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Mike Dubay

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Everything posted by Mike Dubay

  1. I do like tweeking the sound, so I do have an active cross over, and run valve amp for the mid/tweeter and solid state for the woofer. But mine have large format wood horn for the midrange and are a DIY Cornscala. If you have factory Cornwall's then the cross over frequency and driver balance is already taking care of, so you can just stay with the stock cross over and run the entire speaker with a valve amplifier. I do have 2 inch drivers in my midrange, the Selenium D440 Ti, they do sound sweet, but the orginal atlas mid ranges on your speakers are also very nice sounding. There are several both 1 and 2 inch high quality drivers out there, I don't believe at our wattage there is much of a mechanical need for 2 inch drivers. But if you plan on jumping in to the DIY and modification game, jump in!!
  2. Fellow Klipschfans: So how tempermental is your 2 channel system to changes? My system seems to be very tempermental requiring adjustment after even what I would call minor changes. Case in point is what I expected to be a simple change this evening. This evening was a simple swap of my CD player, the older Dennon being replaced with my model CDP-5001 Marantz. I always found the Marantz to have a detailed sound, so I expected an improvement in detail in my system. First thing I noticed the high frequencies were lounder, giving a 'hot' overall sound, I got my spectrum analyzer out and with some final tweeking using male vocals and reset the mid/tweeter to woofer balance to 2 db less than previous. This change I would not have expected to have to make. But was then very dissapointed in the sound of the vocals, the frequency balance seemed right but having a harshness which I intrepret as distortion. Oh boy I thought that my detailed CD player just showed me how rotten my system sounded. So I do for more fussing around with the active cross over. The majic happen when I moved the cross over frequency from 600 hz, to 500 hz, then to 400hz. With each step an improvement in sound until at the 400 hz cross over I was back to the beautful vocals I have been used to. I know of another system based on Klipschhorns, (the Kevhorns) and no matter what you do it sounds great, change to a DIY valve CD player, sounds great. Play then on my SET amp, sounds great. Go from McIntosh solid state to tube amp, both sound great. Kevin goes from a McIntosh preamp to a Cary, both sound great to me. And always having a low noise level. I can look at my cross eyed which can cause a ground loop. So is your system tempermental? Have any horror stories on a small change causing unexpected changes? But at the end of the day my Cornscalas are in a good place, sounding etheral...
  3. Drax, Actually, they come from the factory like that and do not have to be adjusted. My KG5.5s came from the factory with the foam suspended from the bottom by the top of the cross over, which centers it top to bottom. While you are in there check to see if the front or back panels of the speaker is loose or the glue has failed in some spot, this is a common occurance in the KG series, but has not happen to mine. You might want to replace the caps in the cross over. Also check to see if the gasket material around the drivers is still flexible. The Crites Ti diaphram is a common upgrade, althrough I'm am still using the orginal phenolic diaphrams. Enjoy your KG4.5's, I am the orginal owner of my KG 5.5's since 1996 and enjoy them greatly. - Mike Dubay
  4. Gary, I have been throught two transformations in my listening rooms, carpet to hardwood floors, and concrete to carpet. My upstairs system went from floor to floor medium pyle shag carpet to 2 1/4 strip solid oak flooring. We have a long haired dog in our home and it was time to replace the carpet. My KG5.5 had always powerful bass in the room, moving to the flooring tightened up the bass with a bit less bass spls. I also moved from drapes to vinyl shades at the same time. I enjoy the sound and don't plan on adding any area rugs. I also enjoy the hard wood flooring, no daily vacuming the clumps of dog hair, better air flow. I took the carpet from the upstairs then put in my my man cave in the basement. I had been working on getting my basement less reverbant. The carpet did the trick, added some depth in bass frequency, and a more detailed sound with out the reverberation. So the carpet was a plus in the basement, removed the reverbant nature of the room. Removal of the carpet to hardwood did give up some bass, but a more detailed bass presentation, so call it an even trade off in the upstairs. Could do some tuning using area rugs, but enjoying the wood flooring right now. - mike
  5. Side Two again? SIDE 1 in marker?, "The After Noon" plays? NO??!!! WTF!!! Patooooe!!!
  6. Side Two, in marker SIDE 2, OK all I need to do is flip it over, I don't see what the problem is...
  7. Here is my son's iphone adapter sitting next to my first piece of audio equiptment I purchased, a Technics SA200 reciever. Purchased in about 1980 with money from working under the golden arches. That and a pair of Koss pro 3a headphones, listening to the local radio station. Later purchased some generic 4 way bass reflex speakers with a big 12 inch woofer, and a quick sucession of cheap turn tables until I settled on my Yamaha P320, which I also still have, getting infrequent use on my work out system. The 30+ year old Technics reciever continues to get almost daily service in a 2 channel set up for the man cave, watching TV or playing X-box 360. I would say it is one of the more handsome looking pieces of audio I have bought.
  8. By all means go with the Daytons. I have used Dayton (both 1% and 10%) caps will good results, as well as the Clarity Caps. I'm hard pressed to tell the difference between them sonicly. About the only difference I can tell is that I can hear there is some break in period with the Daytons. Play them for maybe 20 hours before you make your final decision.
  9. For my first amplifier I built the predicessor to this amplifier: http://s5electronics.com/l8stereo.html This uses a circuit board that you populate. My first point to point wiring amplifier was this: http://diyaudioprojects.com/Tubes/50EH5/50EH5.htm I found doing the point to point project let me understand what was going on much better than the kit on a board.
  10. Has anyone else use an external micorphone on an iphone4? Maybe something like this: http://tascam.com/product/im2/
  11. You can see the iphone microphone response, the RTA pro does it best to calibrate the low frequencies, but with reduced signal it can only do so good. Yes, go to http://www.studiosixdigital.com/iaudiointerface2/, this is the external adapter for a microphone. It is a bit pricey at $400, costing a bit more than what a PC based software and hardware system for a laptop would cost. But you get the functionality of the portability of using your iphone instead of have to lug around a laptop. It is being released this month, I would wait and see if the price comes down in the coming months.
  12. According to the web page use the internal ipod microphone with a "grain of salt", they try to generally calibrate the software to what an average iphone microphone responds to. They have upgraded hardware avalaible on their web page which allows you to calibrate an external microphone. But for the $5 spent it's a fun tool to use. I tuned my system with my calibrated SPL meter, then compared that to what I got on the RTA software, so gave me what to aim for in speaker balance.
  13. I have a pair of Gold Lion tube in my SE amplifier for about a year now. No problem as of yet. Of course they sounded better than the pair of whipped out 3 year old Sovtek's they replaced.
  14. Here is a quick snapshot of a frequency response.
  15. The application is called "RTA", an iphone app. I use it and it does provide a useable real time frequency vs db display.
  16. Welcome to the forums Greg. You have a great post to start out. I would be interested in knowing your choise of amplifiers. Some pictures of your system would be great.
  17. Some good reading on this. http://www.rane.com/note110.html Connections of pins 1 and 3 seem to depend on you hardware. I connected pins 1 and 3 on my RCA to balance XLR cables for my active crossover and got a ground loop, removing the connnection helped greatly. The picture above is some type of transformer isolation, correct?
  18. I have built 2 version of split Conscalas. I would also recommend the Type C if constrained to Crites designs. I found moving from the 1 inch DX250 to a 2 inch driver was well work the extra money, although the DX-250 do sound nice. Nothing beats a nice pair of wood horns. http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/p/152904/1599576.aspx#1599576
  19. "So I made a test cable, XLR to RCA, without pins 1 and 3 connected. " So you have no signal ground other than the dirty ground in the power cord. Not exactly, pin 1 of XLR connected to cable shield pin 2 of XLR to positive center lug of RCA pin 3 of LXR to negative of RCA But no connection between pin 1 and pin 3 of the XLR connector. The Ashley users manual suggests an additional connection at the XLR cable between pin 1 and 3. Thanks for the Humx info.
  20. Huuuummmmm. Fellow forum members, I have been fighting a ground loop problem in my system for a good part of a year. When I went to bi-amping for my Cornscalas there was a bit of hum but not too objectionable. I am using an Ashley 1001 crossover feeding a passive crossover for my squawker and teeters, so there are several RCA to balanced XLR cables needed to be fabricated. I followed the recommendation by Rane for the cable pin outs, the crux of the recommendations was to connect pins 1 (shield) and 3 (ground) at the XLR connector, with pin 2 (+) of the XLR going to the center conductor of the RCA connector and pin 3 of the XLR connector gound to the outer conductor. I used acable that has two conductors with a third shield to XLR pin 1, white wire was pin 2 (+), and blue wire was pin 3 (-). When I upgraded to my Selenium squawker drivers to drivers which are about 6 db more sensitive, the hum was objectionable. I initially went to solutions instead of spending time trouble shooting. I lifted the ground of each of my source components and my squawker amplifier. If anything, the hum was slightly louder. I tried to float the ground of each of my components, to no avail. So now a more systematic approach was necessary. The amplifier for the squawker is a hand wired SE amp. It was tried in another person’s system with Khorns, 106 db efficiency, with the same preamp I was using; and it was dead quiet. So the amp does have the ability to be quiet when necessary. The hum did not change with volume setting. I then tried the amp with the RCA inputs shorted. Dead quite. Ah, ha my first piece of trouble shooting information. The amp can be quite in my system. OK, then hooked the amp to the “High” outputs from the active crossover, hum is back. I then removed all inputs and outputs from the active crossover, except for the “high” outputs, hum still there. Turned off active cross over, the hum was still there. So I delved back into both the Rane web page and the Ashley crossover user’s manual. It is not very clear in Ashley manual if the pins 1 and 3 of the XLR connector should be connected when using a cable from the balance out to a unbalanced input, the Rane web page suggested that maybe there should be a 10 ohm resistor between pins 1 and 3. The Rane web page also suggests that using non-balanced inputs are going to be prone to hum, and wishes the user good luck. So I made a test cable, XLR to RCA, without pins 1 and 3 connected. I was going to put a 10 ohm resistor between pins 1 and 3, but decided to try the cable first. Hey! No hum! I fabricated a second cable, and now the systems hum is not discernable at my listening position, putting my ear to the squawker I can hear a very slight hiss. I hope other members can chime in for an explanation. But I guessing that attaching the ground and negative pins are not necessary for each and every balanced to unbalanced cable. By doing this to each one, most likely created a ground loop between the squawker amp and the crossover.
  21. Thanks Kevin. The "Kevhorns" were my inspiration for the exposed mid-horns.
  22. I have a TD145 for a couple of years now and am very satisfied, mine is silver, no wood, and the carbon fiber arm. I do have a dust cover, it is just a bit beat up.
  23. The new midrange and tweeter fixed a few problems. They do exhibit less distortion at higher levels, but I’m letting the drivers run in before any high level listening. The reduced distortion appears to be most pronounced with vocals. The highs are also more clean and detailed. The midrange is also more accurate in the vocal region; the D205X gave to some extent a sound like the vocalist had maybe a nasal tone or speaking into coffee cup tonets, esp at lower vocal frequencies. The 408 ti reproduced vocals much more accurately in an effortless manner. Currently the cross over is a simple 2nd order cross at 5,000 Hz between the tweeter and squawker with no attenuation applied just yet. I have a 50 uf blocking capacitor for the squawker for protection from unintended DC spikes. The sensitivity of the 408 (111 spl) vs the 220 (109 spl) is pretty close. A quick check with test tones with my spl meter showed equal response from the tweeter and the squawker, so will leave it for now. What attenuation settings do other members use for either a 408/220 combo or the 405/220ti combo? I do exhibit some hearing loss in the upper frequencies, so maybe reducing the squawker about 2 db might be the trick. I’m going to let my drivers and crossovers to continue to run in before making changes. I’m very happy with the looks of the speakers now. This winter will continue with some cabinet work, replacing the dark colonial cabinet and the pine dresser with matching euro style birch cabinets.
  24. The overall view of the system from the listening position.
  25. The top cabs were removed from the orginal Cornscalas and replaced by a 25 x25 sheet of plywood to sit the horn on. Here is the finished right channel.
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