Just for a lark, try a single pair of strands from a piece of CAT5 (solid prefered) and report back.
dave
dave
Okay, I think I understand where this is going. We are going to experience some beneficial line loss. Now that is something I would not have considered.
that parallel cap...?
any reason that wouldn't benefit the Castle microtowers ( 2 x EL70 in series)?
as reported elsewhere, I finally got my finished Tubelab Simple P/P (thanks, Daniel) plugged in yesterday, and these speakers just love the extra power and "balls" of the pentode amp - so of course it's got me thinking (strictly for scientific purposes) about how much louder they can safely play
any reason that wouldn't benefit the Castle microtowers ( 2 x EL70 in series)?
as reported elsewhere, I finally got my finished Tubelab Simple P/P (thanks, Daniel) plugged in yesterday, and these speakers just love the extra power and "balls" of the pentode amp - so of course it's got me thinking (strictly for scientific purposes) about how much louder they can safely play
One of the reasons i was saying yesterday that we needed to get a stock of big Solen 250V in, so we could try that on the microTowers
dave
dave
Hey Dave!!!
It worked. Took the edge off. There was also a bit of distracting "snap" in the percussion that is gone as well. I made a fairly decent pair of cables up with some larger 16 ga. "helper" wires at the ends, solder, shrink tube and zip ties so I could actually use them for awhile. What does this tell me about my amp?
Erik
It worked. Took the edge off. There was also a bit of distracting "snap" in the percussion that is gone as well. I made a fairly decent pair of cables up with some larger 16 ga. "helper" wires at the ends, solder, shrink tube and zip ties so I could actually use them for awhile. What does this tell me about my amp?
Erik
Either....
1/ the little bit of extra R helped pull the amp out of running in the cross-over zone
2/ damping factor is too high
3/ thin solid core high purity copper wire is better (in your case) than big fat stranded wire
or some combination of the above. If you can use the bare ends of the CAT5 starnds you'll likely be better off.
Now you can see what happens if you change the internal wiring.
dave
1/ the little bit of extra R helped pull the amp out of running in the cross-over zone
2/ damping factor is too high
3/ thin solid core high purity copper wire is better (in your case) than big fat stranded wire
or some combination of the above. If you can use the bare ends of the CAT5 starnds you'll likely be better off.
Now you can see what happens if you change the internal wiring.
dave
1/ the little bit of extra R helped pull the amp out of running in the cross-over zone
So more of the amps resources are devoted to delivering clean highs? The problem with the shrill highs was there before I did any of the mods so I think the NAD is just a less than ideal match up with the EL70. But a $5 investment in cable seems to have cured the problem, which frankly blows my mind😱
2/ damping factor is too high
This I take it is something inherent in the topology of the amp. I think that is the case. Be great if Chrisb has the time to report on how his castle towers like his new Tubelab simple pp.
3/ thin solid core high purity copper wire is better (in your case) than big fat stranded wire
Seems to be the case. I can say that the tiny cables took care of the problem without causing new ones or affecting the pleasing aspects of these speakers. They are ready for prime time now. I could happily audition them to discerning audiophiles with my system though I'd like to try some different amplification with them.
So more of the amps resources are devoted to delivering clean highs? The problem with the shrill highs was there before I did any of the mods so I think the NAD is just a less than ideal match up with the EL70. But a $5 investment in cable seems to have cured the problem, which frankly blows my mind😱
2/ damping factor is too high
This I take it is something inherent in the topology of the amp. I think that is the case. Be great if Chrisb has the time to report on how his castle towers like his new Tubelab simple pp.
3/ thin solid core high purity copper wire is better (in your case) than big fat stranded wire
Seems to be the case. I can say that the tiny cables took care of the problem without causing new ones or affecting the pleasing aspects of these speakers. They are ready for prime time now. I could happily audition them to discerning audiophiles with my system though I'd like to try some different amplification with them.
I located a good classical station recently and the "Connies" do well with it. In fact, they are marvelous with fm radio in general.
So I'm pondering building another pair. I'd like to move the side drivers to the front of the cabinets, perhaps raising the front driver an inch and locating the second driver ( the one with the 68uF cap across it ) just below it. I could also fab up some baffle wings to attach to the sides of the cabinet to further balance the highs and lows. I think I would eliminate the ribbon tweeter that I added to the back because the EL70 has really good highs without it.
Then there is the simple se project that has been languishing. I need to finish that and see if it can push the Connies. I could bi amp using the NAD for the lower drivers and the se for the uppers. My pre is set up for that.
So I'm pondering building another pair. I'd like to move the side drivers to the front of the cabinets, perhaps raising the front driver an inch and locating the second driver ( the one with the 68uF cap across it ) just below it. I could also fab up some baffle wings to attach to the sides of the cabinet to further balance the highs and lows. I think I would eliminate the ribbon tweeter that I added to the back because the EL70 has really good highs without it.
Then there is the simple se project that has been languishing. I need to finish that and see if it can push the Connies. I could bi amp using the NAD for the lower drivers and the se for the uppers. My pre is set up for that.
Here's a final update. I installed a simple toggle switch on the terminal cups so I could switch off the super tweet and raise the impedance from just under 4 ohms to just under 8. Bingo, no more harshness in the highs.
What I learned from this is that incorporating the super tweet lowered the impedance to a point that made my amp sound shrill in the highs. I could have deduced this from Dave's suggestion to use the higher load cat5 wires.
So the super tweet caused problems that far outweighed the benefit from it.
It has been a good learning process for me.
What I learned from this is that incorporating the super tweet lowered the impedance to a point that made my amp sound shrill in the highs. I could have deduced this from Dave's suggestion to use the higher load cat5 wires.
So the super tweet caused problems that far outweighed the benefit from it.
It has been a good learning process for me.
- Status
- Not open for further replies.