Upcoming Vifa drivers

[DcibeL]

I'm actually quite surprised to see no posts about this yet. From Zaphaud's blog, a bunch of photos of absolutely beautiful new Vifa drivers:

IMAGE: Vifa Woofer Front
IMAGE: Vifa Woofer Rear
IMAGE: Vifa Woofer Side
IMAGE: Vifa textile dome small
IMAGE: Vifa 3" woofer
IMAGE: Vifa 4" woofer
IMAGE: Vifa 5" woofer
IMAGE: Vifa 6" woofer
IMAGE: Vifa 10" woofer
IMAGE: Vifa 12" woofer

The rear and side images look to be of the 4" driver. They show a lot of features not seen in most drivers currently available:

-Frame slopes away from the driver (look at the side view image)
-surround has added lumps near the screw holes, perhaps to dampen the effects of the screws themselves
-looks to be foam on top of the motor, in between the motor and spider
-neodymium magnet, large diameter voice coil
-voice coil visibility leads me to believe of large excursion capabilities
-spider is split into 4 sections
-voice coil leads woven into spider
-mean looking frame

Your comments?

 

[planet10]

Looks like some illuminator influence.

The 3" has a concave surround, i wonder why the rest go back to a convex? I was hopeful when i saw the 3"

dave

 

[DcibeL]

yes some illumitator influence around the motor, frame similar to ScanSpeak revelators, and cone looks very similar to the Seas reed cone ER18RNX.

The 3" likely has capabilities to operate well at higher frequencies than the rest of the drivers, so the surround type was chosen accordingly. Who knows the decisions of Vifa, but I am assuming that the decision of type of surround came to some compromise between driver performance and cost of production.

 

[tinitus]

Interesting arrangement with the rubber(?) on chassis outside the surround
The late mr Duelund experimentet with such smoothing transistion between chassis and surround
Looks smooth

Nice to see a 12" too...looks like "slised" spider http://www.zaphaudio.com/temp/Vifa_12_woofer.jpg

 

[Moondog55]

Would the gold flecks in the cone material be Kevlar??
No 8 inch driver? that will be missed by a lot of people but it is good to see a 12inch back in the line-up

 

[DcibeL]

Yes I was a bit disappointed to not see an 8" driver. I very much enjoy my 8" Peerless HDS woofers.

Market demands I suppose.

 

[Andy G]

Don't SB Acoustics also skip the 8" driver ? as you say, maybe a "demand" issue.

 

[DcibeL]

Looks like some illuminator influence.

The 3" has a concave surround, i wonder why the rest go back to a convex? I was hopeful when i saw the 3"

dave

I've been thinking about this some more, and looking at the photos, and I think Vifa has taken a lot of consideration to the diffraction at the edge of the cone. Look at the photo of the 5" driver. Even though it has a convex surround, the frame around it curves upwards toward the surround, and almost lines up with the top of the surround, not the base of the surround like most drivers.
Something to consider anyway.

 

[David Gatti]

Yes good to see a new 12", although I would have preferred a large voicecoil/shallow-cone design.
Why don't Scanspeak and Seas produce a high end 12"?

 

[Andy G]

SB Acoustics has an 8"

Thanks. For some reason, WES Components don't list it in their catalog, so I assumed......

 

[Moondog55]

How long before we get to see the TS parameters for the drivers?
I suppose that they will follow the old Vifa preference and be more suited to ported boxes ??

Lets hope that one of them at least will be as easy to work with as th P-13

 

[MisterTwister]

David Gatti, why would you prefer shallow cone design? isn't deeper cone has greater stiffness?

 

[marchel]

Mouth watering, So when will these be available?

 

[dlr]

I've been thinking about this some more, and looking at the photos, and I think Vifa has taken a lot of consideration to the diffraction at the edge of the cone. Look at the photo of the 5" driver. Even though it has a convex surround, the frame around it curves upwards toward the surround, and almost lines up with the top of the surround, not the base of the surround like most drivers.
Something to consider anyway.

I find that interesting as well. Given the dimensions, though, I wonder just how much influence that can have.

Another interesting aspect is the wavy shape of the surround where it attaches to the cone. That should help to suppress and/or distribute the surround resonance. Too many Vifas have had rather serious surround resonance issues.

Looks like a combination of ideas.

Dave

 

[tinitus]

why would you prefer shallow cone design? isn't deeper cone has greater stiffness?

Seems to mostly give better midrange response

 

[inertial]

Hi,

Ok maybe those drivers will be "good for the price" but : paper, paper, paper......
why do not make at least one line where the cone is very high-tech material ?

Today we have ( 95%) only paper or alu-ceramic, etc......
why do not riesumate something like HDA?

just my 2c

Cheers,
Paolo

 

[djarchow]

Along the line of new drivers, here is a shot of the first driver from Scan Audio Research. Looks a lot like the Illuminator as well. That isn't surprising though as both were designed by Lars Goller.

http://www.scan-audio.com/intro.html

Regards,

Dennis

 

[DcibeL]

Nothing wrong with paper. These Vifa drivers do seem to have a somewhat unique paper composite, like I stated earlier they look similar to the Seas ER18RNX which is a very good and popular driver.

Keep in mind that paper is not just paper. MANY different composite materials have been used for speaker cones, most of which can be described to the customer as "paper".

 

[planet10]

Ok maybe those drivers will be "good for the price" but : paper, paper, paper......

There are a zillion receipes for paper... it is very hard to match the performance of a well developed paper.

dave

 

[marchel]

Along the line of new drivers, here is a shot of the first driver from Scan Audio Research. Looks a lot like the Illuminator as well. That isn't surprising though as both were designed by Lars Goller.

http://www.scan-audio.com/intro.html

Regards,

Dennis

HI,

Scan audio research is SCAR right? Isnt it involved with SB Acoustic?

Those drivers you linked looked Exotic, Where is it available?