Washington, DC Speaker Event

DMurphy · « **Reply #20 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 05:29 pm »

You should see it when its landing lights are on (pic to follow later). Thanks for embedding the pic, George. Could you do a couple of others if I post the link? Thanks!

avahifi · « **Reply #21 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 05:30 pm »

Dennis, be careful! I heard it saying "exterminate, exterminate!"

Frank

DMurphy · « **Reply #22 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 05:34 pm »

Here's the, uh, designer trying to fit pin 6 into slot 7. Also note the Frank Van Alstine Ultimate 70 tube amp, which drove the ST's to floor shaking volume on my organ demo. Pretty impressive for 35 watts per.

http://api.photoshop.com/home_7e53687d13c747d28ccec9a6980c7256/adobe-px-assets/67753feceda84ca283cc09d61e1d2173

R Swerdlow · « **Reply #23 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 05:54 pm »

and a close-up of the amp

Dennis - what else do you want to post?

R Swerdlow · « **Reply #24 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 06:08 pm »

Here is Octo-Speaker at the dramatic moment it first touched down! I swear it was the retrorocket's blast that caused the camera shake.

charmerci · « **Reply #25 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 06:17 pm »

I think I can safely speak for others when I say,

Kris · « **Reply #26 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 07:24 pm »

It looks like a Beo-Bose offspring.

Brucemck · « **Reply #27 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 08:46 pm »

Impressions of the HT4 "Beasts" from those that heard them?

Jeff B. · « **Reply #28 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 09:38 pm »

Quote from: bahorn1 on 19 Jul 2009, 04:17 pm

"Danger, danger, Will Robinson." All that thing needs is 2 arms. Does each level spin too while they are playing?

That is Neil Davis' DIY omnidirectional digitally-controlled "Martha", that can be programmed for multiple crossover points and slopes. It's not one of Jim's speakers. It does bring back memories of Lost In Space, though, doesn't it.
Jeff B.

rahimlee54 · « **Reply #29 on:** 19 Jul 2009, 10:44 pm »

Quote from: Brucemck on 19 Jul 2009, 08:46 pm

Impressions of the HT4 "Beasts" from those that heard them?

They sounded good of course

. They give a really good 3d image and are really really clear, With picture on wall shaking bass. The port velocity on the fist prototype is really funny.

Dennis thanks for having everyone over and putting up with all that stress, I know it was alot of work.

DMurphy · « **Reply #30 on:** 20 Jul 2009, 12:02 am »

Quote from: Brucemck on 19 Jul 2009, 08:46 pm

Impressions of the HT4 "Beasts" from those that heard them?

Most of the attendees found out about the event on the Parts Express Tech board. Here are some fuller descriptions of the speakers and a reaction to the HT4

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showthread.php?t=211356&page=3

Nuance · « **Reply #31 on:** 20 Jul 2009, 03:01 am »

Thanks for the updates, Dennis (and everyone). I would have loved to have attended, but there were just a few too many miles between us...

I am glad everyone had a good time!

oneinthepipe · « **Reply #32 on:** 20 Jul 2009, 03:07 am »

Would someone please comment about the HT1-TL? Pretty please.

DMurphy · « **Reply #33 on:** 20 Jul 2009, 03:17 pm »

Quote from: oneinthepipe on 20 Jul 2009, 03:07 am

Would someone please comment about the HT1-TL? Pretty please.

I played the HT1's only briefly in stereo at the very start of the morning to relatively few people--maybe 10. I didn't receive the boxes and drivers until Monday, and had to design and build the crossovers in two nights. I thought they sounded quite good, but it's not over yet. The main point of the demo was for listeners to see whether they could hear any difference in the extension and quality of the bass between the two boxes, which were different TL constructions. One was a simple MLTL like the ST's and HT2 TL's, and the other was a more complex tapered TL. The assembled crowd could clearly hear greater extension from the MLTL (down to 30 Hz), and a couple of people thought the quality was tighter in the tapered, but all thought any difference in quality was way offset by the deeper response of the ML. So I'll tweak the crossover and I suspect Jim will go with the ML.

avahifi · « **Reply #34 on:** 20 Jul 2009, 03:29 pm »

Hi Dennis,

It sounds like you had a very good event. Were you using the Ultimate 70 amp on everything? Just wondering.

Note that the Ultimate 70 amps that Ron Lee brought have his own "home made" faceplates done as "one-offs" for him by a company called "Panel Express" I believe. This is not the way the faceplates will look on the soon to be announced AVA Ultravalve amplifier which is a complete new chassis and evolutionary upgrade to our vacuum tube amplifier design work.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

R Swerdlow · « **Reply #35 on:** 20 Jul 2009, 04:10 pm »

Quote from: avahifi on 20 Jul 2009, 03:29 pm

It sounds like you had a very good event. Were you using the Ultimate 70 amp on everything? Just wondering.

It was my understanding that Dennis demoed the Ultimate 70 amp only on his SongTowers. It drives them very nicely.

For all the other speakers that day (including the HT-4s), I believe Dennis used his Insight 250 amp along with your preamp and DAC that appear in one of my photos. It had no problems at all driving any speaker in the house.

Dennis - please correct me if I'm wrong.

DMurphy · « **Reply #36 on:** 20 Jul 2009, 04:18 pm »

Quite right. I didn't really know what how difficult some of the speakers were going to be to drive, so I used the 250 for the morning DIY session.

Here's a photo of the HT1TL bass comparo session. Ok, so it's a better picture of my back yard. We did eventually close the curtain.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2577/3737456118_a977973807_b.jpg

DMurphy · « **Reply #37 on:** 20 Jul 2009, 11:54 pm »

Here are some great pics of the DC event that my good friend Toby Goodman took. Some good shots of the HT1TL comparo.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=68550.0

rlee8394 · « **Reply #38 on:** 21 Jul 2009, 02:57 am »

Dennis had expected about ten attendees. Instead, closer to two dozen or so showed up! Thankfully he and Toby had plenty of food! Dennis' main agenda was to demo everyone's speaker who showed up with a pair, and rightly so. Therefore there wasn't a lot of equipment swapping going on. The listening sessions consisted of the AMC CD player connected to an Audio by Van Alstine Insight+ DAC. That fed a Marsh preamp that fed an Audio by Van Alstine Insight 250 amplifier built into a Hafler DH-200 chassis. At the end of the day Dennis offered to let me play the SongTowers using the AVA Ultimate 70 amp. I took that opportunity to connect the AMC CD player and AVA Insight+ DAC combo to my AVA T7 preamp and Ultimate 70 power amp. We then cranked up the ST's and everyone was amazed. I then shlepped in my B&W 801FS studio monitors, much less efficient than the ST's, and drove them to decent levels. Afterward, many asked how old the 801's were and on how good they sounded. I had modded them only by replacing all of the electrolytic caps with tight tolerance film units and removed the APOC protection circuitry. I ended up letting Dennis measure them for me to check the frequency response. All was well. I no longer lust after newer loudspeakers. I only wish I had one of Frank's Insight+ Phase Inverter Bridges to use both U70's to really rock the house!! I told Dennis I was game to run the single U70 on the HT4's, but couldn't get him to bite.

Most of the audition material was done with Jim Salk's demo CD as well as a few requests by those who brought CD's. All in all it was great fun and I can't wait to attend the next event!!

Ron

R Swerdlow · « **Reply #39 on:** 21 Jul 2009, 02:39 pm »

I posted a few pictures from Dennis' DC DIY here, but I forgot to post the link for all of them:

http://www.photoshop.com/user/RSwerdlow/?wf=share&trackingid=BTAGC&galleryid=071d5f8daa214c34945b190104c453fc

Easily the best looking speakers were these
http://api.photoshop.com/home_7e53687d13c747d28ccec9a6980c7256/adobe-px-assets/5d20cf59a58643ee9d5d74ee5e997a1e

These were the beautiful 3-way with the Peerless 10" woofer, Seas W15 mid, and Raven Tweeter crafted by Fred Buck, who drove them down all the way from London, Ontario. Other photos taken by someone else shows Fred holding the plinth for his speakers with all the crossover parts inside.