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 Serpula – a 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

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.