then what to think about VÖLFENHAG woofers

[ksl]

i've read lots of comments about the völfenhag woofers. some say it's a total crap, some are posing with winning SPL competitions.
VÖLFENHAG subs are here.

they have a great look, so there could be a sexy home install with a ZX4710 but how is it with the sound?

and is it a german concept like they say? i can't find anything from germany with völfenhag

 

[mikee12345]

choices of decision

A-
peoples subjective opinion
which u have to look at what theyve experienced subwoofer wise,and what standards they have..

B-
tests such as
SPL comps-certain conditions giving certain results
sound quality test-with hopefully certain conditions, ,results are obtained in a correct manner and displayed.

remember that SPL tests often sound crap


C
buy it ,and make up ur own opinon of it


so in effect-if its cheap take a risk and buy it decide for urself

a woofer with bad T/S specs is almost completely 100% cant be good

a woofer with good T/S specs is usually good,not always,but mostly.

a company that doesnt show T/S specs i dont trust.
they are appealing to an audience who dont need specs.

specs dont explain sound characteristic etc etc

 

[ksl]

but can anyone locate them in europe?

 

[kelticwizard]

Well, KSL, you might notice that VÖLFENHAG says they are "a German concept". The places that carry them-judging by the internet, apparently only American mail order houses-call their amps "German engineered".

Nowhere does it say, "Made in Germany".

For all we know, this could be a case where a guy named Schultz in Brooklyn whose parents brought him to America at the age of two, (and who therefore possibly retains German citizenship), ran a loudspeaker design program for the desired parameters and had these speakers made in the Far East. He then designs a classy German herald logo similar to Lowenbrau beer and sells these things to high volume American car audio mail order houses.

This would explain why perhaps nobody knows about these speakers outside of the USA.

I am not saying this is necessarily what happened, but I am saying it is possible. German products have a very high prestige.

Are the speakers any good, wherever they are made? Who knows? But with a 160 oz magnet and a cast aluminum basket I would say that the designer started with good quality materials, and that is a positive sign. It does not mention a symmetrical magnetic field, but does mention a "double damped motor assembly" which might mean that. Or maybe not. It also has 2 spiders, another good sign.

Anyway, if you want to investigate this matter further, this American mail order house gives you a contact number. It is for warranty repairs, and probably is either the distributor or even the company itself. At any rate, it would be a good place to start to see about European availability. They probably will put you in touch with the company-if they aren't the company themselves-and these companies are happy to supply you with a list of their "customers"-that is, retail outfits that sell their product.

You might even find it worthwhile to order from America-I don't know.

Here is the page. It also supplies Thiele-Small parameters.
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-allmanmusic/volfenhag.html

 

[Variac]

From this webpage:
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-allmanmusic/PerformanceTek.html

I found this info:
Warranty Contact Info for:
American Pro, Performance Teknique, and Volfenhag:
American HiFI
4480 Pacific Blvd.
Vernon, CA 90058
(323) 588-2999

Clearly American Pro, Performance Technique, and Volfenhag
are all made at the same factory, and are pretty similar.
They can obviously write whatever they want around the suround.In one case they wrote "German" in another they wrote "American"


I'll bet that factory is in china. Are they any good? They probably sound as good as other subwoofer speakers at that price that have lots of polished surfaces.

 

[kelticwizard]

I found this info:

Warranty Contact Info for:
American Pro, Performance Teknique, and Volfenhag:
American HiFI
4480 Pacific Blvd.
Vernon, CA 90058
(323) 588-2999

Clearly American Pro, Performance Technique, and Volfenhag
are all made at the same factory, and are pretty similar.

That is one explanation. Another equally plausible explanation is that the contact number is for the distributor. Distributors frequently handle several brands not necessarily connected to each other. So VÖLFENHAG and Performance Technique might not be related.

But I think that Variac and I are essentially on the same page. I do believe that these are made outside Germany, possibly China or the Far East, and are essentially made for the American market. Still, there might be European outlet for them. For instance, Universal Electronics in Chicago aims for the American market but still ships to outlets in Europe, (although Universal Electronics speakers are American made).
www.uespeakers.com

I could not judge the quality without hearing them. I think it is possible, when I see the materials they are made from, that the VÖLFENHAGs might well be good.

 

[mikee12345]

buy one and test it with distortion meter test at 1watt, and 100watt and max rms spl <within xmax>



and report back


then theres some facts

 

[kingdaddy]

A friend of mine bought one of these and I made him a Sonosub with their 15" version. I used a larger than optimum box to make it easier to drive since he only had about 100W amp on it.

My impressions after setting it up and getting it positioned properly was, not bad for a $90 Woofer, fairly accurate and good extension (sealed 2 cubic foot) but overall for the price and what’s available out there not very good aver all, it couldn’t quite handle the Lord of the Rings test with out compression.

 

[ChesterFuzzin']

sorry for the hijack, but....

i just flipping through this thread and checking
out the volfenhag site when i came across the
volfenhag vx-47 series woofers..

these look very similar to the pyramid royal red (stock a) woofers i recently about a month ago..

http://www.fcsurplus.ca/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=3160

i bought them cause the frequency response plots looked good to me in winisd and they were cheap ($80 cdn). the only drawback to me was the 86.1 sensitivity..

so far, for such a cheap buy they're doing quite the job.

 

[Variac]

Well, I think it is clear that there is (probably) one source producing lots of different drivers with different names. They DO look pretty cool. How about an open baffle with at least 2 of these each side? Then you can admire both ends which are each worthy of looking at.
They have reasonably high Qts right? and low Fs , so should work OK with that decent xmax. A pair would be more efficient too.
Cover the baffle in stainless steel laminate to look even more glitzy. HOw about suggestions for the other drivers. I'd say they have the metal look- Tangband with cast frames and phase plug? I'd say YES!!! BUT WAIT, maybe better to get the silver "Performance Technique"" woofers- they would match the Tangbands. Edit: they only have up to 12" in the PT models.

 

[ksl]

thanks for the informative picture and experience sharing kingdaddy!
they DO look very similar with PYRAMID RED series and because of that i might be looking after pyramid because they move around in our neighbourhood.