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
using a lot of Intact Audio iron, inter-stage transformers, output transformers, and power
supply chokes.
SP14 Tubes4hifi preamp heavily modified
LinLai 6SN7, oil/film caps for power supply, removed B+ regulator, Slagleformer on output for volume, etc.
Garrard 301
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.
MinusK DM75-8
Moerch DP8 with Miyajima Infinity mono
Kuzma 4 point 14 with Audio Note IO Gold
EMIA LR phono corrector with silver 1:60 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
I got the 14'x17'x8' dimensions from your post here on 10-18-08. Didn't realize you had relocated. Could you please tell me the name and location of the business you used to recone your 225? I have not had any luck finding someone reliable and the time is coming when I will have to deal with surround/come replacement.
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.
Duo owner here. Am I correct in that you have a pair of 225's deployed on top of the left hand bass horn? Is there another pair at play somewhere I can't see?And how did you arrive at the chosen positioning for the pair I do see? Can't believe you've got all of THAT fitted in a 14' X 17' X 8' space.
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.
hi herman, with my test I could hear the effect of placing a digital filter where there was no filter at all and therefor could hear what exactly this filter does. really bad is probably exagerated a bit but one could easily hear the negative effects of such a filter. in your case you replaced an analog filter with a digital one. thats very different. analog filter also got a lot of problems. ones I replaced the stock mundorf silver/gold caps in my tweeter xo with teflon v-caps. it is shocking to hear how much music get lost in these highly regarded mundorfs. so if you have lets say an average quality analog xo and replace it with a digital one you may very well gain sonic benefits. duomike
Hi Herman- very BIG system, and ambitious DIY work. Would love to hear a real bass horn like yours, some day. JJ has been lending support in my design of a much less ambitious bass horn. Keep swingin' for the fences!
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..
I'm using a tact millenium to drive my duos. the tact hast got a sub out which drives via another amp my corner subs. I use xo and eq in the bass channel only. I could use eq on the mid and high also (the millenium can be hooked up via a cable to a computer) and I can change settings like adding a filter almost on the fly when listening to music per mouse click. once 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. in this case I did not exchange an analog xo for a digital one but I just added a digital one per mouse click way below the duos mid horn cut off. this enabled me to hear the effects of digital eq. also my amp is flat into 6 ohms. at the duos 16 ohm it sounds too bright. could use the tone control function to cut highs by a db at 20 khz. again this works but even just changing the response slightly is adding quite a bit of digital nasties.. solved the problem by putting a 10 ohm power resistor across my amps binding post so that my amp "sees" roughly a 6 ohm load. not an elegant solution but it sounds a lot better then using even a very small amount of digital eq. just some food for thought
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.
would like to comment re crossover. using ag omega duos with lyngdorf corner subs. digital xo has got it's own sonic problems. it's adding quite a bit of what I call digital nasties to the sound. analog xo of course is also far away from being transparent. I replaced the mundorf silver gold in my tweeter xo a few years back with teflon v-caps. the difference is amazing! herman, if you are using an amp for every channel use xo at the input of each amp, use highest quality parts only. this will sound a lot better than digital xo IMHO regards Duomike
I love your 6-channel amp concept. What is the active crossover you are using? Reading back I found the elimination of the passive crossover but not what actually replaced it (unless I did not realize that you are running it through Pure Vinyl).
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.
Hi Herman - more and more friends are also switching to SS amps, looks like tubes are starting to sound more like SS as well as the other side around :)
Wow. I love your approach of digital crossover + triamping + no crossover between amps and drivers. If I were to redesign my system from the ground up, and I could afford it, I would do exactly the same thing. It must sound incredible.
I am guessing your passive xover lacked time-alignment? With bass horns of your size I would guess that issue alone would put the digital XO firmly in the lead.
That said, nothing at all wrong with the digital soln! I am doing it too! I guess there is some part of me that still isn't quite on-board yet.
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.