Happy Posted September 10, 2015 Posted September 10, 2015 They only part that is original Klipsch LaScala in this build is the bass box and even that has been optimised with double thickness walls And no you're not going mad, you do what's needed to please your body and soul Keep it up Will do Sir Is your XO easy to adjust? Any reason you veered away from something like miniDSP?
Full Range Posted September 10, 2015 Author Posted September 10, 2015 (edited) Will do Sir Is your XO easy to adjust? Any reason you veered away from something like miniDSP? Tweeter has 5 db adjustment steps on a PCB - They are 0, -3, -5, -7, -9 And the Mid Range has 15 steps on an autoformer in 1 db increments It's been set up so they can be adjusted on the fly in seconds This system is really good to match and blend speakers of different sensitivity ratings I was looking at a DSP at one stage but decided not to go down that path Edited September 10, 2015 by Full Range
Happy Posted September 10, 2015 Posted September 10, 2015 Sounds great. Do you get any hum/noise with such HE? I'm finding that high-gain amps not good for my horns.
Full Range Posted September 10, 2015 Author Posted September 10, 2015 Sounds great. Do you get any hum/noise with such HE? I'm finding that high-gain amps not good for my horns. Depends on the amp I am using Tube amps have a tiny amount of hum but decreases to almost nil as they warm up The First Watt / Pass Labs F5 is Black - as in nothing can be heard at all The Blue Circle amp is also very quiet but not to the F5 level but much less than the tube amp
Full Range Posted September 11, 2015 Author Posted September 11, 2015 I visited Paul yesterday. This is what i mentioned elsewhere here: Paul is a great host, he invited me in for a coffee But I also got a chance to hear his system and check it out in person. What can I say? It's lovely! the scale and presence is great, in fact i couldn't fault it as everything sounded lovely...and those speakers :love Oh, and the coffee was to die for Just to add to things on his system, It was interesting that the sound was pretty much the same where ever I was in the room, very nice it was regardless of where positioned... this is something I'm not used to and am used to a defined sweet spot...but this aspect of Pauls' system is very nice! Tonally it was very good also, and played all music types in a very nice way, It didn't seem to favor any one type and played it all excellently music was nicely layered and nothing i heard was at all objectionable, if there was any faults it was in the recordings. I did ogle that Tangential tonearm on the Garrard for a while, lovely engineering...or at least to my novice eye they look that way to me Thanks again for having me over, and allowing me to experience ya' system, Paul. I think you have spoiled my future coffee experience for some time, as well It was my pleasure mate You came for a key ring but also sampled my coffee and Audio system Glad you enjoyed your visit here
Guest Muon Posted September 11, 2015 Posted September 11, 2015 @@Full Range Yup, the rest was a very welcome bonus! Although i love the key ring, It's like jewelry. Only now I'm focused on the reverb trailing of instrument sounds in my system. Why? because your system did this aspect very well......not over done or under done, just right Oh, feel free to drop in on me anytime for a listen to mine if you like, my system can't do a lot of what your system does but It's OK. Only I will fail to be the awesome host that you are. I suck at being a host......I don't even have good coffee here :lol:
Full Range Posted March 13, 2016 Author Posted March 13, 2016 (edited) A small system update Crossover cap changes with more updates to come as the work is done Just out of curiosity and after much thought I have searched and sourced some Russian military (PIO) paper in oil capacitors This experiment is only to change the bass section of the crossover Also this change will also increase the capacitors by a very small step of 2.6uF ( 78uF to 80.6uF ) This will be the third tweak on this section - some will recall that I swapped out the Sonicaps to the Jentzen In the photos you will see the Black capacitors to be changed with the Russian PIOs Concider in your thoughts that 3 PIOs will be used to replace the 2 Jentzen black caps Edited March 15, 2016 by Full Range
Guest Muon Posted March 14, 2016 Posted March 14, 2016 Paul, I used some similar Russian caps in some KLH speakers on the tweeters, I thought them to be very good! Interested in what you find here, especially where you are going to have 3x in parallel. What are the three values 30uf + 30uf + 20uf?
Full Range Posted March 15, 2016 Author Posted March 15, 2016 Paul, I used some similar Russian caps in some KLH speakers on the tweeters, I thought them to be very good! Interested in what you find here, especially where you are going to have 3x in parallel. What are the three values 30uf + 30uf + 20uf? My speakers are just Devine at present But the Tweaker in me wants small pepper and salt or seasoning to taste changes I ordered all matched values so both sides are exactly equal But yes essentially they are 30uF + 30uF + 20uF
Full Range Posted March 28, 2016 Author Posted March 28, 2016 With @@Green Wagon s help - Today the experiment change of the Russian PIO capacitors has begun Because it is an experiment we jointly decided not to pull the Jantzen capacitors completely off but to simply disconnect them for now The Russian Military PIO capacitors have been connected in series and I have the space to possition them just next to the crossover frame for the experiment Currently the amp is warming up so I can kick things off, however for now I will post a couple of photos and return later to post a listening review Not sure if these capacitors will require a bit of burning in time or not - but we will find out soon enough 2
Full Range Posted March 28, 2016 Author Posted March 28, 2016 Testing and listening to the PIO crossovers now The result of the initial listening test is that the bass sound is softer and also fuller Sharpness on instrument and tone change seperation is lower to the Jentzen but it does blend well overall This in turn highlights the midrange more prominently The PIOs produces a more tube like presentation but less revealing Some music styles are superb e.g. Classical, middle of the road , jazz , horn dominant While other styles like bass heavy and complex structure has a softer presentation where speed and sharpness is called for Basically the PIOs have a very nice laid back kinda sound The Jentzen caps handle all styles equally well I will play about with the auto former settings to increase the bass presence more forward and see if that makes a difference When I have a chance later I'm keen to hear how vinyl sounds Ciao for now
Green Wagon Posted March 28, 2016 Posted March 28, 2016 Interesting... I hate to suggest it due to cost, but I wonder how the superiors would go in that spot. SHHHHHHH no I didn't suggest that at all. I wasn't even here.... La la laaaa
Full Range Posted March 28, 2016 Author Posted March 28, 2016 Interesting... I hate to suggest it due to cost, but I wonder how the superiors would go in that spot. SHHHHHHH no I didn't suggest that at all. I wasn't even here.... La la laaaa I would love to have the superiors in that spot but I don't want to mortgage the house doing so
Green Wagon Posted March 28, 2016 Posted March 28, 2016 Look into my eyes, deep into my eyes, not around my eyes, deep into my eyes, You want Superior z caps, you must have superior z caps, you can't rest until you have superior z caps........................................ Bonus points for anyone that gets that reference
jamiebosco Posted March 28, 2016 Posted March 28, 2016 Look into my eyes, deep into my eyes, not around my eyes, deep into my eyes, You want Superior z caps, you must have superior z caps, you can't rest until you have superior z caps........................................ Bonus points for anyone that gets that reference Little Britain!!!
Green Wagon Posted March 28, 2016 Posted March 28, 2016 Little Britain!!! Hot dog we have a weenier. Monster truuucks
Full Range Posted March 28, 2016 Author Posted March 28, 2016 How many hours up on these caps, Paul? Not long at all Ian About 3 hours - still they did a great job
Full Range Posted April 24, 2016 Author Posted April 24, 2016 After living with the PIO capacitors for a while I have decided to go back to the Jentzens Not that they were bad in the scheme of things - just not to my palate So on to another update Today I was left home alone and decided to get the soldering iron out for another small tweak to the crossover This tweak was made in the Tweeter attenuator section only Recently purchased 2 Duelund cast resistors from member @@markergo and knowing that the other Duelund resistors I used in the crossover made a noticeable change I decided to swap over the current Path Audio to the Duelund cast resistors To make a neat and tidy job of it I repurposed and altered some small brackets to hold the much longer resistor in place I believe that this particular resistor is called a 'swamping' resistor and in this possition it is used to help linearise the auto-former. Now on to the testing and listening report Warmed up the Class A amp for about an hour then got down to business A noticeable change for the better was observed, it's as if all the high notes are effervescent with life I was getting a tingle at the back of my neck to the top of my head from it Hard to describe the feeling but effervescent is very close I LOVE MY SYSTEM were my words as I shouted out in delight Normally one would expect vibrations from the Bass and Mid Range but this change has opened something in the higher octaves that I never knew was missing. So not only did the system reproduce the high octave sounds sweeter, I was getting a tingling feeling as well and that was totally unexpected The only way that I can convey that feeling is as I noted above and best described as " effervescent with life " This tweak was well worth it 👠3
Full Range Posted June 21, 2016 Author Posted June 21, 2016 Some secret but expensive upgrades were actioned today The journey actualy started a few months ago when the decision was made to have Jetnzen make me a set of custom wax inductors for my crossovers. Big bad Nigel @@Green Wagon came over and we made a morning of the swap over from the air coil inductors I made the coffee and he did the soldering Just a small note about these wax inductors is that each set of 2 weigh in at just over 10 kg And the larger one is as large as a coffee cup saucer - here is the proof After the changeover was completed we set about to have a listening session Listening impressions observed we subtle but in a positive way Most noticeable in some key areas were - 1) Seamless crossover points 2) Better midrange voice definition and control - but still keeping its sharpness and prat 3) Bass became or seemed deeper to my ears, but also retained its layered effect but most noticed was that these layers were smoothed out making the music meaty in the bass In saying that I feel that when the First Watt M2 amplifier arrives and connected to the system it will be a different kettle of fish I have one more modification in the works but I'm just waiting for the production of specific values to be made and then move forward with it at some point in the future 4
Happy Posted June 21, 2016 Posted June 21, 2016 Who's this shaggy hunk? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Full Range Posted June 21, 2016 Author Posted June 21, 2016 Who's this shaggy hunk? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk That would be @@Green Wagon
Green Wagon Posted June 21, 2016 Posted June 21, 2016 Pauls first impression of the almost 6kg 8awg 2.7mH wax coil on unwrapping it. "Um, I really don't think those will fit. No, Seriously, there huge". Fortunately they do fit. Just. The smaller wax coil is an under 2kg 12awg 2.4mH Contrary to popular rumour and as is evident by the pics of my hairy knuckles you can tell I'm not your average 'knuckle dragger' 1
Green Wagon Posted June 21, 2016 Posted June 21, 2016 Who's this shaggy hunk? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk I'm single - Wanna take me home ? But I hope your friendly with a plumber to unclog the hairs from your drains........ 2
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