Bottlehead tube amps, biamped DIY Voxativ speakers

Description

Primarily a DIY effort. Tube amplification from Bottlehead and Heathkit. DIY open baffle speakers featuring Voxativ 1.6 full-range drivers. The signal goes out from the Bottlehead preamp into a Marchand crossover I built several years ago. Bottlehead 2A3s power the Voxativ drivers supplemented by Fostex super tweeters. The Voxativs are mounted on an open baffle that acts as a mechanical high pass filter at approximately 250 Hz. A pair of vintage Heathkit UA-2s drive the 15" Fostex woofers.

I recently added bass traps from Auralex and GIK Acoustics.These made a huge contribution to the clarity and detail of the system.

Components Toggle details

- Michell Engineering Gyro SE
Superb sound, a classic work of art
- Michell Engineering Technoarm
Rega 250 modified by Michell
- Shelter 501 Mk II
low output moving coil cartridge connected to a 15:1 step up transformer from Bob's Devices
- Lexicon RT-10
CD, SACD, universal format
- Bottlehead Eros Phono Stage
built from a Bottlehead kit in December 2014
- Botttlehead BeePre 300B Preamp
300B driver tubes and stepped attenuators. Supremely quiet and articulate.
- Marchand 2-way Crossover
Solid state, built from a kit. Crossover frequency of 250Hz.
- Bottlehead Paramour 2A3
Single ended, built from kit.
- Heathkit UA-2
Vintage EL-84 amplifiers from the 1960's, approximately 10 wpc. These drive high efficiency Fostex 15

Comments 11

Showing all comments by lewinskih01.

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Kpeoples,

Very nice system! Good to see that a 2A3 can drive the 1.6 from 250Hz and up. At what frequency do you cross over to the tweeter?

I'm also into DIY and OB, although my system is fully active and was wondering if a 2A3 could drive a midrange in OB. Obviously they can drive your Voxativs!

What kind of music do you listen to?

lewinskih01 November 08, 2020 12:00

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