Damaged speakers - what to do?

Saturn94 · « **Reply #60 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 03:19 am »

Quote from: Rocket on 17 Oct 2013, 08:11 pm

Hi Guys,

My speakers get delivered today. Its taken 2 weeks to get here from the US which is a bit slower than normal and it looks like there were flight delays and a hold up with US Customs. Luckily the speakers cleared Australian customs in half a day and they are due for delivery tomorrow and I can't wait to hear them.

Its cost about $2000AU including shipping door to door, taxes and customs fees. This time around I was able to avoid quarantine fees due to Jim's thorough paperwork. Its still worth having the speakers shipped to Australia because there is no product available in Australia that looks and sounds as good as the Salk Sound speakers.

I'll let you know what I think when they are up and running.

Cheers Rod

Very exciting! Keep us posted.

Rocket · « **Reply #61 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 04:59 am »

Hi Guys,

The speakers arrived safely today. It took a little longer than expected because I think there was a delay with US customs and then the qantas flight was rescheduled. Luckily, it only took half a day to clear customs in Perth and they were available for collection yesterday.

I ended up doing a local deal with DB Schenker and had them shipped from the airport to my home via tail lift for $180 which was an acceptable price. I had them shipped on Friday.

Okay, bearing in mind that I have fluid behind the ear canal in one of my ears which is causing a bit of imbalance with my hearing at the moment I can hear a definite improvement compared with my previous HT2's (non tl version). The top end is virtually the same as the lcy tweeter but the midrange is slightly clearer and I can hear more detail/ decay/definition such as hearing a bongo drum which has more decay/definition than the HT2's. The bass is without doubt deeper and I think there is more definition than before. I don't feel like I need a subwoofer to augment the bass now.

I also bought an Eastern Electric Dac Plus recently and also replaced the tubes in my N.E.W P3 tube amplifier (made by Cary Audio in the late 1990's - early 2000's). All of these changes have created an overall classier sound, it seems that the sound is blacker now when the music is quiet, perhaps this is because the midrange is in a separate chamber than the bass driver? Definitely an easy improvement over my HT2's. I can only imagine how good the soundscape 8's sound but to be honest I'm really satisfied with my speakers and I won't be upgrading any time soon.

Thank you Jim so much for your help. I appreciate the suggestion on the new cabinets, aurum cantus g2 tweeter and xover that you had left over (glad that it was put to good use). The speakers also look great and I made sure that I was patient this time when I assembled them.

Btw I was a bit disappointed that Jim's room didn't get more acknowledgement for its sound at RMAF. There must be a lot of competition in the US! Clients tastes always vary but I obviously like the house sound of Salk Sound! These speakers have travelled 18 000 kilometres and are now available for demonstration purposes in Perth, Western Australia.

Cheers Rod

Austin08 · « **Reply #62 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 05:33 am »

Quote

...Btw I was a bit disappointed that Jim's room didn't get more acknowledgement for its sound at RMAF. There must be a lot of competition in the US! Clients tastes always vary but I obviously like the house sound of Salk Sound! These speakers have travelled 18 000 kilometres and are now available for demonstration purposes in Perth, Western Australia....

Rod,

Congratulation on your upgrade. IMO, Salk is already being well recognized by audiophile world wide. Winning the show is nice but winning customers heart is lifetime achievement award.

martyo · « **Reply #63 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 08:52 am »

Way to go Rod. Now you can give those Ampzilla's a workout.

Rocket · « **Reply #64 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 09:51 am »

Hi Guys,

Whilst I've only been listening to the speakers for a couple of hours and I have a bung ear at the moment the major improvement seems to be the midrange. I can hear that the improvements are as follows, classy/refined/transparent midrange, improved dynamics, better definition/decay of instruments, soundstage is wider and taller. Overall its quite a jump in performance IMO. Its a pity I couldn't wait to replace the perpetual technologies p3a dac with the Eastern Electric Dac Plus and new tubes in my preamp before listening to the speakers. It would have given me a guide on the subtle improvements of each component as I installed them. Its funny that I've replaced every component in my system since 2009 but the N.E.W. P3 preamplifier is still hanging on. The company went broke in the early 2000's but they did make some really nice affordable gear. I do have a new tube from Jim Mc Shane which he recommended for the EE dac but I won't bother with replacing it at this stage and I also have some new opamps for the dac which are on the way from the US.

The ampzilla 2000's seem to be powering the speakers quite easily at this stage. I don't listen at full volume but I do like the sound at moderate levels and they seem to be just idling at the moment.

I was quite impressed that Jim uses pallets to ship the speakers and wasn't aware that he had adopted this practice. The photos don't do justice to the quality of the veneer.

Regards Rod

robcentola · « **Reply #65 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 11:23 am »

Amazing. So beautiful.

Rocket · « **Reply #66 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 11:40 am »

Hi,

Its taken me so many years to get my system to this level. I'm done now because I'm now at the level of diminishing returns.

Regards Rod

charmerci · « **Reply #67 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 03:37 pm »

Quote from: Rocket on 18 Oct 2013, 11:40 am

I'm done now because I'm now at the level of diminishing returns.

Regards Rod

Oh no, you're not.

You'll get big improvement with room treatments.

Anyway, I'm glad that you finally have a great system after all those struggles!

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #68 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 06:51 pm »

Thanks for the pics. It brings a tear to my eye since the HT3 was my first Salk purchase 6 years ago. It's good you have big amps to drive these. They are power hungry but the bass is pretty darned good. You made out pretty darned good with this whole situation it appears.

DMurphy · « **Reply #69 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 08:55 pm »

Quote from: Rocket on 18 Oct 2013, 04:59 am

Btw I was a bit disappointed that Jim's room didn't get more acknowledgement for its sound at RMAF. There must be a lot of competition in the US! Clients tastes always vary but I obviously like the house sound of Salk Sound! These speakers have travelled 18 000 kilometres and are now available for demonstration purposes in Perth, Western Australia.

Cheers Rod

I think the press coverage of RMAF is still coming in. This was just posted by the Absolute Sound:

Salk Signature Sound, maker of the popular SongTower, showed an experimental high-end stand-mount speaker with wide frequency response and high sensitivity for its size (91dB). It employs the new Exotic drivers from Seas of Norway, leading to Salk’s name for this new model: Exotica. These drivers are extremely expensive and built to a very high standard. Each high-sensitivity driver is measured and tested before leaving the Seas factory. Driven by some exciting and reasonably priced new electronics from Audio by Van Alstine, the Exotica filled a large room with a huge soundstage and had a transparency that rivaled many more expensive loudspeakers. Although just the raw drivers in a pair Exoticas reportedly costs $3000, the complete loudspeaker is projected to sell for $6000 at retail.

And I believe Stereophile is still posting on rooms. I know they spent a good bit of time listening to the Exotica's.

Rocket · « **Reply #70 on:** 18 Oct 2013, 10:53 pm »

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the information on RMAF and I'll keep an eye open for any updates.

Due to my isolation from the rest of Australia I haven't been exposed to every high end speaker around but I have listened to many of the mass market one's such as B & W, Aurum Cantus and I do have a pair of Nurforce S9's which retailed for $6000 in Australia. There is a local speaker designer who builds great speakers which use raven BEe Engineering tweeters, cabasse, focal, phl and accuton drivers (they are too expensive and take to long to build though). The only speaker who's midrange I thought was more transparent was one using accuton drivers but I think the xover and speaker design of the HT3 enables the speaker from top to bottom to sound seamless in comparison.

I had a long listen to the speaker last night and I played with the Solid State and tube options of the Eastern Electric Dac Plus. I thought using the SS midrange option that it sounded a bit thin but the bass had good definition and using this option the HT 3 speaker didn't emphasise the bass, midrange or top end at all. When I used the tube option the midrange was great but it did emphasise it just a little more and the bass seemed just a little bloated and lacked a bit of definition in comparison to the SS input of the EE dac (trade offs once again!). I might try swapping in the new tube and see how it sounds.

I think in total the speaker has cost me about $7200US to import to Australia which still makes it affordable in comparison to the local competition. I'm not a rich person by any stretch of the imagination and the only allow myself a couple of luxuries such as my Bach Stradivarius trumpet and my hifi system. I drive an old 1996 hyundai excel and it does the job for me but it does have a focal speaker system and subwoofer which sounds good.

Anyway whilst its cost me quite a bit to fix my situation I do believe that apart from making minor changes to my system in the future I'm pretty well done (yes I know famous last words). I would like to comment on the top end and comments I've read over the years about this speakers brightness. I think this only occurs when using poorer quality components in your system and less than stellar recordings. This speaker is the same as the HT2 where it ruthlessly reveals the source.

Regards Rod

ps. it sounds like I'm doing a review of the Eastern Electric Dac Plus but I was really trying to give an example of the HT3 speaker rises to the occasion by making it easy to hear different components and options.

Rocket · « **Reply #71 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 05:42 am »

Hi Guys,

I just found out that I now have a perforated ear drum which is causing me some deafness in the left ear. The doctor stated that with a bit of luck it will heal by itself and I should get most of my hearing back. I can still hear the improvement with the new speakers but it is a disconcerting having this imbalance issue.

Regards Rod

martyo · « **Reply #72 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 11:24 am »

That sucks Rod. I hope the doc is correct and you heal quickly.

Rocket · « **Reply #73 on:** 19 Oct 2013, 12:39 pm »

Hi Martyo,

It does suck a little bit but in reality its a minor hiccup and I'm sure my hearing will be okay soon. I just had a major music session tonight and played some reasonably well recorded rock cd's and the HT3's did test the Ampzilla 2000's quite a bit. Damn it, the HT3's made the Ampzillas clip quite a bit with loud bass heavy music. BRM is right they do require quite a bit of power but they do sound of so good and the Ampzilla 2000's do have just enough power to drive them. I don't think I'd using anything less than 200 watts per channel with these speakers.

With reference to my hearing a lovely lady at work who is 52 years old (like me) and the poor thing is riddled with cancer and in comparison a perforated ear drum is really only a minor inconvenience. Thanks for Martyo for your comments though. I now know what I've been missing all these years. Martyo do you ever consider upgrading to the SS8's?

Regards

Rod

WntrMute2 · « **Reply #74 on:** 8 Dec 2013, 08:46 pm »

Boy, I just would have chalked that up to battle scars and gone on with the listening. IMHO, it is all about the music although I do appreciate good looking gear. No one but you will say: man those speakers sound great but they sure are beat up. I have a dent in my Salks and forget about it as soon as the music starts to play. But good luck with the upgrade!

Rocket · « **Reply #75 on:** 9 Dec 2013, 11:28 am »

Hi,

Your probably right in your comment about not worrying about the damage. I guess it depends on where you sit on the tree when it comes to this issue. I don't allow myself many luxuries in my life apart from a gym membership, a professional level trumpet and my hifi gear. I've worked really hard to set myself up financially and I decided that it was a good excuse to get my dream speakers. I was lucky to be able to sell the speakers for a fair price considering the level of damage and it helped me to buy the HT3's. Another consideration is that the aussie dollar is near record levels and it is only going to go down in the next couple of years and I decided that I would buy the last pair of speakers.

Anyway, thanks for your input. My hearing is getting better and my perforated ear drum is healed and my system now sounds spectacular but as always I'm still trying to find good quality recordings.

Cheers Rod

TJHUB · « **Reply #76 on:** 9 Dec 2013, 02:46 pm »

Rod:

First, the HT3's look fantastic. A friend of mine bought a used pair a while back, and he has them sounding incredible. Very nice speakers.

What tube did Jim sell you for the EE DAC? I'm just curious. I went through many tubes with my EE DAC, and the tube I thought had the least compromises top to bottom was a Psvane 12AU7. When testing the SS output, try it with the tube pulled. It's a very different sound, and for the better for many. However, the magic comes from discrete opamps in all 4 positions, SS output, and no tube installed.

Rocket · « **Reply #77 on:** 21 Dec 2013, 08:21 am »

Hi,

Thanks for the comments re: my speakers. I do like the finish of the speaker that Jim suggested for me and it perfectly matches the room decor. I'm currently using a goldentubes in the tube socket of the EE dac but to be honest I mainly listen to it with the SS option. I initially did some opamp rolling and replaced the stock one's with some that were recommended by Doug Schroeder and ordered them with brown dog adapters preinstalled. I quite liked the sound but I then went all out and bought 4 x dexa discrete opamps and I've had them installed for about 4 weeks now and the improvement is quite impressive. I have a redwine audio imod and it sounds nowhere near as good as the EE dac plus.

I'll try removing the tube as my next tweak and I'll listen for any improvements it might bring. I will say that generally unless it is a clear improvement I always feel that my hearing either isn't that good or by the time I've swapped components I can't really decide whether there is an improvement or not.

Cheers Rod

SCompRacer · « **Reply #78 on:** 21 Dec 2013, 04:13 pm »

Hi Rod. Before I built a DAC with discrete balanced output, I had went the Burson HD op amp route with a modded DAC. It was quite an improvement. I'm all SS now.

Rich

Rocket · « **Reply #79 on:** 25 May 2014, 01:23 am »

Hi Guys,

Just trying to determine which aurum cantus ribbon tweeter the HT3 speakers use as I have the older version? I'm going to buy a stock of replacement ribbons for the tweeters.

I did have a bit of a setback with my system as I blew one of the Ampzilla mono blocks and I had to return it to Wyred 4 Sound for repair. Its back in my system and working well again.

Cheers Rod