[cadobhuk]

Just finished assembling another one of my SSR speakers. I only have a monoblock in here, the rest of my amps still sit and the cold, and its unsafe to use them too soon after that.. But even a single speaker sitting on floor sounds amazing - crystal clean, powerful and smooth. It can produce scary bass without a sub too.

[Rob S.]

Do you have any pics to share,  I love pics.

Rob S.

[cadobhuk]

The problem is I dont have a photo camera, only an old camcorder. It takes crappy pictures but I lost a USB cable to connect to a pc. As soon as I get one, I'll post some pics (and videos hopefully).

[DSK]

Congratulations cadobhuk! If you think they are amazing now, just wait until you have them properly setup and run in for 100 hours. Did you go for the Deluxe XO's with Sonicaps and heavily brace the boxes?

The SSR's are the best standmounted speaker that I've personally heard, outperforming the B&W 805N's, Dynaudio Special 25's, Jamo Concert 8's, JM Labs etc etc. My last 2 pairs of speakers were both floorstanders and both triple the cost of what it cost me to build the SSR's ... but the SSR's cleaned 'em up.

Rick has done a great job in seamlessly xo'ing these wonderful drivers to create a speaker with wonderful balance, tonality and transparency. Imaging is unbelievably good and they reveal any tweaks & changes to the system. These SS Revelator drivers have greater resolution and less warmth than most people seem to attribute to scanSpeaks. Used with an excellent low-Q sub they become a fantastic full range speaker system that wouldn't be embarrassed by anything south of $10k IMHO. 

[ecramer]

Rick has designed some really great speakers.  Would love to hear the SSR's  I have a pair of Tazinites and the crossovers are seamless in those also Rick is a master at that

[cadobhuk]

I have no tools to work with wood, so per my request Rick has cut and drilled these for me. They have one brace that looks like a solid piece of mdf with two big holes. I'm not sure if they are the best possible cabinets for SSR but they look great and feel well built.
I can read "ClarityCap" on one of the components of my crossover, nothing readable on the others. That should be the deluxe ones, I think they are the only option with SSR's.
I have a room of 25x23x9 and so far I have 2 SSR's complete and 3 in parts, and this sub. 2 parasound hca-1200 and 1 1201 monoblock to power the speakers. The sourse will be an HTPC with auzentech prelude soundcard. I hope the ssr's can go loud enough to fill that room, can they? I think I will need another sub in the future.
As far as video, I'm gonna use mitsubishi hc6000 with 133" da-lite high power screen.
I think I'm spending my moderate budget of roughly $10k better than the average consumer. Or is there something stupid in the above? I never had any real audio or video setup before. Watched my netflix movies on a pc with headphones.

[musicman06]

Interesting setup, congrats on the new toys. I think you'll be suprised how loud the speakers can get with good power. The SSR's with the ScanSpeak woofers are very good indeed. Like ecramer, I also have the Tanzanites as I preferred their design and components for my needs. The Revelator is likely the best speaker currently available for sale though.

Is that an external soundcard? I don't think computer soundcards are your best means to get audio out of your PC.

[cadobhuk]

It's an internal soundcard but it uses high quality dacs and caps. For my headphone setup I use an external VDA-1 DAC but it's only stereo, so I bought this soundcard for the 5 channels it's among the best internal soundcards sound quality wise. I also have a parasound preamp but hope I wont have to use it, because as I found out it doesnt do an analog bypass, and double conversion might have a bad impact on the SQ.
People say floorstanders have higher dynamic range and a "fuller" sound that even a subwoofer can't make up for when used with bookshelves. Will SSR, as a big "bookshelf" with a powerful woofer, be a subject to that rule or does it approach a floorstander?

[DSK]

...People say floorstanders have higher dynamic range and a "fuller" sound that even a subwoofer can't make up for when used with bookshelves. Will SSR, as a big "bookshelf" with a powerful woofer, be a subject to that rule or does it approach a floorstander?

People's experiences and opinions will differ hugely here and I believe it "depends" on a number of things. When comparing the average floorstander to the average bookshelf or standmount (without subwoofer) I would agree as the standmount's woofers (generally) won't go as low .. though the woofer in many smaller floorstanders is only 7" like the SSR's. If multiple woofers are used in a floorstander then they will more effortlessly attain their F3 frequency and usually be more punchy with possibly higher dynamic range. Also, multi-driver floorstanders (eg. MTM or MMT) will generally provide higher power handling than a simple MT 2-way.

However, if you really nail the integration of a top class sub (or two) with top class standmounts, you are then bi-amping with one amp dedicated to the bass (sub) and one to the mids/highs. This can result in lower frequency extension (eg. flat to 20hz or so) than the average floorstander and with say 12" woofer(s) as opposed to the typical 8" or so in the average floorstander. Although the woofer in the standmount will be operating down to say 80hz rather than say 150-300hz in a 3-way floorstander, if they are quality drivers and rolled off quickly and early enough (ie. before they start dropping off naturally) then they shouldn't really lose much if anything in dynamics or midrange clarity ... plus you can get better imaging than most floorstanders (especially those with bigger woofers and wider baffles).

I believe we turn up the volume until we reach a level where we find the bass convincing (whether subconsciously or deliberately). With smaller woofers and/or larger rooms the treble and upper mids will become overbearing before the bass reaches this desired level as the woofer is not big enough to keep up and the strain can cause degredation of the mids & highs. Also, because the smaller woofer doesn't extend as low, the overall balance of the speaker can seem more "lightweight", less full bodied and less "balanced" . However, with the addition of subwoofer(s), this is no longer a problem. We can achieve full range for better balance and the bass can now keep up with the mids/highs.  This means we no longer have to crank up the volume as loud as we did without the sub in order to attain a convincing performance and this in turn means less negative impact on the mids/highs by the bass ... this benefit is enhanced further still if the standmount woofers are rolled off properly. And, there is no xo in the lower midrange in this solution like there is in most floorstanders.

However, IMHO only a very small per centage of people have heard an optimal standmount/subwoofer system. Many are based on HT subs and/or are not calibrated properly (eg. sub extends too high and/or overlaps mains too much) and/or gain is set too high and/or the sub is of insufficient quality and/or not sufficiently low-Q and/or the HPF and LPF are not properly matched (ie. xo frequencies and slopes) and/or the integration is done only by ear rather than proper in-room measurement, and/or the subwoofer type is not optimally matched to the standmount type, etc etc etc etc etc. As a result, they hear boominess, one note bass, muddiness, degraded mids etc and claim subs are not ideal for music. I am no expert but I feel that there is a lot more to choosing the subwoofer and standmounts to be combined, and in integrating them optimally than most people realise.

My room is fractionally smaller than yours at 24' x 19' x 9' but has one corner (behind listeners) open to a long hallway and open staircase to the floor above. However my sealed SSR's (which won't go quite as low as your ported version) combined with a low-Q, sealed, directservo 12" subwoofer combine beautifully to provide full range music with beautifully tight, extended and detailed bass that fills the room nicely. It also makes the performance more open, effortless, full bodied, dynamic, with improved midrange resolution and better imaging. And the kicker is that I have not even rolled off the SSR's yet ... they are running full range. Yet, even cranked up pretty loud there is no audible distortion or harshness in the mids or compression etc. The SSR's can be driven quite hard without breaking up at all. So much so that I haven't felt compelled to rush out and try implementing an HPF on them. However, I will experiment with this in the next several weeks to see just how much improvement can be achieved. Already the combo sounds like floorstanders but with deeper more powerful bass and better imaging.

OK, now I don my flack jacket and duck     For brevity (and because I am NOT an expert by any means) I have made many generalisations above. There will always be exceptions and there are many ways to skin the proverbial cat. Many people who have not heard a really well set up standmount/sub system (or THINK they have) will summarily disagree with my opinions and some who actually have may just have different (and equally valid) opinions and preferences in what they hear anyway. I have no problem with that, I'm just sharing my experiences and thoughts here as I enjoy reading those of others. Besides, differences of opinion are good ... it causes us to think through things further and learn.

[sbrtoy]

There are lots of bad sounding floorstanders, lots of bad sounding subs....you have a great sounding pair of monitors, so if you are looking for full range bass impact just make sure you pair with a good sub and spend plenty of time getting the integration right.  Ideally you won't be able to tell the sub is on until you turn it off 

[cadobhuk]

What I was talking about was a monitor + sub vs a tower + sub. Supposedly as someone said somewhere, the towers have more power in the upper bass/lower midrange or something like that above the sub crossover, which makes an audible difference even when the sub is used with either. But I think in that area ssr's will perform better than an average monitor, at least the single one I listened to last night seemed to produce some sweet bass.
About

if you are looking for full range bass impact just make sure you pair with a good sub and spend plenty of time getting the integration right.

Yeah I already provided a link to my sub, here it is again. Its a sealed 18". I went with an amp upgrade for 1300 watts. Here are the S/T specs for the driver. Is that a good enough sub to pair up with SSR's ? eD subs are relatively unknown but they're better than svs or hsu as far as bang/buck.

[bpape]

When I had the SSR's at my place, they had plenty of oomph in the range you're speaking of.  You could easily cross them at 50ish and have a nice blend.

Bryan

[sbrtoy]

As mentioned multiple drivers increase sensitivity and power handling so they could be more at home in a large room, but the SSR's can play quite loudly for monitors so they should be up to the task.  If you find that your needs are for more volume you could look at crossing them with a high-pass filter to remove their low-bass burden, also stereo subs may allow you to load the room easier without getting peaks and nulls.

[bostonaudi]

Just finished assembling another one of my SSR speakers. I only have a monoblock in here, the rest of my amps still sit and the cold, and its unsafe to use them too soon after that.. But even a single speaker sitting on floor sounds amazing - crystal clean, powerful and smooth. It can produce scary bass without a sub too.

I have a pair of Selah SA-1 monitors with the same Fountek 3.0 ribbons. For even clearer sound try installing felt tweeter surrounds:

http://diffractionbegone.com/

I installed a pair a while back and the speaker is even better and more clear. The company now knows how to cut the felt surrounds for the Fountek tweeters. As you may know, many companies already use these, not sure why all don't. All Dunlavy's came with felt surrounds on the tweeters.

As always, YMMV.

[cadobhuk]

Hah, looks a bit pricey for a simple piece of material. But if you are sure there's a noticeable benefit, I might try to DIY something like that. But if they could make something that is black and doesnt look too ugly on my baffles, may be I'll even buy those.