95 replies to this topic

[m.oreilly]

holy mackerel! an odd thing happened on the way to updating my daily audio...tubes, or for the wide wide world, 'valves':
big bang boom, and again, holy mackerel!
i remember 'records', and 'albums', i.e., vinyl discs that are tracked via a mechanical servo-ish 'cartridge' needle thingie.

i have hated (really endured)the audio i have gotten through digitized run-o-the mill computer stuffs for some time (yes, that neat pci card did have burr brown replaceable nodules, but no pci in sight on the newer boards to poke a stick at...)...
so, using my simple tc-7510 dac (mobo optical port out to dac, dac to ss self powered nearfields) i got some ok sounds, but put a yaqin tube phono/preamp stage (ms-12B) in the chain...even dog butt youtube audio sounds like god gave in and allowed you to hear unfettered HD audio on any crap video you watch. and it gets better...after a short 'burn in' time, all audio put through this tube device sounds like a billion bucks.

ok,so this got me to thinking...tubes...what if i got a tube power amp? found a yaqin mc-10L from a canadian dealer known for delivering the total tube iron goodness...oh man i am jiggy on this! i love my powered genelecs, but the prospect of a total tube audio circuit and reusing my old klipsch@ 94db@1meter is awesome. the feckin tube pre makes youtube sound like a billion bucks as it is...i want to see some coke bottle power light up and deliver the total analog goods!

[Nvyseal]

geez MO, you speak'in CAJUN now?

[scaramonga]

Nvyseal, on 02 June 2013 - 07:44 PM, said:

geez MO, you speak'in CAJUN now?

He will never hear you over they audio tubes

[m.oreilly]

lol!!! decided i'd have to build my own high/mid boxes to go with the sub. drivers get here tomorrow. i 're-purposed' the klipsch boxes by making a new baffles for silver flute 6.5" mid bass and morel 1.5" dome tweeters (the silver flute drivers get some super press for the price, and are in monitors costing upwards of $3000 each...lol). i can see some time consuming fiddling coming up this weekend...

[m.oreilly]

i guess i did ok, as the new speakers sound way more detailed than i thought they would. thinking now of using my bass power amp (800watts rms @8oms per channel)and an eminence LAB 12" sub or two for the bottom end...

[m.oreilly]

well lol. i blew up one of the silvers before they got burned in, so brought in an old pair of klipsch floor standers i had in storage...don't need a sub after all, as these things are so efficient. rolled the driver/power tubes with soviet mill' spec: big sonic quality difference! this amp can be overclocked, and i'm doing it atm!!!!

[m.oreilly]

after re damping the klipsch,and enjoying them, they are just too big for my present desktop location, so i re damped my home made...they now sound awesome, so despite a little increase in volume to make up for the less than 94db response of the towers, i have a very percussive set of home made that are quite nice...
yes, i went against my personal ban of using fiberglass, but it is the perfect damping material for audio diy, and for a decent price. all the other options seem like snake oil/hit and miss...

[m.oreilly]

well, back to the speaker drawing board:
i'm sure my crossovers are not really tuned to the drivers i'm using, so i have to either become savvy re schematics, or do this:

http://www.hometheat...p-mod-list.html

the 2030p speakers are on their way, and i also ordered a sheet of rockwool as per one of the main tweaks. these speakers are designed around a genelec (a sound i have come to accept as 'flat'), so supposedly with these few mods i'll have bigger versions of my beloved genelec 8020A. we'll see...

[m.oreilly]

did the 'leak' mods, waiting on the rockwool ...stuffed the boxes w/3" of r-13 pink:wow...am i hearing a 'big' genelec for dirt cheap?

[m.oreilly]

after removing the drivers and basically filling the boxes w/rockwool, i had to (literally) 'carve' (with a knife, it's so dense) out areas for the drivers to fit back in. i thought this would be a total fail, as the density of the material installed seemed like it would change the internal volume...
i can't believe they sound this good after this 'treatment'. i'm now thinking about picking up the larger versions and giving them this same 'treatment'. these speakers are such a bargain, even after all these years. a true hidden gem in the rough.

[m.oreilly]

link re behringer passive studio monitors:

http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/B000N94S7O

http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/B000LQ2ABK

[m.oreilly]

oh god...the audio engineer that came up with these speaker mods...he died at a tender age, from a heart attack! 35? OMG!!!

[m.oreilly]

i know scara is a tannoy fan (really, who would not be ), so i'm looking at their very affordable passive studio entry monitor as another diamond waiting to be un-roughed...

[m.oreilly]

http://www.sweetwate...CFZFcQgodInEAWQ

[m.oreilly]

i wish i could have told that kid how good his mod idea was. these cheap speakers are way above and beyond.
i am hearing things i hadn't before. soundstage is beyond expectations...thank you!