What's happening to the new speaker kit?

AKSA · « **Reply #20 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 12:31 pm »

No Engineers at Aspen, Russ, not much PSpice either...... We do things seat of the pants here, tried real hard with Xover Pro to get the desired result, only got about three quarters of the journey, did the rest empirically.

Accolades to Laurie for his design, and to no less than four good minds for the crossover.

JLM,

Thanks for the suggestions on driver height and pricing. To be carefully considered.....

Cheers,

Hugh

wmeckle · « **Reply #21 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 12:40 pm »

Quote from: AKSA on 30 Aug 2007, 11:40 pm

Clips for the grills, magnetic? I hadn't considered that..... I would need to look into it.

Hi Hugh:
It is easy to do, I normally never use grills, but a friend insisted on grills for a project. So I embeded magnets in the front before applying the 1/4" plywood (or veneer), and also embeded matching magnets in the grill frame. Enables removing the grills and not seeing any devices on the front.

wmeckle · « **Reply #22 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 12:48 pm »

Example of grill magnets:
http://wmeckle.com/Greg2/Red.html

AKSA · « **Reply #23 on:** 31 Aug 2007, 01:02 pm »

Bill,

Thanks a million! Beautiful work you do, real craftsman, hats off!

Cheers,

Hugh

dayneger · « **Reply #24 on:** 25 Sep 2007, 04:28 am »

Hi Hugh,

I'm back with another Vsonics question!

In my home my 2-channel and home theater systems overlap, so I have to worry about voice-matching my LR and center speakers. Would it make sense to make a third Vsonic as a center channel? Or would it not have the appropriate characteristics for this application? Given that it apparently has nice off-axis response I would guess that it would be quite good?

Ok, I can't help it... how's the progress been?

Cheers,

Dayne

AKSA · « **Reply #25 on:** 25 Sep 2007, 11:16 am »

HI Dayne,

Ah, you, and two other people, are very interested in this new speaker, and I'm draggin' the chain, I'm very sorry. I'd like to make a few sales, too, as the R&D has cost a bundle. I have the feeling I will sell a few of these, they are absolutely the best speaker I've ever owned by a generous margin.

Progress. Photography and a cutaway CAD drawing are now done and incorporated into the documentation. Pcbs are done, a few resistors need ordering yet, but felt, fasteners, wire and the rear terminal block (biwireable) remain to be sourced and ordered. The instructions have two remaining pages left to go. Seventeen pages are now complete, re-written at least three times, and proof read.

The speaker has been built and tested by a senior technician at Tymphany and a senior consultant for a large British speaker company. The ex-DST now Tymphany guy has since chosen it for his home speaker, and this guy has built and tested hundreds during an almost thirty year career in Denmark. He's tested it in an anechoic chamber but won't reveal the results to us, saying only that it is 'impressive'. Tymphany has since reconsidered the bass driver (830884), and plans to match two, rebadge them, change the basket color and sell them under the Scanspeak brand for a premium. He had never persevered with transmission lines, saying they were too difficult to get right - it's all empirical and most of the current software for crossovers and speaker box design is only optimised for reflex and closed box.

The crossover has more tricks than a monkey on a mile of vine.

Phase shift at crossover has been reduced to less than 0.1 degree. The crossover is utterly, extraorinarily, supernaturally, seamless.

The vitality, exuberance and sheer slam of the speaker is astonishing. You don't hear the sound, only the music, and you find your foot tapping. I even stop talking!! I couldn't be happier, but I can't deliver right away, please bear with me until after Denver.

Incidentally, today I completed the US audition amplifier for RMAF, which will be handed to Jeff Dorgay of TonePublications and then handed to David Ellis of Ellis Audio, with whom I'm exhibiting. It goes off by post to Omaha hopefully tomorrow, after I've installed the new driveshaft in my Cressida......

Hope this explains interminable delays to some extent. Again, Dayne, Rob, Phillip, I sincerely apologise, but I'm on the case......

Cheers,

Hugh

dayneger · « **Reply #26 on:** 25 Sep 2007, 06:00 pm »

Hi Hugh,

Congratulations, sounds like a very interesting speaker indeed! No stress on their release--yet--since my amp's still somewhere in transit between Switzerland and CA. . .

As I've expressed previously in this thread, it would be kind of Peerless to make the 830884 in black. Does anyone have a contact high up in the company whose ear we could bend?

Um, any thoughts on how one Vsonic would perform as the center channel?

Cheers,

Dayne

gerado · « **Reply #27 on:** 26 Sep 2007, 03:34 am »

Its all true I tell you,

I've heard the speakers !

AKSA · « **Reply #28 on:** 26 Sep 2007, 09:57 pm »

Hi Dayne,

So you've abandoned sunny Switzerland for freezing California?

The VSonic would probably not be wonderful for a center speaker. Why? Because the center speaker should be entirely non-directional, to reflect the different locations of voices on the screen. Ideally it should have a slight tailing off of LF response to avoid boominess, particularly on male voices. All this points to a second order driver with a lightly vented 6" driver and omnidirectional tweeter.

And this leads to yet another project........ aaarghhhhhhhhhhh..............

Ciao,

Hugh

dayneger · « **Reply #29 on:** 26 Sep 2007, 11:43 pm »

C'mon, Hugh! I know you're just getting bored down in Oz and have absolutely nothing to do all day. . .

So, anyone have a suggestion for a center channel speaker, ideally a kit, that might go well with the Vsonics?

Dayne

rabbitz · « **Reply #30 on:** 28 Sep 2007, 01:52 pm »

http://www.frequence.dk/sites/pca-c10.htm

dayneger · « **Reply #31 on:** 1 Oct 2007, 05:47 am »

Hi rabbitz,

Thanks for the suggestion, it looks like this could work quite well. Might be a good match for my current system, too, since it uses the same tweeter!

If anyone else has some thoughts on center channels, please let me know.

Dayne

Felipe · « **Reply #32 on:** 1 Oct 2007, 02:45 pm »

I used the Proac Response 2.5 clone to make a centre channel. Goal was to match the Proac R2s front speakers.
I used 1 woofer + 1 tweeter just like the R2.5.

Normally a centre channel uses 2 woofer + 1 tweeter in a MTM arrangement, but in my case that would destroy all the design of this speaker.
I made no adjustments in the XO, despite raising the tweeter a litle (i found the original to be a litle recessed on the highs).

It did end up with pretty big centre speaker, but i have a 56" rear projector so , it fits just fine on top of it.

Sparkie · « **Reply #33 on:** 13 Oct 2007, 05:31 am »

Hi Aksa mob,

As luck would have it I stumbled upon this topic.

Over six months ago by chance I helped a neighbour at Safety Beach lift some heavy speakers out of his car late one afternoon. Often I would hear fine music emanating form the house. A while later when hearing the music temptation got the better of me and I invited myself in for a listening session. I recognised the AKSA logo on the front of the 100 watt amp that was being used and putting two and two together I think that I am safely taliking about the same speakers with the same wonderful Peerless drivers.

Laurie made me at feel at home when demonstrating the speakers. I was blown away to see and hear three prototype models of transmission lines. I thought that transmission line speakers have been given up a a bad experiment years ago but these speakers proved all the rumours wrong. I was asked an opinion of the sound and general performance of each speaker. There was a tall 110cm high speaker and a sawn off version of the same and a slim and shorter version 83cm high and only about 23cm wide. What impressed me was the way all of the speakers sounded the more or less the same. But the sawn off version did not have the same full bottom end of the other designs. I liked the 83cm speakers by being smaller and more suitable in my listening room. Surprisingly they lost nothing in overall performance to the tall speakers, remarkable!.

These must be the same speakers Vsonics? as reviewed in the Aspen circle as my impressions are very similar to others who have had the privilege to have heard them. A demanding test CD was palyed over an old Sony CD player. The smaller speakers did not falter at any volume. The sound stage, definition and imaging etc were fantastic. The speakers really rocked when a local Blues CD was played. The kick drum had slam like I thought was impossible from any speaker, but there was an unusual finesse at the same time when I could hear the rivets in cymbals sizzling at the same time. The female voices were outstandingly real. As for the pipe organ, that rumbled as if the instrument was being played in front of me. No need for a sub woofer unless you are into home theatre.

More importantly I was soon totally absorbed in the listening experience. There is nothing about these speakers that detract from the listening experience, they are remarkeably transparent without any apparent colouration from one end of the spectrum to the other. The bottom end is unusually musical, not a one note wonder. A each note of plucked double bass was true and clear and even the body of the instruement could be felt.

Could any one with Aksa connections please fill me with Laurie's whereabouts as he has not been to Safety Beach for some months. I am in need of a good listen to these magnificant speakers and amp.

Regards to all,

Sparkie

AKSA · « **Reply #34 on:** 16 Oct 2007, 01:29 am »

Hi Sparkie,

You are absolutely correct, and welcome to the forum! I'm sitting in the Marriott Tech at Denver, back in Melbourne on 28th, and Laurie should soon be back at Safety Beach as he has all but completed the painting of his Ringwood home.

The speakers have undergone two final reviews, I've contracted a professional to do the crossover again for checking purposes and then finessed the crossovers twice more, enhancing the midrange, imaging and top end further. They genuinely are a considerable improvement over the version you have heard; the crossover is everything with any loudspeakers.

I will email Laurie tonight and ask him to contact you. Instructions are complete now, with full diagrams and photographs, and after a little more sourcing we shall be ready for kit sales around $US1300. This will not be a budget DIY loudspeaker; this is one of the best two way 8" speakers on the planet, in my belief. I've heard very little here at RMAF to best it, and there have been some good ones!! (I can say all this because I didn't design it!!)

Thank you for your frank comments, appreciated.

Cheers,

Hugh

Sparkie · « **Reply #35 on:** 16 Oct 2007, 02:08 am »

Hi Hugh,
It is wonderful to get a reply from the top.

Thanks for your reply and I await a reply from Laurie.

Actually I heard the small speakers only three months ago when the varnish was not working properly, not going off, weather too cold!. Laurie did say that he still had to do a bit more work to be done on the cross overs. I have looked at the reviews posted in the Aksa Circle and I concur with them all. I must have heard the speakers after most of the reviews were written. Since then I think I must have heard the modded cross overs. The speakers were due to be delivered to you the next day. But with final work on the crossovers, the speakers will have to be the best this side of the funny money class of speaker. I'm sure that the early reviewers will be in for a BIG surprise when they hear the final result.

Many thanks,

Sparkie.

Sparkie · « **Reply #36 on:** 17 Oct 2007, 01:00 am »

Hi Hugh,

Yesterday I got Laurie's Ringwood phone number from his next door neighbour and I am at Ringwood now.

I will put Laurie on. He doesn't know much at all about Audio Circle.

Hi Hugh,

It is a small world!. Barry is very interested in the VSonics. He may build some one day.

The VSonics are now better than ever. I will fill you on how I arrived at the result when you return, a round about story. But the alignment equipment made the difference, it only took seconds to change a value and hear the results. What took days only took minutes.

See you when you return.

Laurie.

AKSA · « **Reply #37 on:** 17 Oct 2007, 10:07 pm »

Thank you so much Laurie,

Much appreciated, very nice of you - will visit promptly when I return to Oz on 28th.

Cheers,

Hugh

Sparkie · « **Reply #38 on:** 18 Oct 2007, 12:00 am »

Hugh,

I passed on your message to Laurie a few minutes ago. I told him to get onto Audio Circle.

The speakers are absolutely stunning, nothing to pick at, only to blisfully listen to music untill you get a crook recording. Yesterday using the alignment equipment, Laurie soon tried over 20 cross over combinations and settled on two. The final result makes for the best system I have ever heard. Laurie wished you were present to share the experience. He and his wife were runing around like kids opening chrissy presents going from cd to cd.

Cheers,

Barry

dayneger · « **Reply #39 on:** 18 Oct 2007, 01:16 am »

I'm curious about the alignment equipment and the tuning of the crossover, since I know very little about such things.

Are you able, with confidence, to tune the speakers independently of the qualities of the source and room? Or is it inevitable that what sounds best is in part a reflection of the driving electronics and room characteristics? And if so, how do you decide on which equipment and room to use?

Thanks!

Dayne