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jwgorman

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Everything posted by jwgorman

  1. I'm still liking them. I made some presentable stands for them from oak strips and oak ply. I'll eventually spray them black to match the Lascalas. It looks less like a 6th grade science project now. Violins sound particularly real.
  2. I use those seleniums too in pro sound monitors and mains. Great drivers.
  3. Tonight I started listening to some dixieland jazz stuff that Leon Redbone did around 1980, From Branch to Branch. I ran the Daytons like the schematic up above (3uf on the output side of the mid cap) and oriented vertically (normally). Tonight everything I played with the Daytons sounded great. The big brass, Leon's guitar and voice, and the woodwinds were very lifelike. I realize that the tweeter, particularly in the old school Klipsch, is just the icing on the cake, but a good tweeter really adds the life to the body of the music. The Dayton made the LaScalas sound larger. Well, they're physically large so that's not a shocker. But as the volume went up that became more apparent. Not that it transformed my LaScalas into super dynamic Magneplanars but above 6K it gave me a hint of maggie. According to my Radio Shack SPL meter that is about 25 years old and has been dropped a few times, I got up to about 105 db avg from 11 feet back at my listening position Everything sounded balanced and sweet. I played Dire Straights Love Over Gold and let the volume fly on Industrial Disease. It never got glarey or gave any other indication that it was straining. So I'd say for "normal" listening level averaging 85-95 db, they do really well. The bell hit after Mark says "Next patient please..." was very distinct and solidly in the center. Keeping the volume up I ran through the Sheffield Drum Record and played the Keltner improv. Oh man! Yeah. That record rules. Nothing upset the Daytons here. I thought if they'd choke it would be on something here. I left the Luxman on afterburner for Who Are You. It was loud and punchy and if I wasn't so old I would have gotten sloppy drunk and went looking for trouble. The kicker in tonight's experiment however, wasn't that they stayed together when I got loud, I guess I really didn't doubt they could hang with the SPL I'd ever get to in my living room. No, it was how they reproduced a Hammond/leslie. I love the sound of a Hammond B3 and a leslie cab. Those things are just magic to my ears. These Daytons added that ambience to the leslie on Tempted by Squeeze. So, what did I learn from several hours of listening to music while switching out tweets? I'm off on a fool's errand if try to convince anyone which of these tweeters is better in this application. You can't go wrong with the B&C from Crites and I think it's a solid improvement over the k77. It also retains that Klipsch house sound, only better I think the Dayton is really groovy. Like you don't want to shut down the system groovy. You can try the Dayton with a couple of pieces of 2x4 (I had to shim the back end to get them to plumb) and if you don't scratch them or lose the packaging, you can return them. You can then call me crazy. That won't bother me. In my room, in my system, they sounded really groovy on everything I threw at them. I'll post at least one update as a guy who used to manage the local shop that moved so much Klipsch in the day that PWK used to come here and give talks and plug his khorns into the wall is coming over in a couple weeks and I'll feed him dinner and expensive cigars if he spins vinyl and tells me what he thinks. I want him to provide a cross check. I'm not going to tell him about the conclusions I've made until I hear his (he is not a reader of this forum BTW) I tried to video my system with my iphone while I was spinning some vinyl. I was just using the iphone mic. Not sure what anyone can glean from that. Plus I can only post 2MB so there's not much to see. In other words LAME, but maybe you can crank up some good headphones and listen. Not sure why the volume is so low. dayton tweets.mov
  4. I remember that thread. I offered to send mine to Bob to see if mine did too. Very glad I went with the 3636s.
  5. I turned my ALs into As. I used a Crites auto-former. The Gentecs are pretty close given their tolerance. I found two of the 2uf Gentecs that measured straight up 2uf and used them in the tweeter branches. (I did not measure ESR though)
  6. Yes. I think I prefer both oriented so that the widest dispersion is horizontal. In other words, mounted normally. I am definitely in the beam of both of these drivers and like I said my heavy drapes take care of initial reflections off the sidewalls. More testing!
  7. Nice. I used those caps too. For my heresies and lascalas.
  8. Moray I spent tonight listening (though I had to listen at quieter than normal levels as my daughters were in bed early tonight) and an odd thing happened at quiet levels...I switched to the input side of the mid cap to get a little more level out of the planars and left the 2uf cap in that I use (on the output side of the mid cap) on the B&C driver. It sounded better that way as it seems to be a slight increase in volume and keeps the cutoff freq pretty close (caps in series vs a cap fed from the input). They sounded good. But then I rewired, set up the B&Cs and played Rod Stewart Every Picture Tells a Story (vinyl) again and they sounded very good and detailed, again, but different. I may have preferred the plucked mandolin stuff on the B&Cs. You know, I think the only safe thing to do at this point is for you to blow in a pair and try it out. PE has a very easy return policy and a cross-check is always a good idea. But, in any event, I will report again with a LOUD volume report (loud like 105-108db C-weighted peaks) and post what I think.
  9. Or maybe that bar had a lot of wet T shirt contests?
  10. Moray, saying Dayton is not forthright with their data just might qualify for understatement of the day! As I mentioned, I suspected their efficiency numbers were off. But, at least up where the 3uf, fed off the squawker cap, lets the tweet start singing, it keeps up. As I mentioned I don't think it's as hot as the B&C. Dayton claims 60 degree horizontal dispersion. I suspect you are correct about a very tight vertical dispersion. Also as I mentioned I'm still listening to the differences between the tweets and I've set the B&C tweet horn vertically too. That is interesting, I have insulated drapes where the tweets would bounce but set on their sides it sounds good in the zone and no potential for side wall bounce. You bring up a good point about distortion. I have a 25 watt tube luxman that can play plenty loud and I should crank up some Who or Zep and let her rip. I've been trying to act my age and listen responsibly to acoustic music and judge these guys on their subtlety. They sound different than the B&Cs. I need some time to determine if I think they are better or just different. Oh and they are monopole. The whole back is heatsink fins! I've never torn a planar speaker apart before, but with that monster heat sink I think they can probably get rid of a lot of heat.
  11. Yes, it's one of those things that once you hear it you can't unhear it.
  12. Sure, I have a Klipsch Type A now on my LaScalas, so I replaced the 2uf feeding the tweet, with a 3uf. I will probably play around with other values, just to hear what happens. I read an interview with Richard Vandersteen about the problems associated with time alignment/coherence etc. Maybe I should have said (it may or may not make them time aligned). But, they are definitely closer to being in time alignment with them at the back of the cab rather than mounted on the front like where they started life. IIRC you have a tweeter on the top/rear of your Lascalas. I know PWK said the offset between the squawker and the tweet wasn't important, but as you well know when the time alignment gets closer (like mounting a tweet where you have mounted yours) it is a subtle difference and but after listening for a while, it starts to become more noticeable.
  13. I've wanted to try these Dayton Planar Horns on my LaScalas for some time, just to check them out. They can be crossed over at 1.7K, they claim 105db/w/m and can handle a lot of power. So I blew in a pair, along with some dayton 3uf caps to run a first order crossover (they are 6 ohms). I've been living with my Crites CT120s sitting atop the LaScala cabs such that the VC of the tweets are inline with the VC of the A55G mids (yes I know that really doesn't make them time aligned: ) and I actually liked that sound. I screwed the Dayton horns onto a piece of 2x4 and have played with them set up both vertically and horizontally. I am going to spend 2 weeks evaluating these. At first blush I think the 105 db is probably not the exaggeration I thought it would probably be. Not as hot as the B&C120s but that's ok. A different tonal characteristic to be sure. I think they might be a bit faster on transients, but I need to listen more. So far I think they are a quality alternative if you don't mind a science experiment on top of your Klipsch. There are sometimes, like well recorded violins, where I get more depth of texture with these Daytons. But like I said I have to spend some time to see if I like them more or they are just different and thus interesting.
  14. Oct 1999 here. Seems like only yesterday...oh wait, I'm old! By that time I'd owned klipschorns, belles, klipschorns, heresys...(long story). In between, 3 pair of Magneplanars, vandersteens, AR91s, Boston Acoustics A400s. Owned Klipsch exclusively since '95 or so. I currently own Lascalas. I once made it to Hope, got to sit at PWK's old desk when Nancy Barnes gave me the nickel tour. But my claim to fame is, I've actually met DJK
  15. Dangit, wrong folder. I've posted these in the Garage sale.
  16. I have a newish pair of PD5VH drivers, the ones Klipsch rebadges and uses. After I bought them I discovered the A55Gs and I'm keeping those and selling these. I'll sell the pair for 1/2 of what I paid for it $125 delivered to the lower 48. Please message me if you're interested.
  17. I have a newish pair of PD5VH drivers, the ones Klipsch rebadges and uses. After I bought them I discovered the A55Gs and I'm keeping those and selling these. I'll sell the pair for 1/2 of what I paid for it $125 delivered to the lower 48. Please message me if you're interested.
  18. Bob I have a pair of T3As I can send you for experimentation purposes. If mine measure the same it's a fairly safe bet they are a problem.
  19. Mark I predict you'll notice some detail that was previously glossed over. I can't hear any downside to the A55Gs.
  20. Not for nothing, but that's why I mentioned step 11 specifically as easy to overlook. Glad you were able to diagnose it quickly.
  21. Rev 1.4 of my rebuild. It's fairly straight forward. I am not building it exactly like you are btw. Step 11 is easy to overlook but important. Your autoformer is -6db, I replaced mine with the 3636 so I could see how much attenuation I wanted. I don't think there is a "right" answer, but after moving to the A55Gs, -3db sounded best to me in my room. Good Luck!
  22. "jwgorman, why have you put the 3636 autotransformer before the inductor, and no swamping resistor?" The AL network is set up like that, as are the AL2 and AL3. BTW all bets are off if you are using drivers other than the crites replacements as I don't know what the K77/K55s sound like with this xover. Thanks for the link on the LT spice. I'll have to play with that. Looks very interesting!
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