January 30, 201214 yr Hearing Marc's rig last night for about 30 minutes + buying some vinyl when we went to his local Austin record store = I want to get another speaker rig. Great midrange and controlled (and prominent!) low end. I'd say this was a great success .
January 30, 201214 yr Nicely done Sir! Those F4s might like some butcher blocks to sit on. Can't wait to listen!
January 31, 201214 yr Author The corner horns are very interesting. They remind me a lot of the first time I listened to Stax. They are unassuming and unimpressive in many ways. The low end of the piano is to die for, very nice. The thing I cannot make up my mind about is driving, low-end bass.... Am I a closet bass head? Who knows... I need more time for sure... I also have run out of current on my balanced isolation transformer I know that my CD player, preamp and mono blocks must draw more than 7.5A? That's crazy... How does one size these things, transformer VA rating divided my line voltage times losses? I am close I think as my box gets really really warm and strange buzzing and turn on thumps from hell. Hrumph...
January 31, 201214 yr For the pre and CD I'd take the idiots approach and look at the primary side fuses and see what their ratings are. That might be a half-decent estimate of start-up current draw but who knows about steady state. I don't think either's draw should vary all that much in use, should they? The mono's, bah, I wouldn't even hazard a guess but again they're probably fused... As to how to size the trafo, search me, if you neead a larger hole for a new trafo let me know. That I might be able to help with. From what I remember of Mark (voodoo) buildilng one of these there was a fair amout of give and take to the design in picking the right trafo that wouldn't give you way too much V-out but also wouldn't melt under load.
January 31, 201214 yr Author Thanks Nate! I am nearly positive the transformer is the issue. I plugged the amps into the wall and all is happy. I might try to find a bigger one as it seems to do a lot of good in my system.
January 31, 201214 yr As far as the driving, low end bass, that could be handled by an active subwoofer. Let's face it, even with horn loaded technology, a smallish driver can only move so much air. Why not let a 12" active sub kick in low to handle the slam and lowest octaves? I don't think it'd be that difficult to dial into your system. If you're looking for visceral impact, that's a good option in my book. Doesn't need to break the bank either... http://emotiva.com/xref_sub12.shtm
February 1, 201214 yr Author Got this from my bride. Perhaps now is the time to try and up the audio budget? "Do u mind if I put on music on using your cd player and amplifier?"
February 2, 201214 yr Author Wes, They are two of these per channel (balanced bridge), more or less (ah the hubris...)
February 15, 201214 yr Author So, here's an interesting anecdote. These speakers* (kinda, mine use the newer DX4, but no need to split hairs) were supposedly BBC reference design for a time and were replaced by the Quad ESL57. Whether this is true or not, I could very well see the similarities. They are really growing on me. I'm talking with a wood vendor to really dress these up. Interestingly, they have a solid piece of Wenge that would span the front of these (didn't ask the price). I also got the new phase plugs in the mail. Anyone want to turn some wood for me? It would be cool to copy them in some exotic.
February 16, 201214 yr I'll need to see them, to be able to evaluate whether I have the right lathe chuck to reproduce them.
February 22, 201214 yr Author They look like this. The back side is the same as the door knob versions (some half-metric size, no idea where to get that... It seems like a M3.5?)
February 22, 201214 yr I don't have the right chuck to hold something like that. We may need to sweet talk one of the guys around here with a Nova chuck, or Kevin.
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