This is a repeat of the post I made at PE's forum, so if you've read it there, there's no need to re-read here.
My inlaws have a curious situation where they have a very strong interest in classic rock, and go to a lot of concerts, yet they have no decent quality stereo in the house. They have a circa-1984 "LXI" rack system in their family room and play Music Choice over their tv quite often. We decided that for Christmas this year, we'd give them a real stereo.
I decided on Zaph's Silver Flute & Vifa 2-way because it's affordable, and it's compact size fit our needs nicely. Of course, affordability goes out the window when the "buyout" inductors that Zaph used dry up. Then you wind up spending more for your low-pass inductors than the woofers they're in front of, but that's another story.
Anyway, to go with the speakers we picked up a refurbished Onkyo TX-SR504 receiver and a cheap Sony DVD player.
The speakers are 3/4" MDF all around. The fronts are finished in an automotive urethane basecoat/clearcoat that was wetsanded and buffed. The rest is a paperbacked cherry veneer with "Sedona Red" Minwax stain, followed by Minwax glossy polyurethane that was wetsanded and buffed. If I hadn't run out of time I would have sanded the poly more thoroughly, but since I was cutting it so close, I couldn't afford to sand through the poly (for a 2nd time), and kept it conservative. Though it's still a bit wavey, you really don't notice unless you're looking for it, and the gloss is very good. The grill is 1/2" MDF. The grill and the front baffle both have a 1/2" roundover. Behind the grill inserts on the front baffle are the screws that hold the baffle to the rest of the enclosure.
Stands are also 3/4" MDF. The upgrights are 4 pieces of MDF glued together and wrapped in the same cherry veneer. The top piece is tilted back approximately 7 degrees for proper time alignment of the mid and tweeter. The bottom of the speakers have threaded-inserts that accept the allen-head bolts that hold the speaker to the stand. The base of the stand is 2 pieces of 3/4" MDF each with a 1/2" roundover to match the speakers & grill. On the underside are short spikes. On the back of the stands I've got inserts to hold the speaker wire, which also passes through the base of the stand for a cleaner appearance.
Since I managed to run out of the carpet padding that I use to line the enclosure walls, I literally finished these at their house in their bathroom right before we exchanged gifts. I had to stop at Home Depot on the way for more padding! Because of that, my listening time was limited to about an hour yesterday after I set them up for them.
Overall I was very impressed with the speakers. The tweeters, while certainly not up to the likes of the Seas 27TDFC or the Scan 9500s, sound very good for $20. They have a natural sound that doesn't jump out at you anywhere. After seeing Zaph's distortion tests, I expected to hear a little hash in the 2k-2500 range, but at least with the music I used, I heard nothing but good music. The midrange really exceeded my expectations. These Silver Flutes are very impressive. Everything I listened to was very detailed and authentic sounding. Zaph's crossover seems to be excellent. I absolutely could not hear a midrange and a tweeter. They blended together so nicely, even at extreme off-axis positions. Bass response, while taught, didn't seem to be quite as detailed as I'd hoped. Subtle frequency shifts from one note to the next were hard to pick out. But... these speakers had absolutely no play time prior to my listening. Once they break in, hopefully the detail in the bass will improve. The bass never sounded thick or heavy, and although the subtle separation of notes was blurred, with everything else I listened to I was very happy with it. Bass drums sounded real, and could even be felt a bit.
Anyway, enough of my babbling. Below are a few pics:
18th December 2006, 06:44 PM
Built a pair of Zaph's Silverflute-Vifa 2-ways
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