I have old ears. I don't hear the air above 12,000 Hz anymore with voice and instruments, but uncompressed CD's with a good dac sound fantastic on these speakers. I drove 300 miles just to audition these speakers and it was well worth it. The speakers are 97db efficient. So Danny of GR Research and Brian of Rythmik Audio • Servo subwoofer Products - Custom Install series created this speaker. The Super V is bi-amp. Rythmik works from 16hz to 90hz with servo open baffle dipole and GR Research 90 to 18,000 hz open baffle PAudio BM12CX38 coaxial driver using a conventional crossover at 1000 hz between coaxial. Very low distortion output at 15 to 25 watts for this 600 watt driver. This is the most dynamic speaker I have ever heard. The transparency is amazing. This is a full point source dipole speaker. The case has been removed from the tweeter exposing the diaphragm. What is revealing is the very low distortion on this very high wattage driver when low wattage is used.
Ray
Hello ,
Very good discussion , i was toying between F5 or BA2 , seems like i will now go with F5 .( a start) Could you say , what is the typical output of an F5 8/4 Ohm
I realized a few years agoa HIRAGA 20w and the listening results depended in part of the power supply quality .
capacitors with lowsESR ( 6*33000µf), big transfo ......
What are your feeling and experiences for the F5 ?
Serge
What would you consider to be a low ESR value ?
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Hey guys,
I got my F5 diy yesterday and thought I should share some of the joy with you
It sounds great, crystal clear, very very detailed top to bottom and superbly balanced . It is... almost sexy_
Fantastic at low levels.
That's for now, revision after some burning is applied.
Thanks to mighty ZenMod who made all this happen.
oy oy oy
I got my F5 diy yesterday and thought I should share some of the joy with you
It sounds great, crystal clear, very very detailed top to bottom and superbly balanced . It is... almost sexy
_Fantastic at low levels.
That's for now, revision after some burning is applied.
Thanks to mighty ZenMod who made all this happen.
oy oy oy
Hey guys,
I got my F5 diy yesterday and thought I should share some of the joy with you
It sounds great, crystal clear, very very detailed top to bottom and superbly balanced . It is... almost sexy
Fantastic at low levels.
That's for now, revision after some burning is applied.
Thanks to mighty ZenMod who made all this happen.
oy oy oy
Hello Stifa,
Could you give us an idea of the associated equipment you are listening to with your F5..
Hey guys,
I got my F5 diy yesterday and thought I should share some of the joy with you
It sounds great, crystal clear, very very detailed top to bottom and superbly balanced . It is... almost sexy
Fantastic at low levels.
That's for now, revision after some burning is applied.
Thanks to mighty ZenMod who made all this happen.
oy oy oy
I agree with you but F5 gives a little less bass.Are you Turkish? you say oy oy oyyy!!!
it's the hook-up wire
It's been 4 weeks ......................
The F5 I heard has less than no harshness... so much so that we are worried about it as a result. Seriously.
Can't say anything about bass since I do not run it below 250Hz.
I suspect though that it is a bit tighter than a typical tube amp due to the somewhat higher DF (80 it is reported).
Again, the specific implementation seems to have quite a bit of effect upon the resulting sound. I am saying that just about everything does something, unlike some high feedback SS amps that seem somewhat the same no matter how you build them... but maybe I am overstating this.
Can't say anything about bass since I do not run it below 250Hz.
I suspect though that it is a bit tighter than a typical tube amp due to the somewhat higher DF (80 it is reported).
Again, the specific implementation seems to have quite a bit of effect upon the resulting sound. I am saying that just about everything does something, unlike some high feedback SS amps that seem somewhat the same no matter how you build them... but maybe I am overstating this.
It is my experience that the F5 is very unforgiving of any
harshness in the source material or speaker. This sometimes
makes it not the best choice in a system. There have been
occasions when I have preferred an F3, which is very
forgiving by contrast.
I couldn't agree more with this statement. I really think that selecting the component in the system is same as selecting the right wine for the meal. We are talking about all the good ones, but some are on the sweet side, some are on the stronger side, some are frutty, ... there are so many flavors. It is art to select the good one that fits your meal the best. Now, there are some that never have enough of the good thing, so I always recommend Petit Sirah.... hm, I mean Aleph 30.
Now, if we are talking about low end, and your diner is on the beefier side F5 to Aleph 30 is what is Cabernet to the Pinot. Forgot to mention - F5 on the top end is like very good champagne. It has sparkle. Comparing F5 to many other amps is if you compare champagne to mixed withe wine with soda or sparkling water.
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Just has an amp/speaker audition at my house.
We had an open baffle speaker and and open baffle with ported bass speaker.
We used both the F5 , the F3, and the F4 amps. They all sounded great and they all sounded different.. My Basszillas use a full range open baffle midrange driver with a dedicated amp. We first used the F5 and they sounded great. Then the F3 was swapped in and was suductively sweet with jazz and the opera "Carmen" . Didn't really rock with The Ramones though..
Clearly the point is that we all need a "quiver" of amps and the should be quickly interchangable for different moods and music!
I am planning a demo at the next Burning Amp with exactly that- a comparison between various FW amps..
Mark
We had an open baffle speaker and and open baffle with ported bass speaker.
We used both the F5 , the F3, and the F4 amps. They all sounded great and they all sounded different.. My Basszillas use a full range open baffle midrange driver with a dedicated amp. We first used the F5 and they sounded great. Then the F3 was swapped in and was suductively sweet with jazz and the opera "Carmen" . Didn't really rock with The Ramones though..
Clearly the point is that we all need a "quiver" of amps and the should be quickly interchangable for different moods and music!
I am planning a demo at the next Burning Amp with exactly that- a comparison between various FW amps..
Mark
Mine got done
I used the Tech-DIY parts kit and Peter Daniel boards. Currently the setup is suboptimal - all 'chassis' wiring is with very basic stuff - input is Cardas 21.5 hooked up to generic RCA sockets, and output is figure 8 speaker wire torn into bits. I could imagine some improvement - for those who sneer at cable differences, the wires I'm using are really bottom of the barrel stuff. They're probably coloured steel... I used Cardas solder for all the wiring except the power supply, where I cheapened out with regular lead ($1/0.1kg) solder.
The amp is assembled on a piece of a table that was dismantled a couple of years ago.
The speakers are Usher Mini-Dancer 1, a low efficiency two-way floorstander, with internal wiring upgraded to silver on the tweeter and Cardas hook-up wire for the woofer, you should've seen the original pathetic wires they used...
I am running it off a PC and e-mu1212m with a modified analog stage (Black Gates, LM4562 blah blah), the output is set to +4dBU which seems to be enough to drive my speakers to reasonable volumes. My Buffalo DAC does not have sufficient output level for the F5, and it is wired with pure Ag wire which makes the F5 sound slightly grainy in the lower treble.
My only reference is a pair of chipamps built with good parts (Blackgates, Holcos, blah blah) and beefy supplies, and those already are much better than most commercial amplifiers under $2000, though with much less grunt. They have a very clean and open top end, but a little congested/chesty in the midrange - this is very clearly audible, and most of the system tweaks I have undertaken in the past year have aimed at that specific target. This is probably the niggle I have - I may have to readjust the system to take into account the sonic signature of the F5, or incorporate the changes for the next pair of speakers.
My initial impressions are that the sound is very natural, much more so than the reference. The biggest improvements to my mind are in the midrange and the upper bass. Depending on the music, there can be a hint of grain in the lower treble, but I'll put that down to the recordings and the very terrible wiring (don't ask - six joints per cable). It is sensitive to very small variations in source and cabling, so I can expect to have an update soon. I'm not much of a subjectivist, but I do believe in changing out cables as it has has worked for me in the past.
Another huge improvement is the soundstage, and how it makes you realise how asymmetrical most rooms actually are. The image goes all the way across the room, and since the wall on the right is pretty close, one can hear the image audibly collapse around the right speaker when the sound travels there. I need a bigger room
I used the Tech-DIY parts kit and Peter Daniel boards. Currently the setup is suboptimal - all 'chassis' wiring is with very basic stuff - input is Cardas 21.5 hooked up to generic RCA sockets, and output is figure 8 speaker wire torn into bits. I could imagine some improvement - for those who sneer at cable differences, the wires I'm using are really bottom of the barrel stuff. They're probably coloured steel... I used Cardas solder for all the wiring except the power supply, where I cheapened out with regular lead ($1/0.1kg) solder.
The amp is assembled on a piece of a table that was dismantled a couple of years ago.
The speakers are Usher Mini-Dancer 1, a low efficiency two-way floorstander, with internal wiring upgraded to silver on the tweeter and Cardas hook-up wire for the woofer, you should've seen the original pathetic wires they used...
I am running it off a PC and e-mu1212m with a modified analog stage (Black Gates, LM4562 blah blah), the output is set to +4dBU which seems to be enough to drive my speakers to reasonable volumes. My Buffalo DAC does not have sufficient output level for the F5, and it is wired with pure Ag wire which makes the F5 sound slightly grainy in the lower treble.
My only reference is a pair of chipamps built with good parts (Blackgates, Holcos, blah blah) and beefy supplies, and those already are much better than most commercial amplifiers under $2000, though with much less grunt. They have a very clean and open top end, but a little congested/chesty in the midrange - this is very clearly audible, and most of the system tweaks I have undertaken in the past year have aimed at that specific target. This is probably the niggle I have - I may have to readjust the system to take into account the sonic signature of the F5, or incorporate the changes for the next pair of speakers.
My initial impressions are that the sound is very natural, much more so than the reference. The biggest improvements to my mind are in the midrange and the upper bass. Depending on the music, there can be a hint of grain in the lower treble, but I'll put that down to the recordings and the very terrible wiring (don't ask - six joints per cable). It is sensitive to very small variations in source and cabling, so I can expect to have an update soon. I'm not much of a subjectivist, but I do believe in changing out cables as it has has worked for me in the past.
Another huge improvement is the soundstage, and how it makes you realise how asymmetrical most rooms actually are. The image goes all the way across the room, and since the wall on the right is pretty close, one can hear the image audibly collapse around the right speaker when the sound travels there. I need a bigger room
I agree with you on highs...they are awesome
Happy holidays
Stifa , could you please give us an idea on the associated equipment being used with the F5 ...
Ok... but which is better
Ok, Ok ,Ok ... say you had to live with just one ...
For my system I think the F4's are the ones I could live with best. Lucky, as I have two stereo F4 clones. The F3's are just so much fun - so lush and rich, but not for all types of music on my system..
The F5 sounds very very good- very revealing, but on my system maybe a bit too much of a good thing. They rock the best though..
My CD front end isn't spectacular, so keep that in mind.
All and all the biggest surprise is how different they are. A Pass characteristic I have always noticed in any of the amps is that even the softer sounding ones pack in a surprising amount of detail.