Vifa Dipole 2-ways (1 Viewer)

[Chris Tsutsui]

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I designed some speakers for my car and decided to put them in a small dipole box to see how they sound. I was surprised how good they are. I may want to make a "real" pair for 2-channel listening. Perhaps an MTM design. I should probably do more research on dipoles though.

These Vifa drivers are the real deal, I like the sound better than my GR research speakers because they can play so loud and clear. They are revealing, and may not sound as natural and smooth, but they arn't too revealing in that they can only play certain tracks. The dipoles are very musical speakers, I love how they sound in a huge room with a lot of power. You can hear the reflections and I get some nice depth to the soundstage that makes it sound as if the sound is in the room.

I also love that they don't sound boxy, and since they have no bass, I don't have to worry about the frequency response being too out of whack. I have to thank Linkwitz and his Pheonix Dipoles which I auditioned at the last Bass List meet. Those inspired me to begin playing with dipoles and so far it has been very fun.

I may not have any experience in speaker designing, but I think these are a winner. I'm going to demo them for people this week and see if it's not just me that loves them. I'll also do an A/B comparison with my sonicap AV-3s, and my Modified JBL Studio S38s.

Anyone here a fan of Dipoles?

 

[Michael R Price]

I want to hear about it, that's cool! Should I be saving up for dipoles or horns?

 

[Stephen Dodds]

I love dipoles, and have just finished a pair based on Linkwitz designs. Very easy to build, very good sounding.

Steve

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I demoed them for three people today. They all agreed that they sounded good, but noticed they lacked upper bass. I integrated them with a tempest, but there was still a definite chunk of upper bass/lower mids missing. A sealed or vented box should fix this, but then I'd have to take baffle step into consideration.

Two of the three preferred them over my GR Research AV3s, they said that they are excellent with guitar and rock music, and the highs are very live and have presence. They said that the GR's are softer speakers and that they prefer something that's more forward or a bit brighter.

These definitely have a bite to them, and can crank very loud. I didn't care for the softer jazz since I feel that the AV-3s do really well with vocals and smoother music, but for anything in the rock or hip hop category, these Vifas sound great.

I may build a small box for them and have then tuned to produce an F3 of 55hz this weekend. One of my friends changed his mind and said he wanted me to build him a pair of these instead of AV-1s. I told him that I havn't had these measured and there could be flaws in the response, but just goes by ear.

After testing them by ear with my friends, these speakers appear to have no immediate design flaws, but I know there must be something I missed because I didn't use a software sim.

Oh, and I suppose I can add some negative comments. When these play mid-tempo pop or solo vocals, they tend to be slightly harsh at loud volumes. There is a resonance of the 1/4" hardboard baffle that may be causing some resonance during certain female vocal notes. I should have used 3/4" MDF as a baffle.

Another negative is placement is picky which I guess goes with a lot of dipoles, and of course, the lack of bass.

I like the Raven R2 ribbon tweeter better than this tweeter. This one seems more artificial sounding and is more bright/distorted at loud volumes. The tweeter doesn't however sound too metallic, yet it has some nice characteristics such as being revealing, and sounding relatively the same at multiple volume levels.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

Hey Stephen that Dipole looks really nice. I feel somewhat embarassed at the craftsmanship of my 5 minute dipole baffles. heh

 

[Michael R Price]

Neato... and I'm glad you like the Raven tweeter better, since it costs 15 times more!

I'd imagine a vented or sealed box wouldn't sound as good... why not just make the baffle bigger, and add a woofer below say 200Hz? (I guess that does take away the awesome simplicity of the original design.)