- Location
- Minnesota
- Name
- Chris
It’s as equal “show” as it is “discussion” hopefully, but moderators can feel free to stick it wherever they’d like.Chris, maybe get a moderator to move this thread to the Watering Hole, here:
The Watering Hole
Anything & everything not related to cameras or photography. Pull up a chair, grab a drink, jump in the conversations!cameraderie.org
Great set up. The Carver piece is kind of extra cool.I'm using a Thorens TD126 Mk.III with an Ortofon Super MO40 cartridge, McIntosh MCD205 CD changer, C45 preamp, MDA700 DAC, MC252 amplifier, Olive Symphony umsic server, custom PPA headphone amp, Carver H9-AV sonic holography processor, Sangean HDT-20 tuner and Joseph Audio RM33si speakers. I use Bluejean digital cables, Harmonic Tech interconnects and home brew OCC interconnects with Eichmann Bullet Plug terminations. It all sounds pretty good.
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Sound's Up! by Graham Moore, on Flickr
The H9-AV is relegated to headphone duty. It creates a good soundfield outside my head instead of the usual headphone sound between the ears.Great set up. The Carver piece is kind of extra cool.
I’m in love with Melody Gardot. Great choice of naming! “My one and only thrill” is a masterpiece of an album!Nice setups you guys have. I can't post a picture of my setups right now, too messy. But here a couple of amps:
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Both are part of a series I designed around leftovers I had laying about from previous projects. The goal was to use as much leftover iron as possible. The first one, SE/64 Melody, is named after the singer Melody Gardot. It's a single ended amplifier with 4W output using the 6B4G directly heated triode, that's basically a 2A3 with a different base and 6V heaters. Tubes shown are NOS Westinghouse stuff from the fifties, or thereabouts. I used an E83F pentode as input with relatively high quiescent current so that it could work as a two stage amp without the risk of the driver stage becoming slew rate limited at high frequencies and powers. Some classic SE amps do run this risk.
The second one, PP/84 Iiro, is a class AB1 push-pull amp using the well-known and loved EL84 output pentode in ultralinear mode. Named after the finnish jazz pianist Iiro Rantala it pushes out 12W of power. The circuit is basically similar to a dynaco ST-35, though in a little more posh form without all the cost cutting the original dynaco had.
My crossover philosophy has always been simplicity. The less amount of things between my music and my speakers (and my ears) the better, and anything that must sit in between it (at least in series, less so in parallel), must be of the highest quality. I purposely select my drivers to allow for an easy 6db p/octave 1st order slope at the frequencies I desire, and call it a day. Sure, gets a little funky with phase in 3-way systems, and a second order easily fixes that, but there’s a purity to the simplicity. Phase is controlled and most speakers don’t run too capacitive or too inductive across the spectrum in a first order as well.This here, gentlemen, is a loudspeaker crossover in the making. Now, I usually try to steer clear of any exotica in components, as my years designing and building audio - both loudspeakers and electronics - has taught me that the payoff is usually either very thin or not there at all. I've had expensive boutique parts fail on me very early on, whereas known high quality general electronics parts last for decades or more. But here I have something a little bit special, though still not anything specifically made for audio use. Those yellow buggers there are new old stock Philips polycarbonate capacitors I've used as the series capacitor for the tweeter. And I do find they give a very "analogue" rendering in conjuction with compression driver tweets, ie. good resolution but avoiding the harshness of some high end audio caps.View attachment 337554
Looks nice! I’ve had the cd player- it’s quite good.I have a Naim Uniti Atom core unit along with a Rega deck and a Marantz CD6007 CD player. The Naim is a high quality streamer as well. The speakers are QA Acoustics 3050. I have to say that the best sound comes from the vinyl. Try Lang Lang playing Rachmaninov - incredible.View attachment 337560View attachment 337561
Cool, I have a 6003Marantz CD6007 CD player
Simplicity is nice to a point. But it shouldn't be taken so far as to hamper functionality. I have a pair of these in our guest room:My crossover philosophy has always been simplicity. The less amount of things between my music and my speakers (and my ears) the better, and anything that must sit in between it (at least in series, less so in parallel), must be of the highest quality. I purposely select my drivers to allow for an easy 6db p/octave 1st order slope at the frequencies I desire, and call it a day. Sure, gets a little funky with phase in 3-way systems, and a second order easily fixes that, but there’s a purity to the simplicity. Phase is controlled and most speakers don’t run too capacitive or too inductive across the spectrum in a first order as well.
Totally agree. Thats why I chose drivers that will play nice together in a first order setup…something I suppose I wouldn’t need to give any thought about if I was only using 1 speaker. The only time I’ve ever bothered with a second order is if I’m using a more exotic tweeter like a ribbon that just needs a bit more protection at the lower xover frequencies I prefer, or building the occasional 3-way system.Simplicity is nice to a point. But it shouldn't be taken so far as to hamper functionality.