New Vifa drivers

[Mario Pankov]

Today i was browsing through europe-audio.com and I noticed there is a new Vifa driver there. It was a fullrange with aluminum cone. I went to the Tymphany website and there you could find a 22.5cm woofer ( they call it a subwoofer ), 18cm midwoofer and a few more smaller speakers. Both have a new cast aluminum basket which looks like the Illuminator chassis, ventilated neodymium magnet system and is described as the chassis is actually the magnet system. The value for the inductance is 0.08mH which for a 18cm woofer looks impressive. Copper rings in the motor, cone is made of impregnated wood, the spider looks like the one used in the Seas Exotic woofer. Sensitivity is also good, the Fs is a little high at 39Hz, they have probably used a very lightweight cone.
Has anyone had a chance to play with one of these and do you have any impressions? Looking at the price of just 90$ per driver this might be a killer combo.

NE180W-04 | Tymphany

[Mario Pankov]

Madisound has started the sales. Here are some detailed pics - I have to say this driver looks superb, if the spider was replaced by a wooden suspension like in the vintage german drivers, this should be an exceptional speaker. Price for the 26cm one is 175$ which is very good.
Vifa NE265W, 10" Woofer, 4 ohm from Madisound

[Moondog55]

It is pretty, but I don't like 4R woofers and the frequency response looks very ragged down where I want maximum smoothness.

Not all change is for the better, I would need to hear an implementation before I spend any money.

[Mario Pankov]

The Fr isn`t that smooth but there are many examples of drivers that have rugged Fr but sound good like the Veravox 5s for example. What i didn`t like are those nasty peaks starting at 4Khz for the NE180W. The others have the same issue. The impedance remains flat and has no dips or peaks. They say these drivers will be available with paper cones as well, I guess these peaks at the shown woofer are caused by the wood pulp cone and the impregnant used. To me the whole line looks like it is designed to be used in 2-ways, the same mistake as the Illuminator range.
I might give them try when they become fully available.

[Andersonix]

Originally Posted by Moondog55

...and the frequency response looks very ragged down where I want maximum smoothness.

Is it even physically possible to have such a sharp dropout at about 26Hz (on the 10inch)? Perhaps it's some measurement anomaly?

[jleaman]

Originally Posted by Mario Pankov

Madisound has started the sales. Here are some detailed pics - I have to say this driver looks superb, if the spider was replaced by a wooden suspension like in the vintage german drivers, this should be an exceptional speaker. Price for the 26cm one is 175$ which is very good.
Vifa NE265W, 10" Woofer, 4 ohm from Madisound

88db efficient ?

[Moondog55]

I really do not know, but I would expect a company with the Vifa name to measure accurately, I would assume that all previous measurements are done with a reasonable degree of consistency using the standard IEC baffle,
which is how ( I believe ) all other Vifa measurements were done.

Standard whinge follows:
:-( why don't more makers do 16 R drivers

[Mario Pankov]

The dip at 26Hz is interesting, I was also curious about it. The impedance has an issue at the same freq as well. There is no information how they have done the measurements, this behaviour at that low freq. is common for a ported design...Anyways, this driver looks usable to 80hz 2nd order, although for the same price you could get a SS classic 25W which can go that way with 1st order and has better freq. response curve and lower Fs

[Helmuth]

Nice woofer you can't tell much from the measured characteristic with out a box.

[John Sheerin]

There's an entire range of these at Madisound - 2.5" to 12". What's interesting to me is the sewn on lead wire (sewn to the spider) and the radial cuts in the spider. I would be afraid both these features would be prone to damage. When I tested this style of lead versus normal lead wires, they failed ~10-100x sooner. Also, once you start tearing woven cloth like that, it tends to be easier to continue tearing in my experience. Maybe they have done their homework and worked out solutions to both these issues, but with no explanation given in the specifications, I would stay away.