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Posted by Mazur on
04-21-2025
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Hi, Romy and other visitorsI`m completely new to vitavox stuff because it was always out of my reach in terms of price, yet i have a lot of experience with other drivers - radian 950, B&C DCM 50, Faital HF series, JBL, AltecNow i have a set of really nice speakers - B&C De 10 HF in small eliptrac horn, B&C DCM 50 in larger eliptrac horn crossed as low as 400HZ 12db and 15 inch bass reflex section - project by Albert KlappenbergerI have recently seen an ad on facebook regarding 50% discount on the new vitavox staff Just a few questions - how low/high I should cross this driver to get the best sound and with what order( horn lets say - original 290Hz TAD/Yuichi arai clone)is it on pair with TAD 4001 or it`s better/worse? Maybe also a comparison with the ones i mentioned above...thank you in advance with best regards, Andriy
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Posted by Bill on
04-21-2025
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Could you let us know where you found a 50% discount on Vitavox equipment? Thanks, Bill
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Posted by Mazur on
04-22-2025
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 Bill wrote: | | Could you let us know where you found a 50% discount on Vitavox equipment? Thanks, Bill |
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facebook vitavox profilediscount is active till the end of april so hurry up
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
04-23-2025
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Andrey, I have seen the ad you have mentioned. A few things. Facebook is notorious for supporting fraudulent ads. I personally bought many things based upon Facebook ads, mostly stuff for kids, and never was receiving exactly what the ad promised. So, be careful with that.
Regarding, the rest. I do not know the quality of current Vitavox production. I do not know if they use the same magnets as they did in 60s and if they use the same paper for woofers. I am not necessary can accuse them in anything sinister, but many of the materials might not be available anymore. I did use their contemporary production diaphragms but it was 25 years ago. Only God knows what they do now so I truly do not know how good they are today.
Regarding the S2 driver. There is a thread about it at this site where I beat this subject to death. I would not go lower then 500 HZ with second order. You can get a little lower in a large horn. But you do not need my recommendation you can clearly hear it. The lower you go the more compression you will have and if your horn is too small for a given cut-off frequency then you will have honk.
Comparing S2 to another drivers is not good idea generaly. You see, the best driver is not a driver that some kind of moron told you over internet. The best driver is the one with which a person work for a long time, and made it sound and text of his own reference points, expectations, and objectives. There are many drivers, with which you can get good sound if you apply some labor of love. S2 certainly very different driver from TADs. I have very negative feelings about TADs, and I don't like whatever they do. Thier compression driver sound extremely synthetic to me. In the past I had some, experimented with them, not a lot, but enough to hit them. Then I heard them many times in context of very different installations, and each time I heard exactly why I hate them in my hands. I do not say that some drivers can produce natural sounds and some of the drivers produce non-natural sounds. However, TADs, for whatever reason produce very non natural sounds and in each tone they produce somehow they factor in an incredible efforts to produce it. It comes out as some kind of mechanical approximation of sounds. It is like you are trying to draw a picture this year pencil, on the paper which has a space grid. The drawing is done, but it is all around the grid, and the grid lines still there as some kind of crutches of your efforts.
One way or other, I do not like to issue any recommendations. I do it, mainly for the people that I know, whom I understand and know the objectives, the reference points, the efforts which has been spent, the amplification they use and many other factors. However, one thing I need to warn you that in order to get the best out of S2 driver you would need an additional twitter. It is not because as two cannot go all the way up but because when it does it, it has some problems.
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Posted by anthony on
04-23-2025
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I have four pair of S2 here, one pair purchased new during covid and the other three pair various vintages all sent to Vitavox for refreshing. The new production pair are the best sounding to ears in my Macondo.
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
04-23-2025
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Very good news, Anthony. When you say refreshing, what does it mean? Do they clean them and charge magnets? May I ask you how much cost refresh the driver?
I heard new production drivers only once in August 2013 in context of that system which has Western electric style Twitter. I forgot the name. A term of sounds of the drivers it was fine but there was a problem there. The guy who owns the company, is a designer, was such an intelligent and resourceful person that I am pretty convinced that if he takes any driver he will be able to get out of it a very good sound. I am sorry I forgot the name of the speaker and the name of the gentleman who made them.
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Posted by anthony on
04-23-2025
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Mike pulls the driver down and fixes what needs fixing. The prices have varied depending on what needed doing, including substituting in parts if warranted. These old transducers have all kinds of histories, having lived both easy and rough lives. There is a certificate of renovation or some such thing at the end of the process to verify the work has been done. One pair that were literally dismantled in British customs and then dropped on the floor needed a quite a number of transplanted parts and hence received new paint and new serial numbers due to such clumsy handling, all covered on insurance thankfully.
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
04-24-2025
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| anthony wrote: | | These old transducers have all kinds of histories.... |
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Yep, the history of those drivers might be very strange. I am pretty sure that I have the weirdest story anybody ever heard. Around 25 years ago I bought on eBay Vitavox 10/40 single driver from a London guy. The price was very cheap and it was before I begin run my mouth about Vitavox, so it was very very cheap. I got the driver it looks and sounds okay and then the guy from London begin to bombard me questions that if I am sure the driver is fine. It was 3 or 4 emails and it was kind of strange. I had a few of those drivers and I did not detect any problem, Only after this my London guy admitted to me how's the driver come to him. He was not an audio guy at all, and he did not really know what it is because he found this driver at the Ocean Beach, sitting half buried in sand and water. He said that he thought it is garbage but after he dry it up he decided to sell it. Funny funny, but the driving right now sitting in my mind system and works perfectly fine. Go figure....
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Posted by anthony on
04-24-2025
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Ha! That's a good story.
My midbass channel is 3 x K15/40 per side. Two pair were purchased used and the third pair brand new. No real story with the new pair but the first used pair cost me $200 and apparently were used for many, many years as the loudspeakers for a guitar busker... so outdoors in all kinds of city environments apparently and no doubt not always looked after. They had a fair but of white paint on the cones but I figured for that price I could recone and remagnetise then and still be ahead.
The second used pair I collected whilst travelling interstate when buying cattle in western New South Wales. The seller was an army spook and we had lunch together while he sat there and told me all about who I was and my audio project and even a little about you. It was a little disconcerting to be researched by a professional like that but he seemed quite keen that these drivers be used in a project such as Macondo.
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
04-24-2025
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I was really concerned if Mike still able to get access to the original magnet material and original paper material for woofers. Nowadays nobody make magnets beside China and China refuse to do old Alnico magnets because it's required Cobalt and they do not want wasted for loudspeakers. Perhaps Mike somehow found way to get it. I do not know. The same story go with papar. The contemporary pulp that is being mixed typically cannot compare to the paper which was made back in the 50s and '60s. The quality of contemporary reproduction or drivers from other manufacturers shows it. I do not fancy myself that I know a lot about manufacturing of the drivers but I know that some technologist just do not exist anymore. Like you cannot find among contemporary tubes cathodes with infused carbonates, nowadays we have only cathod coatings. If Mike somehow able to maintain the original production specifications then it is for sure very commendable. What would be the most interesting if Mike would be able to improve S2 driver. Elso, it would be super super interesting if he would try to make not aluminum diaphragms but paper or phenolic diaphragms for those drivers, or to drop FF for woofers down to 25 HZ. If it is done properly it might be superbly interesting.
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