Super V ground up build - sharing the experience

Danny Richie · « **Reply #140 on:** 2 Mar 2012, 03:17 pm »

Quote

Where is the next show that the Super V's are going to be shown at?

I think the next show will be at Michael's house as soon as his speakers have burned in.

MichaelHiFi · « **Reply #141 on:** 2 Mar 2012, 04:06 pm »

Quote from: vettett15 on 2 Mar 2012, 01:56 pm

Danny, I started using that name a long time ago when I was in love with the Lingenfelter Twin Turbo vette. Closest I came was a 98 Trans am with heads/cam/intake/exhaust/etc putting 440 at the wheels.

Michael, thanks for the info. I'd be going crazy waiting on those plate amps, I'm sure it will be worth it.

Can you give us any insight into other "top" systems you have listened to? It would be interesting to know what your reference is (sorry if you already stated this and i missed it).

Top systems? I've listened to so many systems good and bad. I can put my finger on a few that we're memorable.

I was in a room with a pair of Wilson Sasha 2's that were driven by a pair of Macintosh MC500 mono's fed by a Esoteric CD player. It was setup very well. The band was in the room. I poured the drinks afterwards. That was a great sounding combo I thought.

I really liked the Nola Grand Reference driven by PrimaLuna Dialogue 7's. Great synergy there. Very high dollar speaker though. I am/was a big fan of Vandersteen but couldn't afford even a used 5A.

One of the best setups I've heard was in my own room just after I sold my LS6's.

The buyer left them with me for some weeks and while they were there they played against a pair of Dynaudio Confidence C1's I'd just bought as a replacement.

The LS6's were great but had a top end that was often over the top. I tried everything I thought to fix it including blocking out some of the tweeters! It was then that I purchased a PS Audio Power Plant Premier. When that was deployed and my source units plugged in the issue we had with the LS6's was gone. Our THD which was at 4.5% at the wall dropped to .5%. I could only surmise that this 4.5% distortion X 12 Neo8 tweeters firing at you was too much to overcome in the HF region. Now the LS6's were in true goosebump territory. There were mesmerizing. Having a Pass Labs X350.5 didn't hurt either as they played extremely well together. In a well treated room with great AC and good electronics, it's hard to beat a line array.

I was in the market for LS9's when I learned of the Super V. I have never listened to a Super V. It will be an interesting experience.

vettett15 · « **Reply #142 on:** 2 Mar 2012, 04:12 pm »

Oh that sucks, at least you found the problem. How did the C1's compare with the LS6s? Do you still have the C1's now?

MichaelHiFi · « **Reply #143 on:** 2 Mar 2012, 04:30 pm »

The C1 burned. Cost a fortune to fix. Of course they blamed it on my crappy amp, the Pass X350.5... They sounded OK but just couldn't scale anywhere near the LS6's. Sold them. Dynaudio was an not a good company to work with IMHO. Moved on to MBL. Great speaker, huge sweet spot. Didn't integrate well with a sub. Needed 2 subs or 3

. We had the little guys, the 121's.

Cheeseboy · « **Reply #144 on:** 2 Mar 2012, 08:30 pm »

Quote from: Danny Richie on 2 Mar 2012, 03:17 pm

I think the next show will be at Michael's house as soon as his speakers have burned in.

I think so too. I learned about two life changing technologies the last time I visited Michael and his family. Line Source speakers and the Wine Venturi. I hope this next visit is as good.

sl_1800 · « **Reply #145 on:** 2 Mar 2012, 10:47 pm »

That is a super nice looking pair of speakers!!!!

gotchaforce · « **Reply #146 on:** 3 Mar 2012, 02:38 am »

Quote from: MichaelHiFi on 1 Mar 2012, 05:14 am

It was $400 bucks. I might have done it myself with my Iwata L400 HVLP gun but now in California, we can only use water based paints and that's a whole new painting game I'm not participating in. Besides, I would have easily $250 in paint supplies alone! Fogetaboutit

They look better in person I think. I got half the drivers loaded in the cabinets tonight. The lower servo woofers don't have predrilled holes in the baffle that I noticed. Those are going to be painful to install.

Thats reasonable for the quality of work, they probably did a lot of prep work as well

The color sort of looks like your velostars color

MichaelHiFi · « **Reply #147 on:** 3 Mar 2012, 02:35 pm »

Quote from: Cheeseboy on 2 Mar 2012, 08:30 pm

I think so too. I learned about two life changing technologies the last time I visited Michael and his family. Line Source speakers and the Wine Venturi. I hope this next visit is as good.

Let's see, what other life changing technologies I can spring on you

SoCalWJS · « **Reply #148 on:** 3 Mar 2012, 07:45 pm »

Quote from: MichaelHiFi on 3 Mar 2012, 02:35 pm

Let's see, what other life changing technologies can I spring on you

Super V's?

MichaelHiFi · « **Reply #149 on:** 4 Mar 2012, 05:11 pm »

Those little bow ties that adorn the front of the Super V. They have a recessed screw hole on one side, the wrong side IMO. The face of the baffle has holes in it that match the holes in the bow tie in the appropriate place. At first I thought that I would screw the bow ties into the baffle and the screws simply show. But in the pics there are no screws showing. Then noting that the curvature of the bow tie face's those recessed holes towards the baffle has me baffled. Then I thought maybe the little "leftover" dowels fit into the supposed screw holes and that's how the bow ties attach - but they don't fit.

I could just find a appropriate size nail, cut the head off, measure a length and glue them on, but that isn't close to how logically and precisely everything else fit in the kit.

This isn't rocket science (like the cross-over wiring). What am I missing (besides a brain)?

S Clark · « **Reply #150 on:** 4 Mar 2012, 05:51 pm »

Are they holes for neodymium magnet to hold on a cloth cover?

MichaelHiFi · « **Reply #151 on:** 4 Mar 2012, 07:19 pm »

Quote from: S Clark on 4 Mar 2012, 05:51 pm

Are they holes for neodymium magnet to hold on a cloth cover?

No, they match the location and placement of the bowties perfectly.

Danny Richie · « **Reply #152 on:** 4 Mar 2012, 08:28 pm »

Hey there should be some little metal pins that are used to align and hold the bow-tie in place. I used them to align mine and glued the bow-tie's on.

Cheeseboy · « **Reply #153 on:** 5 Mar 2012, 10:45 pm »

Yup! Super V's!
Possibly the Alliniac (spell check here) Pre Amp as well.

MichaelHiFi · « **Reply #154 on:** 6 Mar 2012, 08:22 pm »

Yep, I see it coming. Another decision.

The Super V kit came with these Electra Interconnect connectors. It replaces the standard blade type connectors on almost all speaker cables. In theory, these "Electra's" sound like a good idea. Problem is, this would mean to me that I take my pretty expensive Synergistic Research Tesla speaker cables and cut the lugs off them making them pretty much worthless in the possible "I want to sell these" marketplace.

What to do - what to do

I think the cross-overs are built. Waiting for a confirmation of that from Danny, he's got the pics. I want to connectorize it but that is based upon my Electra decision, or change cable type - yikes.

Still deciding on grill cloth.

Oh ya, no pins for the bow-ties - bummer. Shouldn't be difficult to find a substitute.

Plate amps are to show up at my house today. Am I really going to build enclosures for those?

My turntable is working - sort of - again. I'm missing my tracking force gauge. I mean it's missing as in gone. I placed an order for a digital one which I wanted anyway.

My Decware amp is at Decware but the owner has family health issues. Bummer for him. I may not be seeing that amp for a while. Where's Steve, the gentleman who loaned me his amp? Good guy audiophile of the year award is waiting

Cheeseboy
The preamp is an Allnic which stands for All Nickel which is used in their transformers. 5 things I love about this preamp.

1. It's tube based but you don't feel inclined to roll tubes.

2. There are meters in front to let you know if a tube is failing.

3. Tubes last and last and there not crazy expensive!

4. It doesn't seem to add any coloration to the sound, only an increased sense of scale a very mild increase in dynamics and increased air, to a more or less degree depending upon amp.

5. Nice volume control and remote

6. It's beautiful to look at and touch.

7. The head guy David Beetles will occasionally call me and see how things are working. That's right, call me.

Oops that's 7.

SoCalWJS · « **Reply #155 on:** 6 Mar 2012, 09:27 pm »

Michael - it's all about options/tradeoff's/decisions, isn't it?

Must be nice having the head guy at a company giving you a call.

Have you thought about trying the Electras with a different set of speaker cables, then comparing? I bought most of the stuff to make the infamous "White Lightning" RCA interconnects, but decided I'd try to make a short set of the speaker wires as well, substituting the Electras and see what happens.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/whitelightning/moonshine.html

That's a project that's still a ways ahead when I feel bold enough to try it with my (very limited) soldering skills/tools.

Danny Richie · « **Reply #156 on:** 6 Mar 2012, 09:39 pm »

Quote

The Super V kit came with these Electra Interconnect connectors. It replaces the standard blade type connectors on almost all speaker cables. In theory, these "Electra's" sound like a good idea. Problem is, this would mean to me that I take my pretty expensive Synergistic Research Tesla speaker cables and cut the lugs off them making them pretty much worthless in the possible "I want to sell these" marketplace.

You can always re-terminate the ends with some spades if the next owner wants to take that backwards step back to binding posts. That's easy.

Cheeseboy · « **Reply #157 on:** 7 Mar 2012, 02:56 am »

Michael,

You have lots on your plate. I'm impressed with the speakers, the preamp and the room. If you ever feel the need to get out of San Jose and come north to take a break from the build we're here for you.

It is another weekend of barrell tasting.

MichaelHiFi · « **Reply #158 on:** 7 Mar 2012, 03:00 am »

Quote from: SoCalWJS on 6 Mar 2012, 09:27 pm

Michael - it's all about options/tradeoff's/decisions, isn't it?

Must be nice having the head guy at a company giving you a call.

Have you thought about trying the Electras with a different set of speaker cables, then comparing? I bought most of the stuff to make the infamous "White Lightning" RCA interconnects, but decided I'd try to make a short set of the speaker wires as well, substituting the Electras and see what happens.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/whitelightning/moonshine.html

That's a project that's still a ways ahead when I feel bold enough to try it with my (very limited) soldering skills/tools.

I've seen, read about the 47's. I think I'll take Danny's approach. In my last life I was/am a NASA certified solderer. Now I can't see anymore and my hands aren't as steady as they were. You wouldn't believe how I could solder a connector for a tank.

Cables are by far the hardest thing to purchase and own. I haven't gone the merry-go-round route. Sort of stuck with DIY except for my Tesla's where I didn't want too many compromises between amp and speaker. Some how, that run seemed really important. I would spend more but like what I've had. Compared to the Morrow speaker cables which I inserted in the HT system, the Tesla's were a bit better.

MichaelHiFi · « **Reply #159 on:** 7 Mar 2012, 03:03 am »

Quote from: Danny Richie on 6 Mar 2012, 09:39 pm

You can always re-terminate the ends with some spades if the next owner wants to take that backwards step back to binding posts. That's easy.

Probably the logical route Danny.

I looked at my stash of cables, 2 large bins worth (46 years). I've got some long length Monster cables for the subs and a long length of DH-Labs BL-1. Both would work for sub duties. What, in your opinion, would work better? Or, None Of The Above!