Interest check on speaker design from reputed US speaker guru

[navin advani]

Re: How well do Peerless India drivers match in their parameters?

Unless you are able to measure the drivers provided by him, do not attempt to build with Peerless drivers looking at his datasheet, you will fail badly.

Years ago I was building speakers using drivers from ScanSpeak. Even these drivers had specs that measured differently (using LEAP/LMS) from the published specs. I have found similar challenges with Audax and others. So unless you can get drivers who measurements are verifiable "building blind" will have limited success.

Now the good news:

a. Many companies incl ScanSpeak have upgraded their systems to ensure that drivers fall within a small tolerance (+/- 10% is usually acceptable).

b. Drivers from ScanSpeak, VifaSpeak, Audax, Focal, etc. are far better than most OEM non-brand drivers used by many "famous" manufacturers. Hence even off-spec drivers can yield better results than some "reputed" makes.

DIYers have only 2 advantages today.

a. We can build custom - aka the limitation of the room and install and even dcor can be designed into the speakers.

b. We can determine the quality of our constructions be it driver quality, box quality, or crossover quality and at prices exceeding $1000/pr DIYers can be more VFM than off the shelf branded speakers (provided it is done with the above mentioned caution)

Which is why bulk buys combined with a design from a good designer can be a fantastic option - witness the AV123 - Dennis Ricthie deal from 2011-12.

 

[captrajesh]

It's a shame that this excellent initiative fell through. The discussion didn't go beyond where to source the drivers.

FWIW, I'm trying to revive it. I've come to know of this Indian Loudspeaker maker SYCO from a good friend of mine who knows the owner personally. They have apparently made cones for the likes of Tannoy etc in the hey days. Though old, the owner still has enough tooling to make small production runs.

I hope this initiative gets carried forward by interested members.

 

[miroflex]

Thank you for reviving a very interesting thread.

 

[captrajesh]

@Miroflex, I had revived it alright but looks like it hasn't generated much interest. It's a shame that this initiative involving a renowned and respected designer like Phil Bamberg is falling through.

 

[sathiamoorthy]

Great initiative.:clapping::thumbsup: I'm in.:licklips: