greg928gts

Yes, but he changed it to 60Hz and claims it sounds better! Who am I to say? Audiophiles are a funny bunch. Greg

It's not a fallacy, it's a subjective analysis, just like every other part of the audiophile hobby. The instruments are indeed the place to start. Every one of those tweeter manufacturers has rooms full of instruments to design and test their products. They do not need additional testing to provide "a start". They are all good tweeters that "someone" out there is going to like to use. The problem with you Al, is that you fail to recognize that there's any other way to evaluate these components except your own. The fact is, there are many different ways to evaluate sound, and they all have merit. In the end, it's going to come down to what the end-user enjoys for his/her own system. And that IS a subjective evaluation. No amount of re-testing of components by Al K or anyone else is going to change that. This is why my business model will be successful, because intuitively my customers understand the nature of evaluating sound and music. It's about what we all hear individually. My customers appreciate the efforts I make to implement new ideas into the products that I make and the subjective evaluations of those products that help them decide what might work best for them. For those customers who prefer to look at graphs and charts to determine what they want for their own system, that's fine too. Different strokes. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to express this here in retort. Greg

They're not going to be your designs anymore. Are you married? Greg

I don't know how I missed this thread. Fantastic work Dave. The results are beautiful and really unique. Greg

No it's not, it makes a significant difference in the quality of the sound. If you listened to music on speakers you'd know this. No kidding. I was trying to lower the crossover frequency. I know exactly what I'm doing. It works. Any techno-babble from you to the contrary doesn't change how it sounds to me. All it takes is a couple of little changes and they are no longer your design. These calculations are available to anyone on the internet. You don't own the idea of using inductors as low-pass filters, caps as high-pass filters, autotransformers as attenuators, and resistors for swamping. Too bad Al, I'll play around with these things all I want. I have lots of customers who appreciate my efforts to help them improve the sound of their speakers based on actually listening to music on them myself. Lots of good things coming from Volti Audio in the future. Greg

I've been inspired over the last couple of days! For the heck of it, I brought my Cornwalls over to my house yesterday and hooked them up with ALK Universal networks. My Cornwalls have 2" throat, wooden tractrix-like horns in them, with BMS 4592 drivers. Expensive? Yes. Overkill? Probably. But man do they sound nice! I also had the Crites cast-frame woofers and stock K77 tweeters. I've been meaning to do this for a while now, just too many other things to tend to, so it got stuck on the back burner. When I first upgraded my Cornwalls, I got some design help from Al on the crossovers, which I built myself. I would describe them as Universal-like crossovers with a 600Hz crossover point between the woofer and the mid. The initial listening tests with these speakers revealed wonderful potential, but some issues regarding the sound in the mid-bass region. I just never got back to working on the crossover to clean it up until now. So I brought them over to the house and disconnected the 600Hz crossovers and hooked up regular ALK Universal A networks in their place (400Hz and 6000Hz). There was just too much mid-bass coming from the woofers, actually very much the same type of problem I had with the first listening test and the 600Hz crossovers many months ago. On a whim, I tried changing out the Crites woofers and put the stock K33's back in, and the mid-bass problem was greatly reduced, with no lack of low bass. I'm not exactly sure what to make of that, but that's what I heard. I played around with some different inductors and settled on a 1.8mHy inductor to replace the 1.3mHy in the Universal, and that really cleaned up the rest of the mid-bass hump. I'm going to do a couple of things. I'm going to break in the Crites woofers, which I'm not sure has been adequately done since I bought them. Then I'm going to put them back in the cabinets and do another listening test. I'll see if I can find an inductor that cleans up the mid-bass with the Crites woofers in my Cornwalls. I'm having fun with it! Just listened to an entire CD from the Dallas Wind Symphony, music by David Maslanka by Reference Recordings. A wonderful sounding CD with very dynamic music. The modified Corns handled it extremely well and presented good imaging, a nice wide soundstage, big smooth midrange, and the typical fat, low bass that they are known for. I don't see any reason why one of the Cornscala variants couldn't be a very high-end offering, done right within the Cornwall cabinets with the large-format midrange, Beyma tweeters, and a new version of a familiar crossover. These horns that I have in mine fit just fine with just a little cutting, and the sound is very close to the V-Trac horns used in my Khorns. As I said before, it's expensive, but for most people, building new cabinets is expensive too, and the sound quality available with the large format midrange is tough to beat. I'm curious about other woofer possiblities for my Cornwalls too. Oh, and I definately have to find a way to get the Beyma tweeters in there. Greg

Wow, what a beautiful design. Greg

For my Khorns I'm using V-Trac horns, which have a place to mount the Beyma tweeters on the side - see picture below. My reference to wanting a flush-mount tweeter is for future projects, where it's just easier to design around. Greg

It wouldn't cost very much to upgrade the caps in the AA networks, that might be a good place to start. Also, don't forget to clean all the connection points of the wiring. As you say, some people do like the sound of gentle slope filters. I know from my own experience, even at fairly high volume levels (100db at my listening position), I prefer the gentle slopes to the steeper ones on my Behringer DCX2496. With this tool it's very easy to jump from one set of parameters to another to compare. From all I've heard about steep slope crossover networks being better sounding, I was surprised that I preferred the gentler slopes. It's really quite revealing when you get to hear the difference between the two in a A/B test, while listening to music. I have tried both the 6K and 4.5K crossover points with my Khorns, with Beyma CP25 tweeters, and I really don't notice much of a difference in quality of sound. That is only a 1/3-octave jump in frequency. It's the equivalent of going from 100Hz to 160Hz. Noticeable, but probably isn't going to make a huge difference in sound quality. In terms of overlap of frequencies, with the AA networks, there is nothing to limit the high frequencies coming out of the midhorn, it is designed to let the horn roll off on the high end naturally. So lowering the crossover point of the tweeter will overlap the lower frequencies of the tweeter into the upper midrange more than they already do. If you went with a crossover network that provided the 4.5Khz crossover point both in the tweeter and the midhorn, the overlap would be less. But I have stayed with the 6K crossover point anyway - sounds just as good to me. Greg

To be honest, no, not really. Not like I think of "friendly and welcoming" here in the States. I think the language barrier is a big part of it. But also there is a permeative (yes I had to look that one up, but it's a great new word!) seriousness to everyday life. Greg

Hey Rick. What you have is the standard design of the ALK Universal "A" Series replacement networks. As I understood it back in May when you bought these, you said you wanted Universal networks for a Cornscala type speaker, not Cornwalls. Shouldn't be any problem mounting them on the side of the speaker cabinet where the original ones went, as long as you use adequate screws to hold the weight. Greg

Yes, I adjusted the output of each tweeter based on the differences I measured initially. I adjusted each time I switched from one tweeter to another. But I didn't change the filter parameters. Greg

I've been thinking about a mid-bass horn for quite some time. I plan to build a system some day with this type of setup, but I think the low bass section needs to be smaller, or differently shaped than the Khorn. Like you, I think the packaging becomes an issue when adding a mid-bass horn to the Khorn. Just a thought. Have you considered making changes to the Khorn bass bin to improve the mid-bass? Specifically, enclosing the backs? I did this on the "FL" Khorn restoration www.voltiaudio.com/flkhorn.shtml and it really did improve the tonal characteristics of all the bass, especially the mid-bass. I wish I had done this to my own Khorns when I restored them. Another thing that I've done recently to improve the mid-bass performance on my Khorns is to adjust the filter settings on the crossover point between the mid and woofer using a Behringer DCX2496 and separate amplifiers. I found I was able to adjust the crossover points and slopes to voice the Khorn bass bin to have a greater proportion of low bass to mid-bass, which I thought really helped a lot. This was especially true with using a 2" throat midrange horn/driver, where I was able to lower the crossover point to 300Hz on the midrange. Greg

I ended up using an 18db slope at 6000Hz for the whole time I did the listening tests and my descriptions of each tweeter were based on listening with that filter. I did mention that I started off with a 12db slope, but changed to 18db because of the amount of midrange overtones making their way through with several of the tweeters. After I did the evaluations, I played around with different slopes with the tweeters, and that's when I realized that the Beyma CP25 had significantly less of those midrange overtones than any of the other tweeters. As such, a 6db slope worked great with them. I also think this may have something to do with the Beyma testing about 3db lower in output compared to some of the others with a pink noise test, yet when I listen to them in my Khorns, they balance out just fine. I think the midrange overtones that are stronger in other tweeters, affect the measured output using a sound level meter. Greg

Maybe. But I have such trouble with the bass in that room as it is, I don't think it will matter. Greg

I didn't think of this until after I raised them up, but I'll be able to easily move the stack out from the wall to clean behind there now. Also, I think it's better to let a little air under the MWM's, instead of right against the concrete. Dollar - nope, the pallet jacks will not sound the same without MWM's on top! Greg

When I was in Moscow a few weeks ago, they were having the hottest weather ever recorded there. It was 95 - 100 each day, and they weren't prepared for it. In our hotel, which had thousands of rooms, four star hotel, they actually had many rooms without AC! Ours had AC thankfully, but it didn't work great, only fair. Step out in the hallway, in the elevator, public restrooms - no AC! Even the lobby was just barely cooler than outside. Also, not one ice machine in the whole four-tower complex! They just don't understand how to enjoy one of life's little pleasures - ICE! Another heat-related thing I noticed. Our hosts home is located right next to the Moscow River, and he's got a boat docked there at the marina. The river is very wide, probably a mile. It looks like a huge lake, but of course goes on and on and on forever. But the thing that was surprising to me was the temperature of the water, which was about 80 degrees! It was very nice for swimming. Our rivers here in Maine are very cold, even in the summer. Barely can swim in them. I suppose because they come down out of the mountains. The sun didn't set in Moscow until 10:30 at night, which was really strange. I guess they are farther up North than I am, and they probably have longer days in the summer and shorter in the winter. Greg

I don't notice any difference in sound, although I don't do any critical listening with this system anyway. It's just a little shop system for background music while I'm working. [] Greg

I never had a pallet jack before, but after getting a 1800lb table saw, it became an important tool in my shop. But where to store it? My shop is pretty good size, but I've got a lot of stuff in there, and I just couldn't find a convenient place to store the pallet jack where it would not be in the way. So here is my solution. Greg

I agree. Al's knowledge of crossovers is invaluable. A real asset to this forum. If he really doesn't believe in the 2" format, ask yourself what is his motivation for the 2" Trachorn? I know exactly what he's doing (because he's told me in emails), I just don't think some of you are catching on to this. Again, it's not about right or wrong. I'm doing what I believe I must do to protect my business. If a few people are turned off by it along the way, I'm sorry about that. Nobody is required to read my posts. Greg

I'm not saying I'm right and Al's wrong. I'm saying that as long as Al is going to voice his opinion about 2" drivers as if it's fact, I'm going to be there countering. There's no other choice for me as I see it. I wish it were different, I'd like to be putting my energies elsewhere. If this was happening to you, you'd be doing the same thing. If you didn't, you wouldn't survive in business. You've got to be able to hold your own against threats to your business. I've owned my own business for 24 years, trust me when I tell you these things. Six years after incorporating my building business name Design Concepts Co., Inc. a local builder in my area started doing business as Design Concepts and hung out a 4' x 8' sign saying so. Ahhh, excuse me? I don't think so. And so we had a few talks, and in the end, he changed his business name. Now if I had followed the advice of some here on the forum, I guess I should have said nothing and there would be two Design Concepts home building businesses within ten miles of one another, and can't we all just get along? Nope, sometimes you've got to defend your turf. I agree with what you said about being allowed to talk about our products on this forum, and frankly I'm somewhat surprised about the tolerance. Greg

and why the concern over this strife closing down a thread? I don't see anything here from anyone that warrants closing down a thread. As far as I can see, everything has been civil. Yes, there are strong disagreements, and a tiny bit of personal attack, but not enough to censor I don't think. Greg

Some of you don't read and understand things very clearly. Al K is the one who is actively attacking my business. When he makes a statement that someone is uneducated if they choose to use the 2" format for their Khorns, or when he says that it's a fact that a 2" format is not necessary, or he says if people want to waste their money on going to a 2" throat horn, etc... What business and product do you think he's aiming these comments at? My comments to Al are reactionary. When he stops poking me in the back of the head over and over again, I'll stop reacting. It's like being in Jr. High School all over again. I'm not going to sit there and take his or anyone else's crap. I'll defend myself and my business. If some of you would put yourselves in my position, you'd understand that this is not a disagreement between two people, this is one businessman attacking another. When have I said anything bad about ALK products? I think his products are fantastic and that's what I tell anybody who asks. By contrast, I have to explain to people that my horns are not "flimsy". Who do you think uses that word to describe Volti Audio horns? Right on Al's website, it is implied that other 2" horns (hmmm, I wonder who's horns he's referring to?) are made with 1/8" thick sides, and have resonance problems. I have to defend the quality of my products due to Al's misrepresentation of them. I don't do any of that to Al. Do you realize that there's nothing stopping me or anyone else from putting together Universal kits to sell, or completed Universal networks? One could make an argument for using the name "Universal", but even that is not protected by a trademark. Building crossover networks with the ALK Universal design is not patented in any way. My point is that I have not in any way infringed on Al's business, yet he has infringed on mine. I built the ALK Universal networks with Al's permission, and I paid a $75 per pair royalty to do so. I didn't have to do that, but I did out of respect for Al's efforts in developing the design of the Universal network. Did I get the same respect from Al with the one single product that I developed and started selling? No. So for those of you who think this is a disagreement between two parties who are equally at fault, you are wrong. You don't know what you're talking about. So when Al comes onto this forum and starts spewing his garbage about 2" horns, yes, you can expect me to defend my opinion about that format. I'll do it respectfully, and without losing my temper and using foul language, etc... As I have done here in this thread. My retaliation will stop when Al stops. If some of you don't like it, too bad. I'm not breaking any rules. I'm entitled to my opinion about all things audio, just like everyone else here. Greg

I know you didn't ask me, but I'm using a Creek OBH-10 remote controlled passive attenuator between the CD source and Behringer and it seems to work really well. Greg

IMO, if you're going to spend ANY money on upgrades, go for something that is REALLY an upgrade, and get out of the K400/401 horns all-together. There are several very good options available now. Greg