last updated: Friday, 02-Apr-2004 23:22:52 EST
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- The Vifa X3
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A little bit of History....
Over the last four years I've been thinking about many different types of spekers to build, with the goal of having a refrence level main on a budget suitable for a college student. Originally I trid to clone my father's ORA model 3s (1" Audax tweet, Morel midrange dome, Pioner 10") but that didn't work out to well. The original were designed over several years with computing time courtsy of the National Supercomputing Network. All I had was an emulated '286, freeware design software and no experience. That one was back-burnered quickly. The project sat in limbo for quite a while (3 years), then was revived when I found a different Pioner 10". Not a bad driver, but it still needed almost 3 cubic feet (vented!) to do things right (mid 30s). That's just too big, so they still sit in the shipping carton on the floor of my closet. As a stopgap measure I built a really bad (ugly, crappy contruction, awful sound...) set of speakers from 6.5" woofers I purchased surplus for $7.50 each and a free set of Radio Shack 1" dome tweeters. They were horrid.
Around the middle of Novmber 1999, I contacted Rick Craig at Seleh Audio after finding he seemed to have the most experience with my chosen midrange, the Vifa 75MX 3" dome. Rick, true to his work, had the kit parts on my doorstep just in time for Christmas (Dec 22nd to be exact). Over the next 3 weeks I scrambled to make minor design changes to the boxes and get things cut and assembled. After an incident involving me measuring on the wrong side of a saw blade (1/8" inch off...everywhere) I scrapped one 4x8' sheet and started again on a second one. I'll call it a $20 incentive to buy a table saw.
Fast forward to the present. I'm very happy with the Vifa X3s, to the point of having a friend of mine ask about building a set. I gave him the rundown on costs, and Rick should be talking to him about a set of plans in the near future.
Anyway, on the to the important information:
In my attempt to design a new pair of mains for myself, I found a few goals helped. They needed to be able to stand on their own without any help, but should integrate well with my Shivas (F3 should be 67 or so). Mids needed to kick ass, they needed to be fairly loud, and most of all they hd to sound amazing. I'm using Vifa drivers, hence the name of the project. I've got a PDF file containing my cabinet layout, as well as the huge JPEG that I made the PDF from. NOTE: The plans contain an error. Somehow the box for the midrange didn't make it onto the plans. The D75MX needs about 1.5L stuffed. I'll post updated plans when I can.
Get the PDF [295K]
Print the PDF file in landscape mode, otherwise things will look funny.
Get the JPEG [1068x806, 132K]
The crossover was designed by Rick Craig at Seleh Audio. Rick was very helpful and communicative during the design stage, and his work is just great.
The setup is now final- The system uses all Vifa drivers:
- D27TG-45 for the tweeter, 3.5K on up
- D75MX-31 3" dome mof for 950-3.5K
- M18W0-09 for 60ish to 950
See the news page for more info.
