Made a bastard JBL VIFA

[kjello]

So

I decided to try "upgrade" my 1995 swedish made XL-Fidelity PG1200 which had rotten woofer surroundings. I'll keep the original 12" woofers for future diy projects (maybe, or they will just collect som more dust)

Well.
The speakers internal dimensions are 1000X400X300 mm, which should give 120 liters gross, for simplicity I subtracted 10 liters for internal midrange chamber and other stuff in there =110 lites net.
Box is nicely braced and 25mm MDF.
Twin ports are now Ø80 mm, around 200 mm long, should give peak resonance just above 30Hz
This is the TS for my "new" 1998-ish indestructable 15" woofers, abused for decades in several cars no longer alive
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/284661/Jbl-1500gti.html

Crossovers looked good, I have the data somewhere, not going to touch them(yet) exept reglued one loose coil.
Midrange is VIFA C17WH-27-04 6 inch, paper/wood fiber cone, closed own box around 6 liters.
Tweeters are VIFA H26TG-05-06 1 inch silk dome, some sort of 'light' horn loading.
http://www.sea.vg/vifa/H26TG-05-06.pdf
Nothing fancy there.

So, I basically made bigger holes in my speakers and dropped in two old 15" JBL car subs
And I must say Im pleased with the result. They play well.
Im using a 200 wpc NAD 218 and they are not far behind my Klipsch RF83 in performance. (Not as sparkling top end and lacking some sub 35 Hz compared, also around 3 dB less loud)
Female and male voices are good, also piano and saxophone AND THE DRUMS exelent. Great 40-80 Hz punch. Nicely rolled off in the highs me thinks.
No high tech equipment used in testing, Just ears and some youtube sine waves.
I might consider making some sort of stands to rise them from the floor 10-20 cm to get the tweeters more in ear height.
Some pics

Merry Christmas to all

KO

 

[shrinkboy]

well done!!

 

[kjello]

well done!!

Thank you sir

 

[wmgwizard]

I remember those woofers, damn near indestructible.

Nicely done, hope you enjoy them.

 

[kjello]

Further redneck 'developement' of the frankenspeakers
Im replacing the Vifa H26TG tweeters with Fountek NeoX 3.0 ribbon tweeters to maybe add some top end sparkle.
Woofer: JBL1500GTI, in 110 liter ported front vented box, these are related to JBL 2226H but a slightly heavier and more robust cone.
Midrange: Vifa C17WH which I find very good, these are in internal closed box around 6 liters. Crossed around 200 and 3000 Hz.
Tweeter: said Fountek NeoX 3.0. https://www.audioxpress.com/article/test-bench-fountek-neox-3-0-ribbon-tweeter
Looking forward to testing the new tweeters
Also have to make some new grilles to fit with the bigger woofers.
Hopefully these will have a place in the livingroom with the TV set up although not exactly high WAF

If this doesent work out to well I've got this thing below which I would love to use just by the looks of it

Happy holidays
Regards
KO

 

[ivandezande]

I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that replacing woofers with car subs that according to the datasheet do crap above 100Hz at best connected to a crossover probably not meant for that impedance or any other technical parameter sound remotely ok.
Vifa drivers are most times very, very good . This kinda makes me sad to see this.

 

[toddalin]

I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that replacing woofers with car subs that according to the datasheet do crap above 100Hz at best connected to a crossover probably not meant for that impedance or any other technical parameter sound remotely ok.
Vifa drivers are most times very, very good . This kinda makes me sad to see this.

You would be suprised what some of these woofers are capable of. I use a W15GTi as a sub and it is flatter to 1kHz than the 2235 used in the 2-way 4430s. Yes, I run the frequency sweeps and have the data. In fact, I use the W10GTi's with the 2425s on butt cheeks (ala 4430s) for my four surround speakers.

 

[kjello]

I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that replacing woofers with car subs that according to the datasheet do crap above 100Hz at best connected to a crossover probably not meant for that impedance or any other technical parameter sound remotely ok.
Vifa drivers are most times very, very good . This kinda makes me sad to see this.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/284661/Jbl-1500gti.html

 

[kjello]

These are the factory woofers
Don't be sad

 

[ivandezande]

Hmm ok those subs I suppose are better than I thought. Although those don't look anything like the factory woofers. Wrong dust cap, no front gasket. Maybe someone tossed the originals before.

 

[Marine0811]

I don’t believe that those speakers came factory with Rockford Fosgate subs. Someone has been in there before

 

[Tom Brennan]

I used to screw around with those Vifa tweeters the OP discarded and I think they were excellent. They had very nice sheen and delicate detail yet were robust and had good output.

 

[kjello]

The front gasket came loose when demount, they are shown in the top picture.
The early speakers came with Rockford Fosgate woofers, later models have 'Vantage' woofers. This pair is from the first production.
The XL Fidelity series, are evidently drawn and constructed by Nils Liljeroth, same guy behind QLN speakers.

 

[kjello]

 

[wmgwizard]

I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that replacing woofers with car subs that according to the datasheet do crap above 100Hz at best connected to a crossover probably not meant for that impedance or any other technical parameter sound remotely ok.
Vifa drivers are most times very, very good . This kinda makes me sad to see this.

A driver is a driver is a driver.

There is no reason a "car" woofer wouldn't produce acceptable results in a home speaker provided the enclosure is properly designed for that driver.

Car audio woofers are designed to work in a fairly hostile environment and handle large amounts of power so they are typically more robust with larger magnets, more durable materials and higher excursion limits.

A car woofer can work well in a home speaker but few home speakers would last very long in a car.