MechEngVic
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Posts posted by MechEngVic
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On 9/5/2021 at 8:25 AM, jjptkd said:
My new amplifier
Would love a to read your review of the Carver.
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On 9/4/2021 at 8:09 PM, A1UC said:
WE 274B & 45 Globe Mesh Excellent Sound
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkMore pix please!
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On 8/29/2021 at 6:46 PM, joessportster said:
my latest addition to the club
How's the Will Vincent sounding? Is it an st-70?
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14 hours ago, Fido said:
Great post. I am the op and I wasn’t thinking that sharing the email I got that Klipsch was announcing price increases would instantly become political and upset so many of the members here. I have lost almost all interest in participating on the Klipsch forum. So many posts deleted but most were mean spirited and accused me of being an idiot with some ridiculous ulterior motives for making my original post.
Well, price increases lead us right into the economy, and with as polarized as we've become in the last few years, everything gets political real fast. It sucks. I saw a video of a horrible big rig accident and the very first comment was someone blaming it on a political party!!! We're all just a little jaded Fido, after someone got us all riled up.
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On 6/18/2021 at 6:24 PM, dwilawyer said:
You are in a.collective bargaining state, so you should get one at next contract at least. If you are in one of those uber rich districts it won't it will be less of a dent.
Teachers, especially STEM and English teachers should be among the highest paid public employees in my opinion.
As a student who tried my best to consistently and painfully milk every STEM professor of every ounce of knowledge they possessed, I fully agree.
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On 6/18/2021 at 8:59 AM, The Dude said:
My lowest paid mechanics make $1120.00 a week in a 40 work week. Our state unemployment pays a max $440 a week, add the additional $300.00 and at most, someone brings home $740.00, that's $380.00 less than what they make working. Every tech I talked to would rather work 40 hours for the additional $380 than sit at home. If techs in your area are making more than what they make at work, your company isn't paying enough or state needs to adjust their unemployment benefits.
I do believe that servers at restaurants are making more on unemployment, which shines some light on pay issues in those industries. I also believe that many of those people finally had opportunity to find better paying jobs...such as a delivery driver at Amazon. Add that Amazon created 400,000 jobs (worldwide), those people that once made less serving hamburgers to pissed off ungrateful people, now make more delivering packages to and for ungrateful pissed off people.
Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk
A MILLION TIMES THIS.
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🤣😂😝😂🤣 Too educated.....!!! The real problem!!!
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On 6/20/2021 at 6:43 AM, KT88 said:
Then we are in the same boat. Who is not looking for a very good sounding ECC83/12AX7 from newer production.
The link in my earlier post shows exactly at the example Mullard the horrible differences between original and Russian new production (fake).The next new tube I will try when tubes need is this JJ as I wrote above, the relatively new JJ E83CC.
It is supposedly a frame grid tube similar to the original Telefunken ECC803S.https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/jj-e83cc-a-real-winner.2089856/
This makes me very curious because no new AX style tube has been developed for a long time. But even in the past, it was only through constant development that the tubes became so good. So the new JJ is a new development so far I can see.
But to your question...as far as I can help there. My impression of New Sensor tubes.
I limit my description to just one amplifier combo.
My Mcintosh C22CE with MC275 Mk4. I have been listening to both units continuously for 18 years. In these devices I had different brands also the pseudo brands of New Sensor. I must say that these Mcintosh devices are characterized by two things. 1) They treat tubes very gently. The voltages are conservative.
2) They still sound very good even with worse tubes. When they were made, around 1995 the CE22CE and 2001 the MC275Mk4 there were no good new tubes either. The small tubes were Mcintosh labeled and from China. The only positive thing in 2001/2002 was that the KT88 on my 275 were original Svetlana Winged C from St. Petersburg. Very good tubes, long gone, or bad batches of the last unreliable production years from about 2006? or something like that period of time.So much preface because otherwise it makes little sense to describe a tube.
Since the Mc devices sound "very decent" with new tubes, the basis is fulfilled, everything is of course open upwards.
The only New Sensor tube that had moved "emotions" was the ECC83 Gold Lion. It was clearly different from the rest of the New Sensor brands. It had warmth and richer timbres with nice differentiation. I had bought three Gold Lion initially and I was going to repurchase this tube if I liked it.
Unfortunately, it did not become a Homeymoon. After 6 weeks already all three! Gold Lion began to hiss and crackle loudly. Two GL burned at the same time, the third I used later, it also lasted only 6 weeks. It's an absolute outrage that for such a mess meanwhile 40€ are demanded. My experience is 8 years old. Maybe GL are more reliable today, I don't know.Other small New Sensor tubes also had errors but not so outrageously blatant.
Very reliable back ups are Electro Harmonix types. Both 12AX and 12 AT. They also last a longer time. Sonically they are not despicable but they do not have great emotions. Rather a sober sound without big ups and downs. Overall rather boring. These EH are most similar if not equal to the old Sovtek types. I haven't heard a Sovtek ECC83 in a very long time, but maybe they are the most honest Satarov types.
Tung-Sol Satarov sound very clear but as if it were a black and white photo, pretty much completely devoid of instrument coloration. I mean colour of sounds that is missing, I don't mean self-delusional discoloration.
I have never heard the Russian Mullard. I stopped investing money in these pseudo brands at times.
My recommendation, 1980 or 1990 Philips or GE US military types JAN. If they cost 50% more than a new Gold Lion, it's worth it in my view. Even with the JAN types there are preferences, you can google that. As a driver tube 12AT7 for the KT88, the JAN types are incomparably better than any Russian tube. They all can't do that job well at all.
I bought and used a lot of these JAN in the 90s. At that time they were about 15 USD. In my guitar amps they worked just as very well as in various hifi amplifiers.
Very informative comment.
I have not tried the Gold Lions simply because they are too expensive. You can buy used old production Mullards for that price.
What you say about your Mac amp is true of well-made amps. A well designed amp is heard as much as a well built tube. Mac's have such well designed circuits that they can sound good with almost any tube, and they bring out the best of well made tubes.
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On 6/19/2021 at 10:40 PM, Subway said:
Are you aware if counterfeit Telefunkens have diamonds on bottom?
If the diamond is raised, it's probably real, if it's etched or sunk, it's definitely fake. I have yet to hear for sure if fake tube makers have gone to the trouble of making the raised diamond pattern.
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I have yet to find a new production 12AX7 that I like better than a Blackburn Mullard. There were several versions over the years (long and short plate just to name a couple), but they all have a characteristic sound common to just them. Many love the NOS Bugle Boys or the Telefunkens, but you take a chance on getting fakes. The Mullards are easy to get right because of the production numbers etched onto the glass. Only a few makers did this.
Yes, almost all new production tubes come from the same factories in Russia, and are made with a similar quality (that does need improving). But they DO NOT all sound the same. They are made with different designs. I've bought and listened to JJ's, Sovteks, Mullards, EHs, and Tung-sols. They all sound different, they all have their merits, they will last in a circuit that doesn't tax them too much for a few thousand hours, but once you swap in that Blackburn, you'll never want to listen to anything else.
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On 2/24/2021 at 9:49 AM, Khornukopia said:
Similar modification to the garage speakers.
You're tempting me to hump my own horns!
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17 hours ago, wetowne said:
Weird Science or Weird Art?
Get a good DAC between that Chromecast Audio and the amp. The 1/4" plug doubles as a mini-toslink (fiber optic) connection that'll give you 24bit/96Khz resolution.
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On 2/15/2021 at 9:58 AM, olbonco said:
Does anybody know the DCR or the wire gauge of the forte II, 0.16 Millihenry iron core. I would like to upgrade my crossovers.
Truth is, DCR is less important than the impedance of the coil in its position in the crossover. When a crossover is designed, coils are measured in place and the measurement includes any mutual-induction of other coils/components nearby. Variations in DCR or impedance, and even mH and capacitance for that matter, will be impossible to differentiate audibly if values are within about 10% of original. If a coil is close to another coil in the original design, consider that in your 10% range. Crosstalk is the real issue and coils have to practically be on top of one another for it to be an issue.
There is an article (the second link I posted) where the guy measures various coil positions, it can give you a fair idea of how coil proximity will raise or lower the overall value. In other words, if you are building a copy of an existing crossover or stuffing new parts on an existing crossover, you'll get real close with just a couple of careful considerations.
Here are a couple of links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrVobPkP6fk
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/coils.htm
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On 2/7/2021 at 6:29 AM, Jer_Hy said:
They are sealed well, stuffed into a false corner in a real corner (baseboard heat)
Here is the signal chain:
technics 1200mk2 -> allen & heath 43c -> from here I used the main outs the Khorns and the Booth out to the Quartets for testing. Amps for each:
b&k 125.2 S2-> Klipschorns
Hafler P3000 -> Quartets
(note: I've flipped the amps and outputs just to double check there wasn't any audible difference between the booth and main outs /hafler and B&K amps)
If i want to listen to digital music files I can use either 43c as a soundcard or I can use the line inputs for whatever else. It's a pretty fantastic little mixer for a lot of different use cases
thanks for the link also! I really do think the crossovers might need help, I was thinking exactly the same thing, Do one and compare. I've done a bit of soldering for work and this seems very straightforward. One question I've been mulling over is whether to do the kit or just buy new crossovers and keep the originals completely intact, mainly for allowing them to be fully original if ever needed. When I got these they even came with the original instructions (attached)
I think a cap replacement combined with either an upgrade of the tweeters (MAHL) on your Khorns or maybe even a diaphragm replacement will bring back all the life your khorns are missing. Don't mind some of the audio snobs on this forum who want to put down folks for using the equipment they feel like using, and like to throw their supposed wealth around thinking that makes them better able to understand or produce audiophile quality sound. From what you describe, you have everything you need to make good music and enjoy your DJ skills!
Do a search for MAHL on this forum or on ebay. Check out the following websites for cap upgrades and diaphragm replacements.
https://www.partsconnexion.com/
Do research on this forum and on your khorns to find the values for your caps or for possible mods to the original crossovers.
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Oh man, just reading about this now. Did business with him on a few occasions and I was always satisfied. Good thoughts to his family. He will be missed by the audio community.
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On 1/28/2021 at 10:09 PM, raeggis said:
What amp is this?
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On 1/1/2021 at 8:00 AM, Jefe said:
I am new to owning Klipsch speakers, having recently purchased a set of vintage La Scala's, and as such I have never experimented with different combinations of amps driving them. I can say that my initial impression of these speakers was not very good. The speakers were unused for close to 10 yrs and I don't know if the caps needed to recharge, the woofer needed to loosen up, or if my brand new amp needed some time on it, or a combination of all of the above but after a few hours the sound has really blossomed and is just amazing. I am driving the La Scala's with a brand new Tsakiridis Aeolos Ultra amp which uses 4 x KT150 and 4 x 12AT7. I have it in Triode mode and it sounds really good. But now I want to experiment with different amps. I really love the warmth in the midrange of some tube amps and I don't believe the Tsakiridis exhibits much of that. It is pretty neutral, which I know is a normally a good thing. I just want to see if I can find a combination that my ears might enjoy even more.
That's quite the amp. You'd probably do yourself better by getting a good powered subwoofer to help beef up the LS's bottom end.
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On 12/26/2020 at 3:43 AM, John Warren said:
My take,
Tektronix oscilloscopes of the mid 70s vintage were the last generation of instruments designed around discrete devices. When you peek into a vintage Tek scope you see pretty quickly they represent an incredibly high level of design sophistication. The engineering, the supply chain and the industry as a whole had matured to a point where they were not going to get much better without a significant engineering breakthrough. That "step change" was leveraging integrated circuits. The point however is that discrete device designs, given where the technology was, were very effective at solving the problems oscilloscopes were used to solve at the time. They worked and they worked well. When ICs were used, bandwidth went up, signal to noise went up and the improvements were obvious on the screen of the scope.
Analogous to the Tek example, tube amp design, manufacturing and the tube supply chain were, by the late 50s, mature, there was no place to go. And, they were making very good sound. Then low cost transistors appeared. Distortion went down, signal to noise went up and the improvements were obvious to measure on FFT and distortion analyzers.
What hasn't had a step change is the loudspeaker and the basic loudspeaker of 2020 isn't that much different than the ones made in the 50s. Materials are better and magnets can have insane BL-products for a given magnet volume but they're only evolutionary changes, not technological "pivots".
Unlike the oscilloscope example the audio signal path "ends" using a device invented in the 1920s and refined largely to a point where it's a bit better than where it was in the late 1970s. So yes, it's easy to measure differences between transistor amps and tube amps on distortion analyzers loading each with a resistor load. But the end of the signal path is not a resistor, it's thing called a loudspeaker, an electromechanical device that has mass and presents a reactive load to the amplifier. And, it can take the most sophisticated, electrically engineered audio amplifier made today and send it back to 1975 or even 1955 if you're using an EV Patrician let's say.
So that's why tube amps still "work".
Interesting. So, any advances in speaker tech that will render tubes obsolete and SS king of the hill?
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On 12/2/2020 at 7:20 AM, seti said:
I'm sure but at what price? My favorite is when I someone talks of a SS as being tubelike as a compoliment... Save your money just use tubes..
Even worse: When they say a tube amp sounds just like an SS amp. Yuk!!!
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On 11/30/2020 at 8:59 PM, seti said:
I can listen to SS but just short term. I've never been able to live with a SS amp for long. Granted valve amplifiers are fraught with issues but why do they sound so f'ing good. The specs and numbers suck by comparison but they sound awesome..... PP or SET.
"I have to tell you man. In listening to sound, I guess what I'm after is the closest thing that I can get to reality. Now, I know it's not going to be reality, cause the thing gotta go through wires and gotta go through filters and this and that. I understand all that. But what I really like is to get as close to the natural sound of the instruments as possible. That's why I like analog as opposed to digital. Because I don't give a shit what anybody tells you man, I know what you guys are going to tell me...'Oh yeah, but it's clean Ray!' Well it's clean but it don't got no balls!!!" - 1999 interview with Ray Charles
EGG-ZAT-LEE!!!
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On 11/30/2020 at 1:45 PM, MicroMara said:
What is the situation with hybrid solutions? With my Marantz PM11-S3 I only use the transistor preamplifier, I have decoupled the transistor power stage and connected 2 tube mono blocks as power amplifiers.
I wonder how those monster RF-7II's would sound with a tube preamp...
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On 11/30/2020 at 1:16 PM, tube fanatic said:
But tubes have so much more charm😁. Admittedly, I don’t agree with Rod on absolutely everything. I am often asked why I bother with tubes given the performance available from SS devices. The only answer I can give is that they attracted me from my first view of glowing filaments when the repairman came over to fix grandma’s console radio when I was 3 years old. We all have our obsessions.....Maynard
Amen and amen. I recently listened to a Mcintosh MC2505, a world class SS amp. It sounded fine, flat, neutral and great loud. But it didn't have the width and depth of soundstage of even my modest ST-70 Series II. It lacks that midrange emphasis and the ringing harmonics of tube amplification. If pressed, I might admit to a bit more definition, but that could have also been the difference between my highly modified but still humble Klipsch KLF-10 two-ways, and a several thousand $ pair of B&W speakers.
I think the linearity of tubes becomes less of an issue with a thoughtfully designed circuit, a well-put together system, and the simple desire to listen with your ears instead of with your scope. I will never give up that gorgeous amber glow. Consider me like-mindedly obsessed.
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47 minutes ago, kevinmi said:
don't buy a pp amp with switches that switch it to single ended and expect it to sound like a dedicated single ended amp. The Latino amp has this capability, and it doesn't sound anything like my single ended amps.
I'm thinking Decware or one of Tube Fanatics designs.
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10 hours ago, kevinmi said:
I used to think it was the best with my K-Horns until I tried single ended tube amps.
I'm this close to getting a single ended, just to have both sides of tube-ampery: A PP and a SE.
Dynaco Stereo 70 ST-70 Series II Tube Amplifier
in Alerts!
Posted
Trooper,
Don't know if you're still around, but if you are and still have these questions, I can answer them for you. I got the schematic and lots of assorted info. Sorry it took so long to see this post, this forum seems to stop notifying you of answers to threads if they are older.