t/s specs for indian drivers

[Samuel Jayaraj]

You guys are talking about Rs.6,000/- for a pair of woofers and tweeters, made by Vifa in the Far-East.

Whereas you can buy say a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 8.1's for under Rs.10,000/-. These are England's best selling mini-monitor speakers for the past many years. The woofers used in this model is a Kevlar type. I think they sound pretty good (compared to anything Indian) and comes with a one year guarantee. Ofcourse, for a slightly higher price there are better models from the same brand or other brands like Jamo(Denmark), AAD etc., and for the real audiophiles Quad. I have access to all of these brands, sold with a valid bill and warranty.

Some of the lower models of the Wharfedales are good but don't even come close in performance to what you can expect from a QWL made with any good drivers. I tried one such system with Sumo drivers (made in Bombay but sadly not any longer) and the Wharfedales just faded away. So if some of you are thinking outside of the closed box (literally), ie., are willing to try out new enclosure designs, the import option may still be worth it. Otherwise not!

[ashok]

Hi Sam,
You are absolutely right. Today we get a whole range of speakers in India at decent prices. It might be hard to equal them for the same price.In fact one could even get a very good sounding unit and upgrade it again , better crossover components etc., at home. But for the real DIY guy this may not be the route they want to take. I guess price is important but not always the most important factor.
So the Indian DIY has another option, of starting one step higher- good drivers and a working system to 'work' on.

AV Max magazine seems to list out a whole range of systems that are available. I think the list is not complete because Dynaudio was not mentioned ( many months ago ) and it is being sold in Mumbai. Just as an example the Dynaudio Audience52 costs Rs27,000/- in Singapore and Rs32,000/- in Mumbai. If one imported it, it would cost much more. So the price is good. The only way around this would be to hand carry it and might escape any duties.
Cheers.

[navin]

i love teh dynaudio audience 50/52. In the US it is sold at about $800 per pair. That is far more than what it goes fro in India. Are you sure it is Rs32K. That is a steal.

There are lots of options today. Another of my other favs are the Monitor Audio Silver 8 (repalced by another model). B&W, KEF, etc.. are all sold in India with indian bills (I dont think the warraties ammount to much as none of the distributors are geared to service the systems they sell).

One way the prices are kept competitve is by a bit of under invoicing by many of the local distributors (also the distributor price is much lower than the retails price and lastly the indian distributors are working on lower margins that their counter parts in the US/Europe).

I actually am always on the lookout for speakers that have blown tweeters, etc...

BTW the Diamon 8.1 has a 5" woofer with a 3-4mm Xmax. The Vifa 6" would have a 5.5mm Xmax. Bass is directly proportional to the volume air you can move (SdxXmax). the whafdale Sd = 87cm2 and Xmax about 3.5mm. The Logic Sd = 150cm2 and Xmax 5.5mm. Sginificantly more bass.

Also very few readymade speakers employ TLs or push push woofers. One way out might be to get Definitive audio systems and modify them. How good are the drivers employed inthese systems.

Ashok, Sam where are you located?

[navin]

AVmax. well i dont understand their rating systems. a B&W Nautillus and Diamond 8.1 both get the same rating?

[ashok]

Hi,
I think the AV max ratings are too general. Like Navin said , the Diamond 8.1 and the B&W Nautilus are poles apart and not compareable. A friend here has the Nautilus 802 and while its nice I don't believe it is worth the price ( Rs475k-about US$9.5K). He could have done better DIY at a much lower price. Maybe his (dedicated) room was not OK. The finish however is fabulous.

The Dynaudio Audience 50/52 is probably the best value for money in the affordable range. With a sub it is awesome. Even by itself it can produce pretty good lows. I use them on 24 inch sand filled stands. These units were not bought here.
The 32k price was what my friend was offered at the show room in Mumbai. I can't remember the name. I will try and find out.

I just got my Neo8PDR planar tweeters and Peerless XLS 12in sub. Going to be busy for a while.

I am in Chennai and Sam is nextdoor in Bangalore.
Cheers.

[navin]

LaKozy. Gotta ask Priyesh this. He owns LaKozy. The 50/52 are fantastic for the price. If you are right I am going to buy out his stock. I need 6. my wifes brother could use 6. my sister's hubby could use 2 (he is true audio not mixed AV/HT like me).

[navin]

ashok,

where did you get the Peerless?

what is the Neo 8? What do youintend to do with a tweeter. the 50/52 high end is adequate.

so we colver bang, chennai, mumbai, and cal. any other cities?

[ashok]

Hi Navin,
Did you check the cost of the Audience 52 ?
Does LaKozy have a web site ?
The Neo8PDR is an 8 inch long planar tweeter. It starts at about 600Hz upward. There is a nasty peak between 10 and 20 KHz and they say that under normal circumstances one cannot hear this. There is a way around this with a notch filter. Checking all this will take time. I intend to build the tweeter as a dipole as it is one already. So I have to make a baffle for it to cut down on LF losses . The lower end is a 6 inch Vifa (P17). I am expecting it to sound great - I hope so. I have many power amps lying around but not enough power supplies for them. Have lots of work to do.
Cheers.

[sangram]

I dunno, I guess DIY isn't just for the money.

I'm just going in for an upgrade of my Jamos, so I might be short of cash for quite a while - my recent purchase of a nice video card has burnt my plastic limit through - I'm straing at a bill of nearly half a lakh.

But once the moolha flows again I'll look at importing drivers and doing another DIY project. I just love this stuff. I have also been inspired by Pedja and a few others on the massive gainclone thread and I am going to make an amp in a mud pot. with a freaky art-deco custom-painted exterior. Promise!! I also have a few LM4766 chips around for this.... In the meantime my little STKs are crying for their new home, the project will start now. Most of it is leftover parts.

[navin]

well not really. i figured i'd ask priyesh when i meet him next. i am in no rush.

I already am building an 5.1 HT system (Vifa TC series drivers). I already have 2 decent stereo systems. However my time gets more and more limited so I figured for my next HT / Audio system I'd use ready made speakers.

Also I want to reqwork the speakers in my exsiting 2 stereo systems to incorporate push push TL concepts. The idea being that as a DIY I can take advatage of building something that is not commercially available.

Priyesh (LaKozy) is also the dealer - distributor for Definitive and another point I will discuss with him when we meet next is mods for the definitive (push push aperiodic TL and XO mods). This is not a commercial venture. I might get Sushil of Nova Audio to expolit it commercially if it works. Being in Bombay you come a cross a lot of nice guys into HiFi.