123c's Audio System Thread

[The Swede]

Nice: Coffee, Mac and are those Magneplanars?

Originally Posted by Kuan

I downsized so I could get the piano upstairs. I never even get to turn these on anymore. Thinking of buying a 3 watt amp and high efficiency speakers.

[cscmc1]

Originally Posted by Whiskeydan

I've been hearing good things about this inexpensive T-Amp driving a pr of the late Terry Cain's BIB spkr.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-amp_e.html

http://www.zillaspeak.com/bib.asp

Funny you mention it -- I have a Super-T amp sitting in its box in my listening room! It's redundant now that I have the Mini Aleph, so if anyone wants to try one out, shoot me a PM. It's for sale!

I have never personally heard the Cains, but I have heard good things about them too. Have you guys read the full range driver forum? http://fullrangedriver.com/

http://melhuish.org/audio/links.html is a good one too...

[cscmc1]

Originally Posted by Kuan

Oh crap of course I've listened to them. I love 300B amps and high efficiency horns. But I also love the coherence and imaging of planar speakers! If I had two big rooms I'd have two setups, but I don't even have a listening room anymore.

I hear you. I have been quietly trolling for another pair of planars myself, but my wife will kill me if I drag another set of speakers home. I suppose I have about ten pair around the house at the moment. Ideally I'd have a large enough listening room to have SET/horns *and* solid state/planars, each system on casters or on opposite walls to listen to different types of music on. Newer acoustic or jazz sounds great on planars, but the older recordings (esp. on vinyl) just SING through the horns. I suppose that makes sense as the old ones were probably mastered on Altec or RCA monitors!

[Kuan]

Originally Posted by The Swede

Nice: Coffee, Mac and are those Magneplanars?

Yep.

[rickg]

Nuthin new here. Still running my home-built folded horns thru a Harmon Kardon reciever and a Hafler power amp. But my big one fried(the 500-watt unit), so right now am only using the 220-watt unit.

[Whiskeydan]

For those looking for the "air" image sound of planer spkrs, try a pr of tweeters xover at 8K or so and place them in front of the mains such that they are way out of time alignment.
May have to pad them down a bit to taste.

Turn out the lights and listen to the sonic image.

A pr of KSN1016 piezos with 8 ohms across it works well.

Fun stuff to play with.

BTW, anyone aware of the Parts Express "NSB" drivers? I have a case of 'em here if anyone wants a pr to try out.

[Kuan]

Originally Posted by Whiskeydan

For those looking for the "air" image sound of planer spkrs, try a pr of tweeters xover at 8K or so and place them in front of the mains such that they are way out of time alignment.
May have to pad them down a bit to taste.

Turn out the lights and listen to the sonic image.

A pr of KSN1016 piezos with 8 ohms across it works well.

Fun stuff to play with.

BTW, anyone aware of the Parts Express "NSB" drivers? I have a case of 'em here if anyone wants a pr to try out.

What hang them by their solder?

Isn't this the concept of the supertweeter or something?

[cscmc1]

Originally Posted by Whiskeydan

For those looking for the "air" image sound of planer spkrs, try a pr of tweeters xover at 8K or so and place them in front of the mains such that they are way out of time alignment.
May have to pad them down a bit to taste.

Turn out the lights and listen to the sonic image.

A pr of KSN1016 piezos with 8 ohms across it works well.

Fun stuff to play with.

BTW, anyone aware of the Parts Express "NSB" drivers? I have a case of 'em here if anyone wants a pr to try out.

I have the Audax tweeters crossed over nice & high. I bought three or four different values of nice caps from Madisound to play with and tweak my tuning, and you are right; HUGE difference. I also had a pair of JBL 075's, and then a pair of the Fostex version of the same, but I couldn't resist the ridiculous prices I was being offered to sell them, and I am quite happy with the Audax.

[G-Benz]

Pics of my various systems:


This is my garage system...assorted pieces I picked up from eBay...






...and one of the pair of Pioneers I picked up at a garage sale for $40. Actually I blew the original paper woofers and bought a set of polyropylene drivers for three times what I originally paid for the speakers in the first place...

[G-Benz]

Actually this is my studio equipment so it really doesn't count as far as an audio component collection...still, I listen and record in here, so I thought I'd post.


I keep my midi generators samplers and effects processors here. Mostly gear that I tweak often, so it sits in a rack beside my desk.




The amp, EQs and power supplies are mostly "set and forget", so they occupy a wall rack that I constructed last year.





About 90% of the gear was procured over a 20-year career as an amateur mmusician, hence the dated equipment. Most of it can be replicated with PC music software, but hardware just looks cooler!

[G-Benz]

Finally, the mixing board...I got this from a friend who decided to go digital...again..."old school"...looks cooler than staring at a GUI board....

[G-Benz]

The "house" system consists of components I bought patiently for several years...one component every birthday since college. The JVC at the bottom is the home theater unit. All of this sits in a Mitsubishi rack that was parted out and sold at a used audio store.



The company that made these speakers went out of business years ago...Amrita Audio.

[Kuan]

G! Where is your Commodore 64?

I can't find Rick's folded horn pics, the ones that are taller than my house?

[rickg]

Oh, these?

[Kuan]

Yeah those! Heh heh! LOVE IT!