[Joules]

Ok MAAC ... Christmas and New Years have come and gone. and I'm ready now, to have some MAAC'ers over for some music, if any one is interested. What I have is a PC only based system with a modded DEQX , Lifeforce amps and DIY speakers. Here are a few pic's . I was thinking in a couple of weeks, say the 20th or 27 of Jan or whatever works for you guys and gals



Just let me know
Cheers
Dave

[denjo]

Joules

That is one beautiful system! Congrats!

Best Regards
Dennis

[Dave G]

Dave,

That is a GREAT looking system!   I'd love to come over to hear it.  January 27 wouldn't work for me, but January 20 would.

Where are you located -- Manassas?  I'm up in McLean.

BTW, what are the pieces on the top two shelves of the outside racks?   I'm not familiar with them.

Dave

[launche]

Yes is that is a handsome setup for sure.
DIY speakers?  Do share.

congrats

[Phil A]

Very nice looking stuff.

[SET Man]

Hey!

  Awesome dude! The system looks excellent. Would love to know a bit more in detail

  Wish I could stop by to check out the sound

Take care,
Buddy

 

[woodsyi]

Dave,

That's a kickass system you put together.
It's about freaking time you invited some people over!!  
Either date should work for me.  I will burn a few copies of 2006 NY RAVE reference CD and bring them.  Keep us posted.

[Joules]

Thanks Guy
Yea I live in Manassas Va - It's not the end of the earth, but you sure can see it from here.

BTW, what are the pieces on the top two shelves of the outside racks?   I'm not familiar with them.

Those be my take on Hugh Dean's Lifeforce 55's for the tweeter and below those are Lifeforce 100's for the mids and below that are H2O 1Kw ICE amps for the woof's.

[denjo]

Joules

Are the cables Gregg Straley's Reality Cables?I wish my cabling was as neat and tidy as yours! Mine looks like a "spaghetti" mess!

Best Regards
Dennis

[mjosef]

Very nice system Joules...damn, so darn neat.
Are those doors on the woofers? Or does it serve as a baffle of some sort?

[Joules]

Thank you guys for the responce 

Very nice system Joules...damn, so darn neat.
Are those doors on the woofers? Or does it serve as a baffle of some sort?

The doors can close up to protect the woofers when I'm moving stuff around. However there primary function is they act like wave guides and noticeably improve the dynamics in the bass. The DEQX then smooths out any frequency response problems they might cause.

Joules

Are the cables Gregg Straley's Reality Cables?I wish my cabling was as neat and tidy as yours! Mine looks like a "spaghetti" mess!

Best Regards
Dennis

The cables are DIY they just look a lot like Reality cables. IC's are silver and the speaker wires are copper...for now

[JoshK]

Very nice!   

Those look more like professionally made speakers than DIY jobbies.  Certainly makes me question my own speaker building abilities.  Did you build your own cabinets or did you have them made by a shop?  I'd love to see how those monitor cabinets with the curves were constructed.

Those are some spendy midrange drivers!  Those the C90/T6's?  There are s'pse to be the SOTA.  The woofers TC Sound?  Looks like you made a bit of a waveguide for the ribbon, what was your goal?

Very very cool. 

[Joules]

Very nice!   

Those look more like professionally made speakers than DIY jobbies.  Certainly makes me question my own speaker building abilities.  Did you build your own cabinets or did you have them made by a shop?  I'd love to see how those monitor cabinets with the curves were constructed.

Those are some spendy midrange drivers!  Those the C90/T6's?  There are s'pse to be the SOTA.  The woofers TC Sound?  Looks like you made a bit of a waveguide for the ribbon, what was your goal?

Very very cool. 

Well thanks mr. Josh
Just don't look too close, I hate building cabnets 
and By doing a lot of this my self I can aford to be a bit more specific with the available funds
yes those are TCS woofers - long story there.
The tweeter wave guids seems to have worked out. I made them from a rolling pin 
all in all it was a lot of fun -

[TomS]

Dave - Beautiful setup.  Any chance of close up shots of the LF amps?  The "cases" on them, uh, don't look real conventional.  Always looking for new and creative interpretations, which these obviously are.    Tom

[Robert57]

Dave-

Many thanks for hosting a most enjoyable and very impressive unveiling of your excellent system. The workmanship of your hand-assembled components, from amps to speakers, to the intensively modded DEQX, was all beautifully done--both visually and sonically. The elaborate beef luncheon Allison served was delicious!

On the sound, the main impression I carried away from almost 5 hours of happy listening was a remarkable combination of very powerful dynamics, precise transients, very wide freq. response (from under 20 Hz to  extendeded treble), all with excellent control and clarity. It was amazing to see the almost infinite adjustablity you have designed with six fine mono amps (three for each side) controlled by the Empirical -modded DEQX pre/RC/DAC, with a PC-based digital source. Very cool.

As good as your "native" system sounded from the start, adding the Chris VH Flavor 4 power cord to the DEQX added a noticeable smoothness and more 3-D body, particularly in the treble and upper mids, along with improved texture, richness, and musicality throughout. It added more refinement to the whole range, removing a slight upper freq. harshness I had detected before, making everything very listenable and convincing, with no loss in dynamics that I could detect. The Bad Plus and Nora Jones never sounded better to these ears. Perhaps all the switching power supplies in the chain need some subtle filtering that a good Power cord can offer. I still think you would be pleasanty surprised by the improvements a good conditioner can make, even though you have very clean power coming into your home. The computer, swtiching amps, and DEQX switching power supply must be adding considerable HF noise into the chain that could bear cleaning.

Thanks again, Dave for a great day of eating and listening, and an enlightening glimpse into the future of digital room correction and crossover. I also was introduced to some very nice new music. Congrats!--you should be a very proud papa!

Rob

[The_KiD]

Very Nice looking Rig! Thanks for sharing..

Cheers,

KiD

[Joules]

Thanks Rob
Both Alison and I were both very happy you guys stopped buy for a visit 
The DEQX is an amazing thing but some times it has just too many Knobs.
Sunday morning I found out that It doesn't work worth a Damn when it's selected for an analog input in an ALL DIGITAL SYSTEM !   
I hope we can do this again at some point in the future.
Thanks Gentlemen It was a pleasure   
-Hugh Dean-
-Steve Nugent-
-Henry Ho-
Your efforts were very well received !!!!!
Thanks to all

Dave
 
 

[Joules]

BTW - Flav 4 on order 

[woodsyi]

Scott and I arrive and are greeted by our lovely hostess Alison.  Dave takes us down and we start peppering Dave with questions.  What did you do here, where did you get that, why is this, what the heck is this -- we had him reeling trying to answer several questions at the same time.  He called time out and offered us beer which shut us up.  Guinness, Sierra Nevada, Harry Smith, Samuel Adams, Heineken, etc. etc. -- I was glad I wasn't driving.  After a few excellent beers and ogling over the excellent job Dave did with his system, we got down to listen.  Tell you the truth, I have never been a fan of aluminum woofers and had my reservation about ceramic mid range cones.  Dave uses 2 15" TC Sound (older model) aluminum woofers in a sealed box per side , two Accuton ceramic drivers (C²79?) in a separate sealed box per side and Raven ribbon in it's own box per side.  The woofers do not ring.  The mid range is not lean. The tweeters were not harsh.  OK.  What's with the none negatives instead of positives you ask?  It's because I try to be as critical as can be when I listen to a new system.  Of course, if it is not very good, I won't say anything bad and say generic praises but Dave's system can stand on it's own merit.  The heart of the system is Steve Nugent modified DEQX acting as the preamp, crossover and digital source.  Dave had I2S Off Ramp installed in the DEQX enclosure.  The Off Ramp daughter card was powered separately by a battery with a coupling cap across the terminals.  With the top off we could see the mod that was done to the unit.  Can you say, Black Gates and V-Caps? I believe Dave said that analog out section was totally redone. There were some tight placements of caps and tiny wires soldered on tight spots.   As for crossovers he used 96dB/Oatave slope at 200Hz and 2500Hz (?) poles.  Woofers are driven by a pair of H2O monos; Accutons by a pair of Lifeforce 100s; and the tweeters by a pair of Lifeforce 55s.  The lifeforce amps were DIYed in a most elegant way that had no side walls with heatsink on top.  Dave also ran speaker wires directly to the drivers -- no binding posts at that end.  He uses Foobar/asio/SRC as Steve recommends -- it runs 24/96.

I already said what they weren't.  What are they.  What do they do?  The most outstanding aspect is the cleanness of the music.  DEQX does it's job with phase alignment beautifully.  The sound is effortless and seemless at the crossover frequencies.  Overall, it has to be one of the most accurate and neutral sounding system I have heard.  I have to admit here that I personally am a bit of a tube junkie who I can't stand sterility.  Dave's system is not euphonic but it wasn't souless.  I missed just a little of the midrange bloom I get with all my tubes but I could not find any faults with Dave's system.  Then we got the lunch call.

When we came upstairs, Alison had prepared an incredible feast for us.  What greeted us on the table was fit for royalty.  There were
Chateaubriand prepared just the way I like (medium rare to rare), baby potato sauteed in butter with sprinkles of parsley,  vegetable medley lightly sauteed and Bearnaise sauce on the side.  With a glass of fine Australian Cabernet Sauvignon in hand, I toasted to Dave hosting a MAAC meeting every month. 

While we were eating Dave ripped the New York Rave 2006 reference CD and my trusty collection of Ileana Cotrubas arias onto his HD.  We got to listen and it was fun.  Dave's can rock -- all the drivers are incredibly fast.  There just is no strain what so ever.  We never went beyond 85 dBs or so but it will probably do 120 dB without any strain.  Then the acid test for me with my favorite soprano -- will those ceramic drivers do my diva justice?  Those delicate passages -- can it handle it?  The answer is yes.  It's missing a bit of the bloom that I like, but it renders voices very cleanly, accurately and with emotion.  You can get into the music and forget the gear. 

Then we changed out the power cord and listened some more.  VH Flavor4 was better -- smoother and took out some sibilance.  All through out this, there were brewskies and Bourbon being enjoyed.  We had Dave slurring his speech there a little toward the end there.  Everyone was having a great time and we decided that "critical" listening was over.  Everything was sounding very euphonic at this point anyway.  We partied and rocked the rest of the night. 

Thanks, Dave and Alison.  I mean it when I said we are coming over every month.    I will bring the wine -- just have that wonderfull Chateaubriand for me.  Bravo!

[AKSA]

David,

Beautifully composed system - just incredibly well integrated.  Looks are important, they make the favorable impression immediately, I can well imagine what it sounds like since I too have the Lifeforce!!

The addition of the DEQX and the ICE power woofer amp would be icing on the cake!

Thank you for showcasing my amps in such fine company - I'm most appreciative!!

And thank you for putting the Lifeforce in lights!

Cheers,

Hugh