takes to make a big monster, right...

When I remember my epic built, a scene of "Excalibur" comes to mind, when Merlin refuses to awaken again the Dragon because of the memory of the couple of months he had to sleep to recover...

I will try to post better quality photos at my original thread to show you see that I took care to cure and damp every possible weak area.
I have my "Autographs" activelly biamped.
Now I know that they are not the limiting step in sound quality: the active crossover is. Everytime I mod it the sound gets better.

You do remember the original price of the Autographs, don't you???

Cheers to all,
M