This system has started only few months ago and is changing every weeks. The main goal is to achieve something very spectacular regarding sound, of course, but also regarding look and design integration to this downtown modern style loft. However, sound quality remain the ultimate goal.
Despite the high complexity of a 4-way system (and 5-way if we include the subwoofer) i was convinced that it would be possible to achieve something great with some work.. Well, a lot of work in fact.
Speakers and room acoustic is my primary concern at this moment. Simply because i believe that these two things are essential to obtain more than a good sounding system; something nothing less than spectacular.
The system is called ''Exploration'' because we are exploring ALL possibilities. Including professional audio for amplifiers and processors, DIY for preamplifiers and speakers and Car audio advanced R&D for the woofers/subwoofers part. It's a try-error-try-got-it project, so it takes time.
Will keep you updated with pictures and comments from time to time.
New DELTA series top of the line universal player.
Classe Audio CAM-400
Pair of monoblock solid-state amplifiers. Actually used in 1 ohm configuration @ about 1200 watts per channel. Rating @ 8 ohms is 400 watts.
Miova Prototype 1
Very ambitious 7' tall speakers weighting a little over 300 pounds each and using 5 drivers each side (4-way). Using ribbon tweeter, 10'' midbass, dome 3'' midrange and two high output 10'' woofers. Will probably be matched later with infrabass system tuned to cover below 30hz frequencies.
Sim Audio MOON P-7
New Evolution series Preamplifier.
Ayre C5xe CD player
Universal CD player from Ayre.
DEQX 2.6p
Electronic processor-crossover and preamp
Accustic Arts Drive 1 MK1
CD Transport made in Germany
Crown International I-TECH6000
Class H power amplifier with computer controlled DSP and features. 6000 watts at almost any impedance.
Firstly: only the speakers remain unchanged in this set-up. Classe and Ayre player are now sold, as well as Classe monoblocks. And the P-7 preamp is still offered for sale on this website.
The reason for this change is the new hearth of this system: DEQX 2.6p australian electronic crossover-processor and preamplifier.
Now, we only need CD transport with AES-EBU or RCA digital ouput to feed the internal DAC of the DEQX. And of course... Few amplifiers since it's an active set-up.
So far, the results are very positive regarding this processor. To be honest, we were skeptical at first. We were concerned about potential dynamics and transparency problems. But the benefits wins over the little loss regarding dynamics. Transparency is excellent, even compared to passive preamplifier (knowned to be very transparent). Internal DAC appear to be very good. Benefits of choosing any crossover slope from 6db per octave to 300db per octave for each driver is amazing. DSP EQ correction makes finally possible a perfect linear IN-ROOM frequency curve. Which gives a very good start.
Now, heres the fun part: i am actually testing different amplifiers for the woofer-midbass, midrange, and tweeter. All separetely. From Antique Sound Lab tube amp, Bel Canto class D, Classe solid state, OTL Atma-sphere tube, Gainclone, Pro audio amp, etc... It gives very interesting and unexpected results. Clearly, some are better for midrange and other for tweeters while some exceed for low frequencies. Because DEQX allow gain adjustement for each channel as well as different preamp output voltage, you can basically use ANY type of amplifier all mixed together and still get same SPL output and linearity.
To get the most out of it, a Real-time-Analyzer is mandatory. We are using an Audio Control SA-3051 with calibrated mic.
A Crown I-TECH6000 high-end pro audio amplifier is used on the four subwoofers at this moment. It will remain unchanged since this amp gives awesome results for what we need. The only annoying thing about it is the noisy fans. It cannot be modified so we will make a isolated enclosure.
More details and pictures soon, thanks for your interest!
