There has been some discussion going on about the Replikon BLH design by Klangform Akustik.
I have build a pair of their DIY designs:
The picture shows my advanced setup for tuning the volume of the compression chamber. More pictures of the build process can be found here: Replikon
Some construction details:
I used 21mm birchply (15 layers). At the top of the enclosure extra pieces of birchply are added to be able to create a nice rounded of edge. To strenghten the joints of the side panels I used 180 dowels per enclosure. All voids are filled with fine sand (about 35Kg per enclosure).
The result:
At first I was shocked because all the 'over the top' low-mid of the Schmacks BLH was gone. It took some time to get used to this. This may be hard too believe but the Replikon sounds more like an ESL than a BLH.
Now for the big question: Does the 'resonance method' work?
I can affirm that it does, not only that but the changes are amazing. For my amplifier and room I had to reduce the volume by about 5L (the exact amount will be determined lateron).
For the first tuning test I put on 'The guide' by Youssou N'Dour, released the clothpins and sat down and listened. At the beginning the soundstage seems 2D and a little harsh. This slowly changes until at some point I jumped up to stop the flow of water. The soundstage becomes 3D and the harshness is gone. The stage is now unbounded, it seems like the enclosures and walls have dissapeared.
Because I found the mid a bit to pronounced I added a parallel notch filter as used with the Jericho BLH. This was just what the doctor ordered.
I have build a pair of their DIY designs:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
The picture shows my advanced setup for tuning the volume of the compression chamber. More pictures of the build process can be found here: Replikon
Some construction details:
I used 21mm birchply (15 layers). At the top of the enclosure extra pieces of birchply are added to be able to create a nice rounded of edge. To strenghten the joints of the side panels I used 180 dowels per enclosure. All voids are filled with fine sand (about 35Kg per enclosure).
The result:
At first I was shocked because all the 'over the top' low-mid of the Schmacks BLH was gone. It took some time to get used to this. This may be hard too believe but the Replikon sounds more like an ESL than a BLH.
Now for the big question: Does the 'resonance method' work?
I can affirm that it does, not only that but the changes are amazing. For my amplifier and room I had to reduce the volume by about 5L (the exact amount will be determined lateron).
For the first tuning test I put on 'The guide' by Youssou N'Dour, released the clothpins and sat down and listened. At the beginning the soundstage seems 2D and a little harsh. This slowly changes until at some point I jumped up to stop the flow of water. The soundstage becomes 3D and the harshness is gone. The stage is now unbounded, it seems like the enclosures and walls have dissapeared.
Because I found the mid a bit to pronounced I added a parallel notch filter as used with the Jericho BLH. This was just what the doctor ordered.
Very nice indeed. I can't say I'm surprised that you find they work well -like all BVRs, the Replikon is essentially a reflex box with a very large vent. My own prototype BVR style cabinets (albeit double-mouthed) showed similar imaging traits -dial them in right, and they vanish, leaving a panoramic soundstage.
Ahem....Intresting idea about tuning the CC volume, can you pls detail:
- What kind of "beach ball" do you mean i.e. how do you let the air flow out while pouring water ?
- After tuning the CC volume, how do you remove that ball ? The cabinet looks finished with no way to access the CC.
Nice cabinet btw,
Florian
- What kind of "beach ball" do you mean i.e. how do you let the air flow out while pouring water ?
- After tuning the CC volume, how do you remove that ball ? The cabinet looks finished with no way to access the CC.
Nice cabinet btw,
Florian
FlorianO,
I used an inflatable beach ball (50cm diameter), the kind kids play with. The ball is completely empty to begin with, so there is no air to displace. Put the watering can on top and the water will flow into the ball. If you go too far you put the can on the floor and the ball will empty itself.
After I have determined the correct volume the ball is removed through the driver hole and something else will be used to reduce the volume. I was thinking of half spheres made of styrofoam.
Removing and mounting the driver is real easy, the fit is near perfect.
I used an inflatable beach ball (50cm diameter), the kind kids play with. The ball is completely empty to begin with, so there is no air to displace. Put the watering can on top and the water will flow into the ball. If you go too far you put the can on the floor and the ball will empty itself.
After I have determined the correct volume the ball is removed through the driver hole and something else will be used to reduce the volume. I was thinking of half spheres made of styrofoam.
Removing and mounting the driver is real easy, the fit is near perfect.
Adjusting the chamber volume you mean? Of course. Thing to remember about cabinets of this type is that they are all basically variations on the BR or MLTL theme (depending on whether you design the back chamber from a QW or helmholtz perspective). So you can treat them as you would a small-vent variation, and shape the response to taste by altering Vb.
Hi Peter,
Yes, it is a DIY project. I wanted to build my own 'high end' SET and came up with this.
The description can be found here:
SiTuIT
Extended specification are here:
Specifications
The amp has a voltage gain of 0.5! It is specifically designed to be driven by a high output DAC like my Benchmark DAC1. The input transformer is directly connected to the grid of the 300B.
The chassis was designed to minimize the footprint and maximize the distance between the AC transformer and the amplifier itself. The chassis is 12cm wide, 30cm deep and 42 cm high (without the 300B).
All the attention to the power supply really paid off, the hum & noise on the output is -84dBV or 55µV.
Yes, it is a DIY project. I wanted to build my own 'high end' SET and came up with this.
The description can be found here:
SiTuIT
Extended specification are here:
Specifications
The amp has a voltage gain of 0.5! It is specifically designed to be driven by a high output DAC like my Benchmark DAC1. The input transformer is directly connected to the grid of the 300B.
The chassis was designed to minimize the footprint and maximize the distance between the AC transformer and the amplifier itself. The chassis is 12cm wide, 30cm deep and 42 cm high (without the 300B).
All the attention to the power supply really paid off, the hum & noise on the output is -84dBV or 55µV.
Hi Till,
It took a couple of days to get used to the absence of 'false bass' and cabinet resonances. As I said earlier, the sound of the Replikon is more like an ESL than a horn. Last weekend I was visiting my good friend Lars who has a set of Audiostatic full range ESLs so I could compare the sound to what I get from my system. Turns out that what I thought were colorations by my system were in fact already in the recording.
Two examples:
Wiri-Wiri by Youssou N'Dour has some accented bass notes which I thought were room or enclosure resonances but the accent is the same on the ESLs.
Arabian Dance, Peer Gynt (Edo de Waart, Elly Ameling). Colorations I attributed to the Fostex driver could also be heard on the ESLs, so I figure they're already in the recording.
Some other things I noticed:
On some recordings of the Jam there are ambient sounds at the start of the song (subway, street). This results in a strange effect when the enormous space collapses to the very compact sound of the band (also happens on the ESLs).
Choirs are much, much better than before.
All this does not mean that the system has lost its punch, Rammstein, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Underworld sound even better than before.
All in all I'm very pleased with the result so far. One more thing I want to try is to put phase plugs on the Fostex (I have two pairs).
It took a couple of days to get used to the absence of 'false bass' and cabinet resonances. As I said earlier, the sound of the Replikon is more like an ESL than a horn. Last weekend I was visiting my good friend Lars who has a set of Audiostatic full range ESLs so I could compare the sound to what I get from my system. Turns out that what I thought were colorations by my system were in fact already in the recording.
Two examples:
Wiri-Wiri by Youssou N'Dour has some accented bass notes which I thought were room or enclosure resonances but the accent is the same on the ESLs.
Arabian Dance, Peer Gynt (Edo de Waart, Elly Ameling). Colorations I attributed to the Fostex driver could also be heard on the ESLs, so I figure they're already in the recording.
Some other things I noticed:
On some recordings of the Jam there are ambient sounds at the start of the song (subway, street). This results in a strange effect when the enormous space collapses to the very compact sound of the band (also happens on the ESLs).
Choirs are much, much better than before.
All this does not mean that the system has lost its punch, Rammstein, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Underworld sound even better than before.
All in all I'm very pleased with the result so far. One more thing I want to try is to put phase plugs on the Fostex (I have two pairs).
Hi Till,
I assume you have seen my Refining the Replikon page?
The phase plugs are very good for reducing the sibilance (most noticeable effect). I didn't really take the time to listen to all the less noticeable improvements as I went straight ahead with EnABLing the Fostex. This is something you absolutely have to try. It's difficult to exactly describe what it does, like trying to describe the taste of chocolate. It reminds me of the difference between 44.1KHz/16bit and 96Khz/24bit digital. Apropos digital, I dumped the passive notch filter and, lo and behold, inserted a Behringer SRC24966 sample rate converter and a DEQ2496 mastering processor between the DVD/CD player and the DAC1.
The response is now within2.5dB from 1Khz to 16KHz and the room nodes are also taken care of. I checked the phase response with the Clio system and it is even a little bit better than before. I used the Clio system to tune the eq and the eq was only used to cut peaks in the response, never to boost dips. Caveat: The resolution of the built in analyser of the DEQ is not high enough for this (1/3oct).
I'm very pleased with the overall result, hopefully I will still feel the same way after I get back from the European Triode Festival starting just now
I assume you have seen my Refining the Replikon page?
The phase plugs are very good for reducing the sibilance (most noticeable effect). I didn't really take the time to listen to all the less noticeable improvements as I went straight ahead with EnABLing the Fostex. This is something you absolutely have to try. It's difficult to exactly describe what it does, like trying to describe the taste of chocolate. It reminds me of the difference between 44.1KHz/16bit and 96Khz/24bit digital. Apropos digital, I dumped the passive notch filter and, lo and behold, inserted a Behringer SRC24966 sample rate converter and a DEQ2496 mastering processor between the DVD/CD player and the DAC1.
The response is now within2.5dB from 1Khz to 16KHz and the room nodes are also taken care of. I checked the phase response with the Clio system and it is even a little bit better than before. I used the Clio system to tune the eq and the eq was only used to cut peaks in the response, never to boost dips. Caveat: The resolution of the built in analyser of the DEQ is not high enough for this (1/3oct).
I'm very pleased with the overall result, hopefully I will still feel the same way after I get back from the European Triode Festival starting just now
Dear GerritHi Till,
I assume you have seen my Refining the Replikon page?
The phase plugs are very good for reducing the sibilance (most noticeable effect). I didn't really take the time to listen to all the less noticeable improvements as I went straight ahead with EnABLing the Fostex. This is something you absolutely have to try. It's difficult to exactly describe what it does, like trying to describe the taste of chocolate. It reminds me of the difference between 44.1KHz/16bit and 96Khz/24bit digital. Apropos digital, I dumped the passive notch filter and, lo and behold, inserted a Behringer SRC24966 sample rate converter and a DEQ2496 mastering processor between the DVD/CD player and the DAC1.
The response is now within2.5dB from 1Khz to 16KHz and the room nodes are also taken care of. I checked the phase response with the Clio system and it is even a little bit better than before. I used the Clio system to tune the eq and the eq was only used to cut peaks in the response, never to boost dips. Caveat: The resolution of the built in analyser of the DEQ is not high enough for this (1/3oct).
I'm very pleased with the overall result, hopefully I will still feel the same way after I get back from the European Triode Festival starting just now
Thanks for your good work on the Replikon. I tried opening the link to your page "Refining the Replikon" but could not load the page. I am interested in building this loud speaker.
Karel Gerrit Mars
I had a website but I removed it years ago. There are no plans of the version I made and I wouldn't know if the original plans are still available.
P.S. My current system is an active multi-way dipole.
Hi Planet10
I build 2A3 and KT88 single ended amplifiers, and my Jericho horns are too big for the room I use for music listening. The replikon seems may satisfy my horn cravings.
I have a pair of FE166En full range drivers.
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