audio-talk

Sometimes its what you dont hear which hits you later. I step out of all the complex discussions about speakers on here. But congratulations to Steve for balancing his speakers well in his home. I didnt hear the Air Motion Transformers and I didnt hear the compression tweeters. Above the deep bass I just heard the music not worrying what was behind the grill cloth. Thats not easy to achieve to the level of sensitivity of Lowthers.

Dave showed me his phase traces and frequency response traces. like his casework: flawless.

Paul Barker wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 5:49 am Dave showed me his phase traces and frequency response traces. like his casework: flawless.

Thanks Paul, as best as I could on a phone, these are the traces in question, pretty close to the Spice model prediction.

Well, I'd like to join everyone else in thanking Steve for hosting a most enjoyable event - and for the two GZ32's! The bacon rolls were delicious and, as you'd expect in the north, the tea was plentiful. It really was great to see everyone again and chew the fat, after over a year locked down.

Steve C's 45 amp was a lovely sounding thing, even before the globes went in. Supreme with the globes, I could have listened to that all day.

Thanks for all the kind comments on my own 300B's - until yesterday they'd not been heard by anyone other than Meredith, myself and one or two tradespeople that happened to be in the house at the time. One does get to wondering if the design is actually any good or not, and it's reassuring to hear it hold its own against others.

I need to mount the feet a little better - the plastic bolts are there for reasons of electrical safety but they're not all that substantial! So the next round of mods will be to improve that, take out the power supply resistors as all they seem to be doing is wasting heat, install the 1N4007 insurance policy, tweak the heater voltages back up to be correct for a 235V supply, and that'll be about it. I do know they could be improved by using 4 of Paul's globe 45's in the driver stages instead of the 6V6's - well, a man can dream.

It was interesting hearing the MFA transformer passive versus my own preamp - I don't know if this was true for others but I could barely hear a jot of difference between them, which means they're both effectively invisible. This has given me new confidence in the AMB preamp - this little thing has worked faultlessly, kept up with two substantial power amplifier upgrades and has done what a linestage should do - be seen and not heard. I don't think I need to move on from it.

The MoFo was quite an eye-opener, it seems to me to offer a combination of what solid state and valves do best - valve tone and solid state snap, separation and depth. Will I build one? It's tempting, maybe when (if) I get a little more time and money, but at the moment it's a considerable distance down the priority list. For now the 300B's do everything we need them to do, they're a perfect match to the big Mets.

Yep, that 300B amp kicked ass and took down names (in a good way)
A fine piece of work, aesthetically inside and out and sonically.
Things did get a bit noisy at certain times throughout the day (Ignore me. I’m far too much of a fop) but the band live in the room experience Steve’s speakers are capable of generating can’t be underestimated. They worked with everything tasked with driving them, from weedy little 45s, to Mofo to 300B push pull and of course Steve’s other PX4 setups.

Thanks Steve.

We should have operated the 300B's with the 5U4 rectifiers yesterday. I've just set the amps back up and thought, oh what the hell, no harm in trying out the 5U4's on the output stage, even though the plate voltage will drop down a fair bit. Still with the GZ32's on input stage duty. The improvement was not subtle - less congestion in the upper mids, generally a more rounded sound, open and spacious.

Of course what I don't know now is how much is down to the different rectifier, and how much is down to the change in operating point. Currently it sounds so good even with the slight heater under-volt, that I'm wondering whether to just leave it alone.

Time to write off to Ukraine for some more spares before Chernobyl goes up again.

Agree on the MOFO Dave, but having Stev’s Barbaric I have enough (one amp is enough you know). Obviously Im building a 45 SE now. I was going 10y but the output transformers to hand of known good sound are 4k5 so as the 45 sounded amaising yesterday that will do.

The globe 45’s yesterday shouted ; ‘all the problems of this amp have vanished now globes are here’ it was that good Steve needs a badge on his amp naming it ‘done fettling’.

No one has mentioned the music yet that was played.








Thanks!

Sounds fab.

Road closures at night – yes had some of that – when they do the road works – I remember must have been 4 years ago cos I still had the Piaggio X10, getting home (to Boston) at 1:20 am from Sudbury (Essex), because the A134 was closed. Finally got onto the A14 (after a detour to Colchester) to see a sign saying that was closed! Well almost but not quite, could get past the closure using – wait for it – the sliproads for the A134. They were doing something to the bridge at that point.

One reason why I don't like travelling late evenings or at night.

Dave the bass wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 8:14 pm No one has mentioned the music yet that was played.


Thanks!

Sorry Dave yes, we definitely had "music", or at least Steve said it was "music".

I heard a rumour about 'Jazz at the pawn shop'.

IslandPink wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 10:06 pm I heard a rumour about 'Jazz at the pawn shop'.

Quite so Mark, and it was good to listen to that, something that I know and like.

There was one other recording that really tested the bass performance of Steve's speakers, can't remember what it was called.

pre65 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 8:37 pm Sorry Dave yes, we definitely had "music", or at least Steve said it was "music".

...and you believe him?!... pffftttt?

Thermionic Idler wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:05 pm
…We should have operated the 300B's with the 5U4 rectifiers yesterday. I've just set the amps back up and thought, oh what the hell, no harm in trying out the 5U4's on the output stage, even though the plate voltage will drop down a fair bit. Still with the GZ32's on input stage duty. The improvement was not subtle - less congestion in the upper mids, generally a more rounded sound, open and spacious.

They’re good aren’t they.

Actually it was testing music all but the globe 45 amp were tested on it. Dave’s amps was tested to ultimate extreme and passed with flying colours. Steve S will have to say which tracks I’ve not retained the facts.

Dave’s has something Nicks 211 amp has always done. One of those benchmark amps.

Let’s not pretend the 45 se amp might have coped with it. No disrespect to Steve c. A magic amp for what it does beautifully. But don’t be silly.

300b PP amp nailed it as did the mofo.