jackpod

Michael, me too! 300K with house, I'm outside the city, snow, rain, farm animal zoned. My farm has unique animals, Belles, Heresy's, soon to arrive Klipschorns, McIntosh, Anthems, the list goes on Jack

Exactly the reason I also bought on 2.5 acres. I do have a neighbor on each side fairly close, but we have an understanding. I don't complain when the Indians next door are whooping and cheering while they are practicing roping these little goats they have or riding their ATVs up and down their property and they don't say anything about about my music or movies. So far it has worked out Jack

Todd, Off topic but I see you are in Scottsdale, I will be sure to wave when I drive by when I am picking up my Khorns on the 25th Jack

Hi Tom, I am in east Flag, known as Doney Park out on 89. I've passed by the 101 many times. I'll know more as the date gets closer. They will be coming into Scottsdale actually Jack

Humm, Opinions are supposed to be different, what makes the world go round. I personally would never own an Ipod, altho my cd's are on a server it is all wav format, i won't even touch flac or ape or other "lossless" formats and I have a 1.5tb raid 5 array because of it, Boundry does come into play with mics, I am a home automation enthusiast with a house full of open air voice recognition equipment, hardest part of sucessful open air VR is eliminating the extreme low end 32 years of listening to Ionovac tweeters ( I bought my first pair when I was 22, obviously not a young kid) There is a difference. Roger Russell has quite a writeup on his site and I have documentation on my website obtained from the original DuKane engineers (personally I might add) The mic on my McIntosh AA2 audio analyzer goes below 20. I listen to vinyl as well as cd's Just my .02

Geez, what would be the perfect first musical piece to play? something to give the most wow, something very familiar? what genre (I have a little of everything but rap) I might not have any sanity left in 18 days (who am I kiding, I lost that about the same time I lost my.....) Or let the wife decide...

I'm going to start with the Mac 240, then I want to try a pair of my MC50 ss monoblocks, then the MC150 (which is what I have on my Belles) and then put an Ionovac or two on top. I have already put aside that whole next week to do nothing but play I am very excited

Well, I did it. I found a pair of '97, oiled oak, mint, original owner Khorns fairly close to Arizona. They are supposed to arrive in Phoenix on the 25th of this month (if the truck arrives on schedule) and of course the 25th is a Friday, so if the truck doesn't make it on time I have to wait until Monday. only 18 days, can I hold out? I guess I have to

Silversport, And you are still in for a surprise when you do acquire one of the Macs that has output transformers, they call them autoformers. Altho the Mac 1900 and 6200 are several steps above other SS gear (IMHO) neither of those pieces have autoformers. There is something about the sound of one of these Macs, I currently have a handful, at one time I had like 28 pieces, but slowly sold them off. I hate to see something just sitting. I have two with meters, MC150 feeding my Belles, MC7300 feeding my Paradigm Studio 100's, an MC2100 feeding my Heresey's, an MC250 feeding my garage speakers, a tubed MC240 feeding my Ionovacs, 5 of the rare MC50 monoblocks feeding more Ionovacs and other house paging speakers. I absolutely love the McIntosh. The beauty about McIntosh is the way they hold their resale value. I have never sold one for less than I bought it for, and often I make a few bucks on them If you can find an MC2505 (50 WPC w/meters) or an MC2105 (105WPC w/meters) you;ll never go back

PaulN Try to get your hands on an early 70's SS McIntosh, MC250(basic) or MC2505 (glass panel w/meters) These SS babes have output transformers, I think Brahms will come back home. It was what sold me on Mac back then and I have never gone back Jack

Duke... Maintenance and cost $79 was a lot of money in 1961 Maintenance isn't to bad, I clean em about once a year This country concerned with ozone Tip temperature about 1000 degrees similar to tv flyback about 25KV Acapella still makes them today, from their website ACAPELLA ION TW 1S (Ionic Tweeter) The Acapella ion tweeter Ion TW 1 S is a perfected and sophisticated loudspeaker chassis, whose exceptional performance and qualities can only be enjoyed completely if used properly. It was designed to reproduce the harmonics of the music as detailed as possible. To reach this goal, a design with the smallest possible mass had to be developed. Relative to its function the Acapella ion tweeter has no mass! To carry out this project, a very unusual kind of design had to be created. High voltage within the unit produces a constant arc. This arc is modulated with the musical signal (flame oscillates with the time of the music). This is the reason why the number of electrons within the arc varies. A larger or smaller amount of electrons requires similar space. Due to this variable need of space the surrounding air molecules have to dodge the more or less quickly. This evasive action or bumping of the air molecules generates over-, resp. underpressure and, therefore, sound. In this way, the Acapella ion tweeter is able to reproduce sound without membrane and without mass Regarding transient capabilities and phase stiffness, the obtained sound quality cannot be realised by using conventional tweeters. Comparing the ion tweeter with other tweeter systems, its unobstrusive sound image will attract you. This kind of reproduction is to be attributed to the lack of harmonic and transient distortions. Technical data Sensitivity (aktive Tweeter): 1,5Volt / 0 dB Impedance: 600 Ohm Sound pressure level: max. 110 dB - 1 m / 1ms Slope Input filter: approx. 12dB/octave Frequency response: 5kHz - >50kHz (variable crossover frequencies ) Mains voltage: 234 Volt / 50 Hz Standard Optional 110 -, 117 -, 227 Volt / 50 - 60 Hz Dimensions H x W x D: 150 x 300 x 260 mm Weight: 15 kg

All i can say, if you have heard them, you know what i mean, if you haven't you have no idea what you are missing. Ever wonder why the couple of overseas companies that stll manufacture a plasma tweeter charge between $5k and $10k per pair?

To describe their sound... i use a linkwitz riely electronic crossover @3.5khz, low for most tweeters extremly fast, there is no mass, no moving parts, the plasma couples to the air. when i had my maggies they made ribbons sound slow crisp, open, transparent, can be smooth, but if the program material has an edge, they give you the edge. take the disc 1000 airplanes on the roof by philip glass, i think it is track 12 played loud enough will make you twitch right now i have the cars drive on. the tambourine is in the middle of my room if anyone here is ever in the Flagstaff Arizona area and would like to experience an Ionovac, drop me a line, the door is open Jack

Alive and well 3 pairs of Duk 5's 3 pairs of Duk 10's in the original walnut cases 1 pair of prototypes (even one of the original engineers was surprised they even still existed, stated there wasn't more than a handful made) and all the cells and electrodes they can eat

I wonder if being exposed to that plasma for some 30 years is the reason I got an arm gowing out of my forehead and 6 feet? Ha! But i have enjoyed the best, smoothest high end ever could be Jack

No Problem Duke... yea maybe the plasma has fried my brain... but if it has it sure feels and sounds good... i heard lots of tweets in my day but that little purple glow, the cymbals, the female voice, nothing compares maybe it isn't the harmonics, but whatever it is, is good

If I may, harmonics and subharmonics are just as important, even if they are outside the range of typical human hearing. there is more than just our ears in a musical experience. I can atest to that with my Ionovac tweeters. The high end range on an Ionovac is well over 50khz, can you hear that? Absolutely not, but if I were to sit you down in front of them with a spectrum analyzer and AB them with other tweeters at the same level, there would be a noticiable difference in what you hear, why? Harmonics. Same applies with subharmonics. Now I am not going to get in the middle of the previous debate (no desire to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail) Just like the soundstage discussion, lets take McIntosh amps. Tubes are described as warm, if you look at the distortion specs on say a Mac240, the distortion is rated at no more than .5% A Mac 250 or 2100, solid state with autoformers the distortion is rated at no more than .25% A few years ago I had Magnepan 1.6's and 2.8's fed by a pair of MC352's the max distortion rating of the 352 is .005%. It was too clean, too transparent. I actually preferred the sound of the 2100's with a lot of program material. Boy when I made that statement at the local HiFi shop they laughed me out of the store. But it was true, the soundstage was much wider with more distortion. Just thought I would share this info and my experience. If we all heard exactly the same way, everyone would have the same equipment, what it would be? I don't know If i offended anyone, I didn't mean too Jack

The Mac 5100 is one of the early non autoformer units, it rates high among standard ss amps, but not as high as one of the Mac ss amps with output transformers. I have both Tube and SS Macs with transformers, there isn't a whole lot of difference Jack

Chris, Hold that thought... If all goes as planned (working out all the little details), I will be making a little road trip and picking up a pair in 18 days. OW, 97's, seq S#, AK3 xovers, original owner Times like this go so slow, why didn't the other 54 years of my life go by this slow? Jack

The only problem I could see is the difference in efficiency ratings, I would have to dig thru some of my old brouchure but your standard measurement of Xdb at 1 meter with 1 watt is something like 86 or 88. Extremely inefficient speaker. I have had 4 different models of Magnepans and a couple pair of KLH 9's

Lot of difference between the monitor line and the studio line. IMHO no comparison and actually I think the version 2 studio was much better than the current version 3. They made major changes in the tweeter in the version 3 but then just my opinion and yada yada yada

Thanks for the laugh guys, I got tears in my eyes at 5am itsa pork LOL

But then I should also point out that the Ionovac is one of the smoothest tweeters I have ever heard. Now you have me wondering. I will have to take some time today to do some AB comparison

I don't feel the tweeter is "agressive", but then I run 3 pairs of Ionovac gas plasma tweeters on top of my Belles and also for the 100's (same 3 pairs) Maybe my hearing is worse than I thought?? I have owned the 100's longer than the Belles but haven't done a side by side comparison without the Ionovacs, I will have to try that

Well I guess it boils down to Klipsch / Maggie fans know what sounds good. Yes they are on opposite ends of the spectrum, totally. now if you could just couple a horn to a planar driver, Humm now that could be interesting