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Anniversary KHorns in the basement?


Bofkont

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Just hop in whenever you're around in the neighbourhood [;)]

The Cayin amp really makes the Khorns swing as was predicted by one of our forum members last year. I settled for a Chinese amp with Full Music 300 tubes as SETs. The 6SL7 en 6SN7 were changed for 1945 (!) Sylvania JAN/WGT NOS tubes. Pins in these old tubes are 0,15 mm thinner than contemporary ones, so the sockets had to be slightly adjusted. Now after 2-300 hrs they are soo smooth and fast. Everything makes a difference in the chain: cables and even changing the powersupply of my Squeezebox made a remarkable difference. It is all so rewarding and family and friends really appreciate it. That was quite different in the past.......

Dirk

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Very nice room and speakers Dirk.....enjoyYes And yes let us know about tweaks.

I started off with Marantz MA 24 monoamps. It was the best Marantz could produce in the late '90s and once cost an arm and a leg. Still heard "some metal and harshness".Hearing the raving reports about SET amps and how they do justice to the KHorns I persued to find me one. Choices are between exotics at a prices, home brewn or Chinese. In the US market things might be different but that's how it basically is over here. I settled for the CAYIN A-300B which has some nice features: remote with mute and channel switch and toggle on the fly between no (true SET) and some feedback.

It arrived directly from China indicating it as a Spark Audio on 220V. On arrival one of the 6SN7 tubes was dead, which was somewhat of a shock. Than I found out this was a nice opportunity to do some tube rolling and went shopping for 6SN7 and 6SL7 to make it complete. Started off with a mix of RCA and Sylvania but didnt like their performance and changed for all Sylvania. WGT/JAN specs and NOS in the original boxes from april 1945! I like the idea of having this really old stuff bringing back to life! As I posted earlier the pins in these tubes are slightly thinner (.15 mm) than new ones, so I had to some bending and tweaking in the tube sockets. The results are amazing IMHO.

Next I did some serious tweaking on the Thorens turntable. It was actually the third one I was given and could jigsaw a neat one on an aluminium base. 30 yrs old it needed maintenance and new interlinks. Cut up one of the "BetterCables" (US made!) I had laying around.

Opposite to what I have always thought all audio stuff needs to burn/break in. And speaker wire does matter. Found myself some W&M Audio wires that seem to work really well. Two German guys with a lot of expertise have them made in China and sell mainly through the net. They are really thick so I had to carve away some of the MDF in the KHorns [:$]. It is easy to do, rather on the soft side material I would say!

I also tilted the back side op the topcabinets about an inch up and toed the speaker in.

One of the most rewarding tweaks was changing the powersupply of the logitech squeezbox for a sturdy one I had around from an Iomega ZIP drive. That really worked out well.

best

Dirk

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They are really thick so I had to carve away some of the MDF in the KHorns Embarrassed. It is easy to do, rather on the soft side material I would say!

Dirk.....you really didn't carve up your new speakers.....just kidding right?

I'm serious! There's enough left though [:D] and you cant see from the outside. Anniversaries come with side-panels and backs.

Diana Krall is working out right now. Love them.

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