MattyW Posted April 15, 2023 Author Posted April 15, 2023 Found your DIY Audio thread for the build @Andrew Tilsley https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/lii-song-10-inch-platinum-in-480-litre-16-9-cubic-foot-cabinets-yikes.398186/ 2
Grimmie Posted April 16, 2023 Posted April 16, 2023 Been following this thread for a while Matty and am pretty amazed at the daring and ambition of it all. Just read the linked thread and there are a few disparaging and indeed discouraging posts in there regarding the "dubious" specifications provided for the speaker drivers. I guess with any prototype or custom build such as this there must be an element of risk, fingers crossed and hope for the best. I do hope it all works out for you. Ged 1
MattyW Posted April 16, 2023 Author Posted April 16, 2023 (edited) All pretty common arguments with respect to Lii Song drivers really. Anyone who has actually run the Lii drivers however mostly has a different opinion. Best I’ve personally experienced. A few concerns though will discuss with Andrew. I’m sure everything will work out fine. I viewed this as less risky than buying the DeVore Orangutan O/96 or the new Lenehan speakers as I know I already love the sound of Silver-6 in my existing system. Platinum-10 should be the same sound signature just significantly improved. Or in another league as other PT-10 users have said Edited April 16, 2023 by MattyW 1
Gryffles Posted April 16, 2023 Posted April 16, 2023 1 hour ago, Grimmie said: Been following this thread for a while Matty and am pretty amazed at the daring and ambition of it all. Just read the linked thread and there are a few disparaging and indeed discouraging posts in there regarding the "dubious" specifications provided for the speaker drivers. I guess with any prototype or custom build such as this there must be an element of risk, fingers crossed and hope for the best. I do hope it all works out for you. Ged Lii wouldnt be alone in providing dubious specs though right? My understanding is its rather common place 1
MattyW Posted April 16, 2023 Author Posted April 16, 2023 (edited) On 16/04/2023 at 12:18 PM, Gryffles said: Lii wouldnt be alone in providing dubious specs though right? My understanding is its rather common place You’d think so but those who are extremely vocal detractors of the Lii brand seem to think otherwise. I’ve no idea whether race is something enters into it as unless drivers are tested in the same room using the same methodology it’s always going to test different. Fact remains that Lii Silver are the best I’ve experienced in my system though Lenehan ML5 floorstanders left an impression on me that I’ve never shaken also. Edited April 20, 2023 by MattyW
parrasaw Posted April 16, 2023 Posted April 16, 2023 5 hours ago, Grimmie said: a few disparaging and indeed discouraging posts in there regarding the "dubious" specifications provided for the speaker drivers. Two short sentences from Nelson Pass was all it took to stop any further nay sayers jumping in. Solid praise from the legend. 1 1
MattyW Posted April 16, 2023 Author Posted April 16, 2023 8 minutes ago, parrasaw said: Two short sentences from Nelson Pass was all it took to stop any further nay sayers jumping in. Solid praise from the legend. The third time I’ve read praise from him regarding Lii drivers. He doesn’t expand on it too much but for me it’s enough that he deems them worthwhile commenting on. The Platinum are meant to be in another league to the prior Silver series of drivers. 1
parrasaw Posted April 16, 2023 Posted April 16, 2023 32 minutes ago, MattyW said: The Platinum are meant to be in another league to the prior Silver series of drivers. Hi Fi Cave man , on his YouTube channel said something to that effect, from memory. Praise from Nelson Pass (three times!) is gold in the audio industry. "Not everything that matters can be measured. Not everything that can be measured, matters" (or similar). Someone else with a better memory than me will remember who said it about audio, and perhaps this is one such occasion. What the heck - you have heard a lot of great gear, and you rate the Lii drivers highly. Possibly (probably?) some/all of the nay sayers have not heard them. Following your latest adventure with great interest. 1 1
Mendes Posted April 16, 2023 Posted April 16, 2023 7 hours ago, MattyW said: I viewed this as less risky than buying the DeVore Orangutan O/96 Surely you are joking
MattyW Posted April 16, 2023 Author Posted April 16, 2023 (edited) On 16/04/2023 at 6:43 PM, Mendes said: Surely you are joking Not joking no….. Knowing that I already love speakers based on the Lii Silver drivers in my system makes speakers based on the Platinum drivers look more attractive vs another speaker with a completely different sonic signature no matter how good. One is an unknown to me and the other builds upon a known quantity. The Platinum drivers are a further development of the Silver series which I'm already running after all Edited April 19, 2023 by MattyW
Andrew Tilsley Posted April 18, 2023 Posted April 18, 2023 Matching hardwood Jarrah being prepped for front elevation. 50mm x 30mm. 2 1
MattyW Posted April 18, 2023 Author Posted April 18, 2023 (edited) On 19/04/2023 at 8:30 AM, Andrew Tilsley said: Matching hardwood Jarrah being prepped for front elevation. 50mm x 30mm. I'm really looking forward to seeing how these look with speaker cloth installed. I believe my choice of the Marshall vintage look speaker cloth was the right aesthetic choice, and it should be very durable also which is helpful with a 4 year old in the house.... My wife doesn't let me play music at higher volume so my 4 year old as taken to placing her head within an inch or two of my current fullrange drivers while singing along with the Frozen sound track so grille cloth is really critical to properly protect the drivers I'm trying to hold back on any further responses over at DIYAudio..... Almost feels like I logged onto the wrong site and posted on ASR. Comments seem to go beyond driver measurements as though they've been personally wronged in some way, though given the most vocal member is from Taiwan I suppose negativity towards mainland China can be understood? Particularly with what going on over there right now Sadly once speakers delivered we won't hear the system at it's best as I've had some issues with my network streamer and it's removed from the sound chain. My CEC TL5 CD transport simply isn't on the same level in terms of sonics. I've an AudioGD DI20HE on the way which after 300 hours burn in aught to (hopefully) elevate the quality of the source to where it was...... With it's coax input it will also lift the sonics of the CEC TL5, in conjunction with syncing the same 10MHz master clock between DDC and DAC it may even bring improvement vs the D300REF + external word clock which is not synced with the DAC (though that was on it's own high level external 10Mhz clock). Ah, such is life with audio.... Edited April 19, 2023 by MattyW 1
Gryffles Posted April 19, 2023 Posted April 19, 2023 @MattyW by the time you run those drivers in the streamer should be fixed........ 1
MattyW Posted April 19, 2023 Author Posted April 19, 2023 (edited) I've actually royally got the sh#ts with the streamer so will sell the expensive word clock I had paired with it which will pay for the 3x components I have replaced it with. On order is: 1) Accurate Audio MBS-S800 USB Roon End Point 2) AudioGD DI20HE 3) Gustard U18 The MBS-S800 and DI20HE will run 24/7 and burn in rather quickly for music use only. I've a new Gothic Audio Semperfi "The Outsider" USB cable coming for it. Likewise my 10M clock has 3 outputs so I can connect DI20HE, R7HE Mk2 and U18 to it at once ensuring both DDC's perform at their best. In theory syncing clock signal between DDC and DAC should improve performance further so sonics may actually be better than I was achieving with the D300REF. The MBS-S800 linear power supply improves ripple on the USB port also so hopefully USB isn't a weak point. I got the U18 as XMOS drivers allow me to enable audio normalization to make quiet scenes louder and loud scenes quieter when watching TV or movies where Amanero based units like the DI20HE do not. On the other hand you don't need that for music. Another nice thing is I can run my CEC TL5 into the DI20HE for a nice boost in sonics also as I find the CD transport on its own simply doesn't match the sonics I was achieving with the Soundaware + OCXO clock. It does however more accurately portray timbre of piano etc just falls down in other areas. I may see if I can get the D300REF looked at eventually but the way I'm feeling right now I could just put it in the pay it forward section and someone who knows what they're doing can fix it. Something this expensive should not fail in just shy of 12 months. Edited April 19, 2023 by MattyW 1
Artnet Posted April 19, 2023 Posted April 19, 2023 4 hours ago, MattyW said: Another nice thing is I can run my CEC TL5 into the DI20HE for a nice boost in sonics The build is looking terrific Matty. Curious if your TL5 is modded in any way and or if you have used SPDIF or AES/EBU into the DDC? 1
MattyW Posted April 19, 2023 Author Posted April 19, 2023 (edited) 14 hours ago, Artnet said: The build is looking terrific Matty. Curious if your TL5 is modded in any way and or if you have used SPDIF or AES/EBU into the DDC? It’s stock….. Running coax as thats reviewed to be its best output. I believe running the coax into the AudioGD DI20HE I have coming will lift it significantly. I now believe that a DDC + OCXO is absolutely a must for any high level digital sound chain if it's to take on the virtues of a good analog sound setup, just bettering it due to lower overall noise floor and superior dynamics. On 16/04/2023 at 5:30 PM, parrasaw said: Praise from Nelson Pass (three times!) is gold in the audio industry. Agree 100%. You really have to dig through a lot of forums to find it though and I doubt many will ever go that far..... I tend to go to extremes looking for info on things. Whatever Google can find including use of online language translators. If it can be found I find it On 16/04/2023 at 12:18 PM, Gryffles said: Lii wouldnt be alone in providing dubious specs though right? My understanding is its rather common place Weird thing is according to Leon at Lii Song they just get a local measurement house to do the measurements and provide the graphs. I don't doubt it though how good the measurement house is remains a question. Even though they've the properly treated rooms and equipment it doesn't mean they've the necessary expertise. Lii Song are down to considering not even listing the measurements due to the rages engineering types seem to get into over them. I've suggested they use a well known European or US measurement house to do the measurements though the expense may be too much, thought it would help with credibility. Guess we'll see. Edited April 20, 2023 by MattyW 1
Solder blob Posted April 20, 2023 Posted April 20, 2023 Looking forward to seeing these complete and your impressions. Things are massive! 1
MattyW Posted April 20, 2023 Author Posted April 20, 2023 (edited) Lii Song will start shipping out the first of the production Platinum series drivers around the beginning of May to those who have pre-orders down. Very cool. 6, 8, 10 and 15” versions available. I imagine some will be all over the 15”. Those things will move a lot of air. I’m not sure if those will begin shipping or just the 10” driver though? I can start burning mine in this Sunday afternoon thanks pretty much entirely to @Andrew Tilsley and also Leo Zhang at Lii Song. Exciting times. 8 hours ago, DEssig said: They are to be gorgeous with drivers mounted. They certainly will be.... That said they'll be almost permanently hidden behind speaker cloth due to my almost 4 year old. My wife doesn't allow loud music so the little one has taken to hugging the speaker and getting within centimeters of my fullrange driver and singing along with whatever music shes enjoying at the time. Worrying for the speakers but I'm proud she's getting into the music and using her voice. You feel the music in a whole lot more enjoyable way when singing along 4 hours ago, Solder blob said: Looking forward to seeing these complete and your impressions. Things are massive! I suspect I may be looking forward to it an eency bit more.... Been hanging out to hear these drivers since mid last year when I first got wind of their development. They were to be called Silver-10 NEO at that time. Order was put in for them mid December last year once the drivers had been perfected so quite a journey Edited April 20, 2023 by MattyW 2
MattyW Posted April 20, 2023 Author Posted April 20, 2023 7 minutes ago, Andrew Tilsley said: Grill frames being sized up. Looking forward to seeing grill cloth in there. It will look really smart I think bringing a bit of a vintage vibe to the overall appearance
Andrew Tilsley Posted April 20, 2023 Posted April 20, 2023 Do you want the grill frame recessed (as shown in the pic), or flush?
MattyW Posted April 20, 2023 Author Posted April 20, 2023 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Andrew Tilsley said: Do you want the grill frame recessed (as shown in the pic), or flush? Flush would look best so long as it doesn't interfere with sonics or introduce any unwanted resonances/rattles etc thanks Andrew. I mean once the cloth is installed it would look best flush with the front. Probably not a big difference either way. I'll go with your judgement/expertise on this Edited April 20, 2023 by MattyW
Recommended Posts