Hello Albert,I think Gotins number is above in the 08-24-05 response,you sure do have a great system!Ray

raytheprinter September 04, 2005 03:02

Hello Doc (Gotin),

You didn't call me back but heard from Tom that you sent him a deposit for your your own custom Dali crossover. Please email or call me with progress report, I can't find your number.

albertporter September 04, 2005 01:08

Gotin, I enjoyed our phone time.

Let me know how it goes with Tom. I expect you will have at least a three month wait for completion of the custom tube crossover. From my experience it's worth both the cost and the wait.

albertporter August 25, 2005 16:06

Thanks Albert, for your quik respond ..my # is: 818 298 1200 or e-mail me yours to [email protected] ..thanks again, bobby

gotin August 24, 2005 20:15

Gotin, thank you for the support, it has been a long climb to get the system where I wanted it. The crossover was a joint venture between myself and Transition Audio. Tom reverse engineered the original Dali circuitry and then we decided what to do based on that.

My crossover has the ability to adjust bass EQ (equal and below the Dali original) and bass amplitude. Unlike the original Dali crossover, the high frequencies are unity gain.

I wrote a review of the Dali Megaline for PFO and posted it a couple of months ago. Now that the custom crossover has proven successful, I am writing part two.

Use the Audiogon server to email me and we can swap phone numbers. I will share whatever information and experience you desire, including contact info for Tom.

albertporter August 24, 2005 13:24

Hello Albert, would you be so kind to share some information about your Dali speaker's custom build crossover, because i have megaline too, and i'm curios what improvement i can get, and how i can order it... your set up is really state of the art..congratulations!!!

gotin August 23, 2005 18:11

Yes, the Dali Megaline is large, but Dali makes several smaller speakers for their homeland market in Denmark.

I heard a nice demo of the Dali Euphonia at the London HI Fi show. There was a large crowd of interested locals listening. Probably more the right size speaker for lots of people, including many American homes.

My home is very old and the style back then (1950's) was to have a large "family room."

Believe me, I looked at tens of dozens of homes before I found even one with this large a living room, even with the realtor warned that anything smaller would be ignored.

albertporter August 18, 2005 01:59

Nice system and thread, you kindly advised me on new drivers for my Viva amp. Hopefully they are on there way from Kevin at Upscale now.
Looking at your system makes me realise how different our interest is in Europe and the US. I have never seen a listening room like yours in the UK. As you know, our rooms are smaller and more likely, solid brick walled as opposed to the more usual timber walls in the US. Speakers in particular are so different for the 2 markets. It's not a new observation, but the way European and US speakers are voiced for their respective listening rooms, it seems suprising there is any penetration of each others markets. Certainly your speakers would be hard to imagine in our smaller rooms.
Thanks again for your advise

david12 August 17, 2005 10:52

Greetings Albert,
You've got mail.
Love your system! I'm a longtime fan of your system (and its changes) and posts. Just back on Agon after a hiatus and noted you've changed/added amps. I've just sent an email with a question. Cheers, T_bone

t_bone August 05, 2005 06:52

Gunbei, your welcome to come dine with us and spin a few tunes. Don't know if travel ever brings you this way but I am a willing host.

albertporter August 02, 2005 12:06

Hey Albert,

I hadn't checked your system in awhile and am seeing the new photos for the first time. They look great! You've got dinner, movies and concerts all in the same venue. Awesome!

Dean

gunbei August 01, 2005 16:20

Albert,

This is the way houses should be built..
Unfortunately my house has thin concrete slab, wood frame and briks outside. Which means a lot of constant mantainance. Newer houses are much worse.
Well. My house was picked by my ex-wife, as her last gift-of-debts before becoming ex. I`m restoring the house, for selling it. My dream is a big loft, real briks everywhere and no headaches. A big parking lot as backyard so I don`t need to cut grass anymore.

Anyway, since sound is important, I was able to save my rotel and my magnepans. Nothing fancy, but good enough to survive the hard times.

Thanks
Stefano

auro July 30, 2005 13:07

Auro, I honestly don't know the cost, it was all part of the reconstruction of the room, walls, foundation, electrical and acoustical treatment.

There was a lot of India Multicolor slate, I think 1000 to 1200 square feet so we could pick from two full pallet loads. There was a batch that was returned due to discoloration, poor grading or damage. My guess is we used about 880 square feet all together.

My home, including the listening room is pier and beam. Wishing to avoid springy floor problems and support the weight, we constructed upward from the concrete piers with steel plates (rather than traditional wood wedges) followed with impregnated beams (Lambeams), decked with pressure treated 2X6's and topped with dual layer of 5/8" locking floor panels.

The floor panels were sealed with a solution (with paint roller) and allowed to dry. Then 1" to 2" of concrete was floated on top before bedding the slate.

I will never forget the large pile of dry concrete and sand in the middle of my living room and my tile guy holding a garden hose spraying water and mixing with a shovel.

I would have never believed he could mix and spread it like he did, the guy was truly an old world craftsman. When he was finished, the concrete plus sand base was so smooth, it could have been the finished floor.

That's probably how my tile guy got the slate so perfect, start with a perfect base.

albertporter July 27, 2005 19:36

Wow !!! THis is going to cost me 30$ per square foot !!!
Amazing, how much did you pay for the floor ? how big it is ?
I`ve currently CARPET and I hate it.
Thanks
Auro

auro July 27, 2005 12:36

Thank you for the compliment Auro. When the space was rebuilt and acoustically treated my wife and I looked at many options for the floor. What you see is India Multi color slate, a stone product that is quarried and is available in several color styles and quality grades.

http://www.naturalstone-marble-granite-exporter.com/slate-tile-stone.html

http://www.ansiindia.com/slate-stones.html

Be sure you get a quality craftsman to install slate. The surfaces are naturally rough and thickness varies. The installer must bed each piece to exact height to get a smooth finish.

albertporter July 27, 2005 11:12

I would like to know the brand and model of the wonderful tiles of the livingroom.
I am renovating my space and I was looking for colors. Your place is awesome.

Thanks
stefano

auro July 26, 2005 22:39

Everyone says the magic is back, best sound ever. I surpassed every other speaker I have ever owned, including my super maxed out Sound lab Ultimates.

The soundstage is absolutely enormous, the distortion is non existent and the warmth and dynamics wash over you like water. Regardless of the material we played everyone was impressed.

It would be tough to put into words the difference between the stock crossover and the new tube job I had built. The Dali is in another league now and I am satisfied.

I still have several things to try, Sylvania mil spec tubes in the crossover, four Air Tight ATM-3 with all Mullards and Rel subs or maybe four VTL 750 with 6550 on bass and KT 88 on ribbons.

I have guys in my audio group with this gear. Just need time to test.

albertporter July 20, 2005 00:12

.
Albert,
.
It would be nice to hear the report card the crossover gets from your group tonight.
.
Rgds,
Larry
.

cello July 19, 2005 20:50

Dgad, thank you. Each day is a new experience as the new crossover breaks in. I have connected it directly to my CD player and run Purist and Ayre break in discs continuously for the last couple of days. Amazing how long new gear takes settle in.

Tonight is music night with my usual crowd, so we'll see what everyone thinks.

albertporter July 19, 2005 15:44

Congrats on your new crossover. It shows how the audio world requires patience, in many cases years of it, to reach the desired end.

dgad July 17, 2005 17:05

I hear ya Albert....Yup I can still hear the voices in my head...COOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

chadnliz June 30, 2005 22:31

A voice of reason. Thanks.

macdadtexas June 30, 2005 21:10

Thank you Larry, wish you could hear them now, quite an upgrade and they were not bad when you were here :^).

Pat, alias: "Part That Holds The Wheel On." With less than six hours on the new crossover the dynamics with the Walker are (maybe) 75% of what we heard with my best tape. My best tape had the obvious advantage of being the ORIGINAL safety, having only touched the heads of the tube Ampex machine that mastered it and the artist plugged into it.

Pretty rough on a turntable (ANY turntable) trying to keep up with an original. The regular prerecorded tapes on the old crossover are easily defeated in every way by the Walker and with the new crossover these tapes take on a whole new dimension.

Jafox, thanks for the vote of confidence. Unfortunately my reason for building the crossover was thinking the Dali was at it's maximum (according to the designer via email), so I started the crossover project (now it's been 6 months !) to "save" the Dali's.

As mentioned in my post above, when the crossover finally arrived I was so happy with the Dali's I was almost not excited to put the new crossover in the system. Of course I did and now I am happy things worked out the way they did. You never realize what's possible until better comes along, and boy is the new crossover better!

Macdadtexas, looks like a home theater discussion at that link. My system is basically two channel with Vandy dialogue and B&W rears. Enough HT effects to make a DVD sound track move around as an add on to my front channels.

I see lots of suggestions there, including an all Maggie system. I would probably love that all Maggie rig and the Vandy 5 rig mentioned, the Klipsch and some other brands mentioned are a bit rough for my needs but who knows what that guy is looking for? Special effects are better for some people when they tear your head off. Me, I'm just looking for enough low distortion "fun" effects to keep the movie amusing.

In my opinion there is no such thing as ultra high end home theater. Sure you can spend the dollars, but in the end, your reproducing celery hitting a wood block or cars exploding.

Even If a high end HT system were capable of accurately reproducing a real explosion, I would not want to be in the room with it. I need to save my hearing for the music I love.

albertporter June 30, 2005 19:11

I hate to get you into this, but go to this discussion if you would and give an opinion. Thanks.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?bhome&1119895290

macdadtexas June 30, 2005 14:23

Albert, how wonderful to hear your suspicions were right on to have the tubed crossover developed.

jafox June 30, 2005 11:31