After 20+ years with Avanrgarde Duos I made th eswitch to Voxativ field coils. The Duos were and still are superb. The FC are slightly more cohesive and smoother and I might have just been itching to change. Could happily live with either
completely gone through and upgraded. Stainless steel platter and brass bearing from Peak Audio UK. Motor serviced with new bearings, and just about everything else that can be replaced/upgraded including a DIY plinth. Very happy. This is an end game turntable.
Sorane SA-12 with My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo
Kuzma 4 point 14 with Jan Allaerts MkII
EMIA LR phono corrector with silver SUT
wow, just wow
Star Sound Technologies sp4 Sistrum rack
Voxativ AC-X field coils w/ 16 foot DIY basshorns
These replaced my Avantgarde Duo Omegas. I built the 16 foot horns to cover 30-180Hz and replace stock AG woofers.
Eighth Nerve room treatments
These things really work.
GIK Acoustics Acoustic Panels
I have a very lively room with brick walls and plaster ceiling. These have tamed it. my RT60 time is almost ideal
Seymour 160" theater screen 2.35
JVC NZ8 laser projector
4K projector
Crown XLS1000
Six 2 channel power amps for height, wides, surrounds
The 225s are just sitting there, dead weight.. they are some of the original version, no line in, so pretty much worthless. I sold and shipped them once and a driver got damaged so had it re-coned. Would like to get rid of them but at 100 pounds each probably cost more to ship than they are worth at this point. At one point I had 3 pair of 225s in another room and other than the pain of integrating all of them it was better than one pair, but, let's face it, compared to the horns they really do suck.
Skushino, thanks, whatever JJ comes up with will be very good.
Chiba, If it were my design I would share the schematics but I got a lot of help from a friend who is in the business so it wouldn't be fair to share.
Mike, true to a point but the mid horns run full range so there was never any crossover on those when I was all analog. Perhaps the algorithms that Pure Music is using are superior to what you tried or the DAC portion of the RME is better, or both. In any case I'm happy where I'm at.
i had the idea to set a high pass filter at 100 hz so that the duos midrange does not get the low bass. it worked but sounded really bad.
I respectfully submit that something is either fundamentally flawed in the way your system is doing the digital processing or somehow defective. A properly implemented and properly functioning digital filter that is working an octave below the passband of the driver will not cause it to sound real bad.
I've had any number of die hard analog people over here and none of them hear the digital nastiness you are hearing in yours and nothing anywhere close to "real bad." In fact, they begrudgingly admit it sounds very, very good..
The crossover is done by Pure Vinyl. Amps hooked directly to drivers. I hear no "digital nasties." The gain is such that I'm usually within about 10dB of max volume. I hear what you are saying but everything is a compromise and I decided to compromise with digital processing with the benefit of time alignment and room correction EQ. I would like to try it the other way.. someday perhaps.
It can be loud but that's not one of my goals, but it is definitely dynamic and there is a big 3 dimensional sound stage floating behind the speakers and extending side wall to side wall with recordings that are capable of doing that.
As good as vinyl? That is very subjective since there are so many variables. If you read the recent Stereophile review I think Fremmer got it mostly right. The digitized does shine in some areas and it is different and some may prefer the digitized but a very high end phono will still sound more analog. How much you have to spend to beat it is open for debate.
I digitize at 24/192 but so far have only recorded a few. I have no desire to archive my vinyl.
In my case with active triamping it is a solution that I'm extremely happy with.
I did start with passive crossovers and this is much better.
System edited: Added a third amp to triamp and get rid of all passive crossovers. This was a revelation. I expected some subtle improvement in getting rid of the tweeter filter but it really changed the tone of the system for the better. .
Sure, the maximums are 55 inches wide, 79 inches deep, and 8 feet tall. You could make them less deep if you started the curve up sooner. I added a side view so you better see how I did it but you just need to maintain the proper rate of expansion so there are an infinite number of ways to configure it.
Jason, I have quite a few of the Eighth Nerve products but haven't managed to get them put up yet. I do not have any bass traps but it is something to consider. The bass is pretty good but we always wonder if we can make it better.
Hi Kale, just realized I didn't respond to your last email. Sorry. The RME Firface 400 is the nerve center of the set up. I feed my cartridge directly to it and it amplifies and and digitizes it. The Mac gets that data via firewire. The Pure Vinyl does the RIAA correction, controls the volume digitally, and does the crossover and time alignment for the bass horn. It then feeds it back to the RME via firewire where it is also the 4 channel DAC.
For digital files the Pure Vinyl does basically the same thing interfacing with iTunes. iTunes manages the database but PV does all of the processing.
The RME will go both directions up to 24/192. I have some 24/96 files from HD tracks that in general are a bit better than the 16/44.1 versions but I don't have many to directly compare so I'm not saying it is definitely worth the extra expense for them. I have Louis and Ella in both and while I prefer the 24/96 it may just be that a remastered 16/44.1 would be too close to tell a difference. Certainly no harm in the higher rez if you can get it.
Since I'm using firewire I really have no need for the USB-spdif device but it looks interesting.
The next thing to play with is equalization on the bass horns. Pure Music/Vinyl supports AU plug ins so you can apply all manner of EQ to the system. I'm getting ready to start playing with room EQ wizard and see what that does for me.
I commissioned the first of his phono stages so I've had it a couple of years. I would say the sound is wide open, no limits. It is difficult to control the low level noise and hum but I think that is the price you pay for having a 2 stage phono stage that offers such incredible dynamics.My system is very efficient so that adds to the situation. Before this I had a Lamm that I thought was very good but compared to this phono stage it just laid there. I don't want to blow the noise out of proportion; at normal levels I don't hear any noise at the listening position between songs, but if you crank it up to concert levels you do hear some hum between songs. Small price to pay for the incredible sound it makes.
I moved last year and haven't updated my virtual system but will soon. I now have bass horns designed by Jeffrey and built by me. Triamped from a Behringer DCX2496. Incredible. Check the new picture.
I tried to set them to the same crossover F. Doing it out of balance would result in too much at the bottom since they both operate down there. You can change the upper cutoff but the bottom is fixed.
I did one channel at a time with my RTA. Turn one on and bring up the level until the bottom was about 3 dB below the mids. Then turn on the other one and bring it up until the sum of both woofers is the same level as the mids. Then do the same for the other channel.
I'll try the cap thing but I've never heard an electrolytic that improved anything. The small bypass makes more sense to me but I've got some electrolytics so I'll give it a whirl.
I did try the Altmann BYOB but it sounded like a SS amp to me; a very good SS amp but SS none the less. I see why people like them but I suppose I am hooked on SET harmonic distortion. Just sounds more real to me.
I have the PAA2 but here is the latest model, the PAA3 Not sure of the differences. It comes with a CD with test tones, but I use one of the Stereophile test discs (test cd 2 I think but I'm not home to check) to generate the tones for that purpose. One of them has warble tones at various frequncies and I play the one nearest the crossover point. I have the test equipment to generate a test tone but I think a warble tone is better since you might hit a room node with a single tone.
I can't comment specifically on the brass stands since I bought them with Duos that had the Omega upgrade. This combo is much better than stock Duos but I can't honestly say how much is the stands and how much is the Omega upgrade. I'm building some wood stands to try so I'll know more soon.
I would like to go back and re-visit the 3 pairs of woofers at some point. Since I sold one pair I found out one woofer I kept was wired out of phase. I corrected that so 3 might indeed be a step up. I'll wait to get a pair at a good price and try it again.
Funny you brought it up by my Altmann amp should be here soon. I have mixed expectations. I would like to think that my DIY amp is better but it would be nice to not have to hassle with tubes.
I don't have any magic bullets for you. Bass integration is fundamentally very difficult and your issue could be integration with the horns, or integration with your room, but most probably a combination of both.
I've never heard the older style woofer so I can't comment about the differences. I assume the newer model is better but can't confirm that. If I recall the crossover point isn't adjustable on the older model which might be giving you some trouble.
Small changes in the position of the woofers can help with bass response in your room, but that moves the horns as well. Two pairs of woofers was a major improvement for me and spreads the nodes around but that might not fit your budget.
In stock form the woofer sits a little forward of the horn drivers. My horns are free standing so I pushed my woofers back to align them which helped. Unhooking the woofer from the poles that hold up the horns would give you more flexibility in placement, however the horns will fall over unless those poles are attached to something.
I use a Phonic RTA to measure mine. It is normal to tend to turn the woofers up too high when doing it by ear. With an RTA you can also check to be sure the woofer and big horn are in phase at the crossover point. You can also do it by ear. Either way play a tone near the crossover point then listen/measure with the woofer hooked up both ways. The louder way they are in phase.
You can also try reversing the phase of the tweeters to see which sounds better to you.
The problem with USB DACs is you have to have a cable running from the computer to the DAC. To date there are no wireless USB hubs even though Belkin keeps saying they are going to introduce one. No problem in some situations but there was no practical way for me to run a cable. That leaves wireless and the only audiophile wireless other than mine is a $1,200 modified Airport Express from Empirical that outputs spdif.
Altmann claimed that optical spdif was the preferred method to feed his DAC and jitter didn't matter since he had a jitter reducer. Spending $100 for the AE plus the Altmann was much cheaper than the Empirical so I tried it.
Sounds wonderful. Best digital I've ever had by a huge margin and that inludes a Naim CDX2 an Ayre and other high end players.
I could put the battery behind the rack or in a box but it is a dedicated room so looks don't matter much to me and it's easier when I have to recharge it. I have no problems with the looks of the Altmann either but that could also easily be placed in a case if it bothers you.
The room is about 14 x 17 with 8 foot ceilings. Carpet over concrete, thick solid rock walls on 2 sides, wood walls on the other 2 with wood ceiling. Not a huge room but just big enough for the Duos. The important thing is that it is my room to do with what I want. My wife has the rest of the house.
I now am down to 2 pair of woofers. Two is definitely much better than one but three pair didn't improve anything.
System edited: Updated speaker system to Duo Omega with brass stands and 3 pair of 225 woofers. An amazing transformation from the stock Duos which were already very good. This also tamed the last little bit of edge I was hearing with the Altmann DAC.
A friend of mine made that. He put his face in a bowl of plaster or something while he breathed through a straw. When it set he had a mold of his face and filled it to make the mask. My walls in the basement are rough cut stone so I hung the mask and plastered around the edges so it blends into the wall and then painted it to match the wall. Most people don't notice it.
Jeffrey is a great guy to work with. He will listen to what you are trying to accomplish and then design and build a piece to do the job. I would encourage you to contact him and see for yourself. Being a one man operation and raising a family his time is at a premium, but if he has time perhaps he will invite you over for a listen.
System edited: I just got the custom built phono stage I commissioned from Experience music. http://experiencemusic.net/ After playing around for many years with commercial gear it has become obvious to me that the only way to get true satisfaction is with custom gear from a custom builder or DIY if you are capable. This stage is a simple design using the highest quality parts. It is by far the best I've had. Big, open, dynamic, great resolution and tonal balance.
Hi ArtG, how much extra $$ are we talking about here? I have 2 pair of 1M interconnects, a 3M pair of speaker cables, and 4 pair of 1M speaker cables as jumpers.
I'm thinking I could buy a pair of Trios or get a Naim CDS3 for the extra cash?
I do have a dedicated 20A line to my system, but I live in an older home with 100A service so I wonder how that affects things.
The difference with the batteries is subtle yet significant. When I have audiophile friends over they can consistently pick which is which. The Naim player is excellent in stock form and from what I understand significantly better with the XPS2 power supply even though I have never heard it, but I can't choke down another $4,500 at this point so I went with about $500 worth of NiCad batteries and a deluxe charger/discharger.
I would say that with batteries the sound is smoother with a darker background and a richer harmonic structure. With the batteries on a plucked acoustic guitar string you hear the string and the body of the guitar in better balance, and with AC less of the body and more string. Vocals sound more natural with the batteries and low bass strings sound rounder and fuller. On first listen it would be easy to say the batteries are softer but I think it is because they introduce less harshness. I'm not saying the stock player is harsh, it is excellent. The batteries just raise it up a notch.
It is a bit of a pain to maintain the charge on the batteries. They need to go through a proper discharge/charge cycle once a month which requires a good (read $150) charger but still takes some time. The life of the NiCad is reduced significantly with improper maintenance, but so far I would say it is worth it.
