Scanpeerless 104 DT tweeter??

[Elbert]

Hmm.. whats going on??

Not to long, Peerless (tymphany) announced a new "top of the line" tweeter the HDS 104 DT.

http://www.tymphany.com/810921

A very nice looking unit by the way..

This was also tested by Zaph and received very positive remarks.

Was just browsing through the Scanspeak web-page, in particular their new discovery-series..

And what do I see??

http://www.tymphany.com/810921

Is this new tweeter a made-in-Denmark Scanspeak tweeter, or is it a china- made Tymphany??

If this is really a proper Scanspeak quality tweeter, I'm buying, 'cause the price is not bad...

[Dansk]

If you buy it as a ScanSpeak tweeter it's made in denmark. If you buy it as a Tymphany (Peerless) tweeter it's made in china. Apart from that it's the exact same unit. - I'm not kidding

[Elbert]

Really??

Is the price different too?

Somehow I would feel better knowing it was made in Denmark..

[Dansk]

I believe the price is different, yes. You'll probably be able to guess, which is the most expensive...

[Elbert]

Well, Same design, different factories.. would be interesting to know the story behind this deal, hehe!

Will be interesting to see what the actual difference in price will be..

Assuming it is exactly the same design and manufacturing process and quality control similar, it would make sense to buy a Chinese Tymphany unit.. But then again, something doesn't ring quite true about a "made in China" Scanspeak...

[Dansk]

Well, as much as I my self love the ScanSpeak units, I don't think I have ever heard of any serious production quality problems related to the units from Vifa and Peerless, that has been built in China.

[Elbert]

No, I would expect Tymphany/ Peerless to excercise tight control over their products so as not to risk their brand-name.. but it's a bit like when BMW took over Rolls Royce.. or jaguar was bought by the Indians.. still the same but not quite the same still..

Irrational as it may seem, I think we all have to admit that to some extent, hi-fi is not only about listening to music, but also the pride and joy of owning and using nice and well-reputable equipment.. perhaps even more so today in this world of globalization when brands and products are becoming ever more dissociated...

Woha.. off on a tangent there.. Nevermind, has anyone seen this Scanspeakerized design up for sale anywhere yet by the way?

[bzfcocon]

On Zaph's site, there have been some reported issues with the Peerless exclusive line of midwoofers - off-center phase plugs and some consistency issue across different batches.

Not enough to affect functionality, but definitely not a good thing.

[Elbert]

Ooooh, there we go...

Ok, a bit speculative.. but at the end of the day I believe there is a difference between a production facility manned by cheap labor force (no derogatory intention!) and a "traditional" business with a long standing tradition for taking care of the whole value chain from initial design to manufacturing and quality-control.

You can come a long way with staff training and procedures, but at the end of the day, it takes skill and knowledge to get that last percent right.. I know that from my own business!

The driver might still measure perfect with the phase-plug slightly off-center, but the end product doesn't convey that impresion of thoroughness and quality which contributes to that intangible feelgood factor..

[DcibeL]

Originally posted by bzfcocon
On Zaph's site, there have been some reported issues with the Peerless exclusive line of midwoofers - off-center phase plugs and some consistency issue across different batches.

Not enough to affect functionality, but definitely not a good thing.

I own a pair of Peerless exclusives, soon to own two pairs. I have not had any problem with "off-center phase plugs", as well the voice coil is very close to the phase plug that it could not be offset by much without rubbing against the voice coil. I think if someone were to complain about an offset phase plug they may be splitting hairs...

As for the consistency, yes there have been some issues. When Peerless changed from DST to Tymphany, some changes were made to the drivers, but no model numbers were adjusted, and in some cases the datasheets were not updated either. There is some talk of this in the thread for my speaker build here, as well as some photos of the different cones.

The cone material was changed slightly, which changes a lot of the parameters of the driver and should require at the very least a datasheet update, if not a new model number all together. I did see that the datasheet for the 830883 was updated, but not the 830884. If you look at the old datasheet for the 830883 at Madisound, then look at the datasheet from Tymphany you can see the old and new drivers are a fair bit different.

The drivers themselves are great, but unfortunately due to the above it can be difficult to determine just what you have without measuring it yourself.