[celebrat]

 
After a very long process my Super Vs have played their first notes. I started over 2 years ago and must confess and I freely admit I am not a DIY type.  I did alot of "cheating" to get here but the speakers sound great.

I first bought the servo subs and amps in hopes of using them for another project I envisioned. It never materialized. In 2010 I went to RMAF and heard the Super Vs and could tell that whatever my ideas were they could not surpass Danny's fantasitc design. I got back home and the following year ( never said I was the quick one LOL)ordered the rest of the kit. After trying to build my own cabinets (OMG that is a long sad story for another day) I gave up and ordered the flatpack that Danny now offers. To be honest I was very skeptical of the value offered with the kit. No matter how it is sliced (or CNC'd) we are talking MDF so it is hard to swallow going from raw costs of a couple hundred to the cost of the full kit.

Here is the bottom line IMHO. This kit allows the end user to achieve truly professional results. It is complete and well done. It even includes magentized grill screen forms for a truly finished product. That being said. This is DEFINITELY not a kit for a beginner, or in my case less than a beginner Danny was extremely helpful through this journey and his customer support is fantastic  .  However, If you do not posses the skills, I highly recommend you do not tackle this project alone.

I really struggled and finally gave up and after building the sub boxes (one of them not quite square I might add   ) I finally smartened up and turned the project over to my friend Brooks Tanner. www.resonantwoods.com.  Brooks is a pro and as you can see from the photos the results are stunning.

If you note in the photos there are some Harbeth 40.1 s in the back of the the Super Vs. (sorry I will work on getting photos uploaded in my next post)
I plan to do a mini review of the Super Vs and with the Harbeths, I must say they face some very serious competion. That being said even before breakin they sound VERY good. They certainly perform WAY beyond their price point....even if you have to pay to have them done ny someone else. That is it for now. In the meantime if anyone is interested please talk to me about the music you listen to and the rest of the system that surrounds. I would love to get involved with a Super V user's group  Thanks for reading

[celebrat]

Ok. Any assistance in uploading images will be great appreciated. Thanks

[jtwrace]

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=40968.0

[rockdrummer]

I see in your gallery photos a really cool blue! 
ben

[HT cOz]

Those are sweet 

[SoCalWJS]

Very nice!

[corndog71]

I like to use www.photobucket.com for hosting my pics.  They give you the links to post too.  You can edit your pics as well... (and turn them upright )

Your Super V's look fantastic in blue!

[nickd]

Nice Blue!

I like the Super V owners group idea. The speaker is more difficult to build, set up and tune the room and system to than one would think.

However, with some effort the rewards are quite stunning.

I noticed you are missing some no-rez on the upper woofer box. I ran short 1 sheet of no-rez too. I just finished lining the cainets last weekend. It makes a difference. If you have it put it on, If you don't have it, order it. You will hear the difference when they are fully lined.

BTW, they are the most revealing loudspeaker of up stream equipment I have ever owned. That 97db efficency is a blessing and a curse. Right now I am enjoying 30 watts of Triode from Ayon. Vocals to die for!

[Danny Richie]

Nice color combo! Thanks for posting about it too.

[celebrat]

Hi Gang
Thanks for the compliments (I love that blue) and the assist with the gallery. I rotated the photos. Still have not figured out how to get photos on the posts but for now the gallery works fine. And I can check out everybody else's too.

So I have some comments and questions

What has people's experience been with length of time for break in?

Here are are my crossover settings: Phase 0; Crossover approx 90hz; Volume approx 2:00; Low Pass 50hz; Freq 14hs;Damp Hi; Rumble off. It seems well balanced but any suggetsions are welcome

I put the No Res in the back on the rearfire of the top woofer. So NickD you think the front would really make a big improvement? I will order another piece. Is it ok to have the stuff in the back? I see you have yours with No-Res both front and back

For fun with Servo Bass I reccommend: Lyle Lovett Joshua Judges Ruth /Track 3 She Already Made Up Her Mind
Real 14hz can be quite scary

I am waiting on a tube set for my Mastersound 845 monoblocks.  Right now my spare (Musical Fidelity AC 3r) is driving them fine.

Any recommendations for unique grill cloth material?

[jtwrace]

Try this:

[celebrat]

jtrace you are AWESOME. Thank you.

[PDR]

Nice job Celebrat.....they look cool, all the ones I've seen with that "candy" finish look awesome.

Only one complaint.......This "Super V" group, dont forget guys like Ed (ebag) and my self......we may only be lowly V-1 owners, but we like to be included as well!....

[saisunil]

super nice ...

[Danny Richie]

You have much more improvement ahead.

First your phase is off. Set the phase to between 180 degrees and a 3 o'clock setting on the dial. That will help a lot.

Next set your low pass filter setting in the middle setting where it says EXT/12. These maintains a 12db per octave slope that will match the roll off of the upper driver and allow only the crossover control knob to be the only thing selecting the frequency range.

In the 50Hz/24 setting it adds an additional 12db per octave slope at 50Hz. So in this setting the woofers will not play up high enough to reach the upper driver. This setting is for when you are crossing to main speakers below 50Hz.

Also, the No Rez will have more effect in tightening up the bass when used on the side panels in front of the woofer. Adding more in all of that area will be another nice improvement.

[Danny Richie]

I have some amplifiers that would look really good next to those speakers. 

[Danny Richie]

You know, a charcoal grey grill cloth would look really good on those too.   

[celebrat]

I woke up this morning to Danny's suggestions and adjusted the phase and crossover settings as he recommended. WOW!! The sound (obvious I was missing tons of mid bass and lower mids) and soundstage filled way out and became much more three dimensional. Voices are becoming more magical. If anyone is familiar with the Harbeths you know how well they do voices. When I say I am not missing the 40.1s.... that is an extreme compliment. 

The Cheiftans album Tears Of Stone has exceptional vocals and is highly recommended

I will be calling after Thanksgiving (I am very busy today being filled with gratitude for these speakers and life in general )and ordering more No-Res. Those Dodd amps are BEAUTIFUL. I am afraid to ask their cost.

PDR and Ebag I formally invite you to our group. I asked my wife and she again told me size is not important
Seriously, we are all family here.

Happy Thanksgiving to all

[poseidonsvoice]

Celebrat,

Beautiful work. I'll be interested in your review, given that the Harbeth's that you have list are $12K/pair and have a huge following themselves, just read a big review on 6moons.com.

But I'm pretty sure about which one you'll like more 

Anand.

[mono-tubeleosis]

I don't want to hijack your thread but I just fired up mine late Tuesday night and I wanted to chime in on my first impressions.  My babies are playing now as I type.

When I first lit them up I was really tired.  I really wasn't in the mood anymore.  Basically running on adrenaline trying to get them finished (as in finished enough to break them in).  As soon as I got home from work I wired up my second speaker and it probably took twice as long as it should have because I was really dragging, but I was determined to have these ready for Thanksgiving so my son who's home from college could hear them.  I listened to them for about 20 minutes and truthfully everything sounded pretty bad.  I'll get to more on that later.

I had been listening to the left side with a smaller speaker for about two weeks until I could finish off the second one.  It was kind of weird when I first turned them on because the one I just finished seemed quite a bit louder.  Last night was really the first time I sat down and started playing around with them.  I moved them toward the back wall a little to get them more in position to where I want them once I get the room rearranged. 

They're exactly four feet away from the back of the back wall inset.  The inset is two feet deep and 10 feet wide.  The overall room these will be in are about 16 feet wide.  Overall depth of the room which includes a kitchen is around 34 feet.  I hate it that the house I'm now in (divorce special) has this fricken inset but thats the way it is.  All these houses in Vegas seem to have these.  I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing but I really wish I just had a nice straight back wall for these speakers. 

Last night before I turned them on I cracked a beer and plopped myself down on the couch. I started with stuff I'm real familiar with.  I didn't expect them to sound good and I wasn't disappointed.  The best way I could describe it would be to call my listening experience as "shrill and boom". 

Diana Krall's voice souned like it was metal.  The mids and highs were excruciatingly bright.  Everything sounded like it was coming out of each speaker with nothing in between. I've made several pairs of GR speakers now and I'm well aware of how long it takes to break them in, but this was different somehow. 

They all sound bad at first but this took it to another level.  So I just kept on listening and started moving them around in the room some. 

The house I'm in now has zero room treatment and I'm temporarily using a Cambridge Audio amp until I get my Dodd stuff hooked up.  They're currently hooked to my OB-5's. I should have the good stuff running them this weekend.  Bottom line is I've given these bad boys very little to work with for the time being.  What I do have though is an extremely large cushy L-shaped couch, so I decided to take off some of the cushions off and use them as bass traps.  I also used two large cushions to cover up the 65 inch plasma that is in the inset right up to the wall.

I couldn't believe the difference.  Everything across the board smoothed out in almost dramatic fashion.  It actually sounded really good which was a surprise to me considering how it sounded before I did that.  I listened to several tracks from various recordings across the gamut of CD's I have and for the most part everything sounded pretty good.  Some things sounded astonishingly good.

I don't want to get into it too much at this point because there are so many things I have left to do, but I can already tell these are going to be monsters sound wise.  I'm just amazed how that could make such a difference.  Is it possible they could change that much in just playing them for around 5 hours?  If so this would be the fastest initial break-in in audio history. 

Just for laughs I wanted to show you this photo with the cushions behind the speakers.  I took down the cushions in front of the tv so I could watch the game.   

I'll get more photos up once I finish off the sides, grills, etc, etc, etc, and get the room re-arranged etc, etc, but I have a feeling these will end up being the best speakers I've ever heard.

Heres a couple of pics.  Obviously the room is in total disarray at the moment.  Check out the fancy cardboard box's housing the sub amps.  Sweet huh?