F6 gain issue

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I picked up on a curious thing when listening to the new Robert Plant album : carry fire. It sounded a bit subdued or veiled. The chain is squeezebox classic into AH-Lite dac into F6 into full range ERaudio electrostatics. This system has been in place for 3 years and never given cause to question.

I immediately thought I’d check the speakers/amp so put another dac in the system with headphone out and listened again. All was revealed with headphones, awesome, sparkling clarity. On track 6 in particular there is a rhythm on the ride cymbal that is repeated throughout. It was entirely missing with the F6 in the chain.

So the problem looks like it’s amp or speakers(yes I hadn’t forgotten I’d changed the dac). So I tried SB classic into AH-Lite into class D amp into electrostatics. All was revealed again, awesome, sparkling clarity.

So out came the F6 for some measurements:



It looks like there is consistent gain drop-off at 5khz and above. Has anybody got any thoughts about why this might be?. I hadn’t noticed it being shy at the top end before this.

maybe not enough welly for the capacitive load? but the measurements are from dummy 8R load(4x33R 10watts in parallel).
 

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irfp240 thingies

I hadn't worked out the db droppage from the voltages but was more concerned with why the cymbals weren't visible. I'm usually quite aware of losses at the top end of the kit having been recording for years....but this had escaped me with the F6, so I thought it might be a recent problem......

I hope it hasn't been a problem with the F6 since day 1...it points to my ears being too old...let's not go there
 
I'm suspecting a synergy issue then..... I will have to try the F6 with other speakers......

I have ariel 6 and tqwp with fostex 206 immediately to hand, so should be able to vindicate the F6 if it's not to blame.

Although I haven't listened to this system much over the last couple of years I should have picked this up much earlier......maybe it's time to take up knitting or train spotting.

thanks chaps

I'm good up to 14K5 , with squawker right in my face
if your talking about your ears MZM then you beat me by about 3khz
 
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I'm good up to 14K5 , with squawker right in my face
go figure

(telephone range , here I come :rofl: )

Identical Test results for me with an Audiologist.. headphones and their sealed test chamber.
Fairly normal results, I was reassured, for most human males of ~ 60 yrs who haven't worked in an industrial environment (undamaged hearing)
Yet I can certainly hear crystaline cymbal sounds on my amp / speakers.

Something is amiss.
 
don't panic guys, all is now calm again.

I put the F6 back in the studio system....chain is echo layla into dac-ah lite into F6 into ariel 6 and the sound is back to sublime....on the troublesome Robert Plant album all is as I think it should be and the cymbals are back on track 6.

My naive take on this is that the F6 cannot drive or is unhappy with full range electrostatics like the eraudio offerings...

c'est pas la mort d'homme!
 
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