Cal Blacksmith
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Posts posted by Cal Blacksmith
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Is there anyone here that can tell me anything about this preamp?
I am looking for a new pre amp and have hit upon the grounded grid preamp from Transcendent sound as a serious contender. I am not opposed to building a kit though a fully assembled unit is $300 more. This amp is designed by Bruce Rozenblit and he offers repair services as well as trouble shooting services if you run into trouble. He has a user forum that is much like this one (on a smaller scale) and people there are happy with his products (but we are all happy with Klipsch here, that is why we are on THIS board!) so I am taking those comments with a grain of salt. I know I will need to add a phono section as this amp is a sans phono line amp only. The kit is located here:
http://www.transcendentsound.com/preamp%20kit.htm
I have one of Bruces books and find him to be logical and strait forward, saying what he means to say. One of his amps, built by one of his converts is for sale (a practice he encourages is to build and sell his amps) is on Ebay at the following address:
The links to reviews on that website are posted here to save you the trouble of looking them up.
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/todd23.htm
http://www.transcendentsound.com/audioreality.htm
http://www.transcendentsound.com/preamp%20kit.htm
http://www.audioreview.com/Preamplifiers/Transcendent%20Sound,Grounded,Grid/PRD_118430_1591crx.aspx
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/48672.html
http://www.audioroundtable.com/Tubes/messages/83.html
I am interested in seeing if anyone here has any experience with his amps and the Grounded Grid preamp in specific. Though I am new in this forum, I have come to respect the knowledge of the people on this board and though in HiFi $500 isnt a lot of money, I work for every dollar and before I spend this much, I would like some independent input.
Specifications:
Harmonic Distortion: Less than .02% at 2 volts RMS out.
Signal to Noise Ratio: Greater than 93 dB.
Bandwidth: 1 dB down from 5 Hz to 300 kHz.
Gain: 12 dB.
Max Signal Out: 20 volts RMS.
Output Impedance: 200 ohms.
Input Impedance: 50 k Ohms.
Inputs: 3, Outputs: 1, all single-ended, RCA
Controls: Input Selector, Volume, Power
Tube Compliment: 3-12AU7
Power: 100-120V, 200-240V, 50-60 Hz, 25 watts
Dimensions Overall: 15'W by 11'D by 4 1/4'H.
Weight: 10 pounds.
Thank you all in advance.
Wayne
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----------------On 3/25/2004 8:59:21 AM mdeneen wrote:"...Home brew tube pre-amp.."What exactly is this?mdeneen----------------
That is about as good of a description as I can give. I picked it up at a garage sale a few years ago. It used to be a Dynaco preamp but it was stripped down to the bare circuit boards and rebuilt into something different. It uses 2 12ax7s in the phono stage and 2 6dj8s in the line stage. The power supply was removed from the case and resides in the center of the power cord It has inputs for phono, aux, tape and source. There are 4 small transformers mounted on the back outside the chassis, possibly chokes? 2 stepped attenuators replace volume and balance controls. It has had a rack mount face grafted on, painted black and has gold stick on lettering. It was named zetta 1 by the maker. So, what it is, is a mystery! It has clean sound with high gain (I can only turn it up 1/3 of the way before I can't take the volume (watching on a o scope for clipping, none noted) only a little 60 hummmmmmm in the phono section. For now it will work, though I am looking hard at other preamps. I need an amp with a phono section. I have been looking at the mapletree Octal 6
http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/madoctal6_e.html
just because I like the way the tubes look over miniatures. I am also looking at the Sonic Frontiers Line 1 but neither of these amps have phono sections so that would be added ASAP. I am open to ideas for a preamp under $1000 (new or used) that would blend in with the neutral Sonics of the Power 1
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I am still giddy over the Forte speakers I bought last week! They sound so unbelievably good with my tube amp. Low level listening everything is there. They are balanced and sound sweet. Loud levels, THEY ROCK! They truly were the inspiration of the Maxxcel blown away add! I was shopping in the local thrift store for vinyl just to see what they had and found a record that I had never heard of (and wont recommend to anyone!) but it was only a buck so what the heck? Well, it turned out to be cRAP! You know the stuff that the local punks car can be heard 2 miles away when he plays it? The bass from the speakers was UNBELEAVEIBLE! It shook you to your toes! And that at a moderate level of playback! I have listened to Classical, Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, Piano, Synthesized, and organ music since I bought these speakers and it all sounds great! My room is only about 10 x 12 and of that my listening space is much smaller. I sit only about 3 (1 meter) from the speakers due to the room layout and while I know that a larger room properly laid out would yield better sound (I cant imagine that!) I am blown away at how much better these speakers sound over the JBL 4312s I had before!
I think I am DONE with speakers and amp, now for the rest!
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----------------On 3/25/2004 8:03:59 AM ShapeShifter wrote:Having and sharing love between family, a significant other, friends and acquaintances adds real meaning to life for me. The passionate pursuit of new or old music also gives me a zest for life. Being able to bridge these two loves is true heaven on earth!My desire for future equipment changes are very similar to Ray Garrison’s statement; “I can no more imagine listening to the same components for the rest of my life than I could eat the same dinner every day for the rest of my life.”----------------
Hymmmmmm, I have been on Atkins for 1 1/2 years and I have pretty much had the same thing every day, I guess that means that I can live with the same system I have now, forever, after I get a new pre-amp, cd player, new tubes ...........
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I would say that there was a discussion about this subject back in the 20s when theater organs were being installed. The goal was to have a mono sound source but the pipes took up so much room in a large installation that by necessity, stereo came into play. It was considered disturbing that one sound would come out of one side of the room while another would come out of the other side. Not really related to audio of today but it is interesting just the same.
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This is the amp I just bought about 3 weeks ago. Used on Ebay was $1100 with the remainder of the mfg warranty New it was about $2400 you still need a pre-amp though. It is 55wpc and I have yet to really turn it up, with the Fortes I have I start to get to the pain level before the amp is pushed hard.
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Stan, is anyone EVER done? Isn't there always that one last goodie to buy? That new piece of gear to get? For now, I am happy with my system (over joyed really) but I have ideas, wishes for more, different components. I will get them, maybe not right away, but they will come. Isn't that the "addictive" part of this hobby?
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Help! Ok I admit it, I dropped out of the music scene in the late 70s when wife, family, making a living were more important. I have KINDA followed the tec as things came and went but reading this thread left me in an alphabet soup of confusion. I know all of you know what you were talking about and I sorta followed it but what the heck is
1 bit
pcm
sacd
Redbooks
Burr-Brown
etc.......
???? I figured out that DVD-A is the audio function of DVD but the rest of the soup has me stumped. Sorry to drag the thread down, but I am lost.
I was able to follow 1 bit HACD (hyper audio CD with a bazillion samples per second) because these initials were explained, they made some kinda sense. It is unfortunate that they are fictitious!
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Ok, after my attempt at humor above, I looked at the sad shape of my own speaker wires (many many years old and only 16 ga to boot) and decided to upgrade. I went out and bought a spool of 10 ga super flex O2 free copper wire U.S.A made,($28 for 50 at a local home theater/electronics supply house) and replaced my wires. Well, I might be crazy but I really dont hear much if any change. It would have been great to report that there was this wonderful expansion of signal and that I was bowled over with the difference, but I wasnt. Im sure that the quality of the signal to the speakers is better, it has to be with the improved cable and size but, Oh well, it didnt cost that much to do.
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I recently picked up a Pioneer changer, YES I agree with all that has been said about changers and consumer units, this in no way meets my expectations of high quality. This unit is fairly new and I only paid $50 for it. It is LIGHT YEARS better than the dedicated single CD player I had before (over 20 years old) and will do until I can buy a good dedicated CD player. It has proven to be better in just the last recordings I played alone. CDs I thought sounded good have proven to be poorly mixed. I can hear it now but couldnt before.
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It looks like it is time for arbitration. With what you paid for those speakers, you need to follow this up!
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I have taken a lot of time to read EVERY post on this thread and I think that you are ALL wrong! It is clear that large cables are better. Also the general opinion is that a flexible wire with lots of strands is best. I therefore submit that we should all rip out all the wire we have and replace it with 4 0 (0000) welding cable.
This stuff is SUPER flexible, made of MICRO strands and can flow so much current that you could light a small city with it (ok possibly only a few houses (GRIN)) We should then flush the cables with inert gas (to remove any O2) gold solder the ends to form a solid lug, re-flush the cable with gas and seal it, then form the solid lugs into banana shaped ends (we all know that there is resistance in every connection so to use separate plugs is only adding to resistance!) and insert them into the connects of our speakers. There could be a problem with making an end to fit the speaker jacks as the wire starts out as large as your ..... well. This should lead to the ultimate sonic nirvana! (Please take all the above as a comment on the cable discussion only. I am not responsible for anyone trying the above, though it would be less expensive than buying some of the "special" cables GRIN!) -
Now that I have spent the better part of an hour reading this thread, several good points were made and I agree with them. Is Klipsch the absolute worlds best beat all end all speaker at any price? No, however for this listener, if I can have 90% of the sound for 1% of the price, for me, it is a no brainier. Also, I do believe there are a lot of romantic and fond memories that we hear when we turn to our speakers. Most of us (from what I think is right) are in our mid 40s or better and the first sound we heard that blew our socks off was Klipsch. I know that was true for me. So in some way, we relive our youth through our speakers. Garbage you say? Possibly, I can only say what seems to be true for me but I suspect that it is true for many.
Will the classic Klipsch products sell to a young listener raised in a throw away era? Who knows for sure? They were raised with a NEW is better, Old is bad theme in their lives. They drive 2.0 liter Jap cars and think they have something (though they probably never even heard a 426 hemi in a street car) Like all new generations they think that only they have the truth and all that is past just isnt fully informed. Is this true for EVERYONE in the new generations, NO people are individuals and there are lots of variations.
For this old blacksmith though, I am VERY happy with my new Fortes. I will get some pictures soon and they will shock the purists on the board as the room is set up all wrong, the speakers are in the wrong place, my chair is wrong, I am too close etc
You know what? They are right but it works for me and for me I am the one who matters most of all. Would the sound be better if I made changes? Sure it would but these are the constraints I live with. Is the Khorn a great speaker yes it is! Is it EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE? NO!
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Well, I guess the finish isn't Quite a high gloss, they were fairly shiney and a deep black, so either they had been reworked or they put on a real nice coat of paint at the plant. If you look close you can see some wood grain. The good thing is that they wern't affected sonicly. I instantly traveled back to 1977 the first time I heard a Klipsch speaker when I turned them on!
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First, I was parked where I always do, nothing different....... gotta stay in the stelth mode sometimes ya know GRIN The new damage... well, the car is history and yes the mornings damage is lost in the carnage!
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Well, this is a new day and I feel much better now! I havent bothered to go out and look at the car yet and I stayed home from work to mend the fence so the dog will stay in the yard. Professional repairs are to follow. The wife and the speakers, she is fine with them I TOLD YOU SO! after being married for 24 years, we kinda know each other pretty well. Thanks again for the welcome, this is a great board and the people make it so.
The quality of the sound from the speakers is outstanding. The room they are in couldn't be worse for listening but they do a wonderfull job of filling it (and with any volume at all, the rest of the house!) As I have read on this board, for the money, it is impossible to buy a better built speaker with as high quality componants as these have. I will agree they are built strong by the way they came through the accident. The damage to them is only on the surface and due to the black piano finish, the chips shoud be easy to blend in. The grill cloth on the other hand........ does anyone have a source for 19 year old grill cloth? GRIN
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I have had my B&O 1900 for about 26 years now. Over all it is a very good high end consumer tt. It isn't concidered a "high end" turn table but it is quite good. I find that there are some mocrophonics (sp) in the dust cover. I can get sound transmitted from handlig the lid but it isn't anything to really object to. I have a MMC4000 cartrage. This is the stock unit and replacements and upgrades are availabel. The stock cartridge goes for about$300 give or take. I am quite happy with mine. Good luck I hope I was of some help.
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What a day! On the way to work this morning at 4:30 am I ran over a LARGE piece of tire someone lost! Work was ok, nothing special but through the magic of email, the man selling the fortes and I arranged to pick them up TODAY!
I got to the business that he owns buying and selling vintage audio gear to sell to Korea. I got there before he had returned from lunch and while I was waiting for him to get back I noticed some front end damage to my car from hitting the tire this morning. Well, after a brief inspection I determined the car would live and stood back up. I took a step and heard the crunching of plastic and discovered that my cell phone had fallen off my belt while I was under the car. Yep totaled, Oh well the phone was 2 months old anyway (grin)
The man arrived and we went to get the fortes. He went in the back room and retrieved the objects of my affection. They are finished in piano black. Grills are in great shape and over all a 9 on a 10 scale for appearance. He then hooked them up and turned them on. Well to say that I was UNDERWHELMED would be putting it mildly. No bass to speak of and a harsh high end. So I looked at what was in front of me, there were the speakers in the middle of the room being driven by a SS amp. I could hear the bass trying to get out but there wasnt any more the speakers could do with what they were receiving. So I paid the man the $450 and loaded the speakers into my little Neon (I drive 120 miles a day and any help with gas mileage is welcome.)
On the way home I thought about the fact that I hadnt talked to the wife about the speakers so I parked on the street and was going to wait until she left for choir practice before I brought them in. I knew she would see them the instant she came in but by then it would be too late and it would be ok (she is very understanding) At last she and my son left and my chance would be at hand!
She came back in the house and told me I needed to get outside because there was an accident and I needed to be there. Well, I got out there and saw that my little car was hit by the neighbors truck. Well, hit isnt quite right. He pushed it back 20 feet, sideways a good 10 feet and through a chain link fence taking 30 feet of fence with it. Of course he was drunk as a skunk, driving on a suspended license (for drunk driving) and was without insurance. To top it off, I realized that MY FORTES WERE IN THE BACK SEAT! After the cars were pulled apart and I could get inside, I saw that the speakers were thrown around quit a bit. We unloaded the speakers and discovered that one had the top front edge chipped up fairly badly and the other had ripped the grill cloth sliding into the back of the right front seat. GROAN I hadnt even hooked them up and they had gone through this! The details of the accident were taken care of and the people dispersed to their homes.
Hey, the wife and son hadnt returned yet, so I went into my den and set up the speakers! With the discussion of 4 ohm vs. 8 ohm still in my head I hooked them up to the amp at 8 ohms. I had looked in the owners manual that came with the amp and they said you might need to play with the impedance a bit to get the best sound so I figured if they werent too worried about it I wouldnt be either!
Ok, cables on, amp bias set, pre-amp down, tuner on, rotate the stepped gain controls and JOY, RAPTURE, UNBRIDLED GIDDIENESS! I sank into my chair and listened to the sweetness that only a pair (or more) of Klipsch could bring! The highs are crisp, the ring of the cymbals fading off. Smooth mid range notes and a thumping bass! Out came the Mike Oldfield recording or TUBULAR BELLS. If anything could test the speakers this vinyl could. Twenty-three minutes and fifty seconds never passed so fast. Lost in clouds of drifting notes, the events of the day faded into the back of my mind and I came to the realization that cars will come and cars will go but these Fortes will STAY FOR A LONG TIME!
The Jbls will be retired to the surround sound system the wife uses for movies. A good use for them I think, they will compliment the Sound Research AL-13s that are the head speakers for the movie system.
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Thank you all for the timely and great information! You truly provided a warm-fuzzy welcome. Please see the new thread I started. "Got the forte but what a day"
I hope it will provide you some entertainment!
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Edster00;
Not to jinx the deal but the speakers I am making plans to pickup tomorrow are series 1. The inspection labels are missing but they are in good shape from the pictures I saw. I wasnt in the market for them when the auction ran (twice) without any bites but I contacted him and he was willing to sell them in person for a negotiated price of $450. I dont think this is a violation of any policy against private sales as the whole world had a chance TWICE to buy them and didnt. With local pickup and the ability to hear them first, I think I did ok.
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DaddyDee;
I am indeed a blacksmith. Get it hot, hit it hard! I have been doing it for aout 15 years now. I haven't broken into the "high end" or "art" world yet as as such there isn't a lot of money made. I do it for enjoyment. It is a never ending sorce of wonder that I could take 8 hours to make something, ask $150 for it (which is about 1/2) of what I have into it and people gasp in horror at the price, and ask "why does it cost so much!!??"
I see NOW, that I have made a fool of myself, you have a search function availabel. OOPS! Hey, ya gotta cut the new guys some slack unless they prove themselves to be real boobs. I have done this bbs thing before, honest guys. I hope I will fit in to the "culture" of the board. I tend to sometimes have a dry sense of humor. Thanks for the welcome.
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I have been looking at this board and I find that the speakers I am interested in gets no play at all. Are the Forte speakers the red headed step child of Klipsch or are there just so few of them that their voice is only heard in the background? I made my first post in the technical questions forum asking (I suppose for the umpteenth time for you vets as certain questions come around over and over from new members (on the blacksmith boards at least!)) about 4 vs. 8 ohm and speaker ratings. (A short background and equipment list is there also under dumb newbe question but I wanna know) I dont have the Fortes yet but I have been looking hard at them. I currently am running JBL 4312 control monitors. They are known for a lack of deep bass but are very accurate in the mid-high sections (possibly even BRIGHT) what is the sound difference between them if I may ask anyone who knows?
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Thank you gentlemen for your replies. I suppose that it is more critical for a SS amp to be matched than it is for a tube amp. The tubes will run a bit hotter as if they were working harder (which they are for a given sound pressure) but if I never push them hard it should be ok. I looked at the other topics in this forum and I found the 4-8 ohm issue discussed there also. Sorry, I missed it before posting my question. For my day job, I am an inspector and deviating from published specs is hard for me! I do understand that a speaker is a dynamic device and that a wide range of impedance is the norm but ..IF IT DIDNT MAKE A DIFFERENCE WHY DO THE MANUFACTURES MAKE ALLOWANCES FOR IT?
Ok, that is out of my system, sorry, the by the book side of me came out! The blacksmith side of me says whats the big deal; there are many ways to do the same job, not better, just different. -
I am looking hard at picking up a set of 85 forte speakers. The published specs say 8 ohm but the connector block on the speaker says 4 ohm. I would tend to trust the speaker info over published specs but whats up? Did they make both?
I am just getting back into high end audio after a twenty something years absence. It was 1977 when I first heard a set of Klipsch horns. The $2000 each was too steep for a lowly soldier in this mans army. Anyway I bought a Yamaha CA 600 amp, CT400 tuner, B&O 1900 turntable, Tandberg 3500x and Yamaha NS600 speakers. All in all, quite a kickin system in 1977. Fast forward to today. I still have everything but the speakers (they were stolen in shipment) I have been playing with the idea of buying a tube amp as my dream system was a Mac 225, Klipsch horns and a Mac pre-amp. Well, I found a deal on a Sonic Frontiers Power 1 tube amp that I just couldnt pass up. Quad kt88s @55wpc <. 1% thd at rated power 20hz to 20khz. Ok not cutting edge but much better than this ol blacksmith has ever had. I am running that into a pair of JBL 4312 Control monitors. (70s vintage with the white cones) with a home brew pre-amp powered by 2 12ax7s and 2 6dj8s. Who made it and how long ago from what schematics is a mystery but it DOES sound better than the pre-amp section de-coupled on the Yamaha.
All that to say, Hello and what is up with the forte impedance ratings? The amp can be adjusted to a 4-ohm load but it takes a soldering iron to do it and I would rather not change things on the amp if I didnt need to.
Thanks for your time in reading this and the answers I anticipate.
Ps, any comments on how the fortes sound compaired to the JBLs would be nice to have.
Ok, that is out of my system, sorry, the by the book side of me came out! The blacksmith side of me says whats the big deal; there are many ways to do the same job, not better, just different. 
Thoughts on this Hybrid Amp Ebay 3088228209
in 2-Channel Home Audio
Posted
I am talking totally out of my hat but to ME China is still in the cheep mfg category. This is changing but I have looked at the Chinese amps and decided to just keep on looking. This is based on NEVER having heard any high end audio from China. What can I say, for me, they dont have a good enough track record.. yet!