Zaph|Audio

Tymphany:
Ken Kantor - Chief Technology Officer
Lisa Croel - Director of Marketing Communications
Jennifer Stagnaro - Vice President of Marketing
Terry Wetherbee - Applications Engineer
Richard Little - Senior Transducer Engineer
Ruchi Goel - Assistant Research Engineer
Christopher J. Struck - Vice President of Engineering
Andy Unruh - Principle Engineer
Steve Willenborg - Vice President of Sales
Jens-Peter Axelsson - Audio Electronics Engineer
Michael Gamtofte - Director of Product Marketing (Videbaek)
Ron Vitale - Director of Product Marketing

Meeting notes and comments from John:

We met at 8 am at Tymphany for breakfast and introductions. We went around the table and talked about who we are and what we do. I won't get into all the details since couldn't hope to remember everything, but these folks have been around the industry. I had a little presentation thrown together on my laptop, so we went through that first. Basically, I described my website, then went through some statistics. I pointed out which projects were the most popular, and tried to give reasons why. They seemed surprised at how many visitors my web site gets.

At this point I'd like to note that the Tymphany folks had very open ears during this whole meeting, and they took nothing lightly. They were looking for and specifically encouraging criticism of their products. When Mark and I talked, Tymphany listened and took notes. It was encouraging to see that kind of support in the DIY sector, considering the relatively small volume of sales we represent.

In my presentation, I created a list of products I thought where Tymphany's competition. In other words, this was the non-Tymphany stuff I buy. The competition consists of many products among Seas and Dayton, and a mention of Hi-Vi and Tangband among others. Some better values, some better performance, some are both. Mark reviewed this list with me before we went in the morning and we are in general agreement, particularly among the Seas and Dayton products.

Next up was Michael Gamtofte, the Director of Product Marketing. He is based in Videbaek, Denmark, the home of the Vifa engineering and manufacturing plant. Michael and Ken both went over what mergers and moves have happened over the years. The speaker design and manufacture industry in Denmark is like one big family. Everyone knows everyone. With the recent change of the Vifa name to Peerless V-line, what might not be clear to folks is that Vifa Engineering and manufacturing remains a separate building and location from the Peerless plant, which is located elsewhere in Denmark. There will be new V-line products coming out, designed by the same guys who created the XT, DX and PL line. To be clear, the Vifa guys are not disappearing. The name has changed and that is all. The reason for the name change is to avoid confusion with the Vifa consumer products company, which is now a separate entity, not directly linked but sharing the same logo. The importance of maintaining control of your name was made clear.

Ken trusted us enough to not make us sign a non-disclosure agreement. There were a few off-the-record items talked about here and there, and there might have been a few things I saw in engineering that maybe I shouldn't have, but for the most part, everything was open and on the table. ps. Don't ask me about the off the record items, I won't talk. :) I did ask who Tymphany's largest customers were, but that remains a secret. I guess in this industry, that is very confidential information.

We briefly talked about some production moving to China, though we didn't get into specific models except to say that in general the higher production models may be manufactured in Panyu. We saw a few pictures of the huge plant in China, where a speaker rolls off the end of a production line every few seconds. On the other hand, Scan Speak drivers which are very low volume by comparison will always be manufactured by hand in Denmark. Ken mentioned that there have been no problems with the quality level of products coming out of the China plant. We also discussed "feelings" about moving production to China and why some people may be sensitive to that subject.

Michael Gamtofte had a list of the items in the Vifa poll. We went through the top discontinued items. Summed up, just about anything older than 6 or 7 years will be discontinued. The entire XT series remains, the DX series tweeters, the PL woofers, and a couple others remain. The "Data Sheet Archive" on the Tymphany web site is an accurate representation of what they intend to discontinue. Looking at the top 15 drivers in the Vifa Poll, we are losing the D26NC55, P13, P17 and all the classic tweeters like the D25 and D27. The MA26WR has been discontinued also, and may have been some sort of special purchase by Madisound in the first place.

The Tymphany guys pressed us for information about what it is that made these drivers show so high on the poll. With the D26NC55, it was the small form factor combined with very low distortion and ability to cross relatively low. The tweeter outperforms some full size tweeters at 5 times that cost. The P13 has a smooth, extended frequency response that's easy to work with, even for someone without measuring equipment. It's also a very efficient driver that made a great mid, which is rarely seen anymore. 85 dB drivers have become common. Chances are that someone with a selection of coils and caps can come up with a decent sounding crossover for the P13 just by ear. The P17 has achieved legend status by being the most used driver in the DIY world, with more designs around than anything else. Same thing with the classic tweeters.

If anyone wants to use these drivers, you should probably buy early while there is still stock. Some potential new V-line drivers were mentioned, including a new small form factor tweeter. I will refrain from describing them however to allow time for the company to finish the products and make an announcement when ready.

After lunch, Mark went over the contents of his web site. He reviewed a brief history of the site, which initially was based on a desire to provide more objective tests to the average DIY’r by trying to duplicate some Linkwitz style distortion measurements. The Tymphany folks were surprised at the number of drivers tested, and that most were either bought by Mark, or loaners.

My chat with Terry Wetherbee was interesting. For those that don't recognize the name, he is the designer behind the popular Mackie HR824 studio monitor with the waveguide tweeters. Those, along with some Genelecs, were the inspiration behind my recent waveguide design. I was pleased to find that many of the same design considerations put into my waveguide TMM were original design considerations in Terry's monitor design. Of course Terry's design also had a flexible bi-amp setup which opens up some options. I also noted that Terry had included factory adjusted level matching controls because he thought the Seas tweeter had a little too much variance in SPL. And finally, Terry noted that the interface between waveguide and the tweeter flange was critical, something some of us working on these had been wondering about.

We spoke with Ron Vitale, who showed off some of the LAT technology. Terry and Andy Unruh helped fill us in with the details where needed. The LAT has normal looking T/S numbers. It's best applications would seem to be an installation where a lot of output in a slim size is needed. In-walls and on-walls for example. The diaphragms and surrounds face each other in an opposing arrangement. Each slot has two diaphragms pushing air out of it together, operating in a way that cancels out distortion and has the side benefit of reducing the driver vibration. In other words, the only vibration that needs to be addressed is the air pressure inside the enclosure. As such, one prime location could be on the rear deck of a car, where a lot of output could be had without rattling the thing to pieces.

Oscar Heil's "Transar" woofer design in the 70's is obviously an inspiration for the LAT. With several design differences and today's modeling technology, the LAT has a chance to address the issues that plagued the old design.

Mark and I have the opinion that the LAT will likely not replace traditional bass drivers in stand alone out-in-the-room home speakers, but has potential for use as a higher output sub slim enough to mount under a couch or in a wall. Car audio may well embrace this technology however, with the space and mounting limitations typically present in vehicles. Just be aware that the LAT does still need an enclosure, and making that too small will raise Fs and make box Qtc unusable. It looked like the small versions were coming to market first, but there was a massive free standing prototype in the demo room that could change the way we do dipoles.

We ended the day with some dinner and conversation.

Closing comments from Mark:

Note these are essentially my opinions only. Remember, spending one day at Tymphany doesn’t make us experts on Tymphany/DST or privy to all their business secrets.

It was my overall impression that Ken and the entire staff are genuinely interested in DIY, and not just from a marketing standpoint. Tymphany’s first product may be the LAT, but I get the impression that there will be other innovative products down the road from this organization.

The merger of DST and Tymphany is more of a mutual partnership, rather than some sort of takeover. It’s always hard to know the exact internal politics, but I didn’t get the impression that the core DST business and philosophy would change.

If that’s the case, what’s up with the discontinuation of many Vifa product lines? Well, frankly, a lot of the products were heading for the chopping block, or even discontinued prior to the merger. Again, this is my opinion, but many of the Vifa drivers were older and in need of updating. Remember, Vifa and Peerless are predominantly OEM producers. How many loudspeaker manufacturers are going to base their hot new product line on a 15+ year old product design? The nostalgic longing for some memorable driver of your childhood is nice, but nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills. Technology has passed a number of these drivers by. I’ve got a quartet of P13’s in my garage gathering dust. Oddly, I do look at them fondly and can’t quite get rid of them. On the flip side, every time I think of them in a project, I can think of a newer, better or cheaper driver. Time to go. However, all current drivers in the catalogue can be ordered through the middle of this year, and stocks will likely last longer. If you really like an older driver, now would be the time to stock up.

What about the Vifa name? As John mentioned, unfortunately another company also has the rights to that name. To avoid confusion, and keep the brand straight, something had to change. So the name did. Remember, the engineers are the same. The products and philosophy won’t change just because the name did.

What doesn’t seem to be generally as appreciated is that DST will come out with new lines which should be technologically superior to their discontinued brethren. The cash influx from the merger with Tymphany should help that happen sooner. They are painfully aware of the manufacturers from around the world nipping at their heels.

Did we get free stuff? I think John and I pride ourselves on some small semblance of objectivity. Well...each of us did get a Tymphany shirt and a levitating pen. Cool. I did also grovel a bit for some engineering samples to test. I have mixed feelings about testing samples. On the other hand, no one is beating down my door to have their diamond tweeter tested and I can only buy so many, so it’s a way to at least get my hands on some drivers I wouldn’t normally test and test them.

And again, special thanks to Ken and the entire staff who spend time (=money) to spend most, if not all of their Friday with us. And thanks to everyone who accidentally checked the wrong name and allowed me to come in second in the voting and accompany John.

If you guys have any specific questions, feel free to email either one of us or post on the MAD board and we’ll try to answer it as best we can.