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First Time Crossover Build

jaymanaa said:
In the interest of interjecting a little humor into this thread. I'm posting a pic of my kitchen table (I have two amps in pieces on my workbench so I was forced upstairs). I didn't realize it was this messy untill my wife hollered down that dinner was ready, but she didn't know where we were gonna eat it. :D Boy does she love me :no: BTW- After only about an hour of playtime, most of the grain is gone. :thmbsp:
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Thats not to bad, wait till you really start running out of space and your bed starts to look like that!

Russellc
 
Hey Russellc, Recycler27 is in the neighborhood as well. We've been trying to hook up for some listening as well. Let's make it happen :thmbsp:

Altec A7s and a homebrew 6550 :scratch2: You have my attention :D
 
Well, I finally finished this thing. :banana: After the kitchen table disaster, the little woman went on the "get your crap down in the basement or that's where you'll be sleeping" warpath. Being the upstanding fellar that I am, I put the project on hold, and helped with some cleaning chores. :D Then I got the flue from hell and allmost died three times. :puke: Anyhow, I was off today so I spent some time at the ol' workbench. I'm going to put the whole system together tomorrow and burn this in, as well as some tubes. It should be a big day of experimenting. :drool: If anyone would like to stop in, just pm me for directions. I have a couple questions I thought I'd throw out here instead of starting more threads. I vaguely remember reading something about cleaning the "diaphram" area on altec drivers. Is this something I should do with these older 511/902s? Also, how long should I expect it to take for the caps in this network to settle in before I start to worry that it sounds like ass? Thanks, and suggestions on tweeking horns are ALLWAYS welcome, Jay

BTW- AK ROCKS :thmbsp: And no, that iron won't light a smoke. :no:
 
Jay, that is absolutely the most over the top, anal, beautiful, artistic crossover I have ever seen. Crossovers are usually ugly things that are to be permanently hidden deep in the bowels of a speaker, covered with insulation, and never to see the light of day for 25 years or more.

This is truly a magnificent display piece!

:thmbsp:
 
Well gosh, Thanks for the kind words. I'm sorta crazed by this whole DIY thing. I've restored old cars, done nitro model boats, and even built my own house, but this DIY audio just really trips my trigger. The photos are quite forgiving I'm sure, but it did turn out better than I expected. :D I'm up late now working on the grill frames for the bass horns. This is one of those things, that you wish you could do for a living, but then your glad you don't cause it would ruin the fun. :thmbsp: I can't wait to get it all hooked up, and just sit back with a good strong cup of coffee and a smoke, with my feet up on something, and wear out a stylus or two. :thmbsp:
 
The crossovers look GREAT, Jay! :thmbsp: I think it's gonna take some serious screwing up to get this system to sound like ASS, from the look of things :D
jaymanaa said:
... It should be a big day of experimenting. :drool: If anyone would like to stop in, just pm me for directions... :
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I need a little more lead time to get to your place... :no: :sigh:
 
ozmoid said:
The crossovers look GREAT, Jay! :thmbsp: I think it's gonna take some serious screwing up to get this system to sound like ASS, from the look of things :D

I need a little more lead time to get to your place... :no: :sigh:
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The door's allways open, and there's plenty of room for your partner in crime, Mr. Fotno. :thmbsp:
 
Jay, the test CD I sent you... set the volume so that you can just barely hear the first few bars of the opening, so that you have to almost lean forward and strain to hear it.

Then sit back and grab onto the arms of your chair.

Put your feet up.

Close your eyes.
 
jaymanaa said:
The door's allways open, and there's plenty of room for your partner in crime, Mr. Fotno. :thmbsp:
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:lmao: :lmao: OH, if you only knew... :D

Sounds like Paul has set you up right on the "test cd" (he he he) - have fun! :thmbsp:
 
The CD is the Holst: The Planets... opening with Mars, Bringer of War. Conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

This is a great test for imaging and just about everything else.
 
I must echo Paul's sentiment and say "Excellent!" :thmbsp:

C-burns.png
 
Thanks Celt.

Well, I got the whole darn mess wauded up in one pile. :D I took some time and made some nifty speaker cables with the ends tinned, and even measured out equal amounts of popcorn for the driver rests. I'm using the trusty ol' Marantz CD 50 for a source, and running it through a HK TP200 preamp which was recently freshened up with NOS JAN Sylvy 12AT7s and NOS Mil Surplus WE Caps. I might add here that I've never thought to much of the HK pre, but it's the only tube pre I have. That signal is running through some Parasomethings, running Phillips JAN 6922s and 1945 issue JAN RCA dual plate 2A3s. All the testing was done at just under 1 watt (which was enough to cause the wife to retreat to the bedroom upstairs). :D The 511s were pretty grainy for about the first two hours, so I turned the Lpad way down. They have since smoothed out, and the Lpad is up to about 10 oclock. I'm better at talking about gear, than explaining what I hear, but I'll give it a shot. I guess maybe it's warm, but it's not thick or muddy at all. The seperation of channels is quite good, and they are even with the balance knob centered FWIW. I guess I would say it's like there is more music in the same time frame. While playing Sam Bush (my favorite Mandoline player) I heard a ticking which I thought might have been an issue with the CD drive, but it turned out to be the noise his pick was making when it would come off the string. The background singers could be heard much more clearly than before. Little things have come more to the front of the music, may be a good way to say it. I guess I won't give up my day job to become a critic, but in my words, "I like it a bunch". I think I'll run it a few more hours with the 2A3s, then bump the power up a bit with some 300Bs. Then if the Missus ain't screamin, I'll try the SET EL 34s. In all reallity though, this whole deal has got me thinking more and more about a 45 or 46 amp., as 1 watt on these horns is enough for me 90% of the time I think. Thanks Again to all who have had the patience to help me see this through, :thmbsp: Jay

BTW- The hounds like it too!
 
Amazing work Jay. Just outstanding. You set a high bar for the DIY forum!

One question on your set up- do you have the speakers far enough apart to get good imaging? It's hard for me to get a good sense of scale because they are much larger than anything I've owned.

Take care,

Ed
 
Thanks Eddie, The short answer is probably not. The room I have in set up in is 25 feet long (which seems barely ok), but that door limits my useable width. :thumbsdn: I thought about re-locating the door eventually, but the wife is talking about maybe moving. I'm not really sure what "imaging" is. Maybe someone could explain that term as well as transients (I allways thought they were the guys working at the Ready Help place). :D

I've been looking at the Db meters too. :thmbsp:
 
Just finished one of the gorillas. Figured I'd better post a pic :D It's a Fender tweed repro material that PE sells. Kinda hard to work with, but it looks ok, and I like the fact that it's semi-transparent which lets you see the big 15. :thmbsp:

BTW- The "Wheat" color was a no-brainer with me being in Kansas :D
 
Imaging is a speaker system's ability to precisely place the various performers in the soundstage. When you close your eyes you can point and say, that trumpet player is right THERE. That singer is right THERE. Etc.
 
While playing Sam Bush (my favorite Mandoline player) I heard a ticking which I thought might have been an issue with the CD drive, but it turned out to be the noise his pick was making when it would come off the string.

THAT is the kind of thing good horns do better than any other type of speaker. The bassist's fingers zipping on the strings, not just the cymbals, but the tap of the stick on the cymbals. And even things like chairs creaking, sheet music rustling, key noise, coughs in the audience. A "live", "you are there" experience.

And the music all sounds that much better!
 
Paul explained imaging well. You should play with moving the speakers out even though you're blocking the door just for experimentation. My short definition of imaging: it's what DCMs do. If you're ever in Denver I'll give you a demo!

Take care,

Ed
 
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