Gravity Well Of A DarkStar

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #1280 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 01:25 pm »

Any fans of drivers other than the b200?

Bob

robert1325 · « **Reply #1281 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 01:28 pm »

I hope to become a hawthorne silver iris fan, Just unpacking them at the moment and in the next hour I might or might not be a convert!

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #1282 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 03:48 pm »

Good to hear Robert, please keep me posted!!

Bob - Fellow Hawthorne Coaxial owner

robert1325 · « **Reply #1283 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 04:08 pm »

After a quarter hour of listening, I think I can say I'm a OB/silver iris convert!

I'm playing the buena vista social club cd and it sounds very airy and live ... The bass takes some getting used to, it's not overdone at all but very tunefull. And this all without baffles!

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #1284 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 05:20 pm »

Robert, that sounds identical to my story,...drivers fresh out of the box and wired up.
Converted for life. After 100-200 hours the highs tame a little. Sweet sound, very VERY sweet!
I still have not put mine in baffles, currently using "the stop sign" mount/baffleless!
Next up, you'll be looking at the Augies aa

Bob

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #1285 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 05:21 pm »

By the way Robert, you can now officially change the "very soon Hawthorne SI's" in your signature.

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #1286 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 05:36 pm »

Bevan,

Too bad the ZBOX won’t work down under. But there’s a good possibility that the Monica 2 will be such a huge leap forward that you won’t need a tube buffer. Nigel Smith also known as “Old Timer” on Audio Circle has a Monica 2 with Tripath power plugged into the DarkStar. If you live anywhere near New Castle, look him up. He’s very accommodating and you’ll most likely be very impressed if you get to hear his rig sing. He’s a true no-nonsense veteran with tons of experienced and knowledge in the implementation of the B200 in OB.

Your measurements concur with what many have found all along. Dmason’s original premise was for everyone to dismiss the FR plot and play. Sometime ago Don Nodiak posted his measurements of the B200 in his room. Those measurements proved that implementation and room constraints play a huge role in the end result. Hence, some folks are lucky and able to make it work without BSC / EQ. Nigel Smith is another one of those people.

Regarding wings, I don’t think it really matters if the larger one is on the inside or outside. Assuming wood is cheap, you might want to experiment with different sizes and types of baffles. That’s another reason to get a hold of Nigel. He can give you a head start on that area. Heck he probably still has numerous umpteen baffles he no longer uses; and he may be willing to let you try some in your own home.

Ani Difranco is awesome. The Up disc is my favorite.

John

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #1287 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 05:38 pm »

Quote from: dewar on 30 Jan 2007, 10:28 am

The Zbox looked the ticket, but was disappointed to see it only comes in 110v.(I'm in Oz)

keep in mind that 220/110v. transformers aren't very expensive and you wouldn't need a big one. Simple to install, too.

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #1288 on:** 30 Jan 2007, 05:45 pm »

Very true, but it might be worth asking Steve why he doesn't offer an alternate version. He's usually does with his amplifiers, so why not with the ZBOX?

John

dewar · « **Reply #1289 on:** 31 Jan 2007, 05:40 am »

thanks fro the help guys.

Wind Chaser, of her many many albums I would have a hard time choosing between Up an Revelling/Reckoning as my favorite.

Thought I might as well mention, for anyone looking to augment their B200 bass wise, that this is a very good subwoofer for the job, the 'Critical Q' sub.

http://www.customanalogue.com/sub_index.htm

It is very fast and accurate and blends seamlessly my the B200's.

cheers

B.

Dmason · « **Reply #1290 on:** 1 Feb 2007, 03:07 am »

Dewar,

You are the first to comment on Mr Wright's Critical Q sub, and glad that it is working for you, for simple OB method, that is, so there is a good compromise for the folks, possibly. I really like his tubed GC circuit, and met him a few years ago in Washington at the Valve-State Show.

Someone on the OB Circle asked somewhere what we might try in terms of "new" drivers, or combinations; in my opinion, if I had the room/inclination, and a healthy budget, I would look hard at trying something like 4 X 18 pro audio woofers, perhaps the Ciare 15, and the Boehlender-Graebner 48 inch ribbons, and see what happened. I know fellow OB explorer Kurt Chang has done exactly this, and is pretty satisfied.

Also, www.alesis.com has some interesting and cost effective digital EQ's that would come in handy for simple, active equalization for optimizing open baffle sonics. Active EQ is pretty much essential, in my experience.

Rafal · « **Reply #1291 on:** 1 Feb 2007, 03:28 am »

Quote from: Dmason on 1 Feb 2007, 03:07 am

Dewar,

You are the first to comment on Mr Wright's Critical Q sub, and glad that it is working for you, for simple OB method, that is, so there is a good compromise for the folks, possibly. I really like his tubed GC circuit, and met him a few years ago in Washington at the Valve-State Show.

Someone on the OB Circle asked somewhere what we might try in terms of "new" drivers, or combinations; in my opinion, if I had the room/inclination, and a healthy budget, I would look hard at trying something like 4 X 18 pro audio woofers, perhaps the Ciare 15, and the Boehlender-Graebner 48 inch ribbons, and see what happened. I know fellow OB explorer Kurt Chang has done exactly this, and is pretty satisfied.

Also, www.alesis.com has some interesting and cost effective digital EQ's that would come in handy for simple, active equalization for optimizing open baffle sonics. Active EQ is pretty much essential, in my experience.

Dmason,

How would you compare the Alesis DEQ with Behringer DEQ? I'm interested inthe idea of using DEQ but I don't want to "overprocess" the signal and mess it up too much. I guess I'm looking for something that would be the least obtrusive to the signal.

jrebman · « **Reply #1292 on:** 1 Feb 2007, 04:05 am »

Quote from: dewar on 31 Jan 2007, 05:40 am

Thought I might as well mention, for anyone looking to augment their B200 bass wise, that this is a very good subwoofer for the job, the 'Critical Q' sub.

http://www.customanalogue.com/sub_index.htm

It is very fast and accurate and blends seamlessly my the B200's.

Just a note about this sub... the PartsExpress plate amp that Joe recommends is no longer available. It appears that there is a very similar replacement that also has the continuously variable phase control, but has an added bass boost. I do believe it is actually the same amp internally, with probably a couple of different values for the resistors that you need to replace anyway. I'm not sure of this, but beware that if you take on building this project that the amp mods may be somewhat different.

When I brought this to Joe's attention many months ago, he said he'd look into it and see if anything needed tweaking with his mod recommendations, so it would be best to ask him about this before proceeding. Just FYI.

P.S. -- the reason I think this may be the same amp is because of a conversation I had with the PE rep at RMAF, who said he thought they were the same amp, but the new model had the bass boost "feature".

dewar · « **Reply #1293 on:** 1 Feb 2007, 08:40 am »

There are details on the site on how to do the two mods to the plate amp(getting rid of the 30hz boost and making the roll off steeper).

I used the Jaycar (australian) amp which had both these problems, but I chose to correct FR and filter on my BFD 1124 instead. Much easier if you are not very DIY inclined like myself.(in fact building this sub was the first time I ever touched a circular saw and jig saw)

B.

Joe Schlabotnick · « **Reply #1294 on:** 22 Feb 2007, 10:11 pm »

Quote from: Dmason on 25 May 2005, 11:26 pm

For an interesting treatise on the subject of DarkStars, read "A Brief History of Time" by Dr Stephen Hawking....

I have a copy of that book but never got around to reading it. What's the difference between a dark star and a black hole?

dewar · « **Reply #1295 on:** 23 Feb 2007, 08:26 am »

Dont know who still checks in here, but have a question to ask regarding my ongoing quest.

If one were using a bsc of 1mH inductor and 10-ohm resistor on a single pair of B200s and had a quality sub filling in up to 200hz, would there be any gains from adding an extra pair of B200's for a 1.5 configuration.

I'm tempted to try but wonder if I might then have a falling response i.e too much output <1kh. Also would loose point source. Seems little to gain? Anyone gone this route?

cheers

Bevan

opnly bafld · « **Reply #1296 on:** 23 Feb 2007, 12:53 pm »

Quote from: dewar on 23 Feb 2007, 08:26 am

Dont know who still checks in here, but have a question to ask regarding my ongoing quest.

If one were using a bsc of 1mH inductor and 10-ohm resistor on a single pair of B200s and had a quality sub filling in up to 200hz, would there be any gains from adding an extra pair of B200's for a 1.5 configuration.

I'm tempted to try but wonder if I might then have a falling response i.e too much output <1kh. Also would loose point source. Seems little to gain? Anyone gone this route?

cheers

Bevan

Hey Bevan,

Don't know about with the filter, but I have used 2 pair with a 12mH coil on the bottom driver near the floor and liked it a lot.
I don't know what others might hear, I was unable to hear any bad effects of the added driver.
I a/b'ed them with a mono signal and with a stereo signal.
If you think you could sell the extra pair and get most of your money back it might be worth a try.
I would suggest trying it two ways, with one near the floor (boundary gain

) and with one right below the other.
If it sounds good to you this way, you could lower your sub x-o, which might prove beneficial.

Lin

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #1297 on:** 23 Feb 2007, 04:07 pm »

I used two B200's with no filter on the top. The lower driver powered by a plate amp crossed over at about 150Hz and 12db per octave filled in the bottom seamlessly. I'm of the opinion that if you handle the sub in a similar manner, a second B200 overlapping the same area won't be the best investment.

The happiest campers who champion the B200 claim the 150Hz area is the magic point. Most of them go at it with a 3rd or even 4th order crossover. Also by relieving the B200 of everything below 150Hz, you really reduce the odds of popping a driver.

dewar · « **Reply #1298 on:** 24 Feb 2007, 12:45 am »

thanks.

agree, bottom B200 and sub doing the same thing doesnt make sense.

I'm reluctant to play my sub as high as 150hz though. I have it set to about 50hz and get a pretty flat response(aided by BFD). My single B200's measure quite flat to 50hz actually, I'll try attach a graph.

I like the idea of 2 pais of B200's and the sub filling in bellow 40hz...but possibly the ultimate solution for me would be a DEQ to flatten my single B200 to 40hz and have the sub take over from there. Would loose a bit of headroom perhaps but I dont listen loud, and looking at at Sig 30, so this should be quite feasable i recon.

I cant figure out how to post a JPG, anyone help me here?

cheers

Bevan

dewar · « **Reply #1299 on:** 26 Feb 2007, 09:28 am »

Damn, I just cant stop with the questions.

Has anyone tried to cut of the lowest frequencies to their B200?

If there some kind of passive component that could filter everything bellow say 80hz away from my B200's letting my sub take care of it. And would it be transparent in the higher frequencies? Sorry, I'm pretty clueless about electronics.

Limiting cone excursion on the B200's must be an obvious advantage to midrange reproduction, though I wonder if my B200's or my sub would provide higher quality of bass in the 50-80hz region? Guess it would depend on the sub. But I also wonder if stereo bass would be noticeably better than mono bass in this region?

What you all recon about bass management?

cheers

Bevan