Interesting Vifa/Dayton Speakers on eBay

[sdclc126]

Ran across these on eBay this morning:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=ADME

A little pricey as you can build for much less with same drivers and conventional enclosures - but a nice artisitc effort. Wonder how the enclosure affect frequency response.

[wigginjs]

Wow, impressive... Fiberglass?

[sdclc126]

Yes - here's what the listing says:

(2) Speakers with Tweeters, Mid-Woofers, & Sub-Woofers
(2) Amps
(2) Amp Speaker Cables
(2) Amp Power Cables (The Subwoofers are Powered)
Speakers Info:
1" Vifa Dual Concentric Dome Tweeter
7" Vifa Wood Pulp Mid/Woofer
12" Dayton Audio Reference Subwoofers
2 way speaker design w/ left and right active subwoofers
2 Dayton 275 watt Subwoofer Amps
6 ohm impedance, 8 ohm for each subwoofer
Construction Notes:
Custom Hand Molded Fiberglass with tar based acoustic dampening material.
Subwoofer enclosure also has acoustic foam dampening material.
Dual binding post speaker connection (2 way and subwoofer powered separately).
Two front feet are solid painted oak.
Shape is derived from research on standing sound waves and the enclosure in turn was designed to minimize distortion.
The speakers are 36 inches high x 20 inches wide x 34 inches deep

These speakers were designed and built by Scott Naylor a graduate from Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids MI.

Anybody know this guy? I'm sure the speakers sound great but that price tag as a ratio to the driver costs - very high. For that kind of money he should have considered going with cost-no-object drivers like SEAS or Scannies.

P.S. - those woofers don't look like Dayton Reference to me.

[wigginjs]

Yeah the most certainly aren't. Look like the dayton DVC series or some such. Don't resemble the "titanic" series either.

Also, that enclosure shape is somewhat useless for the tweeter as it has a sealed back, correct? I mean, useless apart from aesthetics.

[sdclc126]

"Also, that enclosure shape is somewhat useless for the tweeter as it has a sealed back, correct? I mean, useless apart from aesthetics."

Pretty sure that's right - any enclosure for a tweeter is unnecessary as there is no back wave to be dealt with - I guess you just need a baffle - the designer is just going for aesthetic consistency here.

Speaking of baffles, designs like this don't really have them per se - it makes me wonder if anybody has ever measured this sort of speaker - I can visualize an almost spherical radiation pattern with some loss of energy - possible omni/dipole?

Also wondering if there is any interference in the areas between the drivers - lots of curves going on in there. The B&W Nautilus is similar but has a little more of a real baffle between the drivers.

[planet10]

If he had paid more attention to the smoothness of the tweeter bezel, enclosue junction, and he had choosen a tweeter more suited to this kind of application, the teardrop has very significant advantages in terms of edge diffraction, Same with the midranges...

IMHO, the execution of the aesthetics of this design are somewhat lacking...

dave

[Shpoop]

I agree...it looks like it should be a game piece in candy land or something


Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they sound amazing. I just don't know too many rooms where they'd fit in.

[Stormrider]

Dunno about 'amazing' sound. The woofer is most defiantly the DVC or even the Quatro. Not ultimatly bad drivers, just not good for this price tag. He makes no mention of the crossover design for the mid/tweeter so that would leave me to believe he fudged this area. Which would be bad because of the enlcousure design aswell. A cabinet like that (can it really be called a cabinet?) would need proper measurements and extensive tweaking to get the baffle step compensation correct.

Also, i have one of those plate amps, they are only good for 250w, if that, and they're aren't something you'd expect to see in this price range. He could have atleast gone for the Bash series amps.

Just my .02 anyway. Good effort on his part though.

[sdclc126]

Yes it's interesting absolutely nothing is mentioned about the crossover - not even the frequencies or slopes. He's probably trying so sell to someone who would buy a boutique speaker and has little or no technical knowledge anyway. He's definitely selling it as an art deco accessory IMO to someone with money to burn - form/function way out of kilter.

I just noticed something else - there are several other images on the page you can select to be enlarged, and one of them is of the RS sub that is DEFINITELY not the one installed in the speaker, unless he's replaced it with the RS since the photos were taken. Otherwise he's just hedging that whoever buys them (if anybody) won't know the difference or care. And he's probably right about that.