Doc Zinger
Well-Known Member
Modest components, great sound!
New to forum, but have followed site for a few years. Found alot of good info here and seen some excellent systems.
Here is my system: Have been working on it for 30+ yrs in one way, shape, or combination. The oldest component is the main speakers, I made these in the mid '70s using parts and plans from a now defunct Seattle company, Speakerlab. Went way past the mininum specs they called for in the cabinets, alot more wall thickness and weight (250# each) bass 10" and 12", 24" alum mid range horn, an Electro voice tweeter, modeled them to look like Altec # 19s. All drivers coated with plasti Clay to dampen.
Next oldest the sub bass speakers. 15" JBL drives, cabinets 1" MDF board 2 layers on 5 sides single ply on driver baffle (265# each) Don't buy the idea of a single sub bass so I built 2 speakers. Also like lots of mass to keep things from moving around.
Have used different electronics over the years, amps-from 2 SWTP Tigersaris kits (a true bag kit if there ever was one) Heath 1640AA, 2 Hafler 500s, 2 Sherwood 6040s, to what I have now 4 Harman Kardon Citation 22s and 2 Parasound HCA 750As.
Preamp- from Dynaco PAT5, Sherwood 6020, HK 21, Audio Research LS3 with Cambridge 540 phono preamp, to what I have now a Classe DR5.
Went to active crossovers quite a few years ago with 1st a Rane AC23 and added a Audio Control Richter Scale when I added the subs. I wanted to get rid of the passive crossover and wire the speakers a straight shot from the amps, the extra interconnects are the only drawback to this set up. The 6 stereo amps are combined either in mono or each channel to one driver in the stero mode. So far I haven't blown anything and I've played this system as loud as humanely possible, sometime you just need an audio overload fix!
Seems to me the system sounds great at soft, low levels all the way to as loud as you can take, just great sound on any type of music, no overloads, clipping or distortion. Don't think I did anything great to do this just kept trying to improve anyway I could, just lucked out. Guess a stopped clock is right twice a day.
At low level I used Sue Raneys' song "Emily" to check different changes. You can hear the fingers slide across the bass strings with a dead silent background. Like Rolling Stones "Missing You" or PFs' "Time" to check the loud stuff. "Time" seems to move the 15" driver about 3/4" or more but the HK amp in mono seems to be able to control it!
Rest of system: turntable NAD 5120 with alot of tweeks
CD player Cambridge 640c.
Just a simple system with low priced components, but tried to get the most bang out of each change without shelling out too many bucks.
New to forum, but have followed site for a few years. Found alot of good info here and seen some excellent systems.
Here is my system: Have been working on it for 30+ yrs in one way, shape, or combination. The oldest component is the main speakers, I made these in the mid '70s using parts and plans from a now defunct Seattle company, Speakerlab. Went way past the mininum specs they called for in the cabinets, alot more wall thickness and weight (250# each) bass 10" and 12", 24" alum mid range horn, an Electro voice tweeter, modeled them to look like Altec # 19s. All drivers coated with plasti Clay to dampen.
Next oldest the sub bass speakers. 15" JBL drives, cabinets 1" MDF board 2 layers on 5 sides single ply on driver baffle (265# each) Don't buy the idea of a single sub bass so I built 2 speakers. Also like lots of mass to keep things from moving around.
Have used different electronics over the years, amps-from 2 SWTP Tigersaris kits (a true bag kit if there ever was one) Heath 1640AA, 2 Hafler 500s, 2 Sherwood 6040s, to what I have now 4 Harman Kardon Citation 22s and 2 Parasound HCA 750As.
Preamp- from Dynaco PAT5, Sherwood 6020, HK 21, Audio Research LS3 with Cambridge 540 phono preamp, to what I have now a Classe DR5.
Went to active crossovers quite a few years ago with 1st a Rane AC23 and added a Audio Control Richter Scale when I added the subs. I wanted to get rid of the passive crossover and wire the speakers a straight shot from the amps, the extra interconnects are the only drawback to this set up. The 6 stereo amps are combined either in mono or each channel to one driver in the stero mode. So far I haven't blown anything and I've played this system as loud as humanely possible, sometime you just need an audio overload fix!
Seems to me the system sounds great at soft, low levels all the way to as loud as you can take, just great sound on any type of music, no overloads, clipping or distortion. Don't think I did anything great to do this just kept trying to improve anyway I could, just lucked out. Guess a stopped clock is right twice a day.
At low level I used Sue Raneys' song "Emily" to check different changes. You can hear the fingers slide across the bass strings with a dead silent background. Like Rolling Stones "Missing You" or PFs' "Time" to check the loud stuff. "Time" seems to move the 15" driver about 3/4" or more but the HK amp in mono seems to be able to control it!
Rest of system: turntable NAD 5120 with alot of tweeks
CD player Cambridge 640c.
Just a simple system with low priced components, but tried to get the most bang out of each change without shelling out too many bucks.
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