Impromptu 1,400 Mile Road Trip

[IB Slammin]

Last Tues (9/6) I recieved an email (seti as well) from JWC that he would have some gear of interest to evalute if we could get to his place in Ga. for a long weekend. Not much notice, but when I saw the the gear list I started to move and got a weekend pass from my old woman. I spoke with seti and he had recieved a pass from Amy as well. Delta from Ar. to Ga. had gone up big time and was a no go. But we agreed that we needed to be there and listen to that stuff.

I departed the north western corner of Arkansas at 3:00am Thursday headed southeast and picked up seti in Little Rock at around 6:30am. We loaded his K403's and DBX EQ and started our road trip. Made good driving time. Time enough for a few well deserved cold ones in a Carrollton,Ga pub before JC got off work. Mark1101 from Athens,Ga joined us on Fri and brought the kitchen system.

More to come with pic's and comments but here is the list that motivated our "drop of the hat" road trip:

Super Merlin Pre - Custom PC with EMU 1212 sound card - PS Audio Phono stage- Thornes TD166 MKll -Ashley XR 2001 & XR 4001 - Ashley P analog E Q - DBX 231 EQ

2 Bridged MC 250's SS - 2 Bridged MC 275 Tube amps - QSC PLX 1804 for subs

K402's with K1133's - K510's with K69's - Trax mid bass bins with two K31's - Titan Horn Subs - KTP684 reflex subs - Vtrac mid horns with Beyma tweets-mid drivers both B&C and BMS- K403 horns in two way with B&C 1.4" drivers

....Bi amped CW's with 1kw Mac SS on botton - bridged MC 275's on top -

MC 2100's - Jolida CDP - H'1's......I gotta stop

I must stop.....

[MechMan]

HOLY....

I would have been in the car as well.

Can't wait to see some pics

[seti]

Thank you JC for inviting us into your home and liberal use of volume controls [6] I learned allot and what an amazing collection of gear to roll through.

There were two constants throughout the weekend. The guts and JC's tractrix horn featuring two 12 inch drivers..

The start of the show in my opinion was JC's jumbo tractrix horn.

[seti]

This is the system we listen to Thrusday night and Friday morning. That titan is excellent. I think that is the top of the mcm grand with stock drivers but anyway it is superb. This was my favorite HF section of the weekend. It was so open and clean sounding.

[seti]

And then the next morning something happened to the bass. The movement of air while standing next to this system was spooky. So much bass. The subs would be like this for the rest of the weekend. Oh yeah there is a sub on the other side as well two 18's per side. The HF sections were amazing.

[seti]

I believe this setup was Friday afternoon to Friday night. I brought along my k403 and B&C DE82TN drivers. I wasn't sure how they would fit into this system but they worked out better than I expected. I listen to them several times a week so it was intersting hearing them on another system. Perhaps the guys can give an unbiased opinion.

[seti]

Next up was the traveling vtrac. The construction is superb. The biradial horns coverage was staggering. The tractrix horn JC helped design is killer. Oh yeah we had a measurement rig up the entire time. I should have documented that as well but didn't. The horns in the vtrac are true winners.

The traveling crate is very nice.

A tight fit. All you do is unscrew the top and bottom and they are on their own top hats. Brilliant.

These horns sounded really good.It is a great combo.

At one point driver surgery. I like these.

[seti]

K402 with a BMS 4592 coax driver. The more JC dialed it in the better it sounded.

[seti]

I'd love to have one of these preamps.

I'd also love to have more fresh giganto sausage

[seti]

We listened to alot of music but fortunately JC and Terry really took to two cds I brought so we listened to them on every system. This was a rare treat as I knew these songs very well. Production quality is very high.

Anja Garbarek's Briefly Shaking is great for bass female vocals and dynamics.

http://www.amazon.com/Briefly-Shaking-Anja-Garbarek/dp/B000CPWCWW

Lee Scratch Perry's album Repentance is great for bass and weird noise lol. Lee Scratch Perryis a pioneer of dub and one of the great early reggae producers. He was the first to scratch on a record and numerous other studio technics.

http://www.amazon.com/Repentance-Lee-Scratch-Perry/dp/B001CITQM2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1284604571&sr=1-1

[jwc]

My wife went to New York for the US Open. When she got back....she and my kids went on a trip w/o me. She agreed to let me have just a few dudes over to hear stereo stuff (and party).

I got a late invite to Mark1101, IBSlammin, and Seti. The latter got here thursday and mark got here friday.

I'll shorten the non stereo version of this visit by saying we drank and ate well.

I want to first hand give thanks to Greg Roberts for quickly sending me his Vtrac setup and drivers. This included the Beyma tweeter. He also sold me some BMS 2" coaxials. Thanks man....you are the master craftsman. The demo set is built like a tank.

Also for Roy who quickly hit the "get it done" switch to land a pair of KPT-684s at my house.

The Thursday night...we listened to what I already had setup and myself have been listening to for a few months. This was the custom Tractrix bass bins of mine with the K510 and the K402 on top. This top section is identical to what you would see in Klipsch's current cinema lineup with the jubilee. Titan T48 subs from Bill Fitzmaurice. That sub plays tight quick bass. The next day we listened to the pair of KPT-684s...uhh there is plenty of bass there.

The electronics you will see in a picture... will carry over to other demos as well. They system runs as a 4way but is triamped. There is an ESN5800 (auricapped) between the K402 and K510. Music plays off a custom built PC with an EMU 1212 sound card.

I will let others chime in on the sound but it favored I think by all as the best setup. I have to use 2 parametric EQ's. Some negative dB at 2000Hz and some positive dB at 4000Hz. I'm not EQing the K510...strange enough and it plays pretty flat in this room with no EQ.

The K403 with the 1.4" B&C driver is what PWK had on the Jubilee at Cedia. It can go two way....we crossed it at 600Hz. Fiddled a little with the EQ. This horn sounds more heritage than anything else we listened to. I was glad to hear it. Low profile.

The Vtrac guys is a no brainer for top notch of what you could fit in a khorn top hat. The Beyma tweeter is nice. We had that setup and running in minutes.....all analog active. Balancing the levels was very easy. We listenend to this until late into the night Friday. That pure tractrix mid is very nice and sound so natural with imaging. Female vocals are very seductive. If you really love your Khorns....they deserve this setup.

The next day....Saturday.....I hooked up the coaxials to my K402. That setup to me sounded very warm....a little too warm. I again had to fiddle with the EQ at 2000Hz and at 4000Hz. The top end is strong and has to be turned down to flatten out to the rest. I need to work with this setup more.

My cornwall setup was put together at the last minute. Seti might have a good picture of this.....not sure if we have a photo of the backs. Anyway.....can be triamped if wanted. the innards are all cornwall stock except new diphragns in the K57K and crites tweeters. I need to work with this sytem a little more too.

As far as electronics...sources.....we listened to music off the PC about 90% of the time. My TT setup needs work.

A thanks to the fellas for chipping in effort at meals...we ate very well. I gained a few pounds....

jc

[mikebse2a3]

Looks like a Great Get Together Guys..!!

jc those LF horns are very nice and I bet they sound great..

mike tn

[seti]

It was difficult listening to anything after the big open system.

Likely the best powered cornwalls around.

[runninshine]

I love it!

[dtel]

JC's da man............he has designed some very interesting speakers and has the patience to build them, not even counting the smarts to design them.

Seti must have taken some of those pic's with that 3 lens camera to get that view, nice pictures of some amazing speakers.

You never know when you see JC, IB, Mark and Seti together something is going to happen, a party could break out at any time, it sounds like everyone behaved themselves this time.

[IB Slammin]

Thank you JC for inviting us into your home and liberal use of volume controls I learned allot and what an amazing collection of gear to roll through.

There were two constants throughout the weekend. The guts and JC's tractrix horn featuring two 12 inch drivers..

The start of the show in my opinion was JC's jumbo tractrix horn.

Must say that the Trax mid bass horn was a stand out with all of the systems. Very good "slam factor" even for the old slammer!

[IB Slammin]

This is the system we listen to Thrusday night and Friday morning. That titan is excellent. I think that is the top of the mcm grand with stock drivers but anyway it is superb. This was my favorite HF section of the weekend. It was so open and clean sounding.

The little Titan subs were hit! They did everything they were asked to do, and did it well. Very clean, controled, and accurate. Perhaps a bit polite for my taste after listening to twin 18" reflex subs. []

tc

[IB Slammin]

Next up was the traveling vtrac. The construction is superb. The biradial horns coverage was staggering. The tractrix horn JC helped design is killer. Oh yeah we had a measurement rig up the entire time. I should have documented that as well but didn't. The horns in the vtrac are true winners.

The traveling crate is very nice.

A tight fit. All you do is unscrew the top and bottom and they are on their own top hats. Brilliant.

These horns sounded really good.It is a great combo.

At one point driver surgery. I like these.

What they said about the Vtracs. Built like a brick $house. Easy to work with and little if any EQ needed to match the system. They sounded wonderful! Like seti, I love the biradial horn tweet. Wish I had thought to bring my Altec 2404's to A/B.

The Vtrac has to be THE upgrade for Khorns. Drop in, no muss no fuss. I am hooked on the Trax flair for midrange and these guys are just outstanding!

tc

[IB Slammin]

I'd love to have one of these preamps.

I'd also love to have more fresh giganto sausage

There has always been something about "The Little Brick" Merlin pre, even stock. But the larger power supply, premium caps, and the super tube takes it to another place.

jc fed us well. Grilled burgers, low country boil, brots, and lumberjack breakfast. Sausage, eggs, and pancakes that were almost like crapes!

tc

[IB Slammin]

JC's da man............he has designed some very interesting speakers and has the patience to build them, not even counting the smarts to design them.

Seti must have taken some of those pic's with that 3 lens camera to get that view, nice pictures of some amazing speakers.

You never know when you see JC, IB, Mark and Seti together something is going to happen, a party could break out at any time, it sounds like everyone behaved themselves this time.

Elden,

You know us too well. Yes a party did break out.

The only good thing about being short is that you make a tall stack look taller.[:'(]

tc