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HIGH-END FULLRANGE-DRIVER LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEMS





This tiny three-inch 60W speaker might well be one of the best-sounding loudspeakers you'll ever hear.



Since we have opened our doors in 2007, we have impressed almost every person who has auditioned

our loudspeakers. Many claim that what they had heard has set the standard with which they compare

all other loudspeakers. Our objective is to improve on that standard.





NEW and improved – THE CYCLOPS iii C1800



PRODUCTS

PRODUCTS


BACK TO BASICS - THE PHI CYCLOPS iii C1800®

OUR ORIGINAL BI-POLAR VOIGT PIPE IS BACK – and much improved.



A concept sketch of the enclosure of the Cyclops III C1800®



Our acclaimed Cyclops is back – and much improved. Instead of the somewhat quirky 3-inch Kevlar driver that was used at both the front and the back of the original Cyclops I and II, the Cyclops III employs a high-end four-inch fullrange driver in front and and an excellent five-inch driver at the back. As one would expect the new Cyclops plays much lower than the original, with tighter bass and almost double the power rating of the original.

Both drivers are exceedingly flat and well behaved, which does away with the need for all filter components. Both drivers are connected directly to the amplifier, and when bi-amping, not even a resistor is needed in the design to address potential baffle step response issues.

One would expect a pay-off in high-frequency behaviour, but even that is much improved, with clean and realistic staging and response across the frequency spectrum.

For now, we have decided to employ only waterjet-cut, top-quality Baltic birch plywood. Solid-wood faces will be limited to bespoke versions of this quite amazing loudspeaker.

The Nepenthe Q300®, a smaller and more affordable cousin of the Cyclops III C1800, is going through final testing at present.

As all our products are, this speaker is licensed under the creative commons as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike





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BACK TO BASICS - THE PHI NEPENTHE Q300®

A QUASI-PERIODIC TAPERED ENCLOSURE



A concept sketch of the enclosure of the Nepenthe Q300®



Named after the mythical potion that makes one forget all grief and suffering, Nepenthe is our answer to the ails, true or imagined, of parallel-walled enclosures, in particular the small, “bookshelf” enclosures named the CuBE that we periodically construct and use on stage and in our studio as near-field monitors.

The driver complement of the Nepenthe Q300 is exactly the same as what we use in our flagship Cyclops C1800 loudspeakers, but their height of around 700mm make them much easier to accommodate in smaller listening environments – typically with no or only a minimal stand.

In terms of performance, they are very hard to beat – on paper their response is almost exactly the same as that of the much larger Cyclops, and in listening tests it is hard to distinguish between the two, in spite of the slight edge in tonal refinement that the Cyclops shows.

A smaller enclosure uses far less materials and is easier to manufacture, which translates to a meaningfully smaller price tag for the Nepenthe than what the Cyclops comes with.

Again, as all our products are, this speaker is licensed under the creative commons as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike





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be[spoke] GALLERY  

 

THE PHI SHOWCASE

Below is a display of bespoke loudspeakers we have designed and manufactured for specific customers.

Ranging from super-detailed 3 inch driver systems to heftier 2.1 meter tall 6.5 and 8  inch driver high-sensitivity loudspeakers, this abbreviated list gives an indication of our styles and capabilities.

 



Cyclops MLTQWT -  2007
High-detail bipolar audiophile loudspeaker system.

The Cyclops was our inaugural be[spoke]  loudspeaker. Medium sensitivity (90dB/2.83V) serial filter network plus line level response filter with a modest power handling of 40W RMS per loudspeaker unit.



This loudspeaker was very well received by the media and still acts as a  benchmark for our larger loudspeakers.

Our be[spoke] range will have a similar loudspeaker soon.


 


downPHI® MLTQWT -  2008
High-detail bipolar audiophile loudspeaker system.

The downPHI® was a simple evolution of our Cyclops loudspeaker - mainly to simplify construction and to incorporate the filter network into the loudspeaker. It incorporates a unique down firing port to effect omni-directional loudspeaker port output.



The performance, both objectively and subjectively, was very similar to that of the Cyclops and the small differences between the two types have at times appealed to some listeners and at other times made almost no difference to their impressions.


 



Naledi DTTP -  2009
Ultra low bass audiophile loudspeaker system.

The Naledi was our first foray into Double Taper Tuned Pipe (DTTP) territory, a system devised by PHI to obtain a larger tuned length than a typical ceiling would allow, in order to exact very low bass performance from modestly sized 5.5 inch drivers.



Bass response extended into the high teens of Hz at around 90dB/2.83V sensitivity and 35 Watt power handling.

This speaker formed the base of our current Siderium be[spoke] loudspeaker.


 



Yggdrasil MLTQWT -  2009
High-sensitivity dual-cone audiophile loudspeaker system.

The Yggdrasil is our second largest loudspeaker to date, standing 2.1m tall. It employs the same port system as the downPHI® but has a much higher sensitivity of close to 95dB/2.83V.



Power handling is a still modest 30W RMS per speaker, belied by its authoritative and liquid delivery, even when powered by flea-power 5 Watt valve amplifiers. 


 



phISH ISHTQWT -  2010
Affordable audiophile loudspeaker system.

The phISH use what we refer to as an intensated short horn TQWT - a pipe with a relatively short tuned length using a traditional port to effect the last bit of bass extension.



What this enables one to do is to make a much shorter loudspeaker without influencing performance too much. This speaker employs three identical 4 inch fullrange drivers, two on the front baffle and one on the rear, with a neodymium silk dome supertweeter. Sensitivity is around 91dB/Watt at a power handling of 100W RMS.

A very listenable and versatile loudspeaker on which one of our per[form] models is based.


 



e.phISH ISHTQWT -  2011
Extended affordable audiophile loudspeaker system.

The e.phISH is a slightly taller version of the phISH. Performance is almost identical with perhaps a slightly more extended low end (-5dB at around 47Hz instead of 50Hz).



Very listenable and matches almost any front end. Also a keeper.


 



Siderium DTTP

Ultra-Low Bass Stereo Audiophile Loudspeaker System.

The Siderium is our be[spoke] loudspeaker for the purist. Constructed from solid American walnut, it excels in any kind of music and has bass extension and clarity far beyond what would be possible with traditional designs. The unique DTTP (Double Taper Tuned Pipe) design is a world first and provides a level of realism, involvement and immediacy that compares with that of any loudspeaker, at any price point.



Concept sketch of the Siderium DTTP




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NEW DESIGNS

NEW DESIGNS



On the work bench: The Serpulaa tapered transmission line loudspeaker


Boundary-mounted Mono Loudspeaker System



Above: a photo of the case of this new design.


The name Serpula derives from a genus of calcareous marine tubeworms. It was chosen to indicate the fact that this entire range of loudspeakers has been optimised for mounting against a boundary or wall. The present example will be an event loudspeaker aimed at professional sound reinforcement, but will soon be followed by similarly styled designs for high-end home audio use. Construction materials for the top, face and back comprise a laminate of solid 22mm African Mahogany with MDF, and the sides are made of similarly reinforced OSB. The downward tapering geometry is purely functional and a set of two carefully selected 8-inch pro-audio drivers, one a coaxial unit and one a Kevlar bass driver, will complete the picture. Features include sensitivity in excess of 96dB/2.83V at 1m, 350W RMS power handling, an easily driven load impedance, and a minimal first-order crossover network.


RRP = n/a (prototype)

 

 

THE SERPULA SSS

Freshly off the design bench: The Serpula - a wall-mounted transmission-line/reflex enclosure hybrid.


Wall-Mounted Stereo Audiophile Loudspeaker System.



Above: the prototype of the new Serpula Single-Speaker-Stereo loudspeaker, installed in a client’s lounge.


As second offering from our new per[form] stable, the new Serpula design is a hybrid of a short-taper tuned pipe and a standard reflex enclosure. The German-designed high-end fullrange driver uses the tuned pipe character of the enclosure to firm up its lower frequency response and excursion characteristics, while the American- or Italian-designed audiophile low frequency driver, which only operates at full efficiency between around 40Hz to 150Hz, uses the reflex characteristics of the enclosure to firm up its low-frequency response. A high quality, low-slope first-order serial crossover filter assures immaculate integration of the two drivers.

The loudspeaker is made to be mounted relatively high against a wall – this is as much a concession to space considerations as to inevitable boundary fall-off in modern, smaller home spaces, but simulations have shown that this configuration not only has a positive, though minimal, effect on the sound character of the fullrange driver, but is substantially advantaged by the low frequency boost that accompanies the placement of a loudspeaker against a boundary/wall. The upward-firing driver (in case of the stereo set) augments this boost effect by acoustically coupling with the ceiling.

The design employs solid hardwood for the face, back and top of the loudspeaker, and an OSB/MDF sandwich for the sides. 25mm of solid Padauk wood, reinforced with a 9mm layer of MDF, was employed in the example above.

The loudspeaker has been tested with a range of drivers in various cost brackets and performs exceptionally with all of the drivers we have selected. This not only allows customisation, but makes possible an entry-level model of this hugely enjoyable and musical loudspeaker.


RRP = R17,000.00 *


* The stereo pair will retail at around R30,000.00


NEWCYCLOPS

THE NEW CYCLOPS

Our Flagship, the Cyclops, is Back – simpler, more powerful, even better than before.


Floor-standing Stereo Audiophile Loudspeaker System.



Above: concept sketch of the shell of the new Cyclops.


As minimal as we can dare to be, the Cyclops now accepts a range of drivers, not just the little 3-inch Kevlar driver that one has become accustomed to. The aesthetics reflects our recent approach, as evident in the Serpula range: every aesthetic decision is based on a technical reason. Not a single aspect has not been rethought a few times, and every change was tested to exhaustion. If you have the space for 2m tall Voigt Pipes, this is the best that PHI offers.



RRP = will be strongly dependent on driver choices and will start at around R38,000.00 a pair.



UPCYCLING

UPCYCLING OLD FAVOURITE LOUDSPEAKERS

Reimagining the Past – PHI’s Loudspeaker Upcycling Project


Expanding the augmented fullrange driver idea to damaged or abandoned speakers

To follow: an image of the re-imagined JPW P1.


When a client’s old but trusty set of JPW P1 loudspeakers landed in our workshop, it was hard not to start fiddling around with drivers. Soon it had a 3-inch Tang Band driver instead of the tweeter it came with, and a modified crossover to suit the new alignment. Not long after, the tweeter was back, now as an upward-firing supertweeter, crossed in at 25kHz. It sounds so good that we have decided to add loudspeaker upcycling to our work portfolio.

Please enquire at upcycled@phi-audio.com if you have a set of speakers you want new life blown into.

 

 




HISTORY

HISTORY - THE CYCLOPS





The Cyclops was PHI's first commercial loudspeaker. It came about after a lengthy search for drivers for a tapered quarterwave pipe, itself intended to display the virtues of the Sonic Impact T-Amp. We found that this little amplifier simply couldn't drive the ported boxes we had at hand and the intention was to build a pair of high-efficiency loudspeakers with small fullrange drivers. An almost impossible feat, we realised.


The Sonic Impact T-Amp


The initial Cyclops was a spare-no-expense solution to building a loudspeaker around these 75mm Kevlar drivers, able to outperform commercial loudspeakers priced up to ten times higher than our intended sale price. It was a tall order, but we pulled it off. Measuring 91dB/Watt at 1m, the efficiency couldn't exactly be called high. But it was high enough to do the T-Amp justice and it was just about as much as one could coax out of a 3 inch driver without using a impractically large horn.



The initial Cyclops had a concrete base with cavities filled with lead shot. The enclosure was entirely hand-made from a sandwich of MDF and solid Sapele mahogany; the filter box from beech, Panga-panga and glass. This elaborate filter and crossover box sported a custom designed adjustable MOSFET pre-amplifier as well as high quality passive crossover components. Interconnects were custom designed; NOS vintage components were used. At one point we counted four rare earth metals in the design. It was, in short, a lot of hard, expensive work.

Reviews were flattering to the extent that the Cyclops is still in production.


The downPHI®


The original was a tough act to follow. We created the downPHI® from the original Cyclops – a bit taller and sleeker and in some ways better. We went back to the original but amended the filter unit, housing many of the components inside the boxes as one has come to expect. We adapted the aesthetic to our current two-tone design feel. The present incarnation of this loudspeaker is much less elaborate than the original and, predictably, sounds a bit better. But it was by no means easy.


 



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REVIEWS

REVIEWS



Dick Olsher's Black Dahlia Website, June 2010
http://www.blackdahlia.com/html/tip_71.html

"I thought to slip in the Cyclops II here, a bi-pole tapered pipe, by PHI Hi-Fi Innovation as it happens to be one of the best full-range designs I have ever heard."


Jonathan Noble



AVSA MAY 2008 - REVIEW BY DEON SCHOEMAN


"...the PHI 58.40b Cyclops is a remarkable speaker in many respects. Its application is limited, and it requires careful matching of ancillary equipment. But in the right electronic company, with music suited to its particular talents, these speakers deliver a world-class performance."


Deon Schoeman



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MATERIALS


MATERIALS



USING HARDWOODS IN LOUDSPEAKERS


PHI offers a number of woods for the construction of loudspeaker enclosures.

Below is a list of woods we have used, with some notes as to the tonal and mechanical character of these woods. Using tone woods for loudspeakers and in particular referring to the tonal characteristics of woods may sound alarming to those committed to neutrality in sound. The truth is that any material one may use for the construction of a loudspeaker has some kind of sonic signature. This does not mean that reproduction would be coloured - we, at PHI, are probably as committed to tonal neutrality as any audiophile, and our loudspeakers are constructed with this as our foremost requirement. But, all things being equal, one might as well know the character of the material one chooses.

Typically we would use a hardwood for the centre parts of our loudspeakers, and engineered materials (MDF, Finnish Birch Ply, OSB) for our sides. This not only leaves a visually interesting contrast in the designs, but also provides more varied damping characteristics and consequently a slightly broader sonic signature of the sounds emitted by the enclosure itself.



Kiaat


An excellent value Southern African wood known for its durability, look and stability. Sonically it falls in the walnut and maple fold, with a clean and transparent sound, slightly favouring high frequencies.




African Rosewood, Bubinga


One of the best value woods that one can obtain locally. Shares some excellent tonal characteristics with "real" rosewoods such as a slightly dark and woody sound, mildly accentuating lower and middle frequencies.




Afrormosia


Wonderfully dark wood in a medium to high price range. Similar in sound to Merbau - rich and resinous, though perhaps slightly more favouring of the upper mids than the latter..




Beech


Beautiful strong light coloured wood that finishes perfectly. Tonally "powdery" and "midsy".




Birch



An old favourite in loudspeaker building, particularly in the form of plywood. Lively sound.




Burmog


Even-grained wood with similar tonal and mechanical characteristics to mahogany, favouring mids and upper mids.




Iroko


Even-grained wood with similar tonal and mechanical characteristics to mahogany. Beautiful yellow colour that turns to a rich brown as it ages.




Jacaranda


A very soft and light wood. Inexpensive, but has some surprisingly attractive patterns and a good neutral sound.




Maple, Birdseye Maple


Probably one of the best looking and sounding lighter woods. Difficult to find wood with as many "eyes" as this piece, but well worth the search. Somewhat expensive. Sound described as transparent and "silvery".




Merbau


Very attractive dark, resinous wood. Medium-priced but becoming rare now. Rich sounding.




Oukoume


Soft, light coloured wood with similar characteristics to birch. Even-grained and silky, and often used in marine-grade plywood. Relatively inexpensive. Lively sound.




Padauk


Stunning reddish wood - similar to rosewoods in tone, though perhaps less rich sounding. Medium to high price.




Panga-panga, Partridge wood


Stunning, dark and very underrated wood, similar to Wenge. Tonally neutral to slightly bright, but hard and difficult to work with. Not expensive, but should be.




Pau Marfim


Very nice light coloured wood with very little figuration or texture that's not particularly expensive. Dense and hard with a punchy and brilliant sound.




Poplar


Inexpensive soft light wood more suitable for the inside of loudspeaker enclosures. Clean and lively sound in such an application.




Purple Heart


Even textured dense wood with an exceptional purple colour. Excellent tone wood - smooth sounding with a slight favouring of middle and higher frequencies.




Sapele Mahogany


Forward mahogany-like sound, slightly favouring middle frequencies. Excellent workability, even grain. Beautiful dark colour but with little or no figuration. Medium-high price.




American Walnut


Wonderfully figured chocolaty brown wood with a sound similar to Maple: clean and transparent, perhaps slightly favouring mids, upper mids and highs. Somewhat expensive.




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CONTACT DETAILS

CONTACT DETAILS

e-mail: information phi-audio.com
Telephone: +27 73
848 6707
Workshop: +27 79 405 8867

12 Kloof Road
Gordon’s Bay
7151
Western Cape, South Africa


Our operation is spread over three locations at present, all in the Cape peninsula. Workshop visits are therefore not practical at the present time, but will be possible to arrange by appointment in the not-too-distant future.

Business hours are from 10h00 to 20h00



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