Lone Star Audio Fest 2010 - Reports

[kenpeter]

Those Lowthers were open baffle, sounded better from the backside???
And the bass horns echoed like a cavern. At least the field coils were
dead silent to any power supply noise. You couldn't hear the switchers
back there at all...

Impressive as all the tube gear was, I didn't feel the horns were working
optimally in that very small room. Wayne's setup was much better tuned
to the ridiculously small rooms they had to play with. I wish I could have
heard Jeff and Dave's amps through Wayne's speakers instead...

This setup might have impressed better in an auditorium. It might also
have been restrained by the hotel venue to operating at volume far too
low to really come alive? Just left me wishing I could suggest something
quick and dirty to try and fix it, but nothing practical came to mind.
What do you do with a really big horn in a really small room? I don't know...
I'm amazed they got all that up to the 2nd story and though the door!

[rjbond3rd]

Originally Posted by nebojsa

Was wondering which one of those speakers made an impression on you. ...I am sure you had your favorites or speakers that really surprised you...

Hi nebojsa, I liked all of the above! There were many, though, that I didn't get to hear, so I hope others will chime in with their views.

In general, I liked the "specialty" speakers that try to do one thing really well, as opposed to the more mass-market-oriented speakers that can sound a little sterile by comparison. I like tone!

[rjbond3rd]

Originally Posted by planet10

FX120. F120A have dark cones.

Oops, thank you Dave. Are you Woden Design? Affirm Audio had a sign up that said something about a (possible? actual? future?) affiliation with Woden Design.

[rjbond3rd]

Hi Kenpeter, did you hear John Busch's setup on the 4th floor?

[planet10]

Scott is Woden Design, althou i have been doing a lot tin the background. Did Bob have the Woden design flyers out?

It is of interest to note that Bob of Affirm decided to show smaller speakers for the small rooms Ken mentioned and left the van Zyl designed MaxHorns at home.

I am really interested in feedback on the field coil driver Pensil12s.

dave

[rjbond3rd]

Hi Dave,

I too was expecting them to be in the BLH.

The room was crowded, and as I waited outside to get in, I read a flyer with a description of Woden Design which was posted on the room's window. They may very well have been in the literature area of the room (I never got over there). I should have paid more attention but I did get to hear them 3 times.

Mr. Italynstalyn will presumably post his information.

I thought the MA/Pensil12's sounded really crisp, and the bass was what I guess they call critically damped (no boom or ringing). Just out of curiosity, I wanted to hear them with the juice turned down a bit (that's obviously the fun of a field coil) but the room was consistently busy and people seemed pleased.

[kenpeter]

Originally Posted by rjbond3rd

Hi Kenpeter, did you hear John Busch's setup on the 4th floor?

I never got up above the 2nd floor, I had to leave to go work.

I'm at work now (2:44AM) trying desperately to make a dent in
a pile of several hundred DSP motherboards for DAC evaluation
modules. I'm test monkey at the end of an SMT production line.
Audio for me is not all fun and games, its the grindstone too.

Must.. Follow.. Test.. Procedure..
Lather.. rinse.. repeat..

Maybe tomorrow (later this morning) I'll go back and see if I
can still catch any of the floors I missed. But I think I'll be
at home sleeping my only Sunday off this weekend instead...

Would my elevator pass have even let me above the 2nd floor?
I think the hotel front desk said it was just for 2nd floor only?

[SY]

No, the pass got you to the upper floors, too.

I was very impressed with the electrostatics that a Dutch fellow was showing. Metallized polyester diaphragm. There were some speakers made of aluminum, well, the cabinets were aluminum, that were also very impressive and nicely integrated (I'll have to look up whose they were).

Field coil speakers were interesting. We had the exhibitor change the current to observe the effect. I'd love to have a pair to experiment with active drive of the coil...

I took pictures of every monstrous-looking system to show my wife. "See, honey, mine isn't so bad!" She would have approved of the Gallo speakers- they were even smaller than the Arpeggios that she's been encouraging me to switch to.

[pathdoc2]

Didn't know this was happening. Was less than 2 blocks from there yesterday morning picking up veneer for my build.

[jlsem]

Field coil speakers were interesting. We had the exhibitor change the current to observe the effect. I'd love to have a pair to experiment with active drive of the coil...

The field coils at the show (the Lowthers in the Emia room and the Alpairs in Bob's room) were designed by Dave Slagle. They use low carbon steel so they need a lot of Gilberts to saturate the pole pieces. In other words, the higher the current the lower the distortion (and the better the control) so Dave recommends running them hot. You can't keep your hand on the motor of the Lowther for more than a few seconds. I think the improvement over stock Lowthers is significant.

Kim Beumer's electrostatic speakers were an improved design over last year's and he has a directly driven version in the works that eliminates the step-up transformer.

John