edmjm

ok, finally had a chance to give them a listen & I’m completely blown away by the improvement. those near mythical sparkling highs that everyone talks about are now found! background extras (triangles, cowbell, wood block, tambourine) now have a sence of placement in the soundstage. background singers seem more prominent. there’s a very 3 dimensional feel making the stock tweets seem very flat & 2 dimensional & like they’re pushing & shouting. jazz horns are wonderful without ever seeming sharp or harsh & brushwork on the symbols will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. they blend seamlessly with the a55g mid drivers, synth & keyboard notes travel from mid to high as notes decay they seemingly float off into space. all in all, well worth every penny spent. this by no means is a little tweak, it’s a major improvement I haven’t made any adjustments to the crossovers

if it’s less than a year old (marantz receiver) is there any warrenty left? if so I’d want to take it to whoever does warrenty/repairs for marantz & have it gone thru to make sure an output transformer or the balance/volume control isn’t crapping out. or possible a loose or broken solder connection on the board. worst case scenarios, I know but better to have it gone thru while under warrenty

just received them today & must say wow! the pics don’t do these any justice. very beefy & solid. much heavier duty than the stock plastic horns I should receive the drivers on Friday (b&c de120’s) I’ll post first impressions hopefully this weekend

I can’t believe nobody has suggested these yet. taking into consideration you have kept the jbl 100’s (I had hpm 100’s) unfortunatly I think they’re only available in black...tangent t5000’s they’re make by klipsch & nicknamed the super heresy. they’re no where near as big as a cornwall but have enough bass to shake the windows cranking classic rock. you should be able to pick a pair up $250-350 range

a nice choice. I’m sure you’ll be very happy with it. don’t be too quick to sell the 120 ss amp. set it up & have a good listen. I haven’t heard one myself but have read some good things about them happy listening!

I’m sorry for not going further in depth with my last post. by no means was I trying to imply that set amps are in any way inferior to ul or pp. I have a couple of friends in our audio club with set amps & they are simply stunning. my reasoning for steering away from a set is that in the original post he said he’s new to tubes. a set just seems to be more dependant on tube type, speakers, room size, type of music & listening volumes where as a ul or pp is a little more plug & play for a newbie, that’s all. I guess my first question should have been what type of music do you listen to, how loud, how big is the room

I would suggest an intergrated without a built in phono stage. the yaquin phono stage with vintage telefunken or siemens tubes is way better than any phono stage you’ll get built into any amp under $5000. to pair nicely with your speakers I’d recommend NOT going with set amp. tube amps don’t need tone controls, that’s what changing tubes does. do try to find one that can switch between triode & ultralinear. many nice amps get you started without breaking the bank. examples to look at grant fidelity, jolida, yaqin, musical paradise, other guys in the tubes section could likely suggest a few more too

hi Schu, not sure if yours is a blanket statement or meant as a retort to my previous post. to elaborate a bit more, we used a song by supertramp & one by the police (both with complex bass lines) listened a couple times with stock subs & then switched to the kappa’s... the difference was stunning, bass was tighter, more defined & seemed to dig deeper. very impressive results for $300

I also have cornwall 1’s that a friend is letting me use until I build my cornscalla’s. I bought the crities a55g mid drivers & they are awesome with the stock cast horns. I’ve also auditioned a pair of emenance kappa 15c woofers & big improvement to the bass. just ordered a pair of the eliptrac hf tweeter horns. all of thes upgrades can be done with no cabinet mods & still use stock crossovers. if you don’t like what you hear you can easily resell those parts & go back to the original setup

glad to hear you like it. in my opinion the mp301 is a great bang for you buck amp & there seems to be lots of tweaks & mods you can do to it too

maybe I spoke too soon! (it's the decades of disappointment & let downs that have left me bitter & hateful

looks like the lions are going to soil themselves on national tv again at least no one can ever take 0&16 away from us

"that's what she said " lol

for crispness, clarity, detail & black background I love electro harmonix gold pin. music selection will also have an impact on type of tube to use. since you say you're new to tube rolling I suggest trying a tube from each region don't get too caught up in all the different halo types cause the differences will be hard for a novice, untrained ear to detect. right now I have toshiba from japan, amprex from holland, brimar & mullard from england, electro harmonix from russia

wow, beautiful room. lots of character. I have & love cornwalls but a room that size lascalla's would be great too. room size not a problem for khorns but possible complications if you want to place speakers on either side of the bay window (which would be best layout to use the dimensions of the room to your advantage, sonically speaking)

Dizrotus, how are things back in motor city? I'm from windsor but wife & family are from eastpointe. we moved west to alberta 5 years ago but still miss the D (eastern market, fox theatre, national coney island, michigan vs michigan state battles) saddened to hear about mr. I passing, he was a true champion of Detroit, a huge loss. stay cool in those muggy temps & sparty on!

you could also look into building your own speakers. no need for road trips, & no upgrading older speakers

seeing as you want to be all ss, I would want to have tone controls unless you have an eq (then there's no need for them) I would always consider any brand of gear. check with the expert & joe average reviews to narrow the list of potentials down & then find a dealer or forum member & have a listen to as many as possible. in the end, how it sounds to you in your system is all that matters

they look pristine, why would you think of selling? they must sound incredible, I have jupiter ht beeswax caps in my dac & the improvement was nothing short of amazing

I love tube rolling. I find there are differences in the sound, not so much the brand name but where they were made (england, germany, holland, russia, japan, usa) happy listening!

is that a fastrac horn in carbon fibre?

by no means do I mean the power cord is sub standard. I find that different power cords can sometimes have an effect on the sound of your amp, in some cases almost as much as changing interconnects or tubes. (I know it shouldn't cause it's only drawing power & is not connected to the signal path, but for some reason it does) we had a listening party where everyone brought an aftermarket power cord from their own system. 1 song, take notes, change power cord & replay same song, repeat. we were amazed, 5 different cords & they all had a different effect to the song.

makes sence, thanks Chris. sound panels are such a science & trial & error thing all at the same time but the rewards are soo worth the effort

a question for the others. could it be a time alignment issue with the tweeter being mounted so far back of the mid horn? that might explain the not quite sounding right sensation. there looks like pleanty of panels in the room. are they all absorbtion panels or do some have diffusion?

instead of radiusing the openings on the motor board have you considered routering a small countersink to flushmount the speakers to the front of the motherboard?