| Author | Subject: Voight Pipes and the 40-1354's |
| Terry Gesualdo | Posted At 01:44:21 09/19/2000
Ok, I got a wild hair the other night, and stayed up until 3:00am installing these radio shack 40-1354's into my voight pipes for Lowthers. Since the Lowthers have an over 8" spread between the mounting screws, and the 40-1354's have much less. I made a mounting plate out of MDF, as an adapter. The plans I have seen on the internet for voight pipes for Lowthers lately have been 12" by 12", I am assuming this is inside diameter, the ones I have are a smaller 8" by 8" by 6' long aproximately. These were larger for TQWP's I have seen on the internet for the 40-1354's, but not by much, and I thought I could help them look smaller for the speaker by stuffing them. Since we have been discussing the 40-1197's relating to ED's Horns, I thought all of you would like to know how these drivers work with the Zen. Here are some specs on the 40-1354's: 5 1/4" in diameter, efficiency 90db 1w/1m, frequency response 50-14,000, 8 ohms, 10oz magnet, power rating nominal 20w, max 40. From these specifications you could probably imagine that I was not expecting much, especially in the way of bass response, or volume from such a small speaker. So I got them all done at about 1:30am, and hooked them up to the Zen. At first listen I was amazed at the amount of bass I was hearing, and how natural the midrange sounded. The general impression was they were slower than my Klipsch KLF-20's, acrossed the board, but sounded so natrual and smooth and silky. I did not turn the Zen up all that much as folks were sleeping in the house at that hour, but I could tell that they were far less efficient than my Klipsches at 100db 1w/1m. Since everything was so quiet I did not have to turn up the gain to hear all the detail these little beauties were imparting. The tonal balance was a welcome change from the klipsches. The sound stage was the best part, very focused, much more space between intruments, larger, deeper, they maximize the Zen in this way. My speakers are about 6' from the back wall, in a 425 sq ft room. This provides an interesting sound stage, I found myself looking behind the speakers to see where intruments were comming from, the speakers themselves completely disappear into the room, and become obstacles to look around. For this reason I think a folded pipe would be ideal. Today since no one was sleeping when I got home from work I did a few measurements. I have a good frequency response between 45-10K +/-5db, and a usuable frequency response of 40-14k. As you could probably imagin they drop off pretty quick after 50hz, likewise after 11k. I think with a quick sub-woofer these speakers would fit my needs very well. I have been used to listening to the speed of the horns in the klipsches midrange and treble, so this speaker does sound slow, more of a mellow feel. The bass is a little fuzzy, not as tight or as extended as my Klipsch speakers. I can probably help this with a little damping material in the cabnets, I am letting the speakers break in a little first. With the more detail that a 6922 driver tube might contribute in the Zen, they might sound a little faster if I get one from Steve. They lack the dynamics of the Klipsches as well, this is probably due to the 90db efficiency rating. I have not noticed a midrange shout that some have complained about with these speakers. These speakers get to around the 80db(average) level when pushed to full potential with the Zen, not quite loud enough for me during serious listening. I would like 5db more. Any louder than this and they start clipping at peaks. These speakers have a very laided back sound, so it is easy to turn them up to loud so they start clipping. They might be perfect for a smaller listening room. I just had to put these little suckers into my voight pipes and see what all the hipe was about. They would probably tighten up a lot if they were in a cabnet design just for them of course, but they are doing remarkable well at the moment. They are only a very little slow sounding, and fuzzy in the bass, not much at all. They love midrange, some female voices sound angelic. They have a very natural sound compared to Lowthers, Lowthers have an uppper midrange shout for sure, but they are so magical you just have to love them to. My conclussions: the size of the speaker can fool you, and all speakers have nice traits about them. These speakers remind me of electrostatics, great micro dynamics in the midrange, but lacking in macro dynamics with the Zen. You would not believe the bass these little babies put out! I wonder how Ed gets 95dbs efficiency out the the 40-1197's? I think I could build some nice cabnets for them, and with the speakers have very high fidelity speakers for under $100.00. Is this a bargan or what? TG |
| gjm |
Re: Voight Pipes and the 40-1354's (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 19:39:55 09/19/2000 I just put together a pair of Voight's with the 1197 and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. They need a lot of space to breathe, but for the size of the driver they put out enough sound to be quite a conversation piece. |
| mrh (Mark Hardy) |
Re: Voight Pipes and the 40-1354's (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 12:33:31 09/20/2000 I have a pair of 1197's installed in salvaged monkey coffins and loaded (for the moment) with unscientifically chosen or tuned passive radiators. I thought they sounded really harsh or shrill compared to the PartsExpress 269-469 4" speakers or RS 40-1354's, for that matter. However the 1197's responded very favorably to two coats of full-strength Damar varnish and I would strongly recommend this approach to anyone willing to try an irreversible modification to these inexpensive drivers. all the best, mrh ps. Terry, if you don't know about James Melhuish's Full Range Driver Forum, you should definitely visit: http://f18parsimony.net/forum31999 |
| robyatt |
Re: Voight Pipes and the 40-1354's (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 12:36:00 05/30/2001 My Voight Pipes placed out in the middle of the room, with new EX3's, (replaced PM7A's, waaay better), and a new Select produced NO bass for two weeks. All of a sudden bass, clarity, huge soundstage, and the fastest dynamics in the west. Do I now have Acousta 115 built for me?? |