[pbrstreetgang]

Louis those 6.5s look fantastic!!!

[el dub]

..... And we're really digging the sound.

A speaker/sub platform designed to set on top of a 12' wall of 24" deep maple cabinets backing a cathedral ceiling was finished today. (Trimmed in curly maple. Might paint the 3/4" plywood platform top a blue similar to the bentley.) We plan on laying black particle board cut to the dimensions of the (thin) cabinet tops with fiberglass insulation sandwiched between that and the 3/4" plywood resting on the cabinet frame. I'm thinking about laying the speakers on their sides with drivers a couple of feet from side walls and the hemp cube sub between the speakers. One side wall (used to be an outside wall) now juts out only about two feet past the cabinets with a doorway to the basement and the remainder of kitchen on the other side. The drivers will be about 7.5' off the ground. I'll get them tipped down toward the listening area, maybe with the help of herbies spikes and/or dots? Ports will prolly remain plugged.

I plan on calling Louis to discuss the final speaker placement, but figured it couldn't hurt to post the details in this thread to see if'n any other community member has any ideas on the situation at hand.

lw

[el dub]

We placed the speakers in the kitchen on Friday. Not sure what I was thinking when I decided to put the sub on the cabinets as well.  Sure, it sounds great if you are 8' tall, but sitting at the counter loses a lot of the bottom end we enjoyed in the living room. Moving the sub to the edge of the platform and slightly elevating the front spikes seems to deliver more bass to the sweet spot, but the sound is still much fuller with me ears about 8' off the ground. Right now I'm using cork discs to isolate the super 6's from the cabinet and tilt slightly forward.

SO today I'll work on getting the sub on the floor. I'm hoping that does the trick, even though it will be about a foot in front of (and 7' below ) the super 6's drivers. 

lw

[el dub]

Things are starting to come together.

The sub is on the floor and the super 6's are getting closer to a final positioning. We've been experimenting with ways to isolate the cabs from the platform and get the correct tilt to send the music to the listening area. Right now the drivers are about 8' apart, 8' off the ground and 8' from the sweet spot. The front of the cabs are resting on discs of synthetic cork about 1/4" thick. The rears are elevated with spikes about 4-1/2". I still have a little ways to go with the tilt, but the sound has filled in nicely with every adjustment in this direction.

I'll also be experimenting with different corks. The cork from a late harvest zin brought out a fuller sound than one from a bottle of sauv blanc.  And I'm now positive a riesling cork would sweeten the sound of an overly analytical rig. 

lw 

[ZLS]

aaI'll also be experimenting with different corks. The cork from a late harvest zin brought out a fuller sound than one from a bottle of sauv blanc.  And I'm now positive a riesling cork would sweeten the sound of an overly analytical rig. 

    I am sure that in these environmentally aware times once the cork is removed from the wine bottle the wine does not go to waste.  Perhaps, and I am just speculating here, that has a lot to do with how "sweet" the Omega's sound.

[el dub]

Sent an email to skylan last night hoping to get a pair of stands to fit this unique application. Meanwhile, the omega super 6 drivers aren't quite at optimal positioning. (still need a little more downward tilt.)

Anyway, last night I started experimenting with creating a unified sound stage between the two rigs separated by about 40' and open arches. (We're running a cary cdp into the stingray and the rwa 30.2 integrated from the pre-out of the manley.)

By adjusting the volume controls, its possible to move the sound stage from one end of the house to the other. In the sun room, the Omegas put you in the front of the hall with subs on each end of the house adding a realistic live rumble. Standing at the stove, the omegas provide the entire left channel and the silverlines take care of the right side. But what I found really amazing was the effect of listening from the living room with the silverlines turned down fairly low and the omegas volume pumped up in the background. The silverlines seem to naturally be oriented toward the back of the hall, which is where I prefer to catch most live shows. But when I'm on the couch listening to the silverlines at a fairly low level  and cranking the Omegas in the other side of the house the effect is pure magic. The sound stage is over 40' deep with fat, 3-D musical notes emanating from the stage in the sun room. The effect is sublime, even at reasonably low listening levels.

Back in the day, the grateful dead used to set up monitors in hallways surrounding the main hall at certain venues like Kaiser aud in Oakland CA. To be honest, I really enjoyed the shows set up that way. We had much more room to groove and the little monitors provided detail while the main boom filled in the gaps from the stage on the other end of the hall. This current set up is as close to duplicating that live experience as I've encountered. 

lw     

[el dub]

I've been A/B'ing the omegas and silverline's with a quality bootleg recording of a dead show from 1989 this afternoon. While the silverlines, with tweeter, report a flat response up to 25 kHz, I'm hearing much more high-end detail through the omegas. (Both rigs connected to a single source.)

I also now understand the difference between our sunfire true eq sub and the omega deep hemp cube. The omega is much quicker and cleaner.   More musical for sure. But the sunfire does go considerably deeper. However, the only type of music in our collection that benefits from the lower frequency response is that which features synthetic bass. (Including some later dead shows, btw.) But for most applications, I prefer the omega deep hemp cube. Even when listening to reggae, the deep hemp cube replicates bass in a tighter fashion while going far enough down to cover the entire bass line.  aa

Been talking with Louis about a custom 6.5" alnico di/bipole floor stand model for the living room, dtr. We're building bookshelves on the back wall and the omegas will prolly be placed 4' or so from there with about another 12-14' of living room space in front, including sofa and chair. With the curtains, leather, rug and books, I'm guessing (hoping?) the acoustics should support that set up.

lw   

[rajacat]

6-1/2" hemp alnico bipoles aa You'll certainly have some holographic images with those.

-Roy

[jeangiono]

I'm hoping someone will post some more photos of the Super 6 . . . which will give me some vicarious enjoyment while I wait to get my own.  Thanks Louis for making this new offering available to us all.

Wm

[el dub]

A friend with a digital camera is coming over this afternoon. I'll try to snap a couple of shots of the super's and post them here this evening if possible.

The wife is sold on a second set of 6" alnicos. But she's still trying to decide if we want the xrs in parisian red maple of the cherry. I told her to take her time, but the silverlines sold this morning so it may be sooner than anticipated.

lw

[rajacat]

Get the 6-1/2"  alnico bipoles aa. I'm really curious as to how they would sound and I don't think any have been built yet. I'm sure the soundstage would be very deep. My 4-1/2" bipoles exhibit this quality in spades. The 6-1/2" bipoles would certainly fill and pressurize a large room.

-Roy

[el dub]

I wish I could get the bipoles. However.....

Louis estimates I would need a couple of feet more behind the speakers than available to do justice to that set up. It also runs the price up higher than I'll be able to go in the next couple of months.

My choices would appear to be the 4.5" bipoles or the 6.5"alnico floor stand model. And I get the impression that Louis is pretty high on this particular 6.5" driver. 

We're really digging the current set up consisting of speaker systems in two different rooms sharing a source and separated by another room with arches on both sides. It creates a huge soundstage and allows us to move around the house without compromising the sound.

lw

[el dub]

I shipped out the silverlines yesterday and already miss them. Now only half the house is pressurized by sound. 

Looks like this is the way we'll roll until I scrape up the rest of the scratch for another pair of 6.5" alnicos. 

lw

[el dub]

One more thing I've recently noticed.......

The deep hemp cube sounds like its going deeper than it did a couple of weeks back. And I've estimated it to be broken in (considering hours of use) far longer than that.

Spinning a little reggae from "Culture" as we speak.

lw

[el dub]

Sold the rwa amp last night and ordered a pair of Omega xrs 6.5" alnicos in cherry wood this morning.  The better half put her foot down and said it was either that finish or the Parisian Maple gloss pearl. Who am I to argue with my wife?

Now its time to call Bob Latino and order a new dynaco st-70 to complete the system.

Thanks Louis.

lw

[el dub]

Just got off the phone with Bob Latino. Seems like a nice guy.

Our Dynaco ST 70 should ship early next week.

Now we shift attention to attenuation..... 

lw