Tarheel TJ

Thank you for the compliment! That is definitely the look I was going for. The speakers are 2-way fully active with a La Scala Industrial bass bin (refinished). The top horn is the ZXPC 11"x17" horn, available on eBay. I am using B&C De-750TN 2" compression drivers. A MiniDSP 4x10HD does the crossover/DSP duty. There is also a Bill Fitzmaurice THT horn sub in the corner, under the sailboat and reel to reel deck. The milk jugs are my supply of distilled water that I use in my ultrasonic record cleaner (from cleanervinyl.com).

In the end I had to cut, sand, paint and glue over 1000 individual blocks (16x16 per panel, 4 panels). I probably have somewhere north of 60 hours in this in total, but I think it turned out great. I was going for a land/sea or ground/sky sort of theme with the colors. I think it looks great. Definitely improved clarity and imaging of the system as well.

I thought y'all might like to see my recently completed COVID project. A few years ago, I added some absorbtion panels to my listening room/home theater. I did 4" thick panels on the sidewall first reflection points and behind the speakers. Did some 2" thick "cloud" panels on the ceiling. It made an absolutely colossal difference in perceived sound quality. Easily as significant as a major component upgrade. It did make me wonder, however, if doing something on the wall between the speakers would help with imaging, soundstage, etc. The absorbtion panels did deaded the sound of the room quite a bit, however, and I was concerned about going too far. So this time, I wanted to try some diffuser panels instead. I found some plans for skyline style diffusers and thought they looked really cool and would fit the bill perfectly. Given the new realities of a COVID afflicted world, I found myself with a bit more time for at-home projects, so I decided to give it a go. Little did I know just how much time and effort it would take. In the end, I am extremely pleased with the results, so I though I'd show off a bit.

You have a lot of questions there, but I'll just address this one. I use a MiniDSP 4x10HD in my system. I use it as an active crossover in addition to EQ. I can say that if you take a scientific approach (i.e. using a measurement mic to see your speakers true in-room response), the effects are indeed dramatic. You will never know just how poor your speakers' frequency response is until you measure it and look at the graph. You will never know whether the EQ you apply helps or hurts without being able to look at it. However, if you measure the response, use RoomEQ Wizard to calculate the needed corrections and apply them, the improvement is HUGE. You can get almost any decent speaker close to perfectly flat in your room. Once you have heard one like this, switching back is not something you will ever be interested in. Absolutely night and day. You can EQ out peaks and (most) valleys. You can apply a "house curve" (boosted bass, rolled off highs, whatever pleases you). All of these things are difficult and expensive to do using the old methods. With DSP, it is inexpensive and trivially easy. It truly is a revolution in home Hi-Fi. See Chris A's posts to read more in depth. He was a great help and inspiration in getting my system dialed in.

Glad to see you solved your hum issue. I recently had a similar experience. I also run an active multi-amp system (using LaScala bass binds, ZXPC top horns and a MiniDPS4x10). I had hum issues from day one. Sometimes it was bearable, sometimes it ruined the experience. I chased this down for years. Swapped amps and cables, etc. Was able to make some improvement, but it never went away. I just kinda figured this was an unavoidable characteristic of running a complex, multi-component system with high efficiency speakers. I did notice, however, that the hum usually got worse when I turned my projector on to watch a movie. Sometimes dramatically worse. So I decided to buy another power conditioner just for the projector. I already had a OneAC unit that I bough off of eBay powering my pre-amp and front-end components, so I decided to get another for the projector. Being hospital cast-offs, they are cheap enough (~$50 each). Lo and behold, when I plugged the projector in to the dedicated power conditioner, the hum vanished! Not only did it vanish when the projector was on, but it was gone when the projector was off too! The projector was creating a ground loop with the audio components, even when it was powered off! I now enjoy a nearly noise-less system. You can hear just a touch of tube buzz coming from the HF horns if you stick your ear up to them. Nearly silent from the couch. I probably spent over $1000 swapping out components, trying to trace the noise, when all I needed was a $50 power conditioner!

This may or may not be helpful, but I ran into a similar issue with an ST-70. I bought 4 or 5 rectifier tubes and a whole box of fuses. Eventually, by swapping around power tubes and rectifiers, I was able to find a stable combo. They have been running steady for several months now without issue. I don't know exactly what the issue was, but it seemed like some sets of power tubes and/or rectifiers would blow every time, right away. Others would run for a while and then blow. With enough experimentation, I was able to find a set that worked. I guess I'll just go through the same song and dance every time the power tubes need replacement? Amp works and sounds great other than that.

You are right to suspect that the K400 can be improved on. It was great for its era, but technology has moved on. Your greatest improvement will come from going to a completely active digital crossover setup. This will allow you to use pretty much any horn/driver combo you want, cross it over appropriately and EQ it flat. You could go 2-way or 3-way. Personally, I believe the best setup possible would be a 2-way, using a K-402 horn with a 4" diaphragm beryllium driver (TAD, JBL or Radian). Keep in mind, this is not cheap ($2k for the horns and another $2k for drivers). My setup represents a much cheaper attempt that probably gets 90% of the way there. I am using B&C DE750TN drivers on ZXPC horns (from eBay). I have less than $400 in that setup and it sounds excellent to my ears. The next step for me would be to upgrade to Beryllium, but as I said, the cost is steep.

Don't know much about 3d printing, but I have a pair of K400s I'd be willing to part with if you need a pair.

I have heard R2R tapes from The Tape Project before (though not on my own system). You are right. They are spectacular! I would love to get some for myself one day. At the moment, my only tape deck is a 7" unit, and it is not working 100%. Even still, commercially-recorded 7.5 IPS tapes can sound quite nice.

Haha, with two kids and an endless list of "honey do" projects, you would be waiting quite a while. Seriously though, they are easy to build. The precision required is not difficult to achieve. I did it with a hand-held circular saw and some basic C-clamps. The expanding glue means that you really only need ~1/4" precision for most parts. The only thing I had to get help with was asking a friend with a router to cut the circular hole for the driver. Everything else was pretty easy. Finishing it took the longest, and that's only because I didn't want it to be plain black.

I can confirm everything that Daledee said. Accoustic panels transformed my system. You have to cover a pretty large surface area, so I can understand why some people are reluctant to do it (the WAF is pretty low). However, ~$500 worth of homemade absorption and diffusion panels made an enormous difference. Easily trouncing any electronics upgrade I have ever made. Frequency response, clarity and imaging all went through the roof!

You are welcome to hear mine if you ever make it down to NC, but I will repeat what Schu said: Don't hesitate to build one. They are inexpensive, produce HUGE bass, and pair perfectly with La Scalas. The only downside, as far as I can figure, is that they are huge and heavy. I would not want to move one! If you can fit it in your room, it will transform your sound system. Shake pictures off the wall with ease!

I have also had a lot of trouble over the years with gain structure. It is a real problem with 100dB+ speakers! In my case, it has manifested itself as the never-ending quest to quiet noise and hum. The slightest hum or fuzz from any component is very evident with high-efficiency speakers. My system still is not 100% silent, thought it is close enough that most wont notice the slight hum. I know I could use attenuators to solve the problem, but like you, I have a hard time just throwing all that gain in the trash!

Though I am using more power now for other reasons, I used a 4 watt SEP to power my La Scalas for years. With a powered sub taking the low-bass load away from the little amp, I had no problem reaching hearing-damage levels of loudness. 6 watts is absolutely plenty for La Scalas in an indoor setting. Only reason you would ever need more is if you were playing outdoors to a crowd.

Hard to say based on just a room description, but it could be that floor bounce is an issue. This may be why you are only experiencing the problem after moving to floor-standers. I am thinking that 12' distance from couch to speaker, when triangulated by floor bounce to 14', might just equal a null at 100hz at the LP? Perhaps a thick rug/pad might help? I know they are a major pain to install, but I found "cloud" type panels on the ceiling to be very beneficial, though I don't know if it would help your 100hz issue.

My guess is that since the change is in the lower mids and upper bass, that it has to do with a change in the distance between the bins. You are altering the comb filtering that results from the interaction between the two. I think that if it were a matter of changing the bass response of your FH1s, you'd hear it in the lower bass instead. Without measurements, of course, a guess is all anyone can offer.

You might try rolling in some different 12AX7s before switching to a different tube type. I have found significant differences between modern Chinese production tubes and NOS western tubes. I had a phono stage that had a lot of tube "rush" to it. Swapped in some 70 year old NOS tubes and the problem vanished completely! YMMV. I have no experience with JJ12AX7s.

jcmusic, you have some SERIOUS analog gear! Consider me envious. I have gotten much closer to audio nirvana over the last couple of years. Going to a digital active crossover (with much help from Chris A) and a dedicated and well-treated room has moved mountains for me. These two changes elevated my system from "above average" to amongst the very best I have ever heard at any price point. At this stage, my analog sources are definitely my weak link. I wish I had some of your pieces in my system. Maybe someday!

In my experience, unless something else in the chain is severely deficient (not the case for you), speakers are almost always the weakest link. Despite all the fuss you hear about amps and CD players, almost all of them do an excellent job of reproducing an audio signal. They are nearly perfect in that regard, even the cheap ones. The same cannot be said for speakers. There is a world of difference between good speakers and poor ones. I think Alexander is spot on. A set of Heresys or Fortes would be a big upgrade from what you have now. You can probably get away with the Heresys since you have a sub, but bigger is always better. You might also look around Craiglist, etc. for some used larger Heritage models (LaScala, Cornwall). You may get the most for your money there.

I have had a number of tube amps over the years. Had an AMC CVT 2030 (PP, Class A, 30 WPC) that sounded amazing but was unreliable and difficult to get serviced. Had a Musical Paradise MP-301; sounded great but was too noisy for high efficiency horns. Now running a home-build Bob Latino ST-70. It is the best yet. I am very satisfied for the ~$1000 I have in it. Now that I have one amp build under my belt, I am very tempted to try one of Transcendent Sound's OTL kits. Coytee's comments only serve to stoke that desire! Maybe 'll order a kit later this year....

PM'ed

Randyh, I'm not sure what you mean about $4000. I paid less than $200 for the cleanervinyl one device and another $150 or so for the ultrasonic bath. Total investment of about $350.

I agree with everything Chris says. For me, bi-amping and going to a digital active crossover, 2-way setup was a HUGE improvement over stock La Scalas. Probably the largest improvement I have ever made to my system with the possible exception of room treatment. It is not subtle. You can essentially remove most of the worst bottlenecks in your system. Others have covered the details already, so I'll leave that alone, but just know that the improvement is real and very significant. It takes some time, money, measurements and persistence to get it right, but it is absolutely worth it, IMO.

I have the cleanervinyl one system. I love it. You can take a used, filthy dirty record and remove 95%+ of the noise from it. It really is incredibly effective! Kevin is right though, it is annoying only cleaning one at a time. I generally do one per night, and am slowly working my way through my 300 or so records. I have had the unit for 6 months or so, and have probably cleaned 100 records. I will probably buy the second record adapter soon, so that I can double my production. I could certainly do it at a faster pace, but I don't mind taking my time. One thing you should know, these systems produce a very loud and extremely annoying sound when running. I keep mine in a closet in the basement. I turn it on, close the basement door and go upstairs until it is done. You can't hear it much upstairs, but it is very annoying downstairs. My system is downstairs, so no listening while cleaning!

The MP-301 is a great sounding little amp for the money. Be aware of a few caveats though. One, it is SEP, not SET, if that matters to you. The plus side is it can take a LOT of different tube types, and they do sound different from one another. It is thus excellent for tube rolling and exploring different sounds. The downside is that (according to some) it is lacking in the "true SET magic" that you would get from a 2a3 or 300m tube type. The biggest downside, however, is that they are a bit on the noisy side. I had to tweak quite a bit to get mine quiet enough to use with my stock La Scalas, and even still, it had noticeable hum and buzz to it. It was quiet enough to use, but far from silent. When I went to an active setup and wired it directly to a compression driver with no passive crossover in the circuit, the noise became totally unbearable. I had to replace the amp with something quieter (a Latino ST70 in my case). There are some mods out there that are supposed to help considerably with this. In fact, I have purchased the components to try this, but I have not gotten around to firing up the soldering iron yet. See here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/musical-paradise-mp301mk3-mods.4386/ and here: https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=45210 All in all, not bad for under $500, just don't expect perfection.