Very Nice Cheap Kit Speakers: HiVi/Swans DIY 2.2A & 3.1

[Poultrygeist]

Nice finish, I hope you got a good set of parts!

Why wouldn't I? Swan speakers have a great reputation and all parts are under warranty. They even offer a help line. Here is an assembly video of their 3 way.

https://www.swanskits.com/about

 

[Harmonie]

@Poultrygeist
Just wondering how long you REALLY need to assemble, before you enjoy the sound ?
When you add the estimated time of each process as their video indicates, you should finish these in just 1 hour and 3 minutes ??

 

[Poultrygeist]

@Poultrygeist
Just wondering how long you REALLY need to assemble, before you enjoy the sound ?
When you add the estimated time of each process as their video indicates, you should finish these in just 1 hour and 3 minutes ??

I'm running out of projects so I need to slow down and enjoy the journey.

 

[Poultrygeist]

If you build these you should assemble the grills and use them. The soft dome tweeters protrude and need to be protected. They will deform with the slightest pressure. Swan includes these frames with grooves and all you need is a putty knife to tuck the stretchy fabric into the grooves. Mine seem to be holding ok without glue.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Two Swans a' swimming.......

 

[Poultrygeist]

Listening in near field at no more than 3 ft and they are quite impressive.

 

[stevenswall]

Listening in near field at no more than 3 ft and they are quite impressive.

View attachment 85199

What amp do you use? ASR makes me think every amp is poorly engineered, and I hate the scratching sound and imbalanced channels on my Dayton amp similar to the reviewed Amazon Basics one.

Hopefully yours doesn't hiss from that close? I'm using mine nearfield too.

 

[Poultrygeist]

I actually use one that ASR recommends and which measures well, the Volt+D.

For it's extra gain I also use an FX Audio Tube 01 preamp.

 

[GGroch]

I subjectively believe my 2.2a is more critical of amps than many speakers. It works well with the high power (old NAD 2600a) amp I tried. They sound great with my 3e Audio DIY TPA3255 amp (and I think would sound near the same with commercial TPA3255 amps). My new Sabaj A20a amp sounds great (similar to SMSL DA9) with dual Infineon chips. So, I think most 3255 or Infineon class D amps would be a good match. The Sabaj has a digital volume control...so no mismatched channels.

The other inexpensive class D amps I tried were not as successful.

 

[Poultrygeist]

I've also used a single ended APPJ/Miniwatt ( 2.5 watts pictured above ) paired with the FX preamp with excellent results.

 

[Poultrygeist]

The 2.2a powered by the Miniwatt

 

[Albrecht47]

Below is a graph with the amplitude response of eight HiVi SD1.1A tweeters , seven from the same batch. Measured at 1M and mounted in a bookshelf speaker cabinet. Note the SPL difference at the 2KHz cursor position. That's a spread of 11.4dB.

I will leave you to draw your own conclusion regarding Hivi quality control ( or lack-there-of).

 

[Poultrygeist]

Below is a graph with the amplitude response of eight HiVi SD1.1A tweeters , seven from the same batch. Measured at 1M and mounted in a bookshelf speaker cabinet. Note the SPL difference at the 2KHz cursor position. That's a spread of 11.4dB.

I will leave you to draw your own conclusion regarding Hivi quality control ( or lack-there-of).

View attachment 135334

So how did they sound when you listened to them in the HiVi 2.2a? What speaker company do you work for?

 

[Poultrygeist]

I lifted this post from the X-LS Encore thread comparing it to the HiVi 2.2a.

"10 years ago GR Research sold these for $125 and that is when I built mine. I use them in my computer room / den and use them as computer speakers. I built the cabinets myself destroying my brother-in-laws old router. For the same money now I can tell you the HIVI 2.2A DIY on Amazon for $239 are a way better deal and comes with a knockdown cabinet and sounds infinitely better imho."

 

[Albrecht47]

So how did they sound when you listened to them in the HiVi 2.2a? What speaker company do you work for?

Posted this as warning to DIY builders using HiVi drivers. Consultant to many speaker companies. I don't build kit speakers because I design my own.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Posted this as warning to DIY builders using HiVi drivers. Consultant to many speaker companies. I don't build kit speakers because I design my own.

Few of us have a need to buy that many tweeters at one time so I knew you were in the business. I found no variance with the two tweeters that came in the kit from Amazon. It's possible yours were seconds.

 

[Albrecht47]

Few of us have a need to buy that many tweeters at one time so I knew you were in the business. I found no variance with the two tweeters that came in the kit from Amazon. It's possible yours were seconds.

Any chance you could post the measurements of your tweeters? I'm curious about how you define no variance.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Any chance you could post the measurements of your tweeters? I'm curious about how you define no variance.

A sound meter confirmed the output levels that I heard. Aren't you supposed to register as an industry participant when you post here? I don't know if you read the reviews here but the HiVi 3.1 received a strong recommendation with no mention of any quality issues.

 

[Albrecht47]

A sound meter confirmed the output levels that I heard. Aren't you supposed to register as an industry participant when you post here? I don't know if you read the reviews here but the HiVi 3.1 received a strong recommendation with no mention of any quality issues.

I hadn't read any 3.1 reviews but now that you mention it, the review seems to confirm the lack of acoustic QC.

1) "without EQ, you may find the sound a bit annoying". That doesn't sound like a strong recommendation to me.

2) One speaker was measured. It would be informative to see measurements from both left and right speakers of a stereo pair.

3) The acoustic performance of the measured speaker may be quite far from the designer's acoustic target due to poor amplitude response consistency of the drivers but we cannot objectively confirm the measurements in this review.

4) The review is of a Sehlin modified 3.1. Sehlin wouldn't have modified the speaker if they thought the performance was optimal.I suspect they built a speaker that did not sufficiently resemble the designer's acoustic target because, as I found, the amplitude response consistency of the drivers is insufficient.

Once again, draw your own conclusions from the measurements I posted. I have no horse in this race. If you built the speaker and you're happy with it, great. If you're wondering why it may not sound as good as you had hoped for, poor driver QC could be the reason.

I didn't see any option to flag my account as industry participant when I registered. Perhaps I missed it.

What's your affiliation with HiVi and/or their dealers/distributors?

 

[Poultrygeist]

I hadn't read any 3.1 reviews but now that you mention it, the review seems to confirm the lack of acoustic QC.

1) "without EQ, you may find the sound a bit annoying". That doesn't sound like a strong recommendation to me.

2) One speaker was measured. It would be informative to see measurements from both left and right speakers of a stereo pair.

3) The acoustic performance of the measured speaker may be quite far from the designer's acoustic target due to poor amplitude response consistency of the drivers but we cannot objectively confirm the measurements in this review.

4) The review is of a Sehlin modified 3.1. Sehlin wouldn't have modified the speaker if they thought the performance was optimal.I suspect they built a speaker that did not sufficiently resemble the designer's acoustic target because, as I found, the amplitude response consistency of the drivers is insufficient.

Once again, draw your own conclusions from the measurements I posted. I have no horse in this race. If you built the speaker and you're happy with it, great. If you're wondering why it may not sound as good as you had hoped for, poor driver QC could be the reason.

I didn't see any option to flag my account as industry participant when I registered. Perhaps I missed it.

What's your affiliation with HiVi and/or their dealers/distributors?

Might I remind you that this thread is about the HiVi Swan kit speakers sold on Amazon. Unless you built the Amazon kit and tested those same tweeters your graph and warnings about quality are not relevant to this discussion. Now if you design speakers for competing companies your negative statements could also be considered unethical. I enjoyed builting these kit speakers and made favorable comments so I have a stake in this discussion. It looks like you joined this forum a few days ago just to rain on this parade. If that's the case I feel sorry for you.