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Volt loudspeakers

O

Olsen

pfm Member
Is there any DIY or finished loudspeakers which consist of Volt speakerunits ?
Say below £2.0-2.5K

I've heard some very expensive studio models Fact 12 I believe from PMC, based on Volt units, they were really very good albeit far too expensive.

I have noticed one member here own a homebrew 2-way pair, but i'm thinking if there's anything wider available ?
 
Have you tried Wilmslow Audio? They use Volt in some of their kit speakers.
 
Wilmslow Audio have a few kits featuring Volt drivers. I've had the HSM (SM108) base, the Kord Tornado which was excellent.
 
Olsen said:
Is there any DIY or finished loudspeakers which consist of Volt speakerunits ?
Say below £2.0-2.5K

I've heard some very expensive studio models Fact 12 I believe from PMC, based on Volt units, they were really very good albeit far too expensive.

I have noticed one member here own a homebrew 2-way pair, but i'm thinking if there's anything wider available ?
Click to expand...

The Fact 12 is not a studio speaker (e.g. it crosses a 2" driver at 400 Hz!). It is a home speaker of somewhat odd design and high price. The drivers don't look like Volt ones which can be checked by browsing the drivers on the Volt site.

Volt make decent studio drivers but they are getting a bit dated and are expensive due to how they are manufactured in small numbers. The Volt site lists their customers. As mentioned above Wilmslow have several designs using Volt drivers. The use of Volt drivers in DIY home speaker designs is fairly rare because the higher power handling they offer tends not to be heavily weighted compared to other parameters, particularly price, offered by other driver manufacturers.
 
I've two b2500.1 drive units, I was planning on making a rel studio clone sub, but done nothing in the end.
 
There's an old thread on diyaudio about the large Wilmslow Audio kits. It's not very flattering of their crossover filter design...
 
I've used the BM220.8 in the HSM above, and the BM251.3 in as a mid-bass in a small horn setup. I think the reason they are not that popular, is first off price, for the casual DIY builder they are quite a bit more expensive over similar options from the established DIY sources (Seas, Scanspeak etc).

The distribution is also not great, Wilmslow, Falcon Acoustics and Bluearan in the UK I believe, but even then, its not all the whole range. I don't think they are that well known outside of the UK.

They are used in Studio monitors a lot, I guess down to the massive build quality, reliability and overall 'toughness' which I guess is as much of a requirement as the sound in that environment. Availability of spares/rebuild direct with Volt is probably an advantage as well.

Volt also supply Proac for some of their models, the 6.5" driver in the D28/D38 for example, I guess the Dome midrange drivers in the K-Series are Volt, or the 10" bass drivers in the D80/D100 towers as well.
 
Olsen said:
Is there any DIY or finished loudspeakers which consist of Volt speakerunits ?
Say below £2.0-2.5K

I've heard some very expensive studio models Fact 12 I believe from PMC, based on Volt units, they were really very good albeit far too expensive.

I have noticed one member here own a homebrew 2-way pair, but i'm thinking if there's anything wider available ?
Click to expand...
If you are thinking DIY why not just buy the drivers that are, by wide consensus, at the leading edge of driver design? Purifi currently make a mid / bass driver which handles both of those parts of the audible spectrum and they will soon be bringing out other drivers. No affiliation.
 
I built a pair of the HSMs (Home Studio Monitor) at least 25 years ago and Wilmslow were excellent then and had a great listening room
I loved the HSMs the sounded like a studio monitor very clean and open sound with tight bass but I hankered after a stand mount design so I bought a pair of Classique flatpack cabinets which could be supplied with the cut out for a ribbon tweeter or a Scanspeak soft dome, so I got the soft dome version and transferred my HSM driver's over to built up Classique cabs
The drivers are the Volt 8"BM-220.8 Bass/mid and the scanspeak 1" D2905-9500 and excellent combination IMO. The stand mount give a little more Cab volume and a bit more warmth but again and excellent sounding speaker. about 6 years ago I changed to a pair of Tannoy Precision 6.4 which I enjoyed for a few years but I missed the sweetness of the scanspeak tweeter and clean Bass of the Volt so I brought the Classiques back out of the attic and have been using them ever since they still sound superb.
I should say that I had Volt referb both of the BM220.8 at a very reasonable price considering I think they just sent me 2 new drivers:cool:
Volt have a new 6.5" driver which is also supposed to be excellent the BM165.1 https://voltloudspeakers.co.uk/loudspeakers/bm165-1-6-5/
And wilmslow do a new kit with them as well its called the overture and includes the superb Scabnspeek D3004-6620 tweeter
My only word of caution is nothing happens quick at wilmslow these day ? and Falco stock the same drivers

xover 9 by Alan Towell, on Flickr


Alan
 
My exploits with Volt drivers..

Kord Vulcan - Refinished the tatty cabinets with a walnut veneer and a cork baffle, BM220 based with a Scanspeak D2010 tweeter IIRC. Smaller closed box version of the Kord Tornado (Wilmslow HSM).

Kord Vulcan by Robert Seymour, on Flickr

http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/kord-audio-tornado-vulcan-speakers/2778

Kord Tornado - A now defunct manufacturer of home/studio speakers, Wilmslow Audio bought the design/rights and sold the kit as the 'HSM' or Home Studio Monitor. Originally based around the Volt BM220 DS (pre BM220.8) and Scanspeak D2008 tweeter. The HSM then used a D2905/9300 tweeter which I think would be a better match, much lower crossover point and power handling. When I owned this pair the 1st time, they came with the D2905/9300 tweeters but with the original crossover still fitted.

I owned these speakers twice, and took them to one of the Scalford shows, they had some pretty epic bass depth/punch when partnered with a big Sony 770ES amp, that Scalford room was much larger/better than my small room at home at the time. Had some fun with the Prodigy & Massive Attack at that show!


Kord Tornado by Robert Seymour, on Flickr

DIY - A few years later I bought a pair of the BM251.3 drivers, to use in a ~40Litre enclosure as part of a couple of DIY designs. Shown here with a pair of Stereolab horns and a Radian 2" Compression Driver but also as part of a 3-way using it just as a bass driver.
I did not really have enough time and money to develop these designs, I still have the Veravox full-range drivers shown at the bottom but should have kept the Volt BM251.3 drivers, they had a really good compromise between efficiency (~93dB) midrange smoothness and bass depth from a reasonable sized cabinet.


DIY Active Speaker Build by Robert Seymour, on Flickr


DIY Active Speaker V1 Mk2 by Robert Seymour, on Flickr


DIY Active Speaker V2 by Robert Seymour, on Flickr
 
Mike P said:
I bought my AOS speakers second hand but the seller gave me the original build manual which was very comprehensive. The components and drivers included were all top-notch stuff. Mine had ATC and Scan Speak drivers so I can't comment on the Volt drivers but I was very impressed with the general quality of the AOS kit.
Click to expand...

Ja, he knows what he is doing. Use high class material. Doing this, you don't have to correct chassis error within the x-over.That keep these simple. The result was accordingly: Actively controlled, the loudspeaker sounded much freer.
 
Olsen said:
Is there any DIY or finished loudspeakers which consist of Volt speakerunits ?
Say below £2.0-2.5K

I've heard some very expensive studio models Fact 12 I believe from PMC, based on Volt units, they were really very good albeit far too expensive.

I have noticed one member here own a homebrew 2-way pair, but i'm thinking if there's anything wider available ?
Click to expand...
pmc mb2's and bb5 have volt bass drivers
 
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