The "Elsinore Project" Thread

Elsinores Vs Dunlavy...

I don't know how they compare to "3 way columns" since I don't know what that is, but I can tell you what they sound like compared to a pair of Dunlavy's powered by Mark Levinson amp and a high-end power conditioner, etc...and the verdict is...the Elsinore's sound pretty **** good.

My little brother, has that setup, not sure which of which he has, he's kinda a **** that way, but I know what he has sounds pretty **** amazing. However, even before I built my first set of DIY speakers, it seemed like he had a lot of a lot, and not much of a lot of substance. Now, don't get me wrong, his setup sounds fantastic, but I'm not quite sure what it is, but it always seemed like it was missing something.

I remember him telling me he set up his speakers with a mic and what not...and remember thinking, "Ok, yeah, that explains this. He's reading measurements, and he's convinced himself this sounds great."

Now again, it wasn't that it did not sound good, it was just like putting together a 1000-piece puzzle and you're missing 3 pieces or something. It's almost there, just not QUITE!

Every time I listened to my brothers Dunlavy's I thought, "man these things sound sweet, except, just something's not quite right." And this was before the Elsinore's. I'll give you a perfect example, my brother was ironing a dress shirt in his walk in closet, and said to me, "Listen to the bass in here." I thought, "yeah, bass in the closet, that sells!"

After I built my first DIY speakers, I was sold, and those used the same drivers as the MK5 so I decided I was building the Elsinores.

So here I am trying chomping at the bit wondering what to do next, not because the Elsnores don't sound incredible, but now I find myself convinced everything else driving my system is holding back the Elsinores, and I can't help thinking, "Good God, what will these sound like with a better amp, a better, Preamp, better cables...etc"

It's a home run, the Elsinores are a home run, book of fame, Emmy, Grammy, whatever award, they deserve it!

I can listen to these things, and they don't sound loud when they are played loud, they don't sound quiet when they are played quiet, the best way to described them to me is they sound like they are playing in your head! Like when you hear a song and you play it back in your head! That's the Elinores!

I am trying to buy headphones, I bought a pair of Sennheisers hd650's...I sent them right back...I even paid the ridiculous $75 restocking fee, because I wasn't going to pay for headphones that sounded this bad. Headphones they claim sound like $1000 headphones. I think DIY has spoiled me, but I can listen to the Elsinore's at low volume, and they blew away anything coming from these Sennheiser's.

Just saying!
 
How do they compare to the 3way columns?

This issue is in practice unresolved.

I will describe my private observations as briefly. The loudspeakers + acoustics have the greatest impact on the value of sound reception in a living room. The latter is often imposed and sometimes difficult to correct. But when it comes to loudspeakers, the field for showing off is more open. There are also our musical preferences and the way we like to listen to music. In the sense of what we consider to be good sound. Pleasant, engaging, musical (whatever is hidden for us under these slogans). And from my observations, each of us perceives it very differently. And we often require a different way of presentation.

There is a fairly universal saying. It is not difficult to make good equipment for big money. The trick is to make good equipment at a reasonable cost. And the latter is met by Elsinore. Brilliant quality-cost ratio.

I remember at the end of last year, I found a project description on this forum. I have some DIY builder experience and some technical background. So when I saw what the electrical and mechanical construction of Elsinore's case looked like, I was delighted and wanted to build them immediately. It must play amazingly! And it won't cost you a lot.

Joe could feel the emotional state as well, because the order for the Waveguide went on December 30, when everyone was getting ready to celebrate the new year rather than building new speakers. A few days later, I had read the whole story about building Elsinore.

And now, when I have them and they have been working for hundreds of hours, the speakers moved mechanically and the sound stabilized, I could focus on looking for an amplifier. And here comes an interesting point. The sound quality of Elsinore made it very easy to decide whether I like a given amplifier or not. These speakers are very precise. You can hear a lot of them. They do not blur the details, artificially building the stereo space, as is sometimes the case with many speakers. It is great to hear the tricks of the recording engineers creating the distribution of instruments and their decay.

I have already written a bit about the quality of the bass. This is a very critical range. Difficult to propagate indoors. You can see for yourself how many conversations there are on the Internet to present this part of the acoustic spectrum. And the Elsinore are great with it despite the classic bass reflexes.

Can you have a better sound than Elsinore gives us? Certainly. But it will not be so easy and cheap to get it.
 
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How much power is needed for low-to-medium volume listening? Tried searching the thread but not much info. Seems like some think a 300B SET amp is ok but others not so much. I read that Joe created the speakers to match with the LM 216ia which is 22W or so, so that's quite a jump up from the 8W of a 300B amp.

Cheers,
Tom
 
Look here: A Test. How much Voltage (power) do your speakers need?

Apart from this, I don't think its a question of 8W or 20W. Its more about the shape of the impedance curve. With the flat curve of the Elsinores, tube amps will be happy.

With the flat impedance curve it matters little what the Rout of the amplifier makes little to no difference in terms of drive and FR effects.

dave

Thanks gents. Hmm, going to try and see if I can demo something.
 
Joe: Have you made any progress recently on the Hamlets? Regards, Scott

I am having my son enter a clinic some time this week and that will cut me some slack. This will give me a window that I can complete the Hamlets. Just give me a couple of days to focus on it and I don't think it would take long. I am definitely crossing of my list by the time the 'silly season' starts, third week in December. I also have somebody nearby who is dying to listen to them - and he won't be the only one.

Cheers, Joe
 
Just an adjustment to one of the drawings on the website, this is the rear panel. The speaker panel that is used for the connection of the tweeter, the current available version has a smaller 68mm diameter, the old one which was 78mm is now hard to get.

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Con_7-5.gif
 
on russian forum i found opinion that if amplifier distortions is independent of the load - chain which is mentioned yellow on the pic can be removed - so they are insisting to try both with and without that chains if u have a good solid amplifier
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

who tried or have some experience about it
 

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Jabar keep us posted. I think that those circuits are for impedance flattening purposes, very useful for tube amps.

Yes. It is correct. And basically it shouldn't affect the sound. Well, except in the case of tube amplifiers. My amp is very strong. There should be no changes.
And yet something can be heard differently. I'm not sure, but I think the lower midrange is fuller. More tangible.

I guess everyone has to find out for themselves. And evaluate. For the moment I leave the crossover without this correction. I have easy access to the crossover, so let me experiment a little more.