Post by rmc001 on Jul 2, 2019 10:38:27 GMT 12
I'd been needing help moving to another (different) speaker design so Owen popped by and drew up a plan and we listened to one or two items :
Stereophile / Records2die4 via Spotify. Also some other pop and classical incl. Bella Davidovich, Chopin Preludes.
The consensus was the current open baffle spkrs are not too bad.
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rmc001 Jul 3, 2019 10:03:50 GMT 12
Post by Owen Y on Jul 3, 2019 10:03:50 GMT 12
An enjoyable short visit to rmc001's place - yes, we roughed out a TQWP cabinet design, listened to music & even transacted some plywood This is the Bella Davidovich Chopin disc - enjoyed what we heard a lot, from the 80s & SQ seemed pretty good too. I see that she's talked about by Gramophone in the same breath as Ashkenazy.
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Post by Owen Y on Jul 3, 2019 10:06:33 GMT 12
A shot of rmc001's system rack & Open Baffles (now unusually on their sides )...
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rmc001 Jul 3, 2019 10:48:19 GMT 12
Post by michaelw on Jul 3, 2019 10:48:19 GMT 12
love the simple elegance of those speakers.
how do they sound ?
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Post by rmc001 on Jul 3, 2019 11:13:34 GMT 12
Apparently open baffles possibly need to be slightly bigger than these - so when you sit down to listen there's not too much bass.
I don't have much sitting space but if I sit nearer the back wall there is more bass. More recently-produced music like Adele and others have good warmth. The bass and drums in Daft Punk have good bass energy.
Not as well produced material can have a slight hardness which I'm not sure is my hearing.
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rmc001 Jul 3, 2019 12:25:53 GMT 12
- Edited Jul 3, 2019 12:56:17 GMT 12 by Owen Y
Post by Owen Y on Jul 3, 2019 12:25:53 GMT 12
I am familiar with these drivers, as I use them myself - SEAS FA22RCZ, possibly the best value-for-money 'fullrange' driver I know. Warm & low distortion papyrus paper, curved cones, with a curved whizzer cone. Ceramic magnet in this version. 30Hz cone resonant freq. Lively like only paper cones are & 'open' as you'd expect. Perhaps only some IM peakiness around the upper break-up region - rmc001, have you added that snall pc of foan to damp the whizzer cone? The 222cm2 cone & the baffle are a bit small to produce massive bass, however, wall/floor & corner loading them like that, helps.
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Post by Owen Y on Jul 3, 2019 12:52:57 GMT 12
Rob's Technics SL-120 - manual D-Drive. Denon DL-103 on an SME 3009 II Improved(?)
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Post by foveaux on Jul 3, 2019 15:35:12 GMT 12
Aha...
"I see music as a lifetime affair." [Rory Gallagher]
"Free - I miss that band, but when I look back, we were very young" [Paul Rodgers]
848 posts
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rmc001 Jul 3, 2019 17:32:32 GMT 12
Post by Owen Y on Jul 3, 2019 17:32:32 GMT 12
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rmc001 Jul 4, 2019 18:29:55 GMT 12
- Edited Jul 4, 2019 18:46:00 GMT 12 by Owen Y
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Post by Owen Y on Jul 4, 2019 18:29:55 GMT 12
foveaux is right, the very same 300BSE amp, well spotted! Denon SUT & Graham Slee phono stage...
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rmc001 Jul 4, 2019 18:44:02 GMT 12
- Edited Jul 4, 2019 18:44:32 GMT 12 by Owen Y
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Post by Owen Y on Jul 4, 2019 18:44:02 GMT 12
On the digital side, LiTe DAC-AH (8 x paralleled TDA1543) & NuForce uDAC3(?) USB DAC for the laptop...
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Post by rmc001 on Jul 4, 2019 20:19:08 GMT 12
Managed to fit these pieces of sponge last night. Immediately surprised listening to it and again tonight. Didn't think it would make that much difference. Sounding less black + white and more grey - with better cohesion and imaging.
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Post by rmc001 on Aug 16, 2019 8:57:16 GMT 12
Installed JPLAY Femto on my system last night. Really good just playing one track (Fourplay, Double Trouble) against the equivalent Spotify. I had some trouble with JPLAY but it works fine now.
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rmc001 Aug 16, 2019 10:28:30 GMT 12
- Edited Aug 16, 2019 10:29:00 GMT 12 by Owen Y
Post by Owen Y on Aug 16, 2019 10:28:30 GMT 12
Tell us a bit about JPlay Femto. It's a computer music player software for Jplay, right? You're playing FLAC files?
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Post by rmc001 on Aug 16, 2019 15:16:57 GMT 12
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Post by rmc001 on Aug 17, 2019 20:40:19 GMT 12
Sorry just 2 Q's: Spotify's bitrate is only 320 kb/s.? I suppose everyone here knew that except me. 😁 Also how can Tidal (below) offer cd quality (at 320kb/s) when Red book is approx. 1600kb/s.? Quote: "At the time of writing the top-tier Spotify service, for which you'll pay £9.99 per month in the UK, remains resolutely sub-CD, with a 320kb/s Ogg Vorbis bitrate, while Apple Music (www.apple.com/uk/music), with an undisclosed bitrate (although most of the service is built around 256kb/s) is in AAC for the same price." "By comparison Tidal (www.tidal.com) offers music in 320kb/s, CD-quality and – via its MQA-based Masters service – in high resolution. Just how high the resolution is depends how you access the service: use Tidal's own decoding, for example with an analogue output from the playing device into your amplifier, and you 'only' get 96kHz/24-bit, but if you use a device with its own MQA decoding it's possible..." Read more at www.hifinews.com/content/streaming-simplified#Hi59Vwy7WzkwaIAe.99
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Post by Citroen on Aug 18, 2019 3:22:07 GMT 12
I believe Spotify's bitrate is still only 96kbps on mobile devices, standard service 160kbps and their "high quality" 320 kbps.
Tidal offers two tiers to their service. The standard service (called "Premium") is 320 kbps (sub CD) Their HiFi service is CD quality (which is 1411 kbps, 44.1kHz/16bit) and MQA (96kHz/24bit).
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Post by rmc001 on Aug 18, 2019 9:16:15 GMT 12
Thanks for clarifying that.
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Post by Citroen on Aug 18, 2019 17:01:52 GMT 12
I have a Tidal HiFi subscription but in reality usually only use it to sample music that I will buy on LP, and to download albums to my phone for portable listening.
Tidal's selection is no where near that of Spotify's, but at least Spotify has a free version that I use if I can't find titles on Tidal.
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Pundit
rmc001 Aug 19, 2019 19:24:42 GMT 12
Post by belbo on Aug 19, 2019 19:24:42 GMT 12
Really great system, open baffle should be excellent in-terms of soundstage and speed.
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Post by rmc001 on Aug 19, 2019 19:48:46 GMT 12
Thanks.
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Post by rmc001 on Aug 16, 2020 13:28:48 GMT 12
This is a brief clip I made using Hify app to run Spotify under JPLAY. Runs a bit better than my flac playing system for the moment. imgur.com/a/Wd9yCfu
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Post by Owen Y on Aug 16, 2020 20:46:40 GMT 12
Those OBs + 300BSE are nice.
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Member
rmc001 Sept 6, 2020 22:01:45 GMT 12
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Post by chilli on Sept 6, 2020 22:01:45 GMT 12
Can I ask what the sponge clipped onto the whizzer does?
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Post by rmc001 on Sept 6, 2020 22:07:50 GMT 12
Can I ask what the sponge clipped onto the whizzer does? I think it controls vibration in the whizzer cone. Owen Y .
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Pundit
Post by peter0c on Sept 7, 2020 9:35:27 GMT 12
The hf radiates outwards from the voice call to the outer edge of the whizzer cone which is not terminated unlike say a woofer with a rubber surround. This could lead to ringing. The Goodmans 201s, 301s and 401s had three soft clips arranged around the outer edge to control for this. Knew a thing or two that Ted Jordan.
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rmc001 Sept 7, 2020 10:33:58 GMT 12
- Edited Sept 7, 2020 10:43:38 GMT 12 by Owen Y
Post by Owen Y on Sept 7, 2020 10:33:58 GMT 12
The foam 'whizzer mod' I've used on & off over the years. I first learnt it from Marc Wauters with Lowthers. Marc actually 'wedges' a pc of foam between the whizzer & the main cone. rmc001's is just 'slotted' onto the whizzer edge. With rmc001's sensitivity to HFs (& younger ears), he probably will hear the whizzer edge break-up. I hear some upper mid peakiness at high levels. The whizzer on those drivers is around 55mm diam (IIRC) - ie. 173 circumf, so can theoretically output up to close to 2,000 Hz
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Pundit
rmc001 Sept 10, 2020 11:12:15 GMT 12
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Post by belbo on Sept 10, 2020 11:12:15 GMT 12
May I ask how the modification works? I have an issue with ringing in one of my drivers and I actually use blue-tax to push just a little bit the suspension (works pretty well).
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rmc001 Sept 10, 2020 11:43:07 GMT 12
- Edited Sept 10, 2020 11:43:29 GMT 12 by Owen Y
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Post by Owen Y on Sept 10, 2020 11:43:07 GMT 12
The bit of foam attached to the free outer edge of the 'whizzer' cone adds a wee bit of mass & being in one position only, probably disturbs/damps the edge vibration of this cone when it hits resonance / break-up frequencies (at high levels). It's a bit 'rough & ready', as it slightly changes the character of the driver just a bit.
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Member
rmc001 Sept 20, 2020 21:47:03 GMT 12
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Post by chilli on Sept 20, 2020 21:47:03 GMT 12
Thanks for the explanation. So the edge of the whizzer needs damping. Hmm. I have heard someone softening the whizzer to try and decrease the rising output at HF. But, I would have a guess that a more rigid whizzer should have less erratic breakup etc. I have a project in the near future to try this on. Perhaps I will try some material under the whizzer to try this. Might have to get a mate to come along and help me measure it though. will think of some damping materials!
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