Hello from Tennessee

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I am not so new around diyAudio as far as reading, but joined more recently when some things were listed for sale that I was interested in. Just noticed a comment somewhere that introducing yourself here was a path to have direct posting privileges.

I've been a broadcast engineer for more than 25 years now. I've built and maintained dozens of radio stations and learned much the hard (best) way. But I've found that its a big difference between maintaining and the making of decisions about designing your own when you start down the DIY path.

I discovered there was a higher quality audio available many years ago when I stumbled upon an electrostatic speaker and was blown away by its sound from such a thin profile. A few years later, with some money in hand I was looking for some of the Carver Amazings after reading reviews of them. Instead I found a dealer with Martin Logan's and came home with a pair of Sequel II's. A couple years later I came into a very early pair of the ML Monolith's that I still have.

I built a hybrid tube line stage with Welborne modules in about 93 or so and used it, the Monolith's driven with a Carver monoblock pair then for about the next dozen years or so.

But upon moving to Tennessee, I stumbled into a group of guys doing a lot of DIY, mostly tubes, and a whole new world opened up. I had an opportunity to get a pair of EV Sentry 3 speakers and jumped at the chance since their being about a 100db effecient, I could then use tube power. That was the biggest problem with the stat's, needing big power.

So in the last couple of years I've had the opportunity to work on several speaker designs, including a current project of open baffle that I made some quick change, quarter turn mount design style speaker mounts. I can fairly quickly change different drivers into the panels and now I'm getting ready to use a DCX2496 to be able to readily alter crossover and small EQ amounts and be able to figure out the best drivers and crossover points for more permanent designs.

More than enough about me, I sure enjoy the forum and the kind and helpful people that hang around!
Mark
 
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Joined 2006
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Hi Mark,

Welcome to the forum! ;)

I'm near Nashville so if you are in the area let me know and perhaps we can share some things or help each other out. I've been doing electronics since the mid 60's and learned on tubes way back then. Currently working on my 1st DIY speaker project at the Walsh 5 remake thread.

Glad to see another person from Tennessee here! :cheers:

BTW - I just relocated here from California - and I'm loving it!
 
That worked real well!
 

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Thanks for the welcome Cal!

Maybe those pictures will explain a little bit better about what I was referring to. The baffle design that I started with was the JE Labs, but I wanted to try to stick with the overall diminsions, but I wanted uneven sized wings to act as supports. And I wanted to have some ability to try different speakers.

Hello c2cthomas! I'm located in Knoxville but some guys over there participate in some of the get togethers over here. And we've been over there a few times too! A gent there in Nashville has some interest Lowther based speakers in some ACE design cabinets. Drop me a PM and we can talk and get you over here sometime!

Have a great weekend!!
 
Yet Another Newbie from Tennessee

I joined to see if I might find help. I am going to attempt to overhaul a non-working Son of Ampzilla. Finally found some schematics from David Riddle Company. Now if I can just find parts. I'm in east Tennnesse so I'm not sure if I can score any of what I need in this area. I miss my old Ampzilla. It sounded so good when it played. This is the third time it has quit. I hope there is someone out there that might have done this before that can give me some good info on where to start. I'm not an electronics tech but my brother is but not in audio/stereo. I have an old H/K tube system I'm hoping to do the same thing to as well. I think parts may be more available for it that the Ampzilla. We'll see.
 
Hello from NE Tennessee.

Your woodworking looks real good. What is the reason for circling out around the drivers? Why not mount them into the wood directly? Is there a sound difference by doing that?

I originally posted in this forum by mistake (thought I was in the introductin forum) but I'm glad to meet someone else in Tennessee that's into tube audio. I have a Harmon/Kardon Citation I II & III that needs help. Thought I found a tech here in town that claimed he knew tubes. Now my amp has no volume. I also own some Audio Research AR-1w (woofer) with AR-3t mid and tweeter (in seperate box). They sounded real good when they played together but something happened. (I think my ex-room mate happened to them but can't prove it.) Anyway I was wondering if you or anyone might have experience with reconing speakers?

My original and primary reason for being joining the forums is to fix my Son of Ampzilla that quit. I'm having a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to find parts since so many are not made anymore. It's easier to find parts for the Citation. I can get anything through Jim McShane. Too bad it's not that way with Ampzilla. :bawling:

Evsentry3 I tried emailing but I ain't allowed yet. I hope no one is upset with me for being off thread here. I haven't quite figured this deal out yet. If so I apologize. I think this forum is really great.
 
Hi Zilla,
The purpose in the removable mounts was to make it possible to use different size drivers on one baffle. The bigger one allows anything up to 12". So a 12" University, a 8" Lowther or whatevere can be mounted and it only takes a few minutes to change.
The way to get privileges on this site is apparently to post your own introduction. By proving you're a serious audio freak and not a spammer, you get magically your rights at some point. I faced the same thing, not seeing anything about it in the new user info until, just in passing, I saw mention of it. Even looking I never did see anything in the user info about this, so I understand your confusion.
You can contact me at the same user name at yahoo!
I think I know some people around enough to be helpful on the amps and probably the speaker reconing too.
The other frustration...just experienced again, is it takes me so long to reply (it seems) that I time out and when trying to post it asks me to log in again and I loose everything I typed. Now I sound like a hick up in the hills for sure...
 
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Joined 2006
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evsentry3,

If you are getting involved with responses that take a good deal of time to type out you may want to use a text editor such as MS Word or Notepad, Wordpad, - whatever - and generate your text there and then cut and paste that information into the text box at diyAudio. Doing the editing off-line allows for all the time you need to get things together.

There is also the added bonus of having a "spell checker" to use - and I'd be dead meat without that little tool.

Hope this helps!

If Ya get near Nashville Ya'll give me a holler.

:cheers:
 
I see now after looking at the woodworking closer in the pic. So they don't rattle in the mount do they? And I've heard the crossovers must match the drivers. But I've never tried that so I have no idea. I stick to what I have. Which is something else I want to change. I have a pair of JBL L88 plus speakers and they make a midrange kit for them which I would like to add. I found a pair of the required mids for $100 but it requires the crossover to go with it. That would make it just like the JBL Century 100. Which I think would sound good with a working ampzilla. The Son of Ampzilla is too powerful for the L88s being a two way system. 20 watts will walk with them. 40 will make em shudder. (Not that I have ever tried that!) Heh heh. Not for long anyway. Yes I was younger and foolish then. Giving away my age here with all my "vintage" stuff. I do own a sony dvd player that is but a year old! HA.

By the way, I tried to post several times and it never worked. You guys just let me in on the deal that I got timed out on. The last time it worked because I copied it all and pasted it into a new post and sent it. That was the one that worked. Thanks for the help.
 
Anyone have suggestions for where to find parts for Son of Ampzilla?

My brother and I cracked open the Ampzilla last night and found the last time it was repaired there were a lot more changes than I thought. It looks like a botch job. No wonder it didn't play long. Looks like they put non-matched pairs in. No wonder the place didn't stay in business long either. Now the trick is to find the parts. I found a couple of MPQ6001 chips in my junk that I didn't even realize that I had. So that's a start. Anyone have any suggestions on a reptuable parts dealer that I won't have to buy lots of 100. I don't want to get some counterfeit parts and blow it up. I love my old ampzilla. And any other suggestions will be appreciated.

I can't email anyone yet. I'm still under moderation. D'Oh!:bawling:
 
Hello to those from TN, as well as the others.

I hope you don't mind if I go a bit off-topic: You guys seem to do their own wood work but do you know by chance someone in or around Knoxville who can build straightforward rectangular boxes for me? I am willing to build Leach's Vifa 3-way speakers.

I would also like to stay in contact with those around Knoxville for possible interactions/help.

Murat
 
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