dcmeigs
05-25-2008, 03:51 PM
I attended the VSAC shindig in Vancouver yesterday. I taked to several speaker builders and saw some amazing equipment.
AMPS
One guy just threw a sheet of plywood on the floor, screwed down the transformers, tube sockets etc and wired it all up. Know what? It sounded great! Think he's married?
Another guy had a oak chicken coop looking thing that probably came from an old phone company application. Maybe AG Bell made it. Any way, he had it filled with ancient tubes, transformers and enclosed in chicken wire. It was hooked to some monster 3 way horns. One a 4 ft long ceramic creature at the 6 ft level, a mid horn and a bass horn that looked like a cross between an igloo and a doghouse complete with a pillow inside. Yes, the sound was amazing. They were playing old tapes of live recordings from Jazz greats on 6 inch reels. Captivating.
CROSSOVERS
I spoke with some speaker builders about crossover design and came away with an interesting prospective. Keep in mind these guys are doing great work. Their opinions can be measured by the sound of their product.
The big caps in the low pass circuit of crossovers are in parallel with the drivers and "out of the signal path" in their thinking. They are using electrolitic caps for this application because they think electrolitics sound "indistinguishable" from the polypropylene caps in that particular application. Caps are sold by the micro farad like gas is sold by the gallon. Using electrolytics in that application would save a bundle.
Of course they are using quality polyproplyene caps in the shunt applications.
It's difficult to make a objective judgement about this because caps take a very long time to run in. You can't just swap them out and listen.
I plan on doing my Monitor 10s in Solen or Dayton metalized film polypropylene in the high pass and electrolitic in low pass just to see how they sound.
DIY SPEAKERS
I meet the bald guys from Two Bald Guys Audio. They have a speaker that is a real head turner. It's a three inch driver mounted in a cabinet designed like an organ pipe. One little driver, period. The sound had me looking under the table for a hidden sub. Take a look for yourself here (http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/zigmahornet/zigmahornet.html).
HEAD FI
I suppose I'm the last guy on the planet to hear the Sennheiser HD-650. My birthday is in October guys, mark your calendar.
I'll try to post some photos from my cell phone. I need to go back with my camera.
This is an annual event. There is no excuse for missing if you live near by.
Dave
AMPS
One guy just threw a sheet of plywood on the floor, screwed down the transformers, tube sockets etc and wired it all up. Know what? It sounded great! Think he's married?
Another guy had a oak chicken coop looking thing that probably came from an old phone company application. Maybe AG Bell made it. Any way, he had it filled with ancient tubes, transformers and enclosed in chicken wire. It was hooked to some monster 3 way horns. One a 4 ft long ceramic creature at the 6 ft level, a mid horn and a bass horn that looked like a cross between an igloo and a doghouse complete with a pillow inside. Yes, the sound was amazing. They were playing old tapes of live recordings from Jazz greats on 6 inch reels. Captivating.
CROSSOVERS
I spoke with some speaker builders about crossover design and came away with an interesting prospective. Keep in mind these guys are doing great work. Their opinions can be measured by the sound of their product.
The big caps in the low pass circuit of crossovers are in parallel with the drivers and "out of the signal path" in their thinking. They are using electrolitic caps for this application because they think electrolitics sound "indistinguishable" from the polypropylene caps in that particular application. Caps are sold by the micro farad like gas is sold by the gallon. Using electrolytics in that application would save a bundle.
Of course they are using quality polyproplyene caps in the shunt applications.
It's difficult to make a objective judgement about this because caps take a very long time to run in. You can't just swap them out and listen.
I plan on doing my Monitor 10s in Solen or Dayton metalized film polypropylene in the high pass and electrolitic in low pass just to see how they sound.
DIY SPEAKERS
I meet the bald guys from Two Bald Guys Audio. They have a speaker that is a real head turner. It's a three inch driver mounted in a cabinet designed like an organ pipe. One little driver, period. The sound had me looking under the table for a hidden sub. Take a look for yourself here (http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/zigmahornet/zigmahornet.html).
HEAD FI
I suppose I'm the last guy on the planet to hear the Sennheiser HD-650. My birthday is in October guys, mark your calendar.
I'll try to post some photos from my cell phone. I need to go back with my camera.
This is an annual event. There is no excuse for missing if you live near by.
Dave