Pictures of your speaker system

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by Cspirou, Nov 6, 2015.

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  1. Perot

    Perot Facebook Friend

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    If I can manage to take a better picture I'll post in the speaker porn thread. How about some packaging porn?

    https://imgur.com/a/ugvqF
     
  2. Forza AudioWorks

    Forza AudioWorks MOT: Forza AudioWorks

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    Ha, 4 x Beyma 12" sit in PureAudioProject Trio10 Timeless design near me ATM. Good speakers.
     
  3. SineDave

    SineDave Friend

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    So I upgraded my Legacy Audio Signature SE's to the bigger, badder Focus SE, which has 12" woofers, 7" mid-range drivers and a ribbon AMT. This is going to be a fun weekend!

    Ignore the mess and nintendo switch, the joy of always swapping out components.

    upload_2017-11-3_17-18-5.png

    upload_2017-11-3_17-18-51.png
     
  4. Daveheart

    Daveheart Friend

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    My dad had the opportunity to buy the show pair of the Focus SE for about 1/2 price and I just couldn't convince him to pull the trigger. Part of my wishes that I would have just bought them myself, but I really didn't have the space for them at the time (and still don't).
     
  5. SineDave

    SineDave Friend

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    I reviewed a pair 5 years ago, and wanted to buy them at the time but couldn't swing it financially. This is a speaker I've wanted to own for 5+ years, despite hearing dozens of great speakers since. It speaks volumes about how good the design is.
     
  6. Muse Wanderer

    Muse Wanderer Friend

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    PureAudioProject Trio 15 Voxativ (AC 1.6-Pi-Fe) with European walnut baffles run by Schiit Yggdrasil DAC and Ragnarok amp.

    Last May I listened to the PureAudioProject Trio 15 Voxativ speakers at Munich High End. It felt like finding a jewel in a myriad of random hifi stuff that shined like no other. After careful consideration I opted to get the wooden Voxativ widebanders and ordered these in summer. Over the past 2 months I have been enthralled by the sound emanating from these open baffle speakers. Sound is open, encapsulating the whole house, with clarity, resolution and dynamics that threw me off guard, new toy syndrome and all.

    The sound has left me in awe at how open baffles large woofers present the sound with lower frequencies effortlessly. The Eminence OB-A15Neo drivers sound similar to open TOTL dynamic headphones in definition and resolution. Many boxed speakers simply cannot compete due to box boominess in my experience. Extension is rolled off below 32Hz or so, similar feature to open dynamics like Utopia or HD800. However lack of deep subbass extension is way more countered by the sculpted, defined bass these PAPs emanate. Classical organ or double bass sound engaging and omnipresent on Suzuki's Bach's cantata cycle.

    The wooden Voxativ drivers are extremely resolving, detailed and accurate - kind of Utopia like but with more agreeable treble and timbre. Imaging is impressive and the coherence of sound remarkable. There is something very special with widebanders when mids and treble come from the same driver with the SAME speed, character, timbre - wonderful coherent sound. There is no inequality, no disjointed features to the sound. Voxativs happen to be the best widebanders I have heard at Munich High End, sounding way better than the starbright AERs for example. Of course the bass simply cannot emanate from a widebander alone. In my quest back loaded horns were too disjointed in time to like. I need my music now not 1.7milliseconds later emanting from a horn.

    The 15" dipole woofers blend really well with the Voxativ with imaging in the lower mids being somewhat less precise compared to higher mids as a result of woofers contributing to the lower mids sound. Nevertheless this gives BODY to the sound compared to other BLH designs, including Voxativs own speakers, I heard at shows. Imaging, staging and micro / macro dynamics are superb exhibiting characterstics of the Yggdrasil - Rag I am used to. It feels like the PAPs match the excellence of the Yggdrasil and Ragnarok. Tube amps may be a future upgrade we'll see. I have no speaker at hand for comparison but the sound is more Utopia like rather than ZX-2-Andro / HD650 like. The brightish Voxativ drivers are counterbalanced by the big woofers bringing balanced tonality with the sound after careful toeing of speakers.

    The highlight of the show for me is nuance and a deep connection to the music like never before. Bruckner never sounded this heavenly with his symphonies. Beethoven's symphonies, Wagner's and Mozart's operas, chamber, piano, electronic, rock, folk, it all feels right. Music is very lively and demands complete attention to itself, making it hard to concentrate on other jobs at times. My efficiency with work at home stuff has declined a bit I must say!

    Room is an old farmhouse lined with very irregular coralline limestone in an open plan hallway arrangement 32 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet, openings into other areas from all walls and with speakers on the long wall. The irregular stone helps diffuse the back wave randomly, improving the perceived clarity and resolution I hear. The PAPs are easily moved around and are placed around 2 to 3 feet from back wall on right and 3 to 4 feet on left. They are kept slightly toed out in horizontal and vertical plane. Full toe-in is great for imaging but tonality suffers as the treble can get bright, a feature Voxativs need careful attention to.

    Pricing at Eur 9.1K (6.6K for paper Vox driver version) is steep and auditioning these speakers is highly recommended. The wooden ferrite (AC 1.6-Pi-Fe) Voxativ's price is 4.5K euro alone. The paper Voxativs (AC 1.6) I heard at Munich are around 2.2K Euro and sound smoother and more laid back in the mids. The paper Voxativs are more ZX2-Andromeda-like with mildly smoother laid back response that is wonderful in its own right. The wooden drivers are more Utopia-like, being more accurate, resolving and tolerant to higher volumes with complex orchestral passages. I chose the latter but other tastes may opt for the former.

    Needless to say, I'll treasure these speakers for a long time.

    DSC07435.JPG DSC07441.JPG
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2017
  7. Grahad2

    Grahad2 Red eyes from too much anime

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  8. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    @Marvey where do you even source paper in oil caps that big?
     
  9. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Nice setup! Have you considered the DCX2496 upgrade from AMB audio?

    https://www.amb.org/audio/kappadcx/
     
  10. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    @Muse Wanderer those are the sort of speakers you might want a live-in security guard for, I can send you my resume. I can taste your food as well, to make sure it's not poison.
     
  11. Muse Wanderer

    Muse Wanderer Friend

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    lol... what I need is a full time nanny to take care of my toddler before he manages to get his hands on those drivers! Are you ok with potty training? :)
     
  12. Priidik

    Priidik MOT: Estelon

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    These creatures love screwdrivers and forks --> poke-poke-poke
     
  13. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    On the other hand if you train them properly then not having a remote is no longer an issue.
     
  14. Muse Wanderer

    Muse Wanderer Friend

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    Custom made grills are in the making. I got some sub grill covers in the meantime. Cannot be too careful with a pesky 3 year old.

    Yeah that is a good option but better to tell them not to touch anything as it is "hot" and if it breaks ... naughty corner for a whole week!

    The PAPs are 96db sensitive and are easily driven by the Ragnarok with middle gain at 1 to 3 o'clock. I might be in Class A mode (4W or less) most of the time.

    They are also quite light with their aluminium frame. I drag them easily towards the wall when not used giving a bit more space in the living room.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2017
  15. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    I seem to have lost my resume
     
  16. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Nice speakers @Muse Wanderer! Your place looks like an acoustics nightmare with all the solid surfaces! However I’ve also read that dipole speakers tend to do better in real living spaces then other types of speakers.
     
  17. Muse Wanderer

    Muse Wanderer Friend

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    Thanks @Cspirou. The room is the main living area, so treatment options are limited considering my wife's demands and the aesthetics of the old structure. That said, open baffles speakers tend to sound ehm 'open' and may not have as many issues with untreated rooms as other designs. In fact, the floor acts as a baffle in dipole speakers that can help with the bass as long as the woofer is close enough to the floor. I'll see if a carpet will make a difference once it gets colder this season.

    The measurements of the Voxativ Ampeggio on stereophile show a superbly flat in room response (red line) compared to Audionote speakers (blue line).

    [​IMG]

    It may well be that the PAPs help recreate such a flat measurement in room with even more bass extension due to the large dipole woofers. I may have to measure these at some point.

    Angulation of the speakers towards the speaker position is tricky. Full toe-in improves imaging but the treble can be bright on some recordings. For example, Eric Clapton Unplugged sounds excellent with speakers fully toed in. In contrast, The Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' had too sharp treble as expected. This was my dilemma as full toe in was ideal for bass, imaging and clarity but not for tonality with various recordings. Tonality as always won. Facing straight forwards the speakers lose some clarity and that sparkle I love. Partial toe-in angulation, by only a few degrees from full toe in, works best and further helps deflect the backwave sideways so that the reflected wave is directed to the sidewalls that are very far away on both sides. Furthermore the left speaker is directed towards a window that is left open to a space outside the room and the right speaker towards a small window in a wall.

    The Leonidas crossover has an option to apply shelving of the upper treble. When I tried it, so that I can have full toe-in to ear position, the sound was not to my liking. It kind of killed the magic in the highs with treble sounding off and microdynamics shelved. Leaving the Voxativ only limited in the lowermost frequencies (below 400Hz) doesn't cause any of these issues and most probably improves the sound as there is none of the distortion I heard with fully driven Voxativs with high SPLs. The woofers take care of the lowermost frequencies and the Vox does the rest beautifully.

    The very irregular stone surfaces along all the walls probably help too. There were some speaker manufacturers at hifi shows using literally huge stacks of small stones behind their speakers to irregularly scatter the wave. Some home theatre designers apply irregular wooden wall panels in dedicated rooms too.

    When I move the speakers further into the room, the sound from the woofers and the Voxativs did not gel together. Since the room is only 10feet wide, I opted for 2 to 3 feet from backwall placement of right speaker and 4 feet for left speaker (onto window), to allow the sound from both drivers to kind of bind in time and space. More distance from the speakers would probably improve the sound further but a dedicated large room I don't have.

    It is a very fine balancing act but the end result for now is really good and it could only get better with some treatment.
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2017
  18. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    Got these nice things for $150 on craigslist. Need a bit of restoration, binding posts are broken, dirty, should redo crossover, but pretty cool.
    Dahlquist DQ-10, one pictured with grill, one without. Styled after the Quad ESL, but 5 way dynamic OB instead of electrostatic...
    IMG_20171108_120842.jpg

    5 Way hybrid open baffle system
    IMG_20171108_120847.jpg

    Dirty old crossover
    IMG_20171108_120853.jpg
     
  19. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    @spwath - Your dorm mate either hates you or loves you. I bet you can DIY a 2-way horn + woofer system and rent it out for house parties as PA speakers.

    There’s a couple systems that are designed with the floor reflection in mind. One is the Frugalhorn and the other is the Don Keele CBT line array. Both are DIY.
     
  20. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    They like me for the surround system I set up for the tv.
     

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