Zaph Audio: for the Speaker Obsessives Among Us

ZaphAudio.com is the labor of speaker love web site of John Krutke. John is an amateur speaker designer and builder, but 'amateur' is used in the very narrow monetary sense. To date I doubt his efforts have resulted in compensation remotely commensurate with the considerable body of his work. Although, it seems that this is about to change: John has hinted on his blog that he is about to go pro.

I confess I have a very serious fascination with the loudspeaker. I own dozens of pairs. My name is Nat, and I am a speaker obsessive. They are wood and metal and magically turn signal to sound. Some even do it well.

I discovered Zaph Audio 3 or 4 years ago when puzzling over a crossover in a small two way system. I love 'em and so, evidently, does John. John's designs are primarily very small, extremely high quality, high bang for the buck two way systems. John has designed projects for both Parts Express and Madisound, the two giants of the DIY world. Here is his latest project, the ZMV5. John does a great job of walking you through its design and implementation, and he includes his usual discussion of all the necessary compromises and possible options.

John is also a significant testing resource for the DIY community. His tweeter mishmash gets a workout every time Parts Express or Madisound runs a sale. As does his Small Driver Comparison, and his 5.5" Driver Comparison, and his 6" to 7" Driver Comparison. Impressive, eh? So far he has resisted the siren song of larger drivers, but he has recently solicited drivers for one last orgy of testing and is including some 8 inchers. Thank you, John, for scratching that particular itch.

John can be a bit of a curmudgeon; for some reason he wants a private life. He answers no email (go ahead click on it...), takes no advertising, and so far has not attempted to sell anything other than leftover drivers. For now John has indicate the site will remain, but driver evaluations will end due to a conflict of interest. So I highly recommend that you get them while they are hot!