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Another beast tamed...Acoustat Spectra 22

tomlinmgt

tomlinmgt

Lunatic Member
It took two and a half years, melting one panel, having the interface units rebuilt, exhaustive electronics swapping and getting the preamp out of the signal chain but I finally got a leash on the beasts...and man do they ever sound good. These are simply brilliant when you get the planets properly aligned and the "worthy of the fuss" box can finally be checked off. :yes:


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They look great Tom. Glad to hear you've got them working to your satisfaction.

How is the work on the IRS Beta's coming?

dj: IMO they need help down low. Mine came with the SPW-1 woofer box. However, I thought it wasn't up to the quality of the panels. I built a pair of TL sub woofers to use instead.
 
Congratulations! Did you melt a panel using a hair dryer to tension them? I have always been afraid to try this. What amp are you using? I went through quite a few myself before settling on either JRDG model 5 for SS or Ray Lumley M-100 tube mono's. Mine sound the best with tube amps but I use my Acoustats for HT and TV as well and I don't want to use up the tubes that fast.

What did you upgrade on the interfaces? I would like to upgrade mine this summer and get new spandex socks for them.
 
Beautiful work. Awesome system.

Was the softening of the image deliberate, to make it look like the photo was taken in the 1980s?
 
The panels are safe if you use a hair dryer on them. If you use a heat gun as I believe Tom mentioned in another post you're asking for trouble. I've been using an ordinary hair dryer on mine maybe twice a year since I bought (Spectra 22, Model 1) both pair.

Acoustat panels are robust enough that the panels can be washed in a tub with dish detergent.
 
I tried using a hair dryer on my Audiostatics but it did nothing, I had to step it up to an industrial heatgun for results. That's when the wrinkles just completely disappeared. I did manage to burn 2 small holes at the very top edge of the crappy older panel, too much confidence after doing the nice panel carefully. The mylar was in worse shape from a smokey home so it may have affected it's sensitivity to heat. (one is yellowish no relection, one is clear and reflective) It sounds fine still, but I'm going to be replacing both panels soon with thinner mylar anyways. Fussy speakers to say the least. Great you have your Acoustats working 100%. I've been eyeing for a cheap pair to play around with.
 
djnagle said:
Nice work as always T. Do they need help down low?
Click to expand...

Thanks Dennis.

Well, I suppose that depends on the listener and type of music you ask them to reproduce. They provide surprisingly good bass for panel speakers...a bit better than my MG-IIIa's...and since it's dipole bass it has that nicely balanced and musical character to it. Of course, there's no real slam like you get from a big cone driver and seeing as some feel the slam isn't important (or even desire having it) whether or not they need help down low would be subjective. For me...absolutley...but then again you know how I am about that distributed bass thing and with my DRC filtered subs its a glorious addition to what the Acoustats deliver.

By way of comparison, Evan (240sx4u) was in town on business last week and dropped by for a visit. He had a chance to listen to them (in their not quite optimum configuration) and immediately commented on how much more dynamic they are than his Quads...but also felt the addition of some LF support made a significant contribution, especially if playing music with strong first octave content.

But with that, I can turn the subs on and off via remote and from time to time I'll shut 'em down just to hear what the 22's can do on their own and I'm usually rather impressed with what I hear.
 
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JoeESP9 said:
They look great Tom. Glad to hear you've got them working to your satisfaction.

How is the work on the IRS Beta's coming?

dj: IMO they need help down low. Mine came with the SPW-1 woofer box. However, I thought it wasn't up to the quality of the panels. I built a pair of TL sub woofers to use instead.
Click to expand...

One project at a time (it's absurd that I actually just said that) and the Acoustats came before the Betas...so now that they've been conquered I can finally move on to the real beasts.
 
Congrats Michael- another notch in your audio belt! Once you have some "custom mades" to compete with it ought to be one hell of a show! Acoustats, Betas, Altec 19's, etc., etc "one project at a time" INDEED!
DC
 
carcrazy said:
Congratulations! Did you melt a panel using a hair dryer to tension them? I have always been afraid to try this. What amp are you using? I went through quite a few myself before settling on either JRDG model 5 for SS or Ray Lumley M-100 tube mono's. Mine sound the best with tube amps but I use my Acoustats for HT and TV as well and I don't want to use up the tubes that fast.

What did you upgrade on the interfaces? I would like to upgrade mine this summer and get new spandex socks for them.
Click to expand...

I tried the hair dryer which had no effect for me. I stepped up to an industrial heat gun and an infrared thermometer to monitor panel temperature and still no improvement (the Acoustat experts on DIYaudio said it could take around 200 F max to remove wrinkles). The location on the bass panel where the distortion was occurring was visibly wrinkled and a one day a friend (AKer mondialfan) was over and he applied some tension to the spot with the eraser end of a pencil and the distortion disappeared. I grabbed the heat gun and went after the wrinkles like a man possessed (actually, I was just a wee bit medicated on decongestants, flonase and a **** ton of caffeine) and before I knew it a four sqin section of panel looked like something in a Dali painting.

Finding effective amplification for these things has been tricky. For SS amps I've tried Soundcraftsmen MA5002, Aragon 8008, Hafler 500 (modded), Hafler XL600, and Threshold S/300. None of them ever "wowed" me and that's always been a source of great confusion...primarily because the amp that did "wow" me was the only tube amp I ever tried with them, a TAD-60 (with Gold Lion KT-88's switched to UL operation). Now the one thing I noticed with the TAD-60 was that it sounded best with the 22's with no preamp...just going direct into the TAD-60 from the DAC and using the output control on the amp for volume adjustments. Last night it occurred to me that I should try going directly into one of my SS amps (Threshold) from the DAC and just use the volume control on my laptop to throttle output. Viola!...there it was, FINALLY a SS amp sounds excellent with the 22's. I don't know what the preamp was doing (and I tried several different ones, SS and tube) to stand in the way but with the Acoustats it made a significant difference to remove it.

There's not much to upgrade in there except a cap for the 80Hz high pass filter and resistor...which both got upgraded. I also upgraded the high pass switch (since the circuit flows through it regardless of whether it's engaged or not) and plastic binding posts to gold units.
 
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dread31 said:
Beautiful work. Awesome system.

Was the softening of the image deliberate, to make it look like the photo was taken in the 1980s?
Click to expand...

Thank you.

Yes, inspired by my memories of early-80's vintage Penthouse magazine.
 
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Interesting your preamp was a source of such problems. My preamp is fairly noisy too and need to recap, was thinking of pulling it out of the chain to see what happens. At that point it would be only the computer controlling volume which makes me nervous.
 
tomlinmgt said:
Last night it occurred to me that I should try going directly into one of my SS amps (Threshold) from the DAC and just use the volume control on my laptop to throttle output. Viola!...there it was, FINALLY a SS amp sounds excellent with the 22's. I don't know what the preamp was doing (and I tried several different ones, SS and tube) to stand in the way but with the Acoustats it made a significant difference to remove it.
Click to expand...
As a long term Acoustat fan, I'm glad to hear you've got them back. I run 1+1s in the garage driven by a Stasis 3. Nelson Pass specifically designed them to handle the reactive load of a Dayton-Wright electrostat so they are a good match and have exceptional low level detail. Not sure about your preamps either as I have great success using an Audio Research SP9 MKIII.

I do use a sub crossed at 50 hz 24db/octave to supplement the bottom.
 
E-Stat said:
As a long term Acoustat fan, I'm glad to hear you've got them back. I run 1+1s in the garage driven by a Stasis 3. Nelson Pass specifically designed them to handle the reactive load of a Dayton-Wright electrostat so they are a good match and have exceptional low level detail. Not sure about your preamps either as I have great success using an Audio Research SP9 MKIII.

I do use a sub crossed at 50 hz 24db/octave to supplement the bottom.
Click to expand...

The preamp thing is very curious to me. I'm glad I figured out it was the issue, but sure would like to know why.

FTR, preamp models I tried with my 22's include Acurus RL11 (heavily modded and my current "go to" SS preamp), TAD-150 tube pre (very CJ-esque they say, if not perhaps a bit more detailed), ARC LS2B Mkii (hybrid), Hafler 110 (restored and modded) and Dared SL2000a.
 
I have a pair of X's with the original servo-tube amps. My experience with pre's kind of mirrors yours. I've gone through several SS pre's and they all sucked the life out of the speakers. I keep going back to my Norman Koren inspired/modded PAS3 tube pre. As noisy as the phono is, I just can't get over the dynamics and lifelike sound. On any other input it's dead silent and still brings digital sources to life.
 
tomlinmgt said:
By way of comparison, Evan (240sxru) was in town on business last week and dropped by for a visit. He had a chance to listen to them (in their not quite optimum configuration) and immediately commented on how much more dynamic they are than his Quads...but also felt the addition of some LF support made a significant contribution, especially if playing music with strong first octave bass content.
Click to expand...

The integration of bass in his rig is beyond description. I had absolutely no idea where the subwoofers were. This man knows his ****. Those acoustats are very impressive and I really enjoyed them. I'm curious to know what they sound like now though. :D

Thanks again for the visit buddy, hope we can do it again.
 
tomlinmgt said:
The preamp thing is very curious to me. I'm glad I figured out it was the issue, but sure would like to know why.

FTR, preamp models I tried with my 22's include Acurus RL11 (heavily modded and my current "go to" SS preamp), TAD-150 tube pre (very CJ-esque they say, if not perhaps a bit more detailed), ARC LS2B Mkii (hybrid), Hafler 110 (restored and modded) and Dared SL2000a.
Click to expand...


Just curious, did you ever try any different interconnects? By eliminating the pre you eliminated at least one pair in the signal chain.
 
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