Cymbop,  Thanks so much!  The system is capable of pure bliss, but I have not quite gotten things totally right just yet.  I have found the Super Victories to be no small challenge in terms of getting them to integrate well into the room.  As I reported in a recent post, the speakers have been moved to the short wall on either side of the window.  They work much, much better there, but now of course early reflections are more of a problem.   I began the process of using room treatments to level the frequency response, reduce low frequency ringing, and cancel early reflections.  I've had the room set up in such a way that I have had the best 3 dimensional imaging I have ever had, but this at the expense of having some pretty deep nulls to the point where certain notes just drop out.  And in the midst of all of this work, I had my 2nd set of Elrog 300b's go out, which broke my heart.  They are superb tubes.  Nevertheless, I persist, and I will find a way to make these speakers work in this room.  By the way, the Super Victory IIs have 92.5 dB efficiency, which means the Frankensteins  work a bit to drive them.  The Coincident Dragons, or perhaps an Atmosphere M-60, might be better choices with these speakers.

brownsfan February 01, 2017 13:52

bdp, the paint is a custom color I had made at Sherwin Williams.  Look at my post below from Oct 3, 2015.  If you take that formula for an S-W store they can produce the exact color.

brownsfan January 30, 2017 15:54

bdp,  Thanks.  I really like this color for the room.  I like the way it looks during the day, and I also like the dark color at night when I typically listen with very low lighting.  I've got two floor lamps, and usually have one of them turned on. One 25W bulb for the room gives a nice soft lighting.  BTW,  I've been in the process of installing room treatments and changing from the long wall configuration you see pictured to a more traditional short wall configuration.  The long wall configuration worked pretty well when I had the Coincident Triumph Extreme II monitors in there, but has proven tricky getting the Super Victory IIs to sound good in this room.  Changing to the short wall configuration proved mandatory.  I've added about 5 bass traps from RealTraps and GIK Acoustics so far.  The standard gray color from the two companies is a close match, and looks very good in the room with the green walls.  I suspect when I get done, the room may not look quite as good as before, but it sure does sound a lot better.  Treating this room has been a fascinating project.

brownsfan January 29, 2017 23:54

Judomaniak, Sorry, I did not see your post.  With respect to the ModWright gear,  I had the Sony 5400ES sacd player for a year before I sent it for modification.  When it came back, I was just stunned at how much better this already good player was.  Blackest background I had ever heard from a source.  Better resolution too.  Also, for what ever reason, the modification really seemed to close the gap between rbcd and sacd.  They both improved, but the redbook improved so much that I no longer sought sacd exclusively.  The HAPZ1 was a whole 'nother beast.  The stock Sony HAPZ1 was already on a level with the ModWright 5400ES.  I sent the HAPZ1 for mods after having it for just a few weeks.  When it came back it outclassed the sacd player to the point where I rarely used it.  I got a nice offer on it last Summer and it is now gone.   Dan Wright is now doing mods on the Marantz player, and claims it is just superb.  So that would be the way to go if you want a player.  If you want a server that can  stream, the Sony is your ticket.

brownsfan January 26, 2017 22:27

Charles, the only way up for you is the PRE, in my estimation. The acutron tweeter is special. I have not heard the Total Victorys, but based on my experience with the SVIIs so far, I don't think the performance improvement with the ribbons over the scanspeaks is huge. I also think the sloped baffle in the TEIIs, SVIIs, and PREs is pretty important.

I would also like to hear Mr. Blume's comments on the ribbon vs scanspeak. He clearly knows what he is doing, but he is a man of few words, at least with me.

brownsfan October 13, 2015 19:10

Charles,
A preliminary comment on the ribbons based on not having the speaker positioning dialed in, as judged by my 62 year old ears. I would say that the coincident ribbons do not match the wonderful Maggie ribbons in my old 3.7Rs. That is a very high bar, and remains my personal benchmark for tweeters. The sweetness, purity, and extension in those ribbons is just wonderful. The scanspeak domes in my TEIIs are different from the ribbons in the SVIIs. With respect to coherence, I personally prefer the scanspeaks, which integrate extremely well with the midrange driver. While coherence in the SVIIs is very good, it is not up to the level one hears in the TEIIs or PREs. I can't say these ears detect an improvement in air or extension with the SVIIs over the TEIIs.
I think where the SVIIs show their strength is in reproduction of the low frequencies. I began to shore up the TEIIs with a couple of REL subwoofers, and despite the fact that they really can't be expected to integrate well with the TEs, once one becomes accustomed to hearing the bottom octaves, you really can't go back. The TEIIs and SVIIs are both excellent speakers, but the SVIIs should not be thought of as TEIIs with bass. They are different animals.

brownsfan October 13, 2015 14:16

Charles, I think my TEIIs use the Scanspeak soft dome, and yes, the ribbon in the Super Victory II is different from both the scanspeak and also from the wonderful ribbons in my Magnepan 3.7s. The Maggie
ribbons were capable of a sweetness that is tough to match, much less beat. I can't say the ribbons in the Super victory IIs match the Maggie ribbons. Do they better the scanspeak soft domes? I'm not sure they do. I will not know for sure until I get the speaker location nailed, at which point I can bring my TEIIs back upstairs for an A/B.

brownsfan October 12, 2015 23:48

Charles,
Everytime I try to dial in the speaker positioning I get drawn into the music and just listen. That is a good thing, but it is frustrating when I loose my focus for 45 minutes and havent moved toward the goal. However, as you have pointed out, getting drawn into the music and forgetting everything else is the point. More later.

brownsfan October 12, 2015 16:08

I have received the additional Canadian Westinghouse VU 71 (5U4G) tubes, and now have them in my Coincident Frankensteins and both ModWright power supplies. These are wonderful rectifiers, but nearly impossible to locate. In the Modwright Power supplies (both the PS9.0 and the PS 9.9) it is immediately obvious that these tubes are superior to every other tube I have tried, including Blackburn Mullard GZ34 and Blackburn Mullard CV387 skinny bottles. There is a complexity and sophistication in the upper harmonics that is uncanny. The top end is extended with lots of air, but it is also smooth as silk. Lower registers are strong and well defined. I also found that for the first time, I liked the PS 9.9 more than the PS 9.0 as the supply for the Sony HAPZ1. The 9.9 with the VU-71 was more resolving and dynamic than the 9.0. It will be very interesting to see how the fat bottle Mullard compares in these two supplies.

I have ordered a Mullard High Wycome fat bottle CV387 to evaluate in the PS 9.9 and 9.0.

I want to do a bit more A/B on the difference between the Vu-71s and the Skinny bottle CV387s in the Franks.

brownsfan October 12, 2015 11:26

Bdp, as promised, the paint recipe.

Colorant.........OZ..32..64..128
B1 black..........--....45...--.......1
G2 new green.--......5....--.......1
N1 raw umber.--....21...1.......1
Y3 deep gold.--......56...--......--

Sherwin Williams I used the top of the line interior in satin, but I would advise matte. The coverage,levelers, and resistance to running, dipping, and splattering are superb. Best paint I have ever used. Made in Cleveland, not Pittsburgh. Audiophile approved!

brownsfan October 03, 2015 17:45

Al, right, front wall is what I meant. Retirement tip. Watch out for volunteer work. It is a temporal black hole. It has been a hard day. At any rate, I will chew on the info you provided. I do have a dB meter and stereophile test disc, so I can get a feel for pronounced spikes or dips in frequency response. I should give that a try. When you say in the vicinity of 94 Hz, I take it that the dip would not correspond to a discrete frequency, but the dip would be a band of some width centered around that frequency. Correct?

brownsfan October 02, 2015 21:27

Timrhu, thanks so much! I am shocked I got my wife to move, but the house is much nicer and she decided she liked eastern Tennessee, (plus she got to retire early) so the pot was sweet enough that she went for it. As far as room treatments, I may get to that eventually, but I don't really perceive any issues with the current long wall set up. I think the reduction in 90 degree angles due to the bevels at the ceiling/wall, plus the CD racks angled into the back wall corners help. Interestingly, the short wall arrangement was really bad. There was a huge mid base emphasis. It would have taken extensive treatment to get that to work.

brownsfan October 02, 2015 19:33

Brf and Al, The polarity is correct on my speakers. No issues there. Thanks for the tip on the sliders. Why didn't I think of that? I got by ok with a piece of plywood under the speakers, but I will give the sliders a try. And now that everything is more or less together, I will be playing around with positioning. Anyone got a good protocol? It is a 3 variable deal, distance from wall, distance between speakers, and toe-in-- This was easier with my other room where there was little flexibility. I'm thinking maybe distance between speakers could be optimized first, followed by distance from back wall, followed by toe in?

brownsfan October 02, 2015 19:27

Charles, tonality on both speakers is dead on. Differences are in the area of speed, resolution, and coherence. There may also be differences in staging, but I am going to need a lot more time to tweak placement before drawing firm conclusion.

brownsfan October 01, 2015 23:17

Al, Charles, Mapman and all. I got a couple of hours of listening in with the woofers pointed out instead of in. I listened to a couple of tracks from Appalachian Journey, including a track where Alison Krauss is accompanied by YoYo Ma et.al. I love this music, and I have never heard it sound more delicate and sweet. Not a huge difference, but a noticeable one. This may be a consequence of the reduction in radiated sound towards the tubes, or it could be a consequence of additional burn in on one rather new tube. Regardless of the cause, this was a most welcome refinement. Next up was a Dvorak string quartet by the Vogler quartet on CPO. This is the best quartet recording I own with respect to spacial differentiation of the first and second violins, and yes, this differentiation was quite evident. I noticed that the lower notes from the cello were a little fuzzy, which I have not noticed previously. However, all 4 instruments were well localized spatially. Finally, I listened to Babi Yar, which contains a lot of low strings, typmani, bass drums etc. I was struck by the depth of stage. Layout of the orchestra (2nd violins to the right, double basses in back, percussion in back) was very evident. Here is where I noticed improved coherence of the woofer predicted by Charles. Whereas in the past, strong low frequency information was easily localized spatially as coming from one or the other woofer, now these instruments were reproduced in their correct spatial location in the sound stage. Therefore, my awareness of the woofer as a separate and distinct driver was eliminated. All in all, I think the outward firing woofer arrangement is going to be the way to go. I will do some more tweaking of toe in and space between the speakers. I may put off further refinement until I receive one more tube that is coming in and get some more burn in time. Once I finished getting placement dialed in, I will revisit comparison of the SVIIs with the TEIIs. That will be an interesting exercise. The TEIIs are mini PREs. The SVIIs are a different animal. How is that for a teaser?

brownsfan October 01, 2015 21:53

Mapman, I assume you are alluding to the potential for vibrations resulting from the inward firing woofers. I certainly agree with your observation. I did not get my Mapleshade rack down here until the end of July, up until which time my equipment was sitting on the floor. When I got everything up on the rack it made a HUGE difference. Because I am using long wall orientation, pulling the speakers forward toward the listening position enough to get the equipment out of the path of radiation from the woofer isn't possible. So outward firing is in principal the way to go in my room. We will see how things sound later today.

brownsfan October 01, 2015 17:15

Al, the front baffle is flat in the right to left plane. So there is nothing preventing the outward facing arrangement from being a viable option. I have moved the speakers, but it will be later in the day before I can begin an evaluation. If I can make this work, it is going to be a better arrangement than the inward firing arrangement.

brownsfan October 01, 2015 17:09

Erndog and Charles, improved coherence would be welcome. In their current position, the SEIIs do not share the uncanny coherence I have enjoyed from the TEIIs. I should be able to get some boards under the speakers today and get them moved.
I have noticed the Israel uses inward firing as have some others I have known who have side firing woofers.

brownsfan October 01, 2015 10:58

The speakers reside in the exact location my son and I first positioned them before he returned to school in August. They are 125 lbs each, and have spikes, so I will have to get them up on something that will slide which I intend to do over the next couple of days. Its raining, so I won't be hiking. I do want to try them with the woofers firing out. Since I am using a long wall configuration, they are already closer than normal to the listening position. If I move the speakers closer together, I can move the Franks to the outside of the speakers if I find I like the inward firing arrangement better than firing outward.

I also found a stash of strong VU-71 Canadian Westinghouse rectifiers, which are now on the way from Great Brittan. These tubes are better than the Mullard skinny bottle CV378s in my ModWright Power supplies. I am thinking about bringing in one fat bottle CV378 to compare with the VU-71.

brownsfan October 01, 2015 01:16

Charles, thanks. Once I get the positioning dialed in, I will do some more extensive writing on the TEIIs vs the SVIIs.

brownsfan September 30, 2015 18:51

AL, indeed and I have had the same thought. I need to get the speakers up on a piece of plywood so I can slide them around. So far, I haven't noticed any microphonics, but the current positioning is asking for trouble. I haven't tried the woofers facing outward yet.

brownsfan September 30, 2015 18:48

Thaluza, once I get the SVIIs dialed in a bit more I will post some detailed impressions. At a high level, I was surprised at how different they are from both my Triumph Extreme IIs, which I use in my downstairs system, and the PREs, which I had the opportunity to audition. They are great speakers and do mate well with the Frank's, though one should not discount the lower efficiency. 92.5 dB is probably borderline with the Frank's in some rooms. My long wall arrangement puts the listening position close to the speakers, and the room is not overly large. The room is roughly 22 x 16, with some reduction in ceiling height along the long walls. In a different room, the Dragons or the Turbo may be a better choice.

brownsfan September 30, 2015 10:03

Bpt, the wall color is a custom blend I had made at the local Sherwin Williams. Give me a couple days and I will pm you the pigment blend. It took three tries to get the look I wanted. It also looks really good in dim light and goes well with the gold and rosewood, as well as the white ceiling and trim.

brownsfan September 29, 2015 23:54