Almost glued up. Finally picked up the right size sonotube. Picked up the smallest I could find assuming it was the right size and got it home to find out it was the next size up from the smallest. Finally got back yesterday with a tape measure.
My glue job is not a good as I wanted it to be but best I could do with the tooling I had at hand. If I was a bit more stationary, I'd have quite the nice wood shop.
So, yeah, hoping to get the side panel glued on each cabinet this weekend. Then it is waiting for the kit to arrive.
My glue job is not a good as I wanted it to be but best I could do with the tooling I had at hand. If I was a bit more stationary, I'd have quite the nice wood shop.
So, yeah, hoping to get the side panel glued on each cabinet this weekend. Then it is waiting for the kit to arrive.
Pair of Dynaudio BM6A MkII, powered studio monitors. They've been great for a small system. Going to be interesting to see how they compare.
I purchased a cabinet flat pack from Bob of Big Wood Studio. Made things much easier. They glued up pretty good given I used ratchet straps for clamping. Some minor sanding and they should be good.
I purchased a cabinet flat pack from Bob of Big Wood Studio. Made things much easier. They glued up pretty good given I used ratchet straps for clamping. Some minor sanding and they should be good.
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Davebtw, glad to hear you are on the mend. Sorry you had to endure all that. Must have been unnerving being in the hospital.
6Sx7: nice progress. I can’t wait to hear how you guys like your Halcyons.
I’m building an Aleph J now. Can’t wait to hear it with the Halcyons.
Has anyone tried the Rational Speaker Placement technique? Also known as the Sumiko method?
Checkout • Rational Speaker Placement
RMAF14: High Fidelity Stereo - Thats not Natural! How to make it that way - YouTube
Looks very interesting. I can tell these speakers have more imaging and soundstage potential that I haven’t been able to capture due to lack of precision in placement and the crappy nature of my room. I think I’m going to pay the $50 because of the support afforded. Here’s a video of a guy who did it.
Master Set & Rational Speaker Placement How To For GREAT SOUNDSTAGE - YouTube
Any comments/experience appreciated.
6Sx7: nice progress. I can’t wait to hear how you guys like your Halcyons.
I’m building an Aleph J now. Can’t wait to hear it with the Halcyons.
Has anyone tried the Rational Speaker Placement technique? Also known as the Sumiko method?
Checkout • Rational Speaker Placement
RMAF14: High Fidelity Stereo - Thats not Natural! How to make it that way - YouTube
Looks very interesting. I can tell these speakers have more imaging and soundstage potential that I haven’t been able to capture due to lack of precision in placement and the crappy nature of my room. I think I’m going to pay the $50 because of the support afforded. Here’s a video of a guy who did it.
Master Set & Rational Speaker Placement How To For GREAT SOUNDSTAGE - YouTube
Any comments/experience appreciated.
I can only offer words of encouragement. For $50, why not? My speaker placement adventures have been very hit and miss with only a few occasions of success. I, too, am hoping for some amazing imaging from these Halcyons. Nothing quite like single source full range drivers to help out in that regard.
Hello,
My cabinets are almost done, and I have the full set of parts minus the sonotube. I am also working on a power amp to drive the halcyon.
Has anyone tried a 300B single ended amp with these speakers? I have been researching a tube amp for these but their reduced sensitivity compared to the Alpair 10p alone makes me think i need a bit more power.
Suggestions?
-david BTW
P.S. I am finally healed up enough from my septicemia experience to work part time for my job, and start to think about how to finish up the Halcyons. It has been a very long road.
My cabinets are almost done, and I have the full set of parts minus the sonotube. I am also working on a power amp to drive the halcyon.
Has anyone tried a 300B single ended amp with these speakers? I have been researching a tube amp for these but their reduced sensitivity compared to the Alpair 10p alone makes me think i need a bit more power.
Suggestions?
-david BTW
P.S. I am finally healed up enough from my septicemia experience to work part time for my job, and start to think about how to finish up the Halcyons. It has been a very long road.
David,
Firstly, glad to hear you are further on the mend. Also, hoping that work is a good place to be. Nothing worse than having to sit on your ***, keeping your mind occupied while healing up.
Secondly, not sure about a 300B SET but I may be able to help still. I'm going to be using a pair of the Amp Camp Amps bridged for monoblock duty, a whopping 16W/ch. I'm a bit nervous due to the low wattage and higher output impedance. While I think it may produce enough volume, the bass may not be well controlled. It is easy enough to try a single amp in stereo mode (a whopping 8W/ch) and report back. The basic topology will be similar, SE low wattage, but of course vastly different active devices and no transformer in the middle.
Firstly, glad to hear you are further on the mend. Also, hoping that work is a good place to be. Nothing worse than having to sit on your ***, keeping your mind occupied while healing up.
Secondly, not sure about a 300B SET but I may be able to help still. I'm going to be using a pair of the Amp Camp Amps bridged for monoblock duty, a whopping 16W/ch. I'm a bit nervous due to the low wattage and higher output impedance. While I think it may produce enough volume, the bass may not be well controlled. It is easy enough to try a single amp in stereo mode (a whopping 8W/ch) and report back. The basic topology will be similar, SE low wattage, but of course vastly different active devices and no transformer in the middle.
davebtw,
Happy to know that you have recovered further and are now able to work. Wishing you continued progress along this path.
On the amplifier, I concur with P10 that the impedance curve of the Halcyon looks quite benign, and it is likely a tube amplifier will work with these.
However my concern is that you might not be able to coax out max performance from the speakers, specially in the lower frequencies. Besides low output watts SET or DHT designs usually have a higher output impedance which work well with certain "over damped" speakers, but can sound woolly in the bass with other speakers.
6sx7 has already mentioned his concerns on his "whopping" 16 watt ACA.
Assuming he already has the amp working, and he shall be able to complete the speakers soon, maybe you can wait for his listening impressions?
Tom,
Would you have any other amplifiers on hand in addition to the ACA amp? If yes, you can try the Halcyons with both and let us know the pros and cons.
Happy to know that you have recovered further and are now able to work. Wishing you continued progress along this path.
On the amplifier, I concur with P10 that the impedance curve of the Halcyon looks quite benign, and it is likely a tube amplifier will work with these.
However my concern is that you might not be able to coax out max performance from the speakers, specially in the lower frequencies. Besides low output watts SET or DHT designs usually have a higher output impedance which work well with certain "over damped" speakers, but can sound woolly in the bass with other speakers.
6sx7 has already mentioned his concerns on his "whopping" 16 watt ACA.
Assuming he already has the amp working, and he shall be able to complete the speakers soon, maybe you can wait for his listening impressions?
Tom,
Would you have any other amplifiers on hand in addition to the ACA amp? If yes, you can try the Halcyons with both and let us know the pros and cons.
zman01,
I've only got the ACAs right now. But since I have two of them and a bit of time, my plan was to try them in their various output configurations to see how the system sound changes with each channel setup.
Also, based on Alan's advice, I bought some extra stuffing to try.
Finally, if none of this works to my liking, was going to try a pair of hypex plate amps for ultimate tailoring. This'll be dependent on the budget but guessing a month or two within reach. Hypex-FA123
This all started with wanting to remove the x-over and geometry artifacts of traditional T-W configs and I stumbled across the Mark Audio Alpair. I've made my own electrostats and magnetic planars and really loved the coherent sound and easy imaging setup. I had a plan of doing an open baffle design but, not having test equipment, I started searching for Alpair-based kits and stumbled across Curt Campbell's website. Had I decided to stick with my own path, I'd have gone open baffle with some ae speakers. (AE Speakers by Acoustic Elegance). Pick an open baffle woofer with similar sensitivity to take advantage of everything the Alpair can give. With the two ACAs, would have the option to try various active (digital and/or analog) or passive (serial vs. parallel) setups. Make a real science experiment of it all and keep my brain occupied for quite some time. And after outlining all this, I have a bit more hankering to try it, even if it means investing in some test equipment.
As you can tell, I can be quite verbose. So... I'm more than happy to share listening impressions on Sunday after I get some break-in done but I won't be able to do any amp comparisons beyond changing the ACA output config.
-tom
I've only got the ACAs right now. But since I have two of them and a bit of time, my plan was to try them in their various output configurations to see how the system sound changes with each channel setup.
Also, based on Alan's advice, I bought some extra stuffing to try.
Finally, if none of this works to my liking, was going to try a pair of hypex plate amps for ultimate tailoring. This'll be dependent on the budget but guessing a month or two within reach. Hypex-FA123
This all started with wanting to remove the x-over and geometry artifacts of traditional T-W configs and I stumbled across the Mark Audio Alpair. I've made my own electrostats and magnetic planars and really loved the coherent sound and easy imaging setup. I had a plan of doing an open baffle design but, not having test equipment, I started searching for Alpair-based kits and stumbled across Curt Campbell's website. Had I decided to stick with my own path, I'd have gone open baffle with some ae speakers. (AE Speakers by Acoustic Elegance). Pick an open baffle woofer with similar sensitivity to take advantage of everything the Alpair can give. With the two ACAs, would have the option to try various active (digital and/or analog) or passive (serial vs. parallel) setups. Make a real science experiment of it all and keep my brain occupied for quite some time. And after outlining all this, I have a bit more hankering to try it, even if it means investing in some test equipment.
As you can tell, I can be quite verbose. So... I'm more than happy to share listening impressions on Sunday after I get some break-in done but I won't be able to do any amp comparisons beyond changing the ACA output config.
-tom
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6sX7,
I have several different all analog amps and some really amazing class d amps, and also one I am designing for my full-time job that sound pretty extraordinary so i will not be without something to test with once my speakers are done. But I am also very concerned about having enough voltage swing for the Halcyons. With the newer bass woofers we lose about 1 dB of efficiency and they will probably fall somewhere around 88-89 dB.
It would be great to hear of other's experiences while I contemplate my direction forward.
-david BTW
I have several different all analog amps and some really amazing class d amps, and also one I am designing for my full-time job that sound pretty extraordinary so i will not be without something to test with once my speakers are done. But I am also very concerned about having enough voltage swing for the Halcyons. With the newer bass woofers we lose about 1 dB of efficiency and they will probably fall somewhere around 88-89 dB.
It would be great to hear of other's experiences while I contemplate my direction forward.
-david BTW
Tom,
Thanks for the detailed reply - appreciate you being "verbose".
It will be interesting to hear about your early impressions with the ACA. I think you need to give the drivers a few days to open up, so early impressions might be in for a change later.
If you are ready to undertake other DIY amplifier projects there are quite a few good ones.
Have fun!
davebtw,
Looks like you are well stocked up on amplifiers!
Thanks for the detailed reply - appreciate you being "verbose".
It will be interesting to hear about your early impressions with the ACA. I think you need to give the drivers a few days to open up, so early impressions might be in for a change later.
If you are ready to undertake other DIY amplifier projects there are quite a few good ones.
Have fun!
davebtw,
Looks like you are well stocked up on amplifiers!
I can’t speak for the Halcyon, but i did use the ACA on our big MTM (broadly similar WAW) and the bridged units were a bit underdamped in the bass. The stereo unit was happy. Did not try parallel.
dave