[rec.audio.high-end] Polydax/Audax ???

noble@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Patrick Brewer) (12/13/90)

	I am considering building my own speakers and would like to know 
something about the Polydax company. I have a parts catalog from a mail order
company called Parts Express. It lists speaker components from a company 
called Polydax. It also says Polydax is a subsidiary of a French company 
called Audax. 

	I would appreciate any feed back on the quality level of their 
products. 




--
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Patrick W. Brewer          President of CATT Program at NCSU 
noble@catt.ncsu.edu

bobb%gold.gvg.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (Bob Bateman) (12/14/90)

In article <8304@uwm.edu> noble@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Patrick Brewer) writes:
>
>	I am considering building my own speakers and would like to know 
>something about the Polydax company. I have a parts catalog from a mail order
>company called Parts Express. It lists speaker components from a company 
>called Polydax. It also says Polydax is a subsidiary of a French company 
>called Audax. 

I don't claim any golden-ear credentials, so I have no idea how your
home-builts will compare with the best offerings of your local audio
boutique, but I have been listening to a pair of Polydax 1" dome
tweeters in my home-builts for about ten years now.  Actually, the
current pair is fairly recent, since one of the originals had a voice
coil integrity problem :-( of unknown cause a few months ago, and had
to be replaced.  Whether due to age or design change, the new set
seemed to have a bit more high-end response.  In any case, ten years is
probably a fair lifetime for speakers, considering the long term
stability of the materials.  I won't get into subjective issues of how
these particular drivers sound, except to say that they have the
smoother type of sound you would expect from the treated cloth dome
construction.

The replacement pair was ordered from Parts Express, who I can also
recommend from my few experiences ordering from them.  The prices are very
good.

I can't name any names, but Polydax is a widely used supplier of
speaker components for other manufacturers.  Maybe the net can come up
with a few representative models for you to check out.  I know
crossovers and packaging have a major effect on the overall sound of a
combination of drivers, but particularly with midranges and tweeters,
hearing the driver as it sounds in another implementation may give you
some basic impressions.



-- 
*           Bob Bateman            Grass Valley Group
*      bobb@gold.gvg.tek.com         P.O. Box 1114
*            916-478-3562        Grass Valley CA 95945

shimizu@unix.sri.com (Dan Shimizu) (12/19/90)

>From what I've heard from Just Speakers (a driver mail - order place)
here in SF, Polydax are good quality drivers, but definetly not high
end.  I've seen speakers constructed from Polydax drivers selling
for $180/pair (for a titainium tweet and 6" woof).  If you're looking
for better drivers, try dynaudio, focal, mb, scan-speak, eton, etc...

Gluck,
DAN