[DMurphy]

Well, when I got home last night, there was an unexpected package waiting for me by the door.  I figured it was just another commercial bookshelf speaker that someone had sent me to rework (there have been two this week), but no--it was a PAT4 chassis with the workings of the new AVA Insight preamp inside.  Frank had put it together for his own amusement and thought I might like to give it a test drive.  So now I have a high quality preamp with a phono stage that I can pair up with the Insight amp to demo Jim's speakers.  I haven't had a chance to hook it up yet, but I'll give a full report.  Now if I can only figure out what happened to my old turntable during the last move--it's got to me around someplace.    Thanks again, Frank. 

[floresjc]

Very excited for you! Your setup sounded excellent before, you'll have to give your impressions after you've had a chance to mess with it. My wife received my Insight 440 yesterday, the Insight DAC and preamp will be coming today. Jim's expanding the demo room to the east coast slowly but surely.

[Nuance]

Great news, Dennis.  I too am interested in your findings/listening experience.  Moving to a preamp improved imaging and sound stage width/depth in my room.  I wonder if it will do anything in your system?

[Mudslide]

I figured it was just another commercial bookshelf speaker that someone had sent me to rework (there have been two this week),

I feel so.....guilty.   

[DMurphy]

I figured it was just another commercial bookshelf speaker that someone had sent me to rework (there have been two this week),

I feel so.....guilty.   

I didn't say I would have minded another speaker rework.  (Although I haven't figured out what to do with yours yet.)

[Mudslide]

(Although I haven't figured out what to do with yours yet.)

Winter is coming.  Got a fireplace?   

[floresjc]

Hey Dennis -

If you're looking for a challenge and/or something different, I can loan you my Rockets to mess around with. Won't really need them anymore after I get the Salks in place. I have the two 760's I brought to your place, a Bigfoot center, and two 250MKII surrounds. I'll probly just stick them in an empty room out of the way otherwise.

[DMurphy]

Hey Dennis -

If you're looking for a challenge and/or something different, I can loan you my Rockets to mess around with. Won't really need them anymore after I get the Salks in place. I have the two 760's I brought to your place, a Bigfoot center, and two 250MKII surrounds. I'll probly just stick them in an empty room out of the way otherwise.

I'm pretty sure I could straighten the Rockets out, but there wouldn't be much point in doing that unless you thought you could sell them at a premium because of the crossover mod.  Otherwise, you may as well just offload them on the auction market.

[DMurphy]

A couple of updates on the Salk-Van Alstine front.  First, I got the Insight preamp hooked up today and listened to my usual cuts.  As I told Frank, I'm a firm believer in blind instant comparisons, and I couldn't do that with two different preamps.  But I also told him that I thought the HT4's sounded even smoother and more open with the new addition.  It's obviously an extremely high quality unit, and I feel very fortunate to have use of it.  I got another toy on Friday--the 10" version of the HT4.  It was delivered to the wrong house, and the owner didn't seem pleased to have a 95 lb box sitting on his porch, but all is well now.  Much to my surprise, the smaller woofer matched the 12" versiion frequency for frequency, all the way down to 15 Hz.  This is the same woofer that's used in the HT3, but with a slightly larger box and passive radiators.  The trade off is sensitivity, and the 10" is around 2.5 dB less sensitive than the 12".  If I can get a crossover optimized, and if FAL can completely solve the consistency issues in the midrange driver, the Salk room at RMAF should be a popular place.  Right now, it looks good on all fronts.   

[bryede]

Dennis,

  About the crossover mods you're always doing- do you plan on posting more of the xover mods on your site for people to try? It just seems a shame to do all that work and have it applied to one pair only.

  The reason I own Salks today is because I modded my Polk RTi28's and liked what I heard.

     -Bry

[DMurphy]

Dennis,

  About the crossover mods you're always doing- do you plan on posting more of the xover mods on your site for people to try? It just seems a shame to do all that work and have it applied to one pair only.

  The reason I own Salks today is because I modded my Polk RTi28's and liked what I heard.

     -Bry

Hi   I'm glad you liked the Polk mod.  I'm never sure whether others hear the same improvement I do.  A lot of the speakers I mod are kind of small players, and I don't think there will be much general appeal.  Others compete with Salk speakers, and I don't like to go public with that.  And sometimes it's kind of a one off situation.  Randy Bessinger recently sent (well, it seems recently to me, but probably not to him) me a pair of premium 2-ways that he thought were a little off in the upper midrange.  I switched the slopes from 4th order to 2nd order, and I think it's significantly improved.   The manufacturer also thought there was room for improvement and had a very famous crossover designer tweak it.  I think Randy got stuck with one of the few originals, and I have no idea whether my version is as good or better than the current version.  So I'll just file it away.  I probably will publish my latest mod, which is a fairly popular inexpensive bookshelf by a large British company that sells some truly outstanding speakers.  But not this one. 

[bryede]

Dennis,

I see your point. Once you turn pro you have to consider appearances.

One other thing I was thinking about is that I'm amazed that the Hiquphon tweeter is still the dome of choice after all these years. I thought for sure one of the big companies would have put out a comparable unit at half the price in response to it. Have you seen anything out there that approaches it for the money?

     -Bry

[DMurphy]

Dennis,

I see your point. Once you turn pro you have to consider appearances.

One other thing I was thinking about is that I'm amazed that the Hiquphon tweeter is still the dome of choice after all these years. I thought for sure one of the big companies would have put out a comparable unit at half the price in response to it. Have you seen anything out there that approaches it for the money?

     -Bry

Well, I haven't turned pro, but my name is obviously associated with Salk.  Most of the action in tweeters is in the 1" size, not 3/4".  I sure haven't found any new arrivals that can match the dispersion and frequency response of the Hiq along with its rare capability of being crossed as low as a lot of 1" domes.