[Early B.]

Looks great!!! I really like the new wood, too. Looking forward to your review. Did you take any pics of the guts?

Don't glue on the cones. You may decide to play around with other isolation methods.

[drcruz]

Early-B,

I'm not very handy and afraid of opening her up. If I was even considering upgrading I would start by brushing up on my soldering (haven't touched an iron in over 20 years ) and experiment w/ changing internal components.

If I don't glue the cones on do I use double sided tape or what? 

[tanchiro58]

What kind of wood is that, your TVC looks amazing.

Is that MERBAU wood? Looks nice.

[NewBuyer]

Looks very nice indeed!

Has anybody heard from Nicholas in a while? Seems very hard to reach - hope he is ok...

[Early B.]

Early-B,

I'm not very handy and afraid of opening her up. If I was even considering upgrading I would start by brushing up on my soldering (haven't touched an iron in over 20 years ) and experiment w/ changing internal components.

If I don't glue the cones on do I use double sided tape or what? 

Just remove the top screws, lift off the plate, and expose her guts. Then snap a few pics. That's it.

You don't even need double sided tape to use the cones. Just arrange the cones with the flat side down on your rack and set the TVC on top of them.

[drcruz]

You don't even need double sided tape to use the cones. Just arrange the cones with the flat side down on your rack and set the TVC on top of them.

Well shee-!t, why didn't I think of that. 

Nicholas wrote me back and said buy some "blue tack", now I don't even have to do that.

Thanks 

[drcruz]

UPDATE:

Monday (05/19) I picked up the B&K amp from my parents house and brought it home, now I can start the testing...YEA!

I came home from work Tuesday and started putting things together. My first step was to test every channel from every input to make sure nothing was wrong w/ the TVC. I unplugged and pulled out the DVD player and the TVC from the equipment rack and set everything on the carpet. I then hooked up one channel of the DVD player to the TVC, the TVC to the amp, and amp to a speaker.

I popped in a CD and pushed play and NO SOUND...CRAP, CRAP, CRAP...WTH, WTH, WTH. Then I remembered I need to change the DVD player output from "Bitstream" to "Analog". I had this jury rig mess of trying to connect the DVD player to the TV (for the OSD) and the TVC, the TVC to amp, and amp to speaker while keeping all the connections accessible for swapping. (my brain hurts)

WHEW! After making the changes in the DVD player I got sound, music was playing. Satisfied that the channel worked I pulled an IC for swapping, then a BWOOOAAAAMMM(!!!) sound came out of the speaker. WTH! It turns out everytime I pulled the IC's, even w/ the amp's power off and volume turned down, I'd get this LOUD noise from the speaker used for testing. So everytime I wanted to test a channel I had to 1) turn off the amp power; 2) pulled the speaker cable, then; 3) swap the IC's, what a PAIN in the @ss. Nice thing is all the channels work.

LESSON LEARNED: 10 gauge speaker cables are a PAIN for swapping and testing. 10 gauge wire is a little big for binding post holes.

CURRENT COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE TVC (mostly minor): During the Tuesday testing I ran into a couple of problems...

The first is a minor volume pot alignment issue. I have 3 volume pots on the TVC and the zero (no volume) position on one of the pots is actually at step #3 and not at "zero". No big deal. The second problem may be a little more serious. During the cable swapping session I found a loose RCA connection (CRAP!!!). I had to open the box and look inside (CRAP!). I looked at the loose RCA connection from inside the box and found a loose nut. I couldn't put a socket wrench to the nut, because there's a soldered wire in the way (CRAP!). I tried to use a screw driver to push on a nut-flat for tightening BUT the nut completely fell off (CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!) Now I was starting to panic, how the heck am I going to tighten the nut w/ out screwing up the solder joint? Well after I calm down I ended up using the screw driver to put the nut back on the RCA connection and was actually able to use the screw driver to tighten the nut, though the nut is not on there as tight as I would like.

Wednesday I hooked the B&K amp up to my 3 front speakers, popped in the CD and the left channel sounded DISTORTED! WTH!!! CRAP, CRAP, CRAP! "Did I blow the speaker because of the BWOOOAAAMMM(!!!!) noise I produced during the cable swaps"? The nice thing is that after some troubleshooting it turns out my speaker is not blown and my B&K 1430 has a bad left channel (bummer). Well at least it wasn't the TVC...WHEW! I have a work around and will end up only using 2 of the 3 amp channels. Oh well sh!t happens.

More to come later...

[drcruz]

UPDATE:

All the connections are hooked up:
I have this weird mish-mash of gear w/ the DVD player and Turntable hooked up to the TVC, and the TVC output is split between B&K amp for the FL/FR channels, the TVC going to the subwoofers Home Theater(HT) connection. The DVD's Center and Surround channels are going directly to my old HT Receiver. Due to the faulty channel in the B&K amp I had to hook up the Center Channel to the
receiver and not the TVC as I originally hoped.

THE LISTENING TESTS BEGIN:

For a quick music check I played some 2 channel Calypso music and made a A/B comparison bewtween the B&K / TVC set up and the HT Receiver and the I was VERY pleased w/ the B&K/TVC sound vs. the Receiver. The upgrades had a more natural sound and no digital
harshness at all. The music from the reciever diffinitely had the CD/digital sound to it.

Next Step:

I popped in both the trusty ol' "Avia" and "Digital Essential" test discs. I balanced the channels and set the subwoofers 10 db's higher than the other channels. Everything is calibrated to 60 db's on the Avia disc, which seems a decent listening level for me. Nice
thing is the TVC is not at unity gain, though the knob is set at position 9 (for the FL and FR channels).

The first movie I played was "Batman Begins" and watched the Batmobile chase scene. I have always
thought the scene sounded overly harsh and digital, I'm happy to report that the B&K/TVC combo REALLY smoothed the sound out a lot. The upgrades brought a NICE laid back sound to my system.

My speaker placement was at the mercy of the home developer's subcontractor and the FR / FL channels are about 11 feet apart. Because of speaker placement I have always had a pretty wide soundstage, but now I hear more soundstage depth.

Not only do I get soundstage depth, I get a weird holograpic 3-D image. Let me explain, as mentioned earlier 1 channel from the B&K amp is not working properly and so I'm running the B&K like a stereo amp (FL/FR) and the center channel is plugged back into the reciever.
With this set up the dialog is really anchored forward and on the same wall as the screen (Panasoncic 50 in. plasma) and the score set behind the wall. I have never heard that before.

The next DVD I watched was the first 2 chapters of John Woo/Tom Cruise's M.I.:2. I got the same results, the music in the background and the character dialog very forward. The only difference was the guitar player during the Flamenco dance was definitely front and center.

All is not rosy though. As I was watching M.I.:2 I noticed that the vocals (coming from the center channel/HT receiver) having the harsh digital sound that I've been trying to get rid of. Now I REALLY REALLY want to fix the B&K 1430 center channel. According to the B&K manual there's a fuse inside the amp that may need replacing. When I get time I'll see if this fixes the problem.

HOW ABOUT SOME MORE MUSIC:

I played "Ten Shekel Shirt's - Risk" Album and the male vocals are smooth w/ no fatigue, my upgrades really drew me into the music and I was bobbing my head up and down enjoying almost the entire album. Things I noticed w/ my B&K / TVC upgrade the bass is really extended and there may be some loss in detail in the HF range. My system is now BEGGING for a full range speaker upgrade, meaning speakers that can handle the LF range and that are detailed at the same time. I'm thinking that kind of upgrade would be killer. It's too bad my Wife would kill me if I came home w/ big full range speakers.

Next step will be to blend the subwoofers w/ the mains...

[PeterAudio7]

drcruz - Just wondering how it is sounding at this point. Thinking of ordering one eventually and would like to know if it met your expectations or not.

Hope you're enjoying it,

PeterAudio7

[Mariusz]

It has been a while since my multichannel adventures but I could give it a try one more time. TVC looks like the ticket - simple is what I like.....at least when it comes to my system. I am also interested in your impressions as well as system setup , sound etc.....However , four channels is what would suit me better. I believe TVC is build on special order bases , so it shouldn't be a problem.....I think?
Can I ask you which Blueray DVD player that also does SACD (also good candidate for future mods) would be recommended for this purpose?????
Thanks

Mariusz

[drcruz]

Peter, Mariusz and Everyone

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, work got busy. There's a long post coming, but the short version is I don't regret my puchase of the Promitheus TVC one bit. I've got a couple of audio regrets, the Promitheus is NOT one of them.

I listened to the DTS version of WotW's and I had an NIIIICCCCEEEE sound coming out, lots of LF rumble as the tripod was attacking NY, (apparently) clean sound and dialog.

I DO have some complaints, but the TVC is not one of them. While listening to Grand Funk Railroad's "American Band" album (in vinyl), I noticed that the sound stage was pulled WAAAYYYY over to the left. After some troubleshooting, I was getting distortion from my Front Right channel (was it from the TVC or the amp or something else? CRAP!!!) After more troubleshooting, I discovered the connection to the Front Right channel has problems and I haven't had time to figure out how to fix it.

So in short, the TVC channels are working well and there's only one troubled channel from the amp. This is some what good news, in that, if I buy a couple of speakers and hook them directly to the amp, most of my distortion troubles should go away. I just need a little time.

Some of my calibration issues are posted here:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=56279.0

Thanks Everyone,
C-Yah...

[drcruz]

It has been a while since my multichannel adventures but I could give it a try one more time. TVC looks like the ticket - simple is what I like.....at least when it comes to my system. I am also interested in your impressions as well as system setup , sound etc.....However , four channels is what would suit me better. I believe TVC is build on special order bases , so it shouldn't be a problem.....I think?
Can I ask you which Blueray DVD player that also does SACD (also good candidate for future mods) would be recommended for this purpose?????
Thanks

Mariusz

Mariusz,

I re-read your post. I think the only DVD-A Blu-ray player is the older Panasonic BD-10, I think the PS3 and the other Sony players play SACD. I'm guessing that the Oppo player next year will play both DVD-A and SACD. I'm waiting for the Oppo.

[Mariusz]

Oppo...and next year ahhhh.........I guess it is true what they say - "Good things come to those who wait".

Thanks

Mariusz     

[PeterAudio7]

drcruz,

Glad to hear that you are enjoying it!   aa

Sorry to hear about the amp problems. Hopefully that can be resolved soon so you can get back to enjoying your TVC! I know how frustrating malfunctioning components can be! 

Thanks for the new "input"! I look forward to your future posts...

Peter