[rhing]

Amen to that. Black Gate N's were the most special electrolytic caps made. I still have a couple pair left in my stash and I was tempted to try them in one of these TPA3116 amps, but decided the best cap is no cap at all and went with the CineMag transformers. They are not inexpensive, but the sound quality is on par with some of the high end amps I auditioned last week at the California Audio Show. This includes Sim Audio Moon amps, Raven Audio tube amps, the Audio Note UK Oto SE parallel single ended tube amp, and a pair of Merrill mono block amps.

I'll give some of these manufacturers the benefit of a doubt that setting up systems in hotel rooms is not an easy task, but if you expect to get paid thousands of dollars for this gear, you can afford room treatments and room correction processors if your equipment can't sound good in a regular size room. Surprisingly, some of the best audio came from the simpler systems. Fritz Speakers out of L.A. had these beautiful-sounding Carerra 2-way monitors driven by Electra-Fidelity 300B mono blocks designed by Jack Eliano. The other impressive room was the ATC room featuring their home hi fi passive speakers and amps. ATC is a high end active studio monitor manufacturer out of the UK.

The most disappointing sound was from the Music Lovers Audio room featuring the Wilson Audio Sasha II's driven by an Audio Research Reference 75 amp. The sound was grainy, and lacked any sound stage depth and frequency extension. Something was off, because I know the ARC house sound, and it wasn't present in that suite. My buddy and I couldn't believe the guy told the audience that the speakers cost $35,000 a pair and the ARC amp costs "only" $9,000. Nothing cheap and cheerful there.

[Poultrygeist]

I continue to be impressed by the DIY mods you guys come up with.

Do any of you build speaker that you use with the TPA's?

[Markvdv]

Did some public demo's long time ago. You end up running a 140watt poweramp flat out into Rogers LS3/5a (rated 25watt music), as an example, that is a little dangerous, Kef's threatening to leave the Rogers all the time Compressing, or using more compressed recordings is probably best. Hiend public soundshow...compressing...dilemma.

[lacro]

Funny, I have some Encores as well (upgraded), but I can't imagine them playing loud enough with the 3110.

The little 2X8 W Sure drives the Encores to any listening level I desire Does your modded TDA7297 drive your Encores? Now that I am much better at slinging solder, I need to to do the upgrades to my Encores....

[murphy11]

I read Poultrygeist hard wired (I think) the Astron PS to the amp. Are there other external ways to connect the Astron and the TPA?

[Poultrygeist]

I read Poultrygeist hard wired (I think) the Astron PS to the amp. Are there other external ways to connect the Astron and the TPA?

I wired the TPA 3116 to the inside of the same red and black binding posts you see on the outside.

If you connect wire leads to the outside binding posts, they work similar to amp binding posts and even have a hole for bare wires.

Red is positive and black is ground. Be careful they don't contact each other. Crimp on "O" connectors are what I used on the inside and they would be my choice on the outside.

[fsdaron]

I've had great luck using the 3116 and 3110 with my diy open baffles

[Poultrygeist]

Fred,

Excellent. I bet your Betsy's really sing with the TPA.

[rhing]

I continue to be impressed by the DIY mods you guys come up with.

Do any of you build speaker that you use with the TPA's?

I have not built any speakers in a while. The last ones I built were the JE Labs open baffles. I used a pair of some really nice vintage 12" SEAS 30 TV-Coax with Alnico magnets in the JE Labs OB's using 3/4" Baltic Birch ply.



These speakers sounded fantastic, but my man cave is not large enough to do these justice. I let my friend use the open baffles, and he mounted 8 ohm Electro-Voice 12-TRXB triaxial speakers with a simple 3uF cap as the crossover. He ended up selling them to another friend who took them up to Oregon.

Afterward, I went the route of Klipsch Forte II's, which I have modded with Bob Crites' crossover upgrade kits, internal wiring upgrade kits, and his Titanium tweeter diaphragms. My buddy who had the E-V drivers ended up with a pair of Altec Model 19's, where he rebuilt the stock crossovers with Sonicap Gen I film caps and Alpha Copper foil inductors. Both of us still marvel about those JE Labs OB's and how they could be driven beautifully with almost any amp. I would speculate that they would work very nicely with the TPA3116 amps.

I'm thinking of building another pair of OB's following the Gravity Well of a Dark Star design using the Seas coaxials, which I've held onto.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/roadtour5/roadtour5.html

I also designed a pair of adjustable open baffles for use with Hawthorne Audio Silver Iris and Augie drivers for a friend in Huntsville, Alabama. He loved those OB's a lot, but decided he liked Klipsch Forte II's more.

[BK_856er]

I continue to be impressed by the DIY mods you guys come up with.

Do any of you build speaker that you use with the TPA's?

I built some full range GR Research LGK (6ohm, 87.3dB). Fed with TPA3118 @ 18V.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=125221.0

BK

[lacro]

I continue to be impressed by the DIY mods you guys come up with.

Do any of you build speaker that you use with the TPA's?

 The only speakers I have built (so far) are my X-LS Encores http://gr-research.com/x-lsencorekit.aspx These are really nice sounding (C&C) speakers in the stock form, and are easily driven by all the TPA boards. I plan to do the upgrades soon to bring them to another level.
 The OB speakers look like a fun project with minimal cabinet work. Maybe I should try them.

Right now - I am listening to "Dead in the water" on Halcyon by Ellie Goulding. Amazing sound from these speakers currently driven by a TPA 3110 amp with Oscon caps mod!

Here's my Encores in gloss black:

[Poultrygeist]

Wow! I knew this was a talented group.

[matt_garman]

Do any of you build speaker that you use with the TPA's?

These are the Slim Classic Golden Ratio (CGR) dMar-Ken7.3 speakers.  A Planet10 design; they also cut the wood for me as a glue-together flat pack.  Drivers are Mark Audio Alpair 7.3eN ("eN" means the "enabled" treatment, aka fancy painted-on polka dots).

Finishing is DuraTex.  Very easy to apply, and I really like "industrial"-looking stuff.

[Poultrygeist]

These are the Slim Classic Golden Ratio (CGR) dMar-Ken7.3 speakers.  A Planet10 design; they also cut the wood for me as a glue-together flat pack.  Drivers are Mark Audio Alpair 7.3eN ("eN" means the "enabled" treatment, aka fancy painted-on polka dots).

Finishing is DuraTex.  Very easy to apply, and I really like "industrial"-looking stuff.

I bet those MA's sound great. With the 3116 don't you think I have enough power to replace the Fostexs with the Alpairs in my Frugal Horns?

[matt_garman]

I bet those MA's sound great. With the 3116 don't you think I have enough power to replace the Fostexs with the Alpairs in my Frugal Horns?

I'm still "getting to know them" so to speak, but I honestly can't see myself wanting for new speakers any time soon (though they won't fit in this room, I'm looking for an excuse to build a set of Frugel Horn XLs).  My only "complaint" is that it seems like the more I turn them up, the more "goodness" comes out of them: volume gets high but it doesn't seem loud, if you know what I mean.  In other words, at the same volume, I think a lesser set of speakers would get tiring.  That might not sound like a problem, but I usually only have time to listen when my kids are sleeping.  And that back wall in the pic is shared with my daughter's room.

As for replacing the Fostex's with MAs: is the Frugel Horn cab the same for both speakers?  I have no personal experience with Frugel Horns (nor the similar Pensil series), but IIRC, the cabinet design changes subtly to be optimized for one driver or another.  Don't hold me to that, it could be another cab design I'm thinking about!

But as far as power is concerned: I can't imagine you wanting for more with an Alpair/3116 combo, unless you like obscene volume levels.  But I would argue these fullrangers are the wrong choice for earbleed volumes anyway.  I dropped the gain down to 20dB on one of my 3116 builds, and still barely turn the volume up more than 1/4 the way, even when I get the rare chance to crank it.  Note that I'm nearfield, so I don't need a lot of power to begin with.  But I can easily fill this 10x13 room with sound with headroom to spare.

As a point of reference, I have a 3116 amp powering my Salk Songtowers in our living room.  The Salks are 88dB efficient versus 85 for the Alpair 7.3, so reasonably close.  I thought the 3116 wouldn't cut it for living room duty, but again, for my purposes, it's plenty of power.  Note that the main floor of our house is completely open: the living room, dining room, and kitchen aren't at all separate rooms, just "implied" rooms based on furniture arrangement.  If I wanted to host a rave or something like that, it might be insufficient, but I don't see that happening any time soon. 

In fact, I've been happy with the 3116 long enough now that I'm going to sell my Class D Audio SDS-470, which IIRC is about 600 Watts.  The 3116 sounds just as good to me, and is so much smaller physically.

Edit: note that I have more power than I need on both my desktop and in the living room.  However, the desktop amps are powered by a 13.8V PSU, and the living room rig is powered by 24V.

[Poultrygeist]

The Alpair 7.3 is by far the most popular driver for the Frugal Horn Mk3's.

Since I've never had more than a 3 watt amp I went with the more efficient Fostex FE126en.

It's said that with the Alpair the bass is much stronger in the Frugals.

If you have enough headroom driving the Alpairs with the 3116 then it should work for me if I swap drivers. 

[AmpDesigner333]

The only speakers I have built (so far) are my X-LS Encores http://gr-research.com/x-lsencorekit.aspx These are really nice sounding (C&C) speakers in the stock form, and are easily driven by all the TPA boards. I plan to do the upgrades soon to bring them to another level.
 The OB speakers look like a fun project with minimal cabinet work. Maybe I should try them.

Right now - I am listening to "Dead in the water" on Halcyon by Ellie Goulding. Amazing sound from these speakers currently driven by a TPA 3110 amp with Oscon caps mod!

Here's my Encores in gloss black:

Beautiful ! 

[Poultrygeist]

lacro,

Love that piano black. I remember lusting after those back when the AV123 forum was going strong.

[lacro]

Beautiful ! 

Thank you sir!

[lacro]

lacro,

Love that piano black. I remember lusting after those back when the AV123 forum was going strong.

Thanks Poultry - I enjoyed the challenge! Piano black is not only difficult to finish, but it's difficult to photograph!