"Case in point. Chris maintained that the typical 1.5-2kHz dip which plagues 4" drivers was down to small diameter versus cone depth. Yet with the pleated paper surround, Armin virtually eliminated it. It follows that it must be the combination of paper cone/rubber surround going off. Of course there is that 10 x price increase of bronze over aluminium. But it's also my hobby. Armin has just rebuilt the aluminium and bronze versions so I can install them into cabinets and listen. And, I have another experiment waiting. Woodworm holes, once machined, got the better of us on a pair of walnut cabs. Simon was going to chip them for winter fuel until I intervened and said that I would have the paint shop cover them in white gloss. It'll be interesting to see if that firms up the sound in the same way it did on the Wave 40. If so, I may join up the B/W brigade. What would be wrong with a black-gloss Vox 3 at half the price of a Camerton?"
The woofer grills feature a rubber retainer ring for a snug fit.
By October 8th, "had a quick listen to the aluminum and bronze Alnico before I left on day-job duty for sunny Cannes. It's a subtle difference but the bronze has a warmer more full-bodied sound. Filter still needs adjustments." Day-job duty was Martin short hand for trade-show installations with his primary company kaos|events.
By December 9th, "the white Vox 3f went down a treat at High-End Zürich. A drawer-pull phase plug on the 3a was just an experiment. Armin since had some standard aluminium phase plugs made so the AlNiCo will look very much like the TangBand minus the rubber surround. To get the resonant frequency of our custom 100mm driver as low as possible, we increased its diameter by 10mm. That takes full advantage of the integral pleated suspension of our navi membrane."
"The first batch of bronze baskets arrives from China this week. Armin is working up samples of the 10cm driver plus a new woofer version. No longer having the fixed constraints of the ferrite driver means that for this model we can build all drivers to closer-matching specs. Raal too will adjust their ribbon so it looks like we can get sensitivity up to around 92dB. That will allow more low-powered amps into the mix."
"My main delay over the past few months were the new woofer baskets. Our first solution in July didn't work so I sourced die-cast aluminium baskets from China.I had to invest in a minimum of 500 but at least we won't run out any time soon. Armin's first batch of finished new woofers should arrive this week so I can start filling outstanding Vox 3f orders. So yes, the final stretch of this project is in sight. These photos show the final mesh fixing, raw cabinet production at Wagnerei Oehrli, the white Vox 3f version and the new bronze basket."
Given the 3a's costlier ingredients, it obviously couldn't match the 3f's tag. "For starters, the Enviée is costlier, its bronze basket more than the entire TangBand whilst its AlNiCo motor gets four times what equivalent neodymium or ferrite motors cost." Martin also explored additional refinements like a possible deflector/dust cover for the ribbon and ± adjustments of the ultra HF, perhaps even a clear gloss finish to differentiate the two models further.
