steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 2, 2018 19:14:58 GMT
The story of the system below is all built on a quest I've been on for the past twelve months to simplify down to the bare essentials for playing and enjoying music. My history on this forum is a chequered one, but I hope that by showing how this system has evolved and the thinking that has gone into it, there will be some understanding gained into my own personal philosophy of what owning a sound system is or should be about. So.... below is a picture of my current system: What you see on the top shelf is entirely DIY, as are the speakers.
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steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 2, 2018 19:21:07 GMT
There will,no doubt be raised eyebrows over the presence of vases and lamps on top of the speakers, which are not placed out in the room but against the wall and yet.....
I hope with this blog to explain my system building philosophies and talk in some detail about each of the components and why they are as they are. So hopefully, this blog will generate some discussion because my views are not conventional and I've had some real grief over those views but I don't care anymore, so strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride, cos it may be bumpy, or maybe not.
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steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 2, 2018 19:26:00 GMT
There is no separate listening room in this house. The system has to fit in with domestic arrangements and is used as the family entertainment centre, taking feeds from the TV, a turntable, CD player, NAS and computer.
No description of anything in this system will be mentioning bass, treble, midrange, sparkle, slam, imaging, air, space, soundstage, detail, speed, micro dynamics, macro dynamics downward dynamic range or distortion; either the harmonic or intermodulation variety.
This is alt. hi-fi.
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Post by MartinT on May 2, 2018 19:48:58 GMT
I feel like I'm strapped in for the ride, Maxell advert-style.
Hit me!
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steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 2, 2018 20:02:54 GMT
OK, So this time last year, I had a lovely pair of push-pull EL34 pentode monoblocks, complete with tube regulated screen grids, plate to grid feedback and a huge power supply, with plenty of microfarads of reservoir capacitance and I thought it was the bees knees. The thing was complex, powerful and everything I thought I knew about valve amplifiers had been ploughed into the build. I'd also built a pair of strange looking truncated pyramid omnidirectional transmissin line loaded speakers....because I could.
I had, if the truth be known completely disappeared up my own arse and was about to get a rude awakening
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Post by MartinT on May 2, 2018 20:33:20 GMT
Right, I remember the speakers for sure, in a previous blog. It all looked good and you seemed happy with the outcome.
So...
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Post by brian2957 on May 3, 2018 2:35:22 GMT
Aye , I will be following your thread with interest too Steve Your system looks fantastic BTW .
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Post by Chris on May 3, 2018 3:37:55 GMT
Yip,I'm listening....
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Post by karatestu on May 3, 2018 5:45:03 GMT
I know what is going to happen next. I concur with everything said here
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Post by Firebottle on May 3, 2018 16:01:21 GMT
I'm watching with great interest .................
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steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 3, 2018 20:10:59 GMT
OK, So this time last year, I had a lovely pair of push-pull EL34 pentode monoblocks, complete with tube regulated screen grids, plate to grid feedback and a huge power supply, with plenty of microfarads of reservoir capacitance and I thought it was the bees knees. The thing was complex, powerful and everything I thought I knew about valve amplifiers had been ploughed into the build. I'd also built a pair of strange looking truncated pyramid omnidirectional transmissin line loaded speakers....because I could. I had, if the truth be known completely disappeared up my own arse and was about to get a rude awakening Now where was I? Ah yes; rude awakenings..... So...the seeds of the complexity issue were sown around five years ago when I had built a pair of 2A3 single-ended triode monoblock amplifiers. I had learned that with amps, it was all about the power supply and more specifically, regulation of the HT supply. I built one tube regulated supply for each of the monoblocks, which were a two stage design with a pentode driver with a regulated screen grid, took the amps to the Owston bake-off with my five foot high tapered Metronome speakers and they went down very well, so well that I dismantled them.
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steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 3, 2018 20:27:40 GMT
I spent the next five years trying to recapture that sound, regulation got tighter, power supply capacity got higher, power got greater and I went from single ended triodes to single ended ultralinear using KT120s to push pull class A/B pentodes and all the time the sound got better. Note I'm saying "sound" not music. At that stage I didn`t know any better. Bass got tighter, vocals got cleaner, clearer, harshness got less, "fi" got higher.
The first inkling I got that something was not quite as it should be, was at a small meeting in Rossendale Lancs, at the home of Colin Topps, speaker builder extraordinaire. My pentodes just would not drive any of the speakers there, they were flat out on the volume control and flabbing about, wheezing and puffing. Zero, not even lo-fi.
Frankly I was embarrassed.
Also a massive row that was to change everything, was only a few months away.
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steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 3, 2018 20:40:48 GMT
After the debacle with my pentode amp I sorted it out with a cathode follower driver stage to the output tubes and all was well, in fact it sounded brilliant, so brilliant that I sold it.
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steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 3, 2018 20:50:35 GMT
So in came the no expense spared, pentode monoblocks, with cathode follower driver stage. Output sage screen grids were regulated by a 6SN7 shunt regulator. The input stage was another pentode of the EF86 type, also with regulated screen grids and the power supply capacity was so high, it was easily capable of delivering a 320 Joule zap at 500V. It was good, 'course it was. All that complexity and defibrillator power supply showed how much I had progressed from my first tentative steps with a Bluebell Audio Loftin-White 2A3 to THIS!
Wahey! wasn't I clever? the fi was high, there was slammy bass, air, space, detail - it ticked plenty of boxes. Through my ever faithful, five-foot Metronome speakers the sound was breathtakingly good, so I sold the speakers.
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Post by MartinT on May 3, 2018 20:52:24 GMT
I had learned that with amps, it was all about the power supply and all the time the sound got better. Note I'm saying "sound" not music Ok, getting interesting. There may be semantics at play (we have talked about systems that 'sound hi-fi' rather than make music) but I follow you so far.
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steve
Rank: Trio
Posts: 206
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Post by steve on May 3, 2018 22:02:37 GMT
The trouble started with a pair of omnidirectional speakers I built to replace the big Metronomes. Now these were good and somehow they sounded like music was happening in the room. I had two types: one was tapered on all four sides and was called the "Omnimet" after my Metronome speakers and the other was called "The Flatback Banned" I was really enjoying these speakers. They sounded like nothing else I had heard, with their up-firing main driver and forward firing tweeter. I was in musical heaven with them. Then I took them to Owston, where they went down like a lead balloon. The fallout from this spilled over into an almighty forum row that got completely out of control. The end result was a banning of one member and me requesting my account be deactivated. I had had enough. The whole thing had turned into a farce of epic proportions. During my self-imposed exile , the pentode monoblocks were dismantled and after 11 years of DIY valve electronics, I gave up and bought myself an NVA A20/P20 starter kit from Richard Dunn. Richard was coming up from the smoke to collect his Goldring G99, my son had overhauled, refurbished and built into a two arm plinth carrying a couple of Japanese broadcast arms and he brought up the A20/P20. He stayed for a couple of hours before departing back down South and we had a great conversation during which he explained his own philosophies, why he held them and how to go about getting music out of a sound system. It was refreshing irreverent and a great laugh. Playing through my omnis, the NVA was a revelation; there was music in the room after almost forty years of trying. There in the room was Richards philosophy in action. There was no denying it sounded great. Maybe I could incorporate some of his ideas into a DIY amp of my own, so out came the soldering iron and a back to basics, three stage, single ended triode amplifier was drawn out and started. The result was this: It is very pink and very simple.
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Post by zappytheviking on May 4, 2018 0:15:28 GMT
Thanks man, you tell a captivating story, keep em coming.
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Post by Chris on May 4, 2018 4:15:39 GMT
Good looking amp that.
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Post by MartinT on May 4, 2018 5:11:38 GMT
Then I took them to Owston, where they went down like a lead balloon. Did they try them with any other amplifiers? Your later success with the NVA amp implies that the speakers gave musical happiness, so what went wrong at Owston? If I were at that event, I would certainly have wanted to try other amps. Was it a room interaction thing and not just the amp? On which forum did the fallout emerge afterwards?
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Post by karatestu on May 4, 2018 6:20:48 GMT
Semi omni's dont work in the room at Owston. Its too big i think. Steve will tell all.
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