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Sand-filled Baffle Epiphany!

Crestwood23 said:
Hmm I don't see any built-in stand thingies?



Haven't played DSOTM yet, but I agree that it would probably be face-melting... I'll have to try it. I do know that The Kinks "Milk Cow Blues" in mono sounds like Ray Davies is standing between the speakers.



Great info GT, thanks for this. Really fascinating history, and interesting connection with KEF. I finally came up for air, but not by choice! My Blueberry started to develop a noisy right channel - looks like a resistor replacement is in order. In the meantime I swapped in my Macintosh C26 pre and the poor thing just can't hold a candle to the Blueberry, I've been spoiled! Hopefully the repair won't take long so I can get back to business.
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Ouch. That sucks. I want one of those. It'll be tough, but hopefully I'll run across a used one. How old is yours? Did you buy it new or used? I'm trying to decide the best approach, as the new price is pretty-steep, and I don't know what updates changes have been made since then. I wish I could just run that with my 800C, but such is life. I want it though. But I still need a tube power amp to go with it. It's tough saving for two fairly-high-cost items that you have to buy separately, and you can't use one without the other. I have enough for a reasonably-priced 8b and MAYBE a used Blueberry (but not both), but maybe not QUITE enough for a new one. I can do this, but it's tough, and I know I'm probably gonna' get hit with refurbing & tubes costs on the Marantz. I should just get the Blueberry first (That'll push me to get the amp more than the other way around, as the power amp side may well be a two-phase plan). I just wish I had a suitable power amp for the Blueberry while I shop for an 8b.

So, yours is the Blueberry Xtreme? Was there a regular Blueberry, or just the Xtreme?

I'm like a little kid when I window-shop. I overthink everything and obsess the whole time.
 
Doesn't that inner frame part fold out so you can tilt them back? I thought it did. I could be wrong.
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GD70 said:
How far are you from Woodbury Commons?
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About 40min away. Cmon down!

RS Steve said:
Very nice Wharfies you have there, I need to finish my quad 57's and see how they sound. I can't believe they have sat here this long without me being able to try them out. I'd love to hear your SFB's, they must be really rare.
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Thanks Steve! The 57's are def on my "speakers to hear before I die" list - I am very curious how the compare to the SFBs. Would love to hear your impressions when you get them up and running.

Gang-Twanger said:
Ouch. That sucks. I want one of those. It'll be tough, but hopefully I'll run across a used one. How old is yours? Did you buy it new or used? I'm trying to decide the best approach, as the new price is pretty-steep, and I don't know what updates changes have been made since then. I wish I could just run that with my 800C, but such is life. I want it though. But I still need a tube power amp to go with it. It's tough saving for two fairly-high-cost items that you have to buy separately, and you can't use one without the other. I have enough for a reasonably-priced 8b and MAYBE a used Blueberry (but not both), but maybe not QUITE enough for a new one. I can do this, but it's tough, and I know I'm probably gonna' get hit with refurbing & tubes costs on the Marantz. I should just get the Blueberry first (That'll push me to get the amp more than the other way around, as the power amp side may well be a two-phase plan). I just wish I had a suitable power amp for the Blueberry while I shop for an 8b.

So, yours is the Blueberry Xtreme? Was there a regular Blueberry, or just the Xtreme?

I'm like a little kid when I window-shop. I overthink everything and obsess the whole time.
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Not sure of the exact age of mine, but I guess you'd call it "second generation" (2000's?) - the first gen had the crazy blue faceplate, second had black, and third had brushed aluminum. I bought mine used off the local craigslist, and have since sent it into Mark Deneen (the designer) for the full "maxim mod" package he offered for a short time before going into full retirement. They are no longer being made so used is your only bet.
Mine is the "xtreme" model, I think there was a regular Bluberry sans xtreme, might have been without a phono stage but I could be wrong.
I ran the BB with my fisher x101st integrated for a while with nice results, so I wouldn't hesitate to take the plunge on a nice used BB and try it with your Fisher, you just end up running signal through two pres (very nice sounding ones at that). My motivation for doing that was to benefit from the superior phono stage of the BB, and to connect a second SS amp for the LF of my JBL L300s. I would match the HF levels with the vol control of the x101 to the SS LF amp, then use the BB as a master volume.

Gang-Twanger said:
Doesn't that inner frame part fold out so you can tilt them back? I thought it did. I could be wrong.
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Nope, no movable inner frame. That would be cool though!
 
Yeah, I saw that. Bummer he's retired. I would have bought a new one. The Blueberry Xtreme has just the kind of voicing I want. I wish it had a headphone input though. That would have been perfect.

So, you can still do that? Run a standalone tube preamp into a tube Fisher receiver without it totally-compromising the sound? I figured you had just used it with the 8b (Wish I could use THAT with the Fisher's pre, but I'm pretty sure I can't. A used Blueberry is not gonna' be easy to find, based on the fact that it was just him building the things. I'll have to keep an eye out, and when one comes along, just grab it fast. Since it's a preamp, I can tube-roll later if it doesn't have the kind of tubes that would suit me. Used would be better though, as it'll be considerably-less than what I figured I would have to spend. I love how the Blueberry is tube-rectified.

Who knows. My head is spinning. I wanna do some speaker-shopping too. Maybe I'll set my Denton reissues for a week and finish burning them in. I'm itching for some variety (I don't have the room for two setups, and I don't like hooking up two pairs of speakers up to the Fisher at the same time, so setting up the Dentons means pulling the W90's off duty, and I hate the idea... It's okay though... I don't plan on ever selling the Dentons, so plenty of time to enjoy them... I bet they would be great with the Blueberry and the right solid-state power amp).
 
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Gang-Twanger said:
So, you can still do that? Run a standalone tube preamp into a tube Fisher receiver without it totally-compromising the sound? I figured you had just used it with the 8b (Wish I could use THAT with the Fisher's pre, but I'm pretty sure I can't. A used Blueberry is not gonna' be easy to find, based on the fact that it was just him building the things. I'll have to keep an eye out, and when one comes along, just grab it fast.
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Yup, you can do that. Sounded great with my X-101ST+Crown. Can't do the other way around though - Fisher receiver as a pre for the 8b. The BB Xtreme does show up now and then used so don't give up hope.
 
I'm so glad you got these. Congratulations!!! I was in Clifton NJ two weekends ago visiting my daughter... and was tempted to crash your place so I could lay my ears on them. Enjoy

Wayne
 
portnoy said:
I'm so glad you got these. Congratulations!!! I was in Clifton NJ two weekends ago visiting my daughter... and was tempted to crash your place so I could lay my ears on them. Enjoy

Wayne
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Thanks Wayne! Let me know next time you're in town and we can set up an SFB play date! :)
 
So I posted on local CL that I have W40s for sale. The only picture I had of them on my phone was with the W40s sitting on top of my two pairs of W90s. A few days after posting I get a random text in a bar "I see you are a Wharfedale collector, are you looking for the holy grail?" After I calmed down from laughing, I pretty much figured they were offering SFB3s. Unfortunately they want $1500 for the pair, but apparently they are near mint and all foam is intact. Anyone wanna loan a Wharfeholic some dough? lol
 
Progducer said:
So I posted on local CL that I have W40s for sale. The only picture I had of them on my phone was with the W40s sitting on top of my two pairs of W90s. A few days after posting I get a random text in a bar "I see you are a Wharfedale collector, are you looking for the holy grail?" After I calmed down from laughing, I pretty much figured they were offering SFB3s. Unfortunately they want $1500 for the pair, but apparently they are near mint and all foam is intact. Anyone wanna loan a Wharfeholic some dough? lol
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So you are in the PDX SW Hills - we could be neighbors . . . .
 
Zonker92 said:
This thread reminds me: Boy, Gang-Twanger sure has fallen off the map: he hasn't posted since last December. Hope he's OK.
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There's been quite a few GT laments and well wishings tucked away here. A rumor is that he posted on another audio site last year and said that his computer had fried and he'd be offline for a while. I can't speak for everyone, but I can't imagine without a computer for nearly a year.

Biggles
 
I have the chance to get only one SFB and it has been re-foamed (with foam surrounds). Should I get it? I don't think it will be expensive, if anything at all.
 
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