[Guy 13]

What kind of company?

Hi JTW.
Your question will be the last one that I will answer today, here in Vietnam it's 10.30pm and for me, it's time to go to bed and stay in the horizontal position for a minimum of 8 hours. I had a very good day and I am tired.
The company is not really my company, even if I run the show. The company belongs to my wife and we import professional photographic equipment from all over the world and for the portrait and wedding photographers, for the advertising companies , for the TV stations, for the cinema and video producers, for multi media schools, even for the government and the army. We sell flashes, lighting, camera tripod, back ground paper and much, much more... It's a small company my wife, me and two employees, don't need more. Our besiness as been doing very for the past 15 years and sales increase every year.
Here in Vietnam, no recession, only inflation.
If business was not good here, I would go back to my home country Canada, but if I am staying here it's to fill the money bags I have somewhere and no AC members will find out where they are... (Ha, ha...)
Have a nice day for you and a good night for me.
I will dream about my next GR Research project?
OB-7 and/or N3  and or U312 ? ? ?
Guy 13
 

[rajacat]

 Guy,

Perhaps you should submit an application for your own circle.

-Roy

[satfrat]

 
Well Guy, are you getting the type of response you were looking for? I for one both enjoy your sharing pictorial of your GR journey and your personable desposition and the sharing of your lifestyle, mainly cuz I can somewhat relate to the lifestyle and living standards of the people there, be it 41 years ago. 
 
Cheers,
Robin
 
 

[jtwrace]

Hi JTW.
Your question will be the last one that I will answer today

professional photographic equipment
Guy 13

I'll take a Nikon D700 and Nikon 18mm-200mm AF lens.   

[jtwrace]

Guy,

Perhaps you should submit an application for your own circle.

-Roy

   I might actuallyl vote!!!

[Guy 13]

Guy,

Perhaps you should submit an application for your own circle.

-Roy

Hi Rajacat.
Good idea !
However, I am very happy writing on Danny's site, I will keep it that way.
Have anice day.
Guy 13

[Guy 13]

Well Guy, are you getting the type of response you were looking for? I for one both enjoy your sharing pictorial of your GR journey and your personable desposition and the sharing of your lifestyle, mainly cuz I can somewhat relate to the lifestyle and living standards of the people there, be it 41 years ago. 
 
Cheers,
Robin

Hi Robin.
How you related to Batman ? (Ha, ha...)
I am getting more than what I wanted and expected, much more, thanks to all !
My life in Vietnam, is not as bad as I describ it, but it's not what I had previously in my home country Canada.
Well a few more years and I will retire in the hi standard of living Canada.
Soon, I will have a few more posts.
Guy 13

[Guy 13]

I'll take a Nikon D700 and Nikon 18mm-200mm AF lens.   

Hi jtw.
Our (My wife and I) business only sell and represent exclusively for Vietnam difgital medium format camera from Phase One and Leaf with 21mpx to 65mpx. Camera for professionals.
By the way, the Nikon D-700 is a very good camera for the money, however I am not so sure about the 18-200mm zoom. Sorry, no recommendation here, since I don't sell that type of products.
have anice day.
Guy 13

[Guy 13]

  I might actuallyl vote!!!

Hi jtw.
Don't loose your time and don't vote. (Ha, ha...)
Instead keep reading my post and enjoy my pictures.
Guy 13

[Wind Chaser]

Well a few more years and I will retire in the hi standard of living Canada.

That high standard can vary a fair bit depending on what side of the country you live.  I lived on the South Shore near Quebec City for a little more than a year, it's a nice area, houses were (back then 2002, 2003) considerably cheaper than out west or even Ottawa, but the standard of living was quite different too.  Houses around Quebec City are much smaller, very few people have a garage - which is a necessity considering the extreme winters over there, but almost everyone has a swimming pool!

[Guy 13]

That high standard can vary a fair bit depending on what side of the country you live.  I lived on the South Shore near Quebec City for a little more than a year, it's a nice area, houses were (back then 2002, 2003) considerably cheaper than out west or even Ottawa, but the standard of living was quite different too.  Houses around Quebec City are much smaller, very few people have a garage - which is a necessity considering the extreme winters over there, but almost everyone has a swimming pool!

Hi Wind Chaser.
I did not know that you were living in MY province. (Ha, ha...)
I learn something new every day !
I have a sister that's living in Donacona, not far from Quebec city.
Where you live there are not that many English speaking persons, then you must be able to speak French ? Quebec city is mostly a French speaking region.
By the way, may I know your real name and what you do for a living in La Belle Province ?
Around Quebec city that's were they have most snow during the winter and yes, a garage is a necessity. All the houses that I have owned in the past had a garage, however, I never had a pool, too much maintenance and the summers are very short in Quebec.
I guess you can't blame me for wanted to retire in MY province of Quebec. (Ha, ha...)
Guy 13

[Guy 13]

Sounds like you are having fun on all fronts. 

I am just perplexed by one thing:

Those servo subs play a lot lower and much deeper. The servo subs have a LOT more X-max and more power on them. The servo subs can play a good 15db to 20db louder at 20Hz than the V-2 woofers.

Can you post a pic of the settings on your servo amps?

Now, you also had some questions:

In the mid-range the two designs are fairly close but one (the V-2) has a sealed back tweeter verses the V-1 having an open backed tweeter. Your room is fairly lively so the V-1 will be giving you a little more of an airy sound with rear wall reflections across the board and not just from the mids down. And because the crossover points on these are fairly low, this does effect the airiness of the upper mids.

You can take one leg of the 30 resistor off of the back of the V-2's tweeter, but it will make it a little hot at the top end. There is also very small inductor in line with the tweeter to remove a rising response in the top octave only. You can try hooking a jumper wire across it to by-pass it and see what that does for it.

No offense but you are reaching the age where your high frequency hearing may start to drop off a little (normal), and because of this you may prefer a little more energy in the top octave to balance things back out.

Another good thing about the V-2's is that you have several ways to make adjustments.

Also, the wider front baffle of the V-2 may be taking away a slight amount of transparency in the mids. Try taping some small pieces of foam to each side of the front baffle (just as a test) and see what the results are.

And keep on having fun!

Hi Danny and all Audio Circle members.
Who want to see/read what I did wrong with my V1 and V2 and what I did right to solve my problems on my V1 and V2 ?
As per Danny’s recommendations, I have disconnected the 30 Ohms resistor to get more trebles.
Did it improve the highs, did it make them louder?
Yes, but not by much. But enough to make me stop complaining.
Danny also recommended that I bypass the coil in series with the tweeter, but I did not do it, why?
The cross over is hidden under a ton of wires and I just did not feel like crawling in there.
Those are the settings of my GR Research SA-1 plate amplifier.
Any comments ?
Depending on the music, I re-adjust the FREQ button to my liking.



Danny also recommended, yes, he did recommend lots of things, that’s because there are a lots of things that are not to the V1 and V2 original specs, he recommended that I try putting a felt mat around the coaxial driver of the V2 to increase the… The imaging is it that’s what’s for?
Yes, I did stretch the felt mat a little around the edge of the driver, after I took the picture.





Again, not much difference to me. I could hear a difference, but I was not sure if it was really a difference or my imagination…
Anyway, that’s it!
I will leave it like that, because it’s not easy to glue that mat on the wood and after all, it sounds good enough, so I ill leave it like that and live with it without any changes. One day some one will be knock off of his chair when I make him listen to V2, after all, even if I did not do everything Danny told me, it’s still a very good speaker for the price. In the mean time, I will enjoy the kind of bass the V2 throws at me.

Now for the V1 plate amplifier settings, here they are.
Which one is not adjusted right ?
Which one should I re-adjust?
Yes, this time the wiring is right, I am 100% sure.





Waiting for Danny’s recommendations or anyone else that have as much experience as Danny and wants to jump in.
What would we do if Danny was not there to help us?
Have a nice day.
Guy 13.

[Danny Richie]

Okay, I am going to improve your system a lot today.

Lets start with the V-2's.

You have the phase switch at 0. It needs to be at 180. With it at 0 it will be out of phase at the crossover point. So you have a hole at the 180Hz range that extends down to 80Hz or so. Then with that volume knob cranked up all the way to compensate I am sure you have a really heavy bottom end. If you flip the phase then you should be able to turn the volume back into the range of a 12:00 to about a 2:00 setting and get a nice balance.

Of coarse you'll need to check the polarity to the speaker level inputs that you are using and make sure they are in phase.

Now for some real improvements!

On to the V-1.

I can see why you have no bottom end.

Let's start at the top with the EQ settings. For now turn it off. Later you can run so test sweeps to see where you need EQ.

Delay should be at 180, so that's fine.

Move the crossover back to about 100Hz. That will balance it out to the woofer above.

Now the gain control has me puzzled. At no more than a 2:00 setting, those subs should be running so hard that it is knocking the windows out. You should never have to turn the power up all the way to get enough output to match the upper driver. This tells me that your input may not be strong enough to power the amp. If this is the case then we may have to make a resistor change on the input of the servo amp to increase its output as per a low power input. I will discuss this with Brian Ding (Rythmik Audio).

Now let's get you some low end extension.

Leave the low pass filter right where you have it. Turn the rumble filter off. Set the extension filter to 14Hz. Then set your damping to low. You have everything set to cut the bottom end out of it right now. All of these adjustments will give you back the first octave and then some.

[Guy 13]

Okay, I am going to improve your system a lot today.

Lets start with the V-2's.

You have the phase switch at 0. It needs to be at 180. With it at 0 it will be out of phase at the crossover point. So you have a hole at the 180Hz range that extends down to 80Hz or so. Then with that volume knob cranked up all the way to compensate I am sure you have a really heavy bottom end. If you flip the phase then you should be able to turn the volume back into the range of a 12:00 to about a 2:00 setting and get a nice balance.

Of coarse you'll need to check the polarity to the speaker level inputs that you are using and make sure they are in phase.

Now for some real improvements!

On to the V-1.

I can see why you have no bottom end.

Let's start at the top with the EQ settings. For now turn it off. Later you can run so test sweeps to see where you need EQ.

Delay should be at 180, so that's fine.

Move the crossover back to about 100Hz. That will balance it out to the woofer above.

Now the gain control has me puzzled. At no more than a 2:00 setting, those subs should be running so hard that it is knocking the windows out. You should never have to turn the power up all the way to get enough output to match the upper driver. This tells me that your input may not be strong enough to power the amp. If this is the case then we may have to make a resistor change on the input of the servo amp to increase its output as per a low power input. I will discuss this with Brian Ding (Rythmik Audio).

Now let's get you some low end extension.

Leave the low pass filter right where you have it. Turn the rumble filter off. Set the extension filter to 14Hz. Then set your damping to low. You have everything set to cut the bottom end out of it right now. All of these adjustments will give you back the first octave and then some.

Hi Danny.
Thanks for the information, no later than tomorrow morning (Now it's 10pm here, too late to make my neighbours jump off their beds with my 100db+ V1...) I will do exactly what you told me and I will see, or should I write :
I will hear the improvement.
Will let you and all the AC members know the results as soon as I have done the modifications/adjustments and listen to at least a few different CDs.
Write to you tomorrow.
Guy 13.
By the way, this afternoon, when I was comparing the V1 and the V2, honestly, I am starting to like the sound of the V1 more than the V2.
More presence, more detail, sound stage will come, when I move to my soon to be acoustically treated listening room.

[Guy 13]

Hi Danny and all Audio Circle members that are interested in increasing their knowledge in how to adjust the Rythmik SS plate amplifier on their existing or future V1.
Wow, that’s quite an introduction, sometimes, I surprise myself (Ha, ha)…
First thing I did after opening my eyes and getting up, was going out to do my 20 minutes of stretching, fast running and then breakfast (No rice for breakfast that early in the morning) and then, usually I take a shower, but this morning I was too anxious and excited to do the adjustments Danny suggested yesterday, therefore I connected everything and made the corrections, step by step and re-check some of the wiring to make sure I did not reverse polarity on some wires.
Then, I threw a CD at the player turn on to 11 O’clock the volume control of my Niteshade Audio 10wpc amplifier and then, the house started to shake!
Is it an earthquake? Maybe 7.8 on the Reitcher scale?
No, it’s the V1 producing the best music since they were built!
At last, at long, long last.
Thanks Danny, now that bass. Natural, tight with details, I must say again, that when the acoustic of the room will be solve, it will be the best speakers Vietnam has ever seen or should I say : Heard !
I have learn a lot throughout this V1 adventure and despite of all the trouble I had, I am happy I did it that way, however, no need to say that the next V1 (Yes there will be more…) I will do it the Danny GR Research way and also my way, my way only for small details like how to run the wires in the cabinet. I might even consider having the Rythmik amplifier in its own separate box. The only thing I don’t like about the V1 is that they are heavy like a small elephant. If that’s the only thing, then I can live with that.
Next, now the V2.
I did all the adjustments (Not that many) on the GR Research SA-1 SS plate amplifier. Push the PLAY button on the Rega Apollo CD player and… No earthquake with the V2, however, nice bass, I cranked up a little more to 2 O’clock the volume control of the SA-1 and I had good bass.
Which one between the V1 and the V2 as the best bass? This time, I will say that both V1 and V2 are different; both have different quality of bass. Both units are good, but in their own way. I am sure some will prefer the V1 tight and detailed bass, other will prefer the V2 more discothèque type bass. Not the good word, but that’s the only one I could find.
There are buyers for each speaker; depending on your own musical taste. 
One thing I have noticed, if you compare side by side the V1 and the V2 (Switching from one to the other in a few seconds intervals) the V1 will win on all grounds, but only listen to the V2 and they can satisfy many audiophiles.
The V1 more than the V2 will make bad recording, even worse sounding.
By the way, in my opinion, both V1 and V2 will be happy with any SS or tube amplifiers of around 10 to 15 wpc at more than enough level in small to medium rooms. Of course if you want to feed them with a Niteshade Audio NS-40 (40wpc) amplifiers you will have plenty of reserve for the music peaks, however, I am satisfied with the 10 wpc, but next one will be 15 wpc.
Now, all that being said, what will be my next project?
I think I will experiment with Danny’s N3 drivers and also with Tang Bang full range 8” driver and maybe other brands, then after that… Next year, I will tackle my master project the magnificent U-312 ? What is that ?
U frame with each channel three non servo Eminence Alpha 12A.
I would like to use the same drivers as the V1 but 6 drivers at 149 USD each, that’s a lot of money and I don’t want servo, not for my first trial. Danny has one driver that is non servo, but it’s not suitable for Open Baffle setup, unless Danny’s tell me it can do the job as well as the Eminence ?
And the winner is : Danny from GR Research ! ! !
Lets give him a good hands of applause !
Well, that all I will keep this topic for any member that want to throw at me some question, opinions, complaints, suggestions or anything they like.
Thanks Danny and all.
A story with a good ending !
Guy 13
The lucky guy, because I am a member of Audio Circle.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 

     
   

[PDR]

Guy......good to hear that the V-1 is playing as it should.
I have read all your posts during your adventures.....when you said it wasnt pumping out
the bottom end as well as the V-2, I thought there might be a problem.
You are not the only one that had wiring issues, a few of us I'm sure have gone down that path.
I know I did at first, but Danny set it straight...and then like you I too was amazed.
I am like you.....a collector. I just want to try everything. I have way too many speakers
in my house, and am still looking to build more. When the V-1s move out of my living room
a pair of N3 will prob take its place.
Time to sit back for a while and enjoy your set up.
Glad it worked out well for you 

[ebag4]

Congrats Guy, it certainly is an eye/ear opener when you get the servo subs hooked up and dialed in correctly!

Best,
Ed

[Guy 13]

Guy......good to hear that the V-1 is playing as it should.
I have read all your posts during your adventures.....when you said it wasnt pumping out
the bottom end as well as the V-2, I thought there might be a problem.
You are not the only one that had wiring issues, a few of us I'm sure have gone down that path.
I know I did at first, but Danny set it straight...and then like you I too was amazed.
I am like you.....a collector. I just want to try everything. I have way too many speakers
in my house, and am still looking to build more. When the V-1s move out of my living room
a pair of N3 will prob take its place.
Time to sit back for a while and enjoy your set up.
Glad it worked out well for you 

Hi PDR !
Thanks for reading all my posts, I hope they were fun, entertaining and maybe also instructive.
Thanks to Danny for his precious help, without him, I would probably be still trying to figure out what was wrong with my V1/V2.
For the next V1 (Maybe 2011) I will try to find good color coded wires, sorry to say that the solid conductors that Danny suppy with his V1 are not easy to work with.
I am also looking at buying and building a pair of Danny's N3. I want to try them and maybe keep them for my bedroom/office as they are small enough to fit almost anywhere. Maybe we will build our N3 at the same time and compare the finish results, I will certainly not win a beauty contest with them as I will probably build them myself with a Black & Decker jigsaw. (Ha, ha...)
Today I will take the measurements for the hi density foam I want to try in the V2, it's not Danny's noRez, but until I can get the real McCoy, it's the best thing I could find here in Vietnam.
Thanks for your comments and have a nice relaxing music day.
Guy 13
 
 

[Guy 13]

Congrats Guy, it certainly is an eye/ear opener when you get the servo subs hooked up and dialed in correctly!

Best,
Ed

Hi Ed.
Thanks for your comments.
Earing for the first time the V1 as they are supposed to sound, was like...
It's like seeing my dream car.
Each time I see that car, I fall into contemplation...

Yes, the most beautiful car ever built.
A Ford Thunderbird 1963 (Red or white)
A Ferrari beside the Thunderbird look like a VW beatle...
Have a nice day.
Guy13
   

[ebag4]

Hi Guy,
That is a sweet ride!

You and Perry are going to love the N3s, they aren't open baffle but the excel at what they do.  Here is a pic of a set I built my sister last Christmas.




She loves them.

Best,
Ed