System Pictures & Description

Wife & floorspace

Fortunately my wife is more understanding......As long as ...whatever I build in the future doesn't comsume too much floorspace, my current DIY towers are getting a little long in the tooth at some 13 Yrs, unfortunately my build standards were/are high & I should merely "redrive" em.
But I do have one consulation as the 'standard' ceiling is at eight feet high.....???????
____________________________________Rick...........
 
My active DIY system

Here is my last project: Visaton W 200 S and G 25 FFL in closed box.DIY active amplification,low-mid amp 1 KW power supply and hi amp is A-Class with 66000 uF , crossover is Linkwitz Riley 3000 Hz 24 dB.Best capacitors and resistors I could find in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Sources are Marantz 5001 and Audigy 2. For my humble taste and experience system is very dynamic and analytic. I am going to build new crossover with lower crossover frequency 2-2.2 khz because I am not satisfied completely with stereo width ( I guess problem is Linkwitz Riley filter or too high crossover frequency, G 25 FFL can play from 2 khz and W 200 S too big for 2-3 khz sound - directivity prob).

Next project is 3 way active transmission line.
 

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This is the latest incarnation.

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By arnoldc, shot with Canon PowerShot A40. at 1969-12-31

Closer view of the horn mouth.

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The Fostex FT17H

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The crossover mounting

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The system. But I almost fell taking this shot. Next time I'll use my tripod.

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So I cheated and used flash.

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Full body shot

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The system.

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Equipment Summary:

Amplification

- DIY JE Labs 2A3 DX 76->6SN7 driver stage (MagneQuest DS-025 OPT)
- DIY UX-245 single-ended, 5842 driver stage (Tamura F-475 OPT)
- DIY Tri-Amp, switchable UX-250, 10Y, 300B single-ended amplifier (James 6112HS Output transformer), 5842 driver stage

Preamplifier

- DIY 407/396/2c51 pre-amplifier

Speakers

- Altec 406-8Y on Altec 614 cabinet with Oxford mid-horns and Fostex FT17H tweeters

Digital Source

- Harman Kardon HD 750

Analog Source

- Clearaudio Champion Magnum + Clearaudio Tangent arm + Zyx R50 Bloom MC cartridge
- Clearaudio Symmetry MC-only phonostage
- JVC QL-Y66F with Clearaudio Aurum Alpha (S arm wand) and Audio Technica CN5625AL (straight arm wand) cartridges
- Musical Fidelity X-LP phono stage with stock PSU
- Clearaudio Aurum Alpha Wood as reserve

Cables/Interconnects

- Clearaudio SmartCable interconnects
- Sonic Art hybrid interconnects
- Quantum interconnects with Eichmann Bullet Plugs
- IXOS 6006 speaker cable

Other

- Yaden Servo AVR
- Eichmann Power AC cable w/ Eichmann power outlets
- DIY Flexy rack with Acrylic Shelves

Listening position

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Speakers and amplifiers


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Champion turntable with optimized Tangent mount

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JVC turntable

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Thanks for looking.
 
Final setup

After a long way I finaly get the sound I like w/o loosing an arm or leg. The sound has great extension and good dinamic. Some components:
- Technics tuner and EQ (on a tape loop)
- Gemini preamplifier and crossover
- InterM and APart amplifiers
- bandpass active Behringer subwoofer
- DIY midbass horn (resized Bruce Edgar "show horn") w 10' PAudio drivers
- 2' Selenium drivers and midhorns
- ribbons on horns as tweeters, bulgarian maker
- DIY cables from STP patchcord, IKEA rack ;)
- APC 1200VA line stabilizer for centralized soft start/stop
- crosspoints at 80Hz(24dB/8), 360Hz and 4KHz(12dB/8)
 

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Bach

Go for Bach Organ Toccata & Fugue in D.

Hello Zarathu

Bach did the Toccata in D but I believe it is the Toccata and Fugue in D minor you are referring to (minor technicality;)). This has been used a lot over the years but in my college days I worked as a projectionist in a movie theater showing Roller Ball with James Caan. After we closed I cranked up the sound and started the movie, had a few friends show up with pizza & beer, good times were had by all.

I still use pipe organ music to show off powerful articulate base reproduction. That or Darla tapping on the fish tank. :cheers:
 
speakers i have built

I think they sound fantastic deep deep dry bass, forward midrange and ncie highs. this is the way i prefer as I listen to a lot of smooth jazz and like to hear the voices created in a live typ environment. I tweaked the series filter by ear to what I wanted and have played around with the baffle step inductor for the mid woofer until i got it spot on. I am actually suprised that the PJ17 can really put out some bass notes when the filter is optimised for it.

a bit more about the project.
this project was done in parallel to another one exactly the same but using slightly different drivers.

the woofer is enclosed in its own seperate section with heavy damping of bitumen pads, thick wool and acoustic foam. it is heavily braced and and is capable of very tight deep bass, with very little reinence if you have your hands on the side of the cabinet. the 8" woofer also runs paralell to the series filter for the top mid woofer and tweeter giving me around 3.5 to 4 ohms to the amp, as i have a Nad c350 and a rotel power amp it is not at all any trouble with either amps.

the chrome srews were purposefully used and I like the contrast that they give with the black and the local veneer.
the veneer itself is a local Borneo species similar to the Ebony Macasar by looks at that photo supplied. I cannot remember the name but living in a Million year old rain forest certainly does have its advantages for using unique timbers.

I have just fnished the second pair and they use as well a series filter ontop and a paralell inductor for the 8" woofer in its own seperate as above.

this time I put all the drivers closer together and the mid woofer used was a Vifa PL18 as i had heard it had a greater amount of midrange clarity compared to the PJ17 mid woofer used previously.the peerless woofer and the vifa tweeter remain the same.
Whom ever said that this 8' inch woofer has no low bass extension must have been joking. I have listened to medium levels of jazz music and the bass guitar is vibrating my chair, without any resinence from the cabinet itself.

it has at times been a real struggle as I live in Borneo and the DIY hi fi is absolutley non existent and I had to import a lot of drivers and crossover parts from Australia as well. I had to use also car bitumen and sound deadener as i was not prepared to import too much otherwise the costs were getting too high.
I also went and bought a shed load of pillow stuffing as it is cheap and basically the same stuff as acoustic stuffing anyway.

so i will post the biger brother to this one in the next couple of days as I have started anothr project using a seas 5" aluminium woofer in a mini cabinet, and a tannoy mx4 tweeter that i have modified using a philips 80"s face plate, the mini monitor will be coming soon!!!
 

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I moved into a new apartment at the beginning of the summer and the following is the current incarnation of my system;
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The system consists of a pair of B&W sealed monitor units from 300hz up. From 70hz to 300hz my fabulous midbass horns get the job done. These are an exponential horn with an eminence beta ten driver. And on the bottom I have my two dayton sealed subs who are just itching for an LT.

As you can see I have not payed hardly any attention to time alignment. I am sure there are consequences of this but the way the progression of my system seems to be is like an ant. I never head in the wrong direction for very long, but sometimes the right direction is unclear...

The bottom line is that this setup is the best yet for me!