hans14914

Nigel-

Good eye. Yes these drivers are being manufactured in collaboration with Hybrid Audio. I contacted Scott Buwalda last year as he has one of the few basket toolings out there that will work with the factory 928 bolt pattern. One thing lead to another, and he is now co-producing these speakers with me. He will be offering this driver as a matched pair in retail packaging as a special edition product. I will be including it OEM style in the kit with a very nice brown box

Since we are both using the same basket, we split the cost of tooling on the 4" grills. I had the same company doing the 4" grills also do the tooling for our tweeter grills so they would match (same materials and process).

Now that the cat is out of the bag on the partner for these drivers, I think everyone will agree that this is one heck of a deal. It may seem expensive, but compared to the average retail price HAT products command, you guys will make out like bandits.

Thanks,
Hans

blazing928

Thanks Hans. If I hadn't gone down the Brax path, which aren't a bad speaker [!!] then HAT is what I would buy, So heads up 928ers, these will be amazing, HAT have won every sound comp since Scott started producing them, so even if they aren't the same as some of the HAT speakers, Scott really knoes his stuff, they will be bloody good.
Brilliant Brilliant job Hans, thank you.

hans14914

Nigel,

Since you seem to be in the know, Scott was so impressed with the drivers after we started working on them, that he will be selling a mechanically identical, but slightly different cosmetically (will receive his signature special edition copper plated radiator, laser etched logo... etc) version as a HAT driver. So these are the same quality as his well regarded Legatia line. You may have noticed that the prototype 6.5" driver a page or so back has the copper plated radiator - there are plans to expand this project into a complete new custom install line for HAT,

Thanks!
Hans

hans14914

Just bumping this to the top. Drivers should be shipping to me in the next week or so. I will start a new thread with pricing and pictures soon, but want to raise awareness in advance.

Thanks
Hans

Speedtoys

Awesome.

I have the 88 OEMs up front..one rattles, and just..man, dont sound "well".


Piercing, really.

hans14914

Just got pictures of the tweeter grill assemblies. Those that have an 89+ car may recognize the design. This new part is inspired by the angled assembly found on those late model cars, but now all 84+ cars can have the upgrade.

The plastic tooling is custom, and designed to hold any of the 3/4" Vifa NE series tweeters. I am sharing the metal stamping tool with another company. The grill shown in this picture belongs to that company, and they use a hexagonal perforation instead of the standard round which I use. I am having grill inserts stamped now that the plastic tooling and production is all done. So, just imagine this part with a round perforated grill, and a different badge.

Thanks,
Hans

hans14914

Tracking number says I should get the sample grills for both the tweeters and 4" drivers tomorrow. With these in-hand, I can begin measuring the in-car speaker response and design the 928-centric crossovers. Within a week or so, I should finally be able to get pricing posted.

Also in this package will be two prototype 6.5" drivers for evaluation. We have been working on a 6.5" driver since early spring. I wasnt originally sure i would take it to production, but it looks like there will be matching rear drivers available in the fall. Pictures to come before the weekend of the drivers installed in a 928 door.

Thanks
Hans

Mike B

Exceptional quality as usual Hans...After Sharkwoofer convert you have me really thinking about this. My random thought is why couldn't this have materialized before I went over board with MB Quart.

hans14914

Attached is a crummy cellphone pic of the new grills (again with the hexagonal mesh, not the round mesh that will be on our final parts - I borrowed the sheetmetal parts from Scott as mine arent stamped yet). They are next to a set of stock grills from an early "twist off" car. As you can see they are very similar in size and style, but not exact. I have a measured diameter of the components as follows:

Stock midrange grill: 126.5mm
Replacement midrange grill: 125.2mm
Stock tweeter grill: 94.5mm
Replacement tweeter grill: 100mm

There is an optical illusion in the pic that the new tweeter grill is significantly larger that it appears in person. That is because this part has some added depth from the angled tweeter cup, and it is being propped up in this picture, giving it forced perspective from a position closer to the lens.

While the difference in the grill size on the tweeters seems large on paper, it is not out of place looking in person. The reason the overall size was increased for the tweeters was to re-purpose the stamping tooling already available. To reduce the size down those 5mm to stock would have cost another $1500 or more in tooling and raised my minimum order quantity to 2000pieces to get them made. I would have had to pass these prices back to you guys, so made the decision to save the money, and the ability to go with a lower MOQ. Hope it works for you guys.

Thanks
Hans

hans14914

That picture bugged me, so snapped these really quick. In the first and second pictures, the new replacement sheetmetal grills is actually under the factory part, so you can see that it is no larger than the factory component. The frame certainly is larger, but these pics give a better sense of the actual size and that it isn't as offensive as 5mm may lead you think. The last picture shows a strait edge between the outside of the factory grill and the replacement which should also help with scale.

Thanks
Hans

S4ordie

Very nice Hans! Looking forward to having them in my cars.

BC

Okay, first, as always, the program planning, implementation, and details of execution are top notch for you Hans. There are few people that seem to be able to take a complex subject/item and create something, essentially, from nothing, simply from an idea. If someone isn't paying you alot of money to do this for your real job, then you and someone else smart enough to find you are missing out.

That said... My comments/questions for today come from someone who actually forgets to put on the radio sometimes on drives in the 928. I'm not a music guy about 75% of the time, and the other times I really do like some music in the car, but am not sure what the hell you people are talking about. :P ECUs, engine tuning, engine, brakes, suspension and their operation and assembly - I got that.

audio stuff - not so much.

So - This is a speaker for the front doors? The smaller one right? Why is the assembly looking like it would point down? Would you need a tweeter or would this handle those sounds?

What would the 6.5 towards the back of the car do then? What about the speakers in the rear quarter panels?

Thanks for talking Real.... slow... for.... me.

hans14914

To start at the top, I am making a 4" speaker and a tweeter assembly (both with a factory looking grill) to be a direct replacement for the 84+ cars with the exposed speakers. I am working on an OB option, but trying to get the later cars done first. I am also making a 6.5" driver which will be a good acoustical match to the 4" door driver, that can be installed in the later cars. It fits behind the square factory grills on the 84-88 cars. I still need to find a solution for the 89+ where they switched to a round speaker with the frame being part of the speaker driver itself. The 6.5" drivers are still in an early testing phase, I still dont have a configuration that I am stunned with yet. I would not expect the 6.5" drivers to be available until mid-fall.

The tweeter assembly comprises of my custom mounting component, the grill, and an off-the-shelf Vifa NE series tweeter. I didnt think it was likely that I could best the Vifa performance with my small R&D budget, so decided to implement them the best way possible in the 928. The mounting cup is clever as the same part can be used on both doors. When it is twisted to the proper position for that door, the tweeter aims 20degrees up and then 20degrees in. So essentially the tweeeter in the driver door is pointing directly at the passengers left ear, and the tweeter in the passenger door is pointing directly at the drivers right ear (in a LHD car). There is an off-axis roll-off effect with speakers, in a very simple explaination, the farther from on axis your ear is from the driver, the less the effective volume will be. This is compounded by the fact that higher frequencies are more prone to this effect, almost logarithmically. So physical tweeter location is actually very important if you want to hear the entire bandwidth. By placing them in this angled location, an occupant gets the on-axis audio arriving from the driver farthest away from them. Because it is farther away, it will loose some volume, however the near speaker is off-axis to the ear closest, and because of this, it receives less volume from that driver. Thus both the driver and passenger will get a very good listening experience as the left and right channels are almost inherently balanced just from proper speaker positioning and basic physics.

The door kit will include the 4" and the tweeter assembly with optional crossovers. The factory crossovers can be used, but they are not recommended.

I am still working on the rear kit. There will be several options. The same tweeter cup used on the front can also be used in the rear, again clocking the cup to the proper position so it points across the cabin at the opposite position. There will be an option to use 4" drivers with an adapter, also the 6.5" driver, and hopefully a small component assembly that will fit under the single larger factory grill using both a 4" and a tweeter on their own mounting plate for people who are recovering their rear quarters and want a more streamlined look.

The door speakers are the most important in any audio system. The rear speakers in the C-pillars are optional in my opinion. The hatch speakers in the factory 10-speaker system are deleterious to overall performance in any install, and should be disconnected or deleted.

Hope that helps?

Hans

BC

As always, you given me a good synopsis. So you are referring to the larger speaker in the door as the 4" and the smaller one as the tweeter?

And later you may do something for the rear seat speakers?

And the smaller speaker behind that near the back of the car is useless?

hans14914

That is correct. The larger driver in the door is the 4", smaller is the tweeter. There will be a rear-seat-area option "shortly", and the rear speakers in the hatch are superfluous.