Replacement Drivers - PMC DB1, Source urgently needed for UK user

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#21
Thank you very much, that was the right one...though as you point out, just the one. Unfortunately he's also got a big red notice stating that he doesn't ship to the UK.

By chance, in the last few minutes I've also found another Australian seller, who looks very much like they will ship to the UK. Ironically they've only got one as well!

If they get back to me with a reasonable shipping quote, I might try asking the American very nicely if he's willing to ship to the UK as a one off, since he probably wants rid, if he's only got 1 left.

Out of interest, is it generally considered safe to ship drivers of this type over long distances? If there's risk involved, given neither party would be able to replace the item if damaged in shipping - I'm probably going to end up playing it safe and paying the exorbitant amount PMC charge 😡
 
#22
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#24
Thanks for your suggestion. I'll have to do some research about which Thiele-Small parameters and other measurements are most important in transmission line designs.

Unfortunately those eBay links have the same big red "does not ship to the UK" warning on them. However at least I've potentially got other options which are also more easily available.
 
#25
@barfuss (apologies, no quote button under your post, though I do now see a "thank you" option I'd never noticed here before)

Thank you so much, that's a really good deal too!

Now I need to familiarise myself with what looks like a third party service for shipping on that site, since I doubt the "shipping included" translation on the advert includes shipping over here.

I'd never heard of hifishark, but it looks like a very handy resource, cheers!
 
#26
barfuss said:
You can search on hifishark. There are two correct items for sale in Norway. Google Translate is your friend. https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=vifa+m13
Click to expand...
I thought it worth posting an update and showing my sincere appreciation for the incredibly helpful advice quoted above. I've finally managed to buy that pair of drivers, though it took an absurd amount of time communicating with the Norwegian seller, before I could complete the transaction.

I paid a very fair price and an extremely inexpensive shipping cost, assuming that these M13SG drivers are both fully "working" (or "beer" according to the advert via Google Translate, which I took as a fateful sign of good luck) and correctly advertised as barely used.

A very kind man at Falcon Acoustics went way above and beyond, to provide me with helpful old spec sheets, and an overall reassurance that the shielded M13SG would work fine as a drop in replacement for my damaged M13WG drivers (though I'll later explain why my literal use of "drop in" may be ill advised!) and he pointed out the only notable spec change the magnetic shielding caused was an increase of between 0.5 and 1dB in the raw driver's sensitivity.

It took several days of diligent yet frustrating communication with the seller, before I was able to send some money his way. Between his inability to provide correct, seperate and distinct IBAN and Swift transaction numbers, plus my own bank's inability to provide consistent and accurate help using phone and online banking for international transactions - by the time I reached day 4 of getting absolutely nowhere, I was giving up any hope!

The situation had simply become unbearably stressful. I was now fondly remembering my last conversation with a helpful technical type bloke at PMC who, despite their absurd prices, seemed quite confident that he could arrange there and then for someone to take my card details, and immediately get the correct replacement drivers shipped out. I was also starting to wonder what kind of black banking magic these foreign online scammers you so frequently read about, are able to so effectively deploy?

After several hours (yet again) one evening, still getting nowhere whilst messaging to and fro with the Norwegian seller, I was literally in the process of carefully typing out a long, polite message kindly thanking him for his patience and dedication, but pointing out that this was clearly becoming a fruitless endeavour - after we'd both spent several long and frustrating evenings going around in circles, with no money showing any sign of going anywhere. It didn't help that the specific site we were using to communicate (finn dot something) had strict rules like eBay messaging, where contact information was automatically filtered out.

Just as I was about to send that message, he suddenly popped up with another banking reference number. I quickly copied and pasted it into my browser, fully expecting my online banking to once again tell me it was invalid.

I was thoroughly surprised when, for the very first time, I was not only able to progress the transaction, but after a few seconds managed to populate a whole bunch of new fields which appeared on my screen, with familiar information like his full name and location, plus a load of banking details that I assume are the Norwegian equivalent of our UK sort code, account number, etc.

To say that I was surprised is quite the understatement, I was both amazed and elated! I quickly composed myself, and sent the modest total of £124.20 right away. Unfortunately the hour was so late I'd missed the cutoff time, but I got a reassuring message the money would be transferred the next morning.

Come the morning, my new Norwegian friend messaged me to confirm he'd recieved my payment. I was also pleased to find that contrary to the crappy information my own bank provided, I wasn't charged any extra fees. Turns out they just slightly padded out the exchange rate I'd locked in at the time I sent the instructions for this transaction. I'd definitely use that system to send money abroad again. When I compared exchange rates, I'd only paid something like an extra 1% (basically less than 2 quid) by virtue of one of the benefits included in this particular type of current account.

Unfortunately the seller was now at his weekend home, whilst the drivers were at his "land house." Since my ability to speak Norwegian is strictly limited to the words "post" and "office" I resisted the temptation to ask if he was currently living at sea?

The following Monday I got a nice message advising that the drivers were now posted. The tracking offered by Norge Posten was impressively updated in real time, as my package swiftly moved from the collection point, to Oslo, to "dispatched to the UK" status, all within less than 12 hours! Those Norwegian posties clearly don't mess around. Having paid such a low price for shipping, I assumed my parcel would be relegated to whatever the modern equivalent of a slow boat is. It turns out that after leaving Norway, that description was quite apt.

It took until very late yesterday evening (Friday 19th May) for my parcel to finally show as "arrived in the UK" and within a couple of hours it was upgraded to the far more reassuring status of "sorted and forwarded." I assume I'm no longer at the mercy of UK customs, but sadly Parcelforce doesn't seem to provide tracking quite as detailed as that which I got from Posten Norge.

By sheer coincidence, I recently received a parcel sent directly from EHX HQ in Long Island (New Sensor Corp according to their commercial invoices) which was dispatched late on a Thursday, and delivered to me early on the following Monday. I was surprised to see the USPS label showing a modest $13 cost for such speedy service, though I appreciate big companies are normally able to negotiate more favorable rates due to the volume of stuff they send.

As I wait to see when my Norwegian package might be tracked out for delivery, I'm hoping HMRC didn't poke and probe my parcel to the point of causing irreparable damage! My EHX item arrived completely unmolested, with no visible interference with the outer container, so hopefully these drivers will arrive in similar condition.

I'm slightly concerned about a note I saw on the Parcelforce site, regulating the transport of magnets, quoting an unfamiliar metric (I assume is) relating to magnetic strength. However I've known plenty of folks who've shipped both drivers and loaded loudspeaker cabinets, without any issues whatsoever. Hopefully the magnetic shielding on my M13SGs will finally prove useful, if that becomes an issue...

Which leads me on to my final point. I recently extracted the stock LF drivers from both of my PMC DB1s, but getting them out was quite a struggle. Since this was just to swap the drivers over for testing purposes, I didn't bother putting in what looks to be quite a substantial effort, in respect of properly fitting the stock DB1 drivers back flush with the baffle.

I noted that given the extra bulk of the magnetic shielding on my incoming M13SGs, I'd likely have a much harder battle when attempting to install them so as to be mounted flush with the baffle, in order to fully and properly tighten the Allen bolts.

I saw that in addition to the foam dampening material that's attached throughout the transmission line, the front of the DB1 has extra layers of very dense foam added behind both drivers. I can't imagine that what's currently there will accommodate the extra space needed for the larger rears of the magnetically shielded drivers, so I guess I'm gonna have to remove some of that thick foam to have any chance of squeezing in my new drivers.

I appreciate that with PMC there's inevitably a fine line between marketing speak and honest engineering practice, but I'm hoping there's not too much technobabble voodoo involved in the precise quantity of dampening material needed behind the LF drivers. This is where I hope the kind folks of this forum will be able to advise.

I was originally attracted to PMC after hearing some of their very large, early designs. I saw/heard that the transmission line concept worked as anticipated in both TL top boxes and also in impressive tapped horn subwoofer designs, such as the forerunners to Tom Danley's impressively efficient subs.

Whilst the entire transmission line in my DB1s is lined with thick foam with pointy pyramid-shaped ends (like a mini semi-anechoic chamber) there's also loads of extra flat thick foam padding which exerts a fair degree of pressure on the backs of both the LF and HF drivers. I assume that's a specific part of the physical acoustic design, calculated to absorb higher frequencies/shorter wavelengths as an inherent part of the low pass filtering which is key to tuning that which exits the output "port" at the very end of the line?
 
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