I own pair of Acoustat Model six and believe they use two different panels, 4 wide ones and 2 narrow ones for each side.
I cleaned all the panels approx. 6 -8 months ago and never had any issues at all. Just wondering if anybody has some spare panels for sale so I can keep a few in stock just in case.
I cleaned all the panels approx. 6 -8 months ago and never had any issues at all. Just wondering if anybody has some spare panels for sale so I can keep a few in stock just in case.
Hi when saying that you cleaned all the panels do you mean ( washed them ) like in the photo or just with a vacuum cleaner?????
I did not dip them into bath tub, instead I used cotton buds with methylated spirits to clean all the wires and little cells. I did not touch the surface of the Mylar film.
I also use the special glue to bund the loose wires back to places and re tension all the panels with a heat gun.
it turned out with good results..
I also use the special glue to bund the loose wires back to places and re tension all the panels with a heat gun.
it turned out with good results..
Steve
I have been using model ones on their sides after modifying them so the panel is in the centre of the frame as they fit nicely under the 50-65 inch plasmas.
I have just started using a 1+1 as the centre under my 105" projection screen ..great results
To audioboat,
I tried to glue some loose wires of one pannel with a cyanocrylate (superglue). The result is dispointing, because the wires are not correctly in contact with the stator => So they touch the diaphragm when it moves. The noise is barely audible but i'm not -of course- satisfied.
Did you find a trick to tighten the wires against the stator ?
... As the pannel is now damaged, I'm going to cut some of the vertical louvers, then I can access more easily to the wire and tighten then with a small plier...
Mathieu
I tried to glue some loose wires of one pannel with a cyanocrylate (superglue). The result is dispointing, because the wires are not correctly in contact with the stator => So they touch the diaphragm when it moves. The noise is barely audible but i'm not -of course- satisfied.
Did you find a trick to tighten the wires against the stator ?
... As the pannel is now damaged, I'm going to cut some of the vertical louvers, then I can access more easily to the wire and tighten then with a small plier...
Mathieu
I used the glue purchased here;
Revell 30G Contacta Special Universal Liquidglue | eBay
I also used some short tined copper wire (0.6mm dia) and made a small hook to pull the wire towards me. I then bend the wire downwards and left there for overnight.
first listen after Specra 22 interfaces refurbished
Finally got around to putting the Spectra 22's back together and giving them a listen after I had the transformers rebuilt which is detailed here.....
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/plan...urbishing-acoustat-2123-interface-have-s.html
The first night (after the transformers had charged about twelve hours) was with the Threshold s/300 (300 @ 4 ohm) and the Acurus RL11 pre. Right off the bat I could hear content from around 2K and up was more forward.....perhaps almost to a fault. It wasn't distorted or grainy, but seemingly imbalanced compared to the mid range and upper bass (LF not qualified since I'm using a pair of subwoofers with DRC). Hi-hats and cymbals had wonderful clarity, but they seemed to lack body (as that will come from the overtones that reside lower in the spectral range). Drums had no real weight or tactile presence and were short on tone and attack....especially larger, lower pitched toms...and compared to the JBL L250's or Altec 19's I've been listening to seemed to be at a lower output level in the recording compared to all other content. Vocals were actually pretty good, if not a little lean. Electric guitar seemed weak as well, but acoustic guitar was actually pretty nice. Detail and retrieval of information was quite good, but there just wasn't much meat on the bones. The overwhelming sensation was that upper bass and mid range seemed rather thin. I decided to try my TAD-150 tube preamp and it wasn't really any better, just different...if not a bit warmer. I didn't bother pushing the volume much as I based on everything else I was hearing I very seriously doubted that would improve anything. End round one.
So last night I decided to try the TAD-60 amplifier with the KT-88's which is 60 wpc switched to ultralinear, a little less if run in triode. Before the interfaces were refurbished this is the amp that made the 22's sing....and with that left me scratching my head. Neither the high current, 300wpc Threshold S/300 or similarly high current, 400 wpc Aragon 8008 could get the sort of sounds from the 22's that the 60 wpc TAD tube amp could. I couldn't get things very loud with the TAD before saturation and distortion developed, but up to about 85-90db there was definite potential there....certainly, all the deficiencies I cited above didn't exist. I shared those findings on discussion forums and got lots of different explanations. I personally felt like it was probably something to do with the interface units and had faith a rebuild/refurb would enable the SS amps to come to the fore. Well, that didn't really happen so I was very curious (and hopeful) to see what the tube amp would do. I started with the amp switched to UL first and, well, I wasn't too impressed. I played with feedback and as I added some (it's adjustable on the amp) the sound became less strident and better balanced. It still wasn't doing much for me, so I switched to the amp to triode. This lowered the output but it also improved SQ. With a good bit of feedback dialed in the 22's were sounding better than they did with Threshold the night before but still weren't delivering any sort of magic. If the recorded content was more on the rock side with loud-ish guitar and drums the speakers lost composure...detail, resolution and separation of instruments got blurred in distortion...as you started to listen at levels that were appropriate for the type of music (not loud, but certainly not low level listening). If it was a more acoustic type piece or ballad it sounded quite good. But the next thing that happened was an interesting turn. I listened to Chris Issak's "In the Heat of the Jungle" which is dominated by a tribal drum pattern played on toms. There are little bursts of dynamics throughout the song with some electric hollow body guitar and different percussive effects as well as vocals, but by and large it's rather sparse with the drums largely dominating the recording. It was actually sounding very good so I pushed the volume up a good bit and this really woke the Spectras up. The drums were just amazing....lots of physicality and tactile presence, bit tone, aggressive attack and a very impressive component of realism. When the other instruments came in the reproduction just barely started to lose composure and stayed pretty well controlled. I had no idea what made that song the exception, except maybe it just didn't ask the speakers to do too much at once, but sure enough any other rock type recording with a lot more going on (in terms of instruments in the recording) played at that type of level (probably peaking over 90 db) sent the 22's back to where they were struggling and falling. I thought about going back to the Acurus pre but it was late and I had my doubts.
So now I've heard (some of) what they are capable of doing and I detect greater potential than ever before. My gut feeling is that amplification is the issue. I don't have access to a bigger tube amp, but could probably get my hands on bigger SS amplification. The first thing I did this morning was see if there were any of the Acoustat TNT 200's out there for sale (or one of the TransNova Haflers that were based on that design). Or maybe I'm just expecting too much from the Spectra 22's???? I don't know....there are too many of you out there who rave about them who I suspect have a good bit of exposure to some pretty capable speakers. Ugh...the struggle continues. Comments very much welcomed.
- Michael
Finally got around to putting the Spectra 22's back together and giving them a listen after I had the transformers rebuilt which is detailed here.....
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/plan...urbishing-acoustat-2123-interface-have-s.html
The first night (after the transformers had charged about twelve hours) was with the Threshold s/300 (300 @ 4 ohm) and the Acurus RL11 pre. Right off the bat I could hear content from around 2K and up was more forward.....perhaps almost to a fault. It wasn't distorted or grainy, but seemingly imbalanced compared to the mid range and upper bass (LF not qualified since I'm using a pair of subwoofers with DRC). Hi-hats and cymbals had wonderful clarity, but they seemed to lack body (as that will come from the overtones that reside lower in the spectral range). Drums had no real weight or tactile presence and were short on tone and attack....especially larger, lower pitched toms...and compared to the JBL L250's or Altec 19's I've been listening to seemed to be at a lower output level in the recording compared to all other content. Vocals were actually pretty good, if not a little lean. Electric guitar seemed weak as well, but acoustic guitar was actually pretty nice. Detail and retrieval of information was quite good, but there just wasn't much meat on the bones. The overwhelming sensation was that upper bass and mid range seemed rather thin. I decided to try my TAD-150 tube preamp and it wasn't really any better, just different...if not a bit warmer. I didn't bother pushing the volume much as I based on everything else I was hearing I very seriously doubted that would improve anything. End round one.
So last night I decided to try the TAD-60 amplifier with the KT-88's which is 60 wpc switched to ultralinear, a little less if run in triode. Before the interfaces were refurbished this is the amp that made the 22's sing....and with that left me scratching my head. Neither the high current, 300wpc Threshold S/300 or similarly high current, 400 wpc Aragon 8008 could get the sort of sounds from the 22's that the 60 wpc TAD tube amp could. I couldn't get things very loud with the TAD before saturation and distortion developed, but up to about 85-90db there was definite potential there....certainly, all the deficiencies I cited above didn't exist. I shared those findings on discussion forums and got lots of different explanations. I personally felt like it was probably something to do with the interface units and had faith a rebuild/refurb would enable the SS amps to come to the fore. Well, that didn't really happen so I was very curious (and hopeful) to see what the tube amp would do. I started with the amp switched to UL first and, well, I wasn't too impressed. I played with feedback and as I added some (it's adjustable on the amp) the sound became less strident and better balanced. It still wasn't doing much for me, so I switched to the amp to triode. This lowered the output but it also improved SQ. With a good bit of feedback dialed in the 22's were sounding better than they did with Threshold the night before but still weren't delivering any sort of magic. If the recorded content was more on the rock side with loud-ish guitar and drums the speakers lost composure...detail, resolution and separation of instruments got blurred in distortion...as you started to listen at levels that were appropriate for the type of music (not loud, but certainly not low level listening). If it was a more acoustic type piece or ballad it sounded quite good. But the next thing that happened was an interesting turn. I listened to Chris Issak's "In the Heat of the Jungle" which is dominated by a tribal drum pattern played on toms. There are little bursts of dynamics throughout the song with some electric hollow body guitar and different percussive effects as well as vocals, but by and large it's rather sparse with the drums largely dominating the recording. It was actually sounding very good so I pushed the volume up a good bit and this really woke the Spectras up. The drums were just amazing....lots of physicality and tactile presence, bit tone, aggressive attack and a very impressive component of realism. When the other instruments came in the reproduction just barely started to lose composure and stayed pretty well controlled. I had no idea what made that song the exception, except maybe it just didn't ask the speakers to do too much at once, but sure enough any other rock type recording with a lot more going on (in terms of instruments in the recording) played at that type of level (probably peaking over 90 db) sent the 22's back to where they were struggling and falling. I thought about going back to the Acurus pre but it was late and I had my doubts.
So now I've heard (some of) what they are capable of doing and I detect greater potential than ever before. My gut feeling is that amplification is the issue. I don't have access to a bigger tube amp, but could probably get my hands on bigger SS amplification. The first thing I did this morning was see if there were any of the Acoustat TNT 200's out there for sale (or one of the TransNova Haflers that were based on that design). Or maybe I'm just expecting too much from the Spectra 22's???? I don't know....there are too many of you out there who rave about them who I suspect have a good bit of exposure to some pretty capable speakers. Ugh...the struggle continues. Comments very much welcomed.
- Michael
If you want bass output do yourself a favor and try this one.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
If you want bass output do yourself a favor and try this one.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Being a drummer, that looks like something worth my while!
What I really want from the Spectras is for the entire mid range to show some real balls. LF reproduction is taken care of (with the subs), but what I'm hearing from the Spectras + subs is comparable to a person with the legs of a full back but the upper body of a long distance runner. I want a mid range that moves through you....like I get from my Altec 19's, JBL L250's and Infinity QLS-1's. A recording like that suggested percussion ensemble played through any of the three speakers I just mentioned would have you reflex blinking from the percussive punches. I heard the Acoustats show some of that potential last night. I want it without the rest of the midrange collapsing when the music gets more complex. Can they even do it? I get the impression from others they can. It's driving me nuts that I can't coax it out of them.
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What i can tell you is that i love ALL Acoustats BUT the double stacked 8 foot tall models are very very special i have been around them for over 30 years and proud owner on and off for 30 years audio as been my ONLY hobby since i have been married 45 years YES i lost 15 years playing around with boxes but since 1984 it's been Acoustats and NOTHING else 
in 45 years this is the best that i have heard a pair of DIY Acoustat Spectra 8800s they must be heard to BELIEVE.
41 X102X12 around 800 pounds - - - the small one is
mine 14 x 94.5 x 4 around 200 pounds they sound
very good BUT 2 panels per side is not 8
in 45 years this is the best that i have heard a pair of DIY Acoustat Spectra 8800s they must be heard to BELIEVE.41 X102X12 around 800 pounds - - - the small one is
mine 14 x 94.5 x 4 around 200 pounds they sound
very good BUT 2 panels per side is not 8
My guess is you need more power from your amp to meet your needs. if you had a Spectra 44 (or 4400) you would get the effect you seek, as you would not require as much power.
My Spectra 22 were really nice sounding in mids and highs, but does not have the "punch" and dynamics as my 2+2 I have, or Model 3 I had...
My Spectra 22 were really nice sounding in mids and highs, but does not have the "punch" and dynamics as my 2+2 I have, or Model 3 I had...
And please take note that with Acoustat the more panels you have the easier they are to drive, the most difficult is the 1+1s ( 81db ) yep those are MINE lucky for me i live in a condo so my little Chord does the job.
It is NOT the quantity of watts it's the QUALITY, i drove mine with this 45x2 watts for 13 years but it was a pure class A.
