HPower

Hey Thad, Ya, the Dayton Ref HF seems to be the "cost effective" option once the MFW-15 drivers were no longer available. The Tempest-2 got a lot of love if price was not a concern. Just wondering what in the current crop of drivers might be the best option.

Hey Carl, What would be your top couple drivers recommendations for the F20? I am thinking about building 1 (or 2) this fall, then I can get my 2: 25hz Exodus Anarchy Tapped Horns out of the HT room and with my Frugalhorns, where then belong.

The Blueberry would be a good choice for a one box solution with it's nice phono section. I am running a Transcendent Sound Grounded Grid Preamp with my Welborne DRD45s and I think that is a pretty nice match, especially considering the cost. With that said, I just bought a Modwright SWL 9.0 SE line tube preamp that I will be taking delivery of next week. I had a 9.0 SE about 7-8 years ago and I remember it as being a fantastic pre, hence me wanting to try one again. Of course, with either of these units, a separate phono pre would be needed to spin those old fashion vinyl things.

I got the new EML Mesh plates dropped into the DRDs last night and after reading all the great reads from above, I was very anxious to see what was going to happen when I flipped the power switches. No fireworks show... that was a good start! Initially, there was more noticeable hum than the RCAs but after adjusting the hum pots a bit I was able to nullify most of the hum. The EMLs may have a very slight bit more hum than my original tubes... probably not enough to be a concern. Although, with me really paying attention to noise I did notice a bit of a mechanical hum from my left amp. When I dampen the transformer by pushing my hand on it, almost all of the noise goes away. I may open up the amp and see if it just needs to be tightened up a bit more to the chassis / top plate. Also, while adjusting the hum pot I heard some scratchy noises... seems like the pots could use some Detoxit cleaning. As for sound, I did not have much time for critical listening... don't you just hate when those pesky wives put demands on your hobby time. Muddy Water, "Folk Singer" did sound very good on first listen! Hopefully I will have more spare time over the weekend to let the tubes burn in a bit and do some listening.

Well, my "new to me" DRD45s are the tube rectified version so hopefully they will not torch up the new bottles on start up.

Hey JBryan, Thanks for sharing all your background experiences! I see by my tracking info that the new EML's landed this morning, so hopefully I will have time tonight to plug them in and see... what's what. For these new tubes I dealt with George at TubesUSA, were you dealing with the same distributer?

Thanks for the info guys, I will cross my fingers for a quite, hum free experience. Cut-Throat, if you remember my original DRDs that you advised me on when deciding to buy them back in '08, they ran a pair of vintage Cunningham. Edit... just took a look at a pic of my old Welbornes and it looks like they output tubes were National Unions. Those amps were dead quite with those tubes. The new amps with the RCAs are also dead quite, so if the new EML are noisy, we will see what George's (TubesUSA) customer service is like.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a nice pair of Welborne DRD45s that are now paired up with my Ground Grid preamp to drive my Cornscalas. The DRDs came with a pair of vintage RCA 45s with unknown hours. After playing these new (to me) amps for a couple of weeks it brought back memories of how good my previous KHorns sounded with my 1st pair of DRD45s (should have not sold those). With everything sounding so good, and me being a compulsive Audiofool, I figured I should try to make things sound even better... I ordered a pair of Emission Lab 45 tubes and am hoping all the good things I have read about them is true. Have any other DRD / 45 amp users tried these tubes? I probably should have posted this thread before dropping that kind of money on 2 tubes, but like I said... Audiofool.

With my Cornscala build from a couple of years ago, I used pocket screws and dry fit everything with the screws first. Once I was happy with the way things were going together, I dis-assemble and then re-assembled using PL. I didn't find enough slipping to matter. Mind you I built all the exterior joints "proud" by about 1 mm and then trimmed with the router after and sanded.

I wish I had some spare cash right now for these babys! http://app.audiogon.com/listings/tube-nosvalves-vrd-kt-150-monoblocks-with-upgrades-2014-12-26-amplifiers-07727-farmingdale-nj

Yesterday I messaged unique square on FleaBay and asked if they would pass on the $40 Crown instant rebate that is being offered until the end of Dec. and they responded by saying to try entering a price in the "Make an Offer". So I offered $278, instead of the "buy it now price" of $318. Offer accepted and XLS 1500 will arrive on Dec. 31. Not a bad price for anybody wanting one of these right now.

I have not done a ton of planning yet but the "Dayton Audio RSS390HF-4 15" Reference HF Subwoofer 4 Ohm" seems to be commonly used in the F20 builds. Is this the best driver choice? I wonder what different driver Carl has tried in his builds. Would the think the 2 x 525Ws at 4 Ohms of the XLS 1500 should match well with that'd driver in 2: F20s? PE has $40 off on the XLS 1500 until the end of Dec.

I am thinking about buying an amp to power a pair of F20 subs for my HT, I was leaning towards a Crown XLS1500, second choice might be an iNuke 3000DSP but would probably pick Crown due to me knowing the "Brand" name better. WIll a XLS1500 a good match for 2 F20s? F20s will be a spring project, once the weather is nice enough to work outside.

It might be safer to try and pull out the dust cap dents with tape. Again, care is needed. Don't use too sticky of a tape that you can not pull it off once the dents are pulled out.

These guys are Hip, literally:

Hey Vfr350, If you are not already a member over at Audiokarma, it might not be a bad idea to look through the Yamaha section... http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=173 I have been lurking there a bit since a buddy of mine offered to let me use his CR 2020 while my HK930 gets some work done to it. Seems like a great community, with lots of helpful Yamyphiles.

OK guys, Did the first pair go to someone from the forum ? If so, lets hear about the new toys.

Hey margtaf12, Email on it's way.

Silver Papier... http://www.guilfordofmaine.com/swatches/2100-538

Hey USNRET, After I made my 10 panels last year a buddy of mine has expressed interest in building a few for himself. He may be interested in your cloth, I will ask him. I used FR701, is that the model of cloth that you have? http://www.guilfordofmaine.com/patterns/2100 For my panels I used 2 colors (Medium Grey and Grey Mix) to give an alternating look with the 2 different colors of grey. I also staggered the height that I placed the panels on the wall to break the look up.

My Mac Mini set up is: 2012 Mac Mini, added 120 GB Solid State SATA Drive, 16MB RAM, and 2TB DH for Library and a 2nd one for back-up. The digital signal exits the Mac Mini via USB, into my John Kenny Ciúnas dac... and then RCAs into my Ground Grid preamp. I use Audirvana as the music player (playing from Solid State Drive vs. from external library HDs , while using iTune to catalog all the files in AIFF. For the 1200 or so CDs that are in my collection, I used iTunes to rip to AIFF. I probably have an additional 5-600 album that are downloads, usually FLAC, but then converted to AIFF by the MAX program. Of these 5-600, I have roughly 200 of these in hi res versions (24/96 and 24/192), this is were the music server set up REALLY shines! I am very happy with this set up, for both the convenience aspect and especially the sonic quality.