Alan,
Congratulations on completing your build. Keep on enjoying the music, and tell us more about your impressions when you have more hours of listening done.
Congratulations on completing your build. Keep on enjoying the music, and tell us more about your impressions when you have more hours of listening done.
Thanks Alan to give your initial thoughts about how FHXL and Halcyon sound to your ears. You may come up with some more impressions after more listening hours perhaps. One request specifically ...if you kindly let me know after some more listening hours ..about quality of the bass. I think Halcyon will have much more slam and impact. But how about transparency? I have read in this forum that FHXL and Pensils ( both having Alpair 10 p) have similar sound signature. The bass in case Pensils(I have them) is quite clean and transparent compared to other multi-way speakers i have heard. Along with slam, does Halcyon come up with clean and transparent lower frequency response?
I am happy that you are liking your new build quite a bit. Waiting for more impressions from your end as time passes by. Happy listening.
Hey Alan I’m glad that you are happy with them. It would be interesting to get your opinion of them thru the same amp and in the same room. Perhaps when your wife has a girls weekend away you can set everything up in your living room.
Thanks for the kind comments and encouragement, everybody. Posting on here that i was going to make progress, having people say go, go, go, and then me not doing anything for a few weeks made me feel guilty. So, thanks to your encouragement/prodding, I finally made some progress which I might not have done otherwise. So, thanks again.
Bob, that is a good idea. And only fair. Just so happens that SHMBO is going out of town next week. Hmm. Those things are heavy lugging up and down stairs, but for you, I wll do it.
For anybody curious, here’s what the speaker hook-up looks like from the back. The amp-powered wires enter the crossover box via the 2-post cup lower right. The signal runs through the crossover and out the Neutrik speakon connector (4 wires) and from there up to the 4-post cup in the speaker itself. For bi-amp, you simply plug two sets of powered wires into the 4-post cup directly and bypass all the stuff underneath.
Bob, that is a good idea. And only fair. Just so happens that SHMBO is going out of town next week. Hmm. Those things are heavy lugging up and down stairs, but for you, I wll do it.
For anybody curious, here’s what the speaker hook-up looks like from the back. The amp-powered wires enter the crossover box via the 2-post cup lower right. The signal runs through the crossover and out the Neutrik speakon connector (4 wires) and from there up to the 4-post cup in the speaker itself. For bi-amp, you simply plug two sets of powered wires into the 4-post cup directly and bypass all the stuff underneath.
Attachments
You know Alan, I will be happy to travel and help you with the equipment moving and testing process. I will waive my normal $1000/day fee if you are willing to pay my travel expenses, hotel costs, meals, and only half of my bar tab. I think asking for my entire bar tab would be a bit much. Let me know when you want me to join you.
That is the typical kind of transformation that relieving the FR of bass duties brings. Greater impact in the bass, and less stress on the FR allows them to do better in the mid & the top. And they become much more capable of louder levels, with solid mid-upper bass punch (assumming the helper woofers are adequate).
This is a transformation we have heard with every WAW we have built so far.
The different front ends and in particular the amps will also be contributing to the differences.
dave
Alan,
Excellent work and thanks for the review. Like I said, Curt’s designs perform fabulously. Experiment with simple foam weather stripping, available at your local hardware store, around the full range driver.
Enjoy them.
Cheers,
Greg
Thanks Greg.
What did you mean about foam weather stripping? Where should I put it? What is the intended result?
What did you mean about foam weather stripping? Where should I put it? What is the intended result?
Pulled the trigger on a Halcyon build. It will take months for everything to arrive and get put together, but here we go! I have the EnABLed A10PeN waiting in the wings and have high hopes.
Yes I did. Yesterday, in fact. The sound was surprisingly similar. I used the 400wpc Purifi SS class D amp for both. I’ve got a Dynaco tube amp clone coming in soon, so I’ll try it again with that. The FH was louder, more sensitive, but not as powerful or punchy. The bass seemed to be about the same, actually, in terms of how deep would it go, but the Halcyons just hit a lot harder. I would think that if you played it at moderate levels, you wouldn’t really notice the difference that much. Every note played is just a tiny bit softer.
I sensed that the Halcyons were a little boomier than the FHXLs, so I put some more stuffing in through the port. That cleared it up.
These speakers sound great. Still haven’t veneered them, though. My wife is torn between getting them out of the house entirely and getting them finished (after all my other chores are done). Don’t hold your breath.
I sensed that the Halcyons were a little boomier than the FHXLs, so I put some more stuffing in through the port. That cleared it up.
These speakers sound great. Still haven’t veneered them, though. My wife is torn between getting them out of the house entirely and getting them finished (after all my other chores are done). Don’t hold your breath.
Very Interesting. I am a little surprised although others have said that the A10p does pretty darn well in the low end. I was worried about my organ music so I opted for the Halcyon. One of these days all the parts will arrive and I will see if my hopes are fulfilled.
Good luck, davebtw,
I will be glad to help you any way I can. I think there should be a lot more Halcyons floating around. They are really something.
I think you will be very pleased. I still haven't veneered mine. It is a daunting task. I've done it only twice so far, and both times it came out looking like crap. More the staining than the veneering, actually. I'm hoping to find some veneer that looks nice that I can just rub some tung oil on it or something like that.. The other thing that scares me is the rounding of the edges of the baffle. Curt suggested veneering first then round with router and then ?? - use edge trim, or stain it or paint or ??. Not looking forward to that.
I will be glad to help you any way I can. I think there should be a lot more Halcyons floating around. They are really something.
I think you will be very pleased. I still haven't veneered mine. It is a daunting task. I've done it only twice so far, and both times it came out looking like crap. More the staining than the veneering, actually. I'm hoping to find some veneer that looks nice that I can just rub some tung oil on it or something like that.. The other thing that scares me is the rounding of the edges of the baffle. Curt suggested veneering first then round with router and then ?? - use edge trim, or stain it or paint or ??. Not looking forward to that.
Next step is the Aleph J kit that I am supposed to be building with flohmann, but he's been carrying the load this past week. Hopefully progress next week. I'm hoping that the Halcyons will really sing with the Aleph J. They look like they are made for each other.
I should mention that if anybody is interested in either building an Aleph J, or helping Fred and I out with the documentation, we are preparing a hyper-detailed build guide for complete noobs. We, being the noobs, will document all our trials and tribulations, or rather the leanings from them, so that beginners can have the deep satisfaction of building and owning their own very high quality Nelson Pass-designed amp. The target audience is people who may have built an ACA or something, but do not feel that they have the experience or skills to jump all the way in to an F6 or something like that. This guide will go very slowly, methodically, through every step along the way so that anybody in the target audience can succeed with a minimum of searching the threads for answers and ideas.
Here is the thread: Aleph J build guide for noobs
Here is the thread: Aleph J build guide for noobs
I now have all the parts. I had my close neighbor who teaches and trains woodworkers come over on saturday and we dry fitted one of the speakers. He has all the clamps and some pins to help things stay where you put them. I am going to pay him an hourly rate to help. I simply don't have the right tools.
I also upgraded the crossover components and I now have everything except the sonotubes. We are starting the gluing process. I will assemble the crossovers into the base unit as soon as he has them built. I figure a month or two. Looking forward to it for sure.
I also upgraded the crossover components and I now have everything except the sonotubes. We are starting the gluing process. I will assemble the crossovers into the base unit as soon as he has them built. I figure a month or two. Looking forward to it for sure.
I suppose this doesn’t need saying, but be VERY careful when gluing, due to the large panel size, that you don’t allow the large flat panels to stick out beyond the edges of the pieces they are attached to. I made that mistake a few times. Lots of sanding. No hope of using the outer surface as part of the visible finished product.
