Supravox Speakers at MAF

TV Man · « **on:** 14 Apr 2003, 03:15 am »

Did anyone have a chance to listen to the Supravox drivers at MAF?? I've been intrigued by fullrange field coil designs lately and have read that they offer startlingly excellent sound. Anyone have impressions from the Audiofest?? Thanks

Marbles · « **Reply #1 on:** 14 Apr 2003, 04:01 am »

Quote from: TV Man

Did anyone have a chance to listen to the Supravox drivers at MAF?? I've been intrigued by fullrange field coil designs lately and have read that they offer startlingly excellent sound. Anyone have impressions from the Audiofest?? Thanks

I was not in the market for speakers, but Chris Brady of Teres was. We went down to that room and the drivers were nice, but the salesman never shut up enough to let Chris listen to them!

Chris went to that room 3 times and the same thing happened 3 times.

TV Man · « **Reply #2 on:** 14 Apr 2003, 06:02 am »

Yikes!!! That's too bad... Seems like the speakers would sell themselves if they're as good as I've read they are. The salesman should be there to answer questions not screw up the listening sessions... A little too zealous salesforce can really hurt a new (to the US) product. Thanks for the reply Marbles

Maybe someone was able to listen while the salesman was out for a pee??

cjr888 · « **Reply #3 on:** 14 Apr 2003, 10:08 am »

Definitely a shame. Anyone else out there hear them or have pictures?

Have been intrigued by them since the first time I heard about them, which was the first time I heard about Audio Consulting.. Have cabinet plans that Serge sent me and did a lot of email exchanges on implementation, benefits, differences, etc, but its very hard to find folks in the US who have heard them or built around them.

Would love any impressions...

Marbles · « **Reply #4 on:** 14 Apr 2003, 03:19 pm »

Quote from: cjr888

Definitely a shame. Anyone else out there hear them or have pictures?

Have been intrigued by them since the first time I heard about them, which was the first time I heard about Audio Consulting.. Have cabinet plans that Serge sent me and did a lot of email exchanges on implementation, benefits, differences, etc, but its very hard to find folks in the US who have heard them or built around them.

Would love any impressions...

Here is a pic of them...the drivers are in the cabinet to the right, not the flower pot....

PumperDave · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Jun 2003, 02:44 am »

If I offended anyone, I apologize. However I don't think this characterization is entirely fair, and certainly not kind.

There were many moments at Midwest AudioFest when we had a room full of listeners, and you could have heard a pin drop during the pauses between tracks of the SACD's we were listening to.

Another complaint that has been lodged against me was that the music was too loud.

Funny, no one ever complained about the sound quality.

I would be pleased to answer any questions regarding Supravox. I just joined the Audio Circle, and what a surprise I have had.

David Levinson
Supravox America
www.supravox.com

Brad · « **Reply #6 on:** 18 Jun 2003, 02:59 am »

David,

How does the speaker in the picture differ from what's on your website?
Nice finish work, btw.

At 4 ohms, looks like a terrific match for the Decware Zen.

PumperDave · « **Reply #7 on:** 18 Jun 2003, 03:58 am »

As you know the impedance of any driver varies tremendously with frequency. This idea of a driver having 8 ohm or 4 ohm or 16 ohm impedance misleads us, causing us to forget how impedance varies with frequency. Drivers with a flatter impedance curve seem to match better with both tube and solid state amps. A more important consideration is that a driver does not have a crazy impedance curve. In that case, response abberrations occur from the signal that is sent back to the amp from the driver (electromotive force) and then interacts with the music signal itself. The output trannie of a tube amp helps to insulate from this effect, but of course solid state amps without output trannies get fully modulated by this signal.

The cabinet in the picture is the Cain and Cain cabinet custom built for the Supravox 215-2000 EXC field coil driver. It looks even nicer in person.

David Levinson
Supravox America

PumperDave · « **Reply #8 on:** 18 Jun 2003, 04:06 am »

are custom TQWT of Supravox specifications. They are made of two thickness of 3/4 inch high density MDF, with lead and sand in between. Fully damped inside with pure wool.

On the outside covered in zebra wood veneer, with sold zebra wood on the front, with the drivers countersunk into it.

They weigh over 200 pound each, and are owned by my business partner, Bob Mandeville.

These cabs with the 215-2000EXC drivers are connected to a Supravox amp and a Sony SCD-777 SACD player. The field coil is normally run at 8 volts, however sometimes we turn it up to 13 volts for a more intense sound, or to bring out a dull recording.

Best imaging either Bob or I have heard in our lives. It images better than my own setup, I'm embarrassed to say. When you listen to Ella or Billie or Dianna Krall, they are IN THE ROOM, like a holograph.

These speakers, along with Bob, just moved from Newport Beach to San Francisco, and I miss them both.

Ernest · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Jun 2003, 11:00 pm »

I stopped in the room twice to listen. I liked this room best after the Bolder and Odessey rooms. Unfortunately I can't really remember the details.

JLM · « **Reply #10 on:** 19 Jun 2003, 04:57 pm »

Dave:

I've reviewed your website and the manufacturer's site and have questions:

1. Why is the manufacturer's site only partially available in English? (I know that I should be more fluent.)

2. How does a field coil work versus a magnet?

3. What do you drive these with?

4. How much do they cost?

thanks,

jeff

PumperDave · « **Reply #11 on:** 20 Jun 2003, 12:35 am »

The field coil is just another term for an electromagnet. The field coil is better able to concentrate the magnetic field where we want it, that is at the voice coil.

Conventional, permanent magnets also suffer a "lag time" for the magnetism to catch up to the transients called hysteresis distortion, we think the field coil has less of it.

We can adjust the DC voltage going to the field coil from 6V to 13V which varies the magnet strength and the sound characteristics.

We make an alnico and field coil version of the 215-2000, and everyone who has heard the comparison prefers the field coil.........and we can't really tell you why it sounds better, other than my comments above.

Our field coil is huge, like the huge output transformer on a large SET amp. The 215-2000 EXC driver weighs 18 pounds. But the cone is feather light. It takes one man one full day to build one driver.

The first dynamic speaker drivers in the world all had field coils, permanent magnets hadn't been invented yet.

There are two disadvantage to field coil drivers:

You have to remember to turn them on.
And, they sound better after 20 minutes, after they warm up.

A pair of 215-2000EXC's costs $2480. If they ever need repair its $165 for ANY repair or rebuild.