[AudioDwebe]

The C&C Abby with the Bailey, being driven by the Dennis Had Fire-Bottle SET pushing 3 watts of power is so darn musical.  It teeters on the verge of "magical" but I don't want to use that word in fear of jinxing it.

But yesterday, when I first swapped to the 3-watter (had been listening to 7 watt the previous week) the bass sounded pretty flabby.  That might be attributed to the music I was playing, I don't know.

But this morning the system sounds so sweet.  One of those "sweets" where you look at your other pieces and ask yourself, "Do I really wanna keep you around?"  I will, of course, keep them around because I've reacquired several pieces that I had sold off previously, which included the Abby's sans the Baileys. 

But man, this is really, really sweet and enjoyable.

Ciao.

[MttBsh]

Since I put Abbys in my system 15 years ago I've been through a half dozen amps, preamps and DACs, only the speakers have remained the same. I use the Bailey plus another sub, and I've attached a pair of Fostex T900A supertweeters to the Abbys. To me what the Abby produces is magical but for that magic to be fully revealed it needs that augmentation down deep and a bit of sparkle on top. 

[AudioDwebe]

Man, those Fostex tweeters are pretty pricey.

Where do you have them on your Abbys.

[MttBsh]

I've built some welded forks coming out of the wall that hold the T900A tweeters (which weigh around 10 lbs each) in place. I had planned to place them nearer to the drivers (lower) but the niches the speakers are in are too tight for them to fit any lower than where they are now. I have a sub on each side of a sofa that's behind the table seen at the bottom right in the photo. Provides a very full soundstage in my living room.

[rollo]

The C&C Abby with the Bailey, being driven by the Dennis Had Fire-Bottle SET pushing 3 watts of power is so darn musical.  It teeters on the verge of "magical" but I don't want to use that word in fear of jinxing it.

But yesterday, when I first swapped to the 3-watter (had been listening to 7 watt the previous week) the bass sounded pretty flabby.  That might be attributed to the music I was playing, I don't know.

But this morning the system sounds so sweet.  One of those "sweets" where you look at your other pieces and ask yourself, "Do I really wanna keep you around?"  I will, of course, keep them around because I've reacquired several pieces that I had sold off previously, which included the Abby's sans the Baileys. 

But man, this is really, really sweet and enjoyable.

Ciao.

 I would tend to agree. A true wonder of a speaker.

charles

[Wind Chaser]

Man, those Fostex tweeters are pretty pricey.

Where do you have them on your Abbys.

And what is the crossover point and slope?

[MttBsh]

And what is the crossover point and slope?

As an audio enthusiast I've come across the terms "crossover points" and "slope" numerous times but have no idea what they mean. All I can tell you is my T900As are connected by speaker wire to my Abby posts and have attenuators to adjust their individual volumes. Oh, and they sound fantastic! The DAC STM King amp drives these speakers and tweeters beautifully. The subs are connected to my Tortuga preamp and fill in all the low end I could ever want.

[SET Man]

Hey!

The C&C Abby with the Bailey, being driven by the Dennis Had Fire-Bottle SET pushing 3 watts of power is so darn musical.  It teeters on the verge of "magical" but I don't want to use that word in fear of jinxing it.

But yesterday, when I first swapped to the 3-watter (had been listening to 7 watt the previous week) the bass sounded pretty flabby.  That might be attributed to the music I was playing, I don't know.

But this morning the system sounds so sweet.  One of those "sweets" where you look at your other pieces and ask yourself, "Do I really wanna keep you around?"  I will, of course, keep them around because I've reacquired several pieces that I had sold off previously, which included the Abby's sans the Baileys. 

But man, this is really, really sweet and enjoyable.

Ciao.

   Those are very nice. AudioDwebe, I'm sure they also look sweet too!. MttBsh, nice setting there, those Abby look perfect in that room.

   Actually, one of the Cain and Cain speaker inspired me to built my own Single Driver Speaker back in 2002. Although, they are not as pretty as Cain and Cain Abby here. I was interested in Single Driver speaker and the project was meant as experimental, but 18 years later I'm still using them, ugly but sing beautifully.

   I have Fostex 6" 167E main driver and Fostex FT17H tweeter using as supertweeter with a single 0.47uf cap and no pot in my DIY Single Driver Speaker. I would have bought Cain & Cain speaker back then if I could afford it.

Buddy

[AudioDwebe]

MttBsh, Just WOW!  Looks so elegant.  And classy.  And exquisite.

Mine looks like a kid's Crayon drawing in comparison.

SET Man, How cool is it that you're still listening to your own creation?!?!!  Nice.

Here's my humble setup:

[SET Man]

MttBsh, Just WOW!  Looks so elegant.  And classy.  And exquisite.

Mine looks like a kid's Crayon drawing in comparison.

SET Man, How cool is it that you're still listening to your own creation?!?!!  Nice.

Here's my humble setup:

Hey!

    AudioDwebe, that's a nice listening room you have there. Definitely not a "kid's crayon drawing" to me for sure. Look like you have dedicated listening room there, luck guy. And good to see you have room treatments there. I don't have a lot of room treatment in my room, but I do have a lot of stuff so they act as room treatment. Where are the rest of your system?

   I hope you like to listen to lots female vocal like I do. I just love the way properly made and tuned Single Driver Speaker reproduce the female vocal. No xover passing over to the tweeter to mocked it up.

   The driver you have in your Abby are the Fostex 166E. MttBsh Abby have the more expensive ES Sigma version I think.

   AudioDwebe, I highly recommend you experiment with super tweeter. As I mentioned before I have Fostex FT17H Horn Super Tweeter with single 0.47uf cap as high pass xover. The FT17H cost $53 each now. I know is sound like I'm cheating here, well I guess you can call my system 1.5 way? Anyway, the main is still running fullrange and the FT17H comes in very high, but this give me some air and etc. If you decide to experiment, get a pair of 0.47uf and 0.33uf and see which sound better and blend better in your room. Your 166E have sensitivity about same as my 167E, I don't use pots or resistors so I don't think you'll need also. The hard part for you would be figure out how to mount them on you Abbey without damaging them. I would mount them as close as possible to the main driver on the side toward the center.

   Anyway, just a  thought.

Buddy

   

[MttBsh]

I do have the SE Sigma drivers in mine, and thanks AudioDwebe for your kind words about my setup, I think yours looks great too!

About three years ago I was having trouble with one of my drivers (cutting in and out and then finally no sound) and I thought I had blown it. I happened to contact Clark Blumenstein of Blumenstein Audio (www.blumensteinaudio.com) not knowing that he had worked as an intern for Cain & Cain many years ago and now manufactures his own line of miniature single driver speakers near Seattle, where I live. Clark is a great guy, I brought my Abbys over to his shop and it turned out to be a wiring issue. The wire he pulled out looked almost ready to disintegrate. He spent the evening completely rewiring both speakers, he tossed a couple of diffuser balls into the ports and also gave me about thirty feet of his own line of speakers cable called Waterline, sourced from Switzerland. When I brought the speakers home and hooked them up with the new internal and external wire the sound was nothing short of transformed. I was floored by the how much better they sounded. I wonder how many speakers out there could be made to sing much better by replacing aged wire with new high quality stuff.

[AudioDwebe]

Here's my gear located to the right, and just slightly behind the listening seat:






The gear:  VPI Aries Extended, AR PH3SE phono pre, AR CD3, AR LS17, PS Audio Perfectwave DAC, Rogue headphone amp, PurePower 2000 conditioner, Inspire Fire-Bottle SET and Running Springs Maxim.  The acoustic treatments are all GIK 244's (with scatter plated on the front wall and behind the listening seat, w/o scatter plates on first and second reflection points).

[rollo]

  Nice Guys very nice. Enjoy.

charles

[onehotchili]

I just stumbled across this thread.  So great to see folks loving the Cain and Cain Abbys.  I posted a "well loved" pair perfect for experimenting with on Trading Post, especially swapping in different drivers.  Anyhow good fun for SETs!