The system yesterday. I finally got round to putting the rack together......what a PITA. Call me crazy but then I had the issue of the balance of the sound going whacky with not much bass and a bit bright. Went and got some bamboo chopping boards and filled the rack legs with sand and order has been restored.

Damn, that looks nice!

Jul 18, 2021 17:17:50 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Damn, that looks nice!

Thanks Cliff! Lot of work but the best sound I've had by a long shot.

Bit of mucking around with cables this arvo. All completely subjective of course

Currently I use:

Audience AU24SE IC phono - pre

ETI Q3000 IC pre - power amp

Zu Audio Event SC

I have on loan:

Yamamura IC - will trial tomorrow

Cardas Golden Presence IC - something just not right in my system with this one

Audio Note Lexus copper litz SC - not my flavour either. The Zu Event smokes it

You don't feel the need to perhaps hang lined curtains on the rear wall?
When I moved into my new smaller flat, concrete wall behind the speakers, (even slightly further out than yours) and a gib wall opposite, I found the 'slap echo' (clap hands together sharply) terrible!
I could only imagine what it was doing to the music.

In the end, because I had them and could, I ended up mounting two sets of curtains, one behind the other, the outer ones old dark red or burgundy velvet.

That involved drilling into concrete to mount the rails, the outer really old fashioned, with rings, two pipes joined together to span 3.6m, the inner set a more modern rail with curtain hooks.

I was even prepared to safety pin old wool blankets behind one set, but never got around to it. Anyway, it was a vast improvement even with just those.

Live end dead end, all that. Try that sharp hand clap around the room. Could the reflective walls be contributing to the perceived "a bit bright" sound?

RdM thats a good idea but not sure I would like curtains. Perhaps some DIY panels would do the trick. My room is far from perfect but it sounds pretty good.

When I move into a bigger place the room will be on the list of things to improve the sound.

After 2 months in transit my Werner Jagusch crossovers arrived yesterday. Spent the last hour putting the brackets to hold the tweeters together and just waiting for some glue to dry at the moment.

You'll notice the spades on my speaker cables don't fit the terminal blocks. Perhaps I'll have to re-terminate the speaker cables or mount some binding posts on the crossover.

Those are some flash looking crossovers! Are they up and running?

Aug 3, 2021 21:32:20 GMT 12 snewt said:

Those are some flash looking crossovers! Are they up and running?

They are up and running mate. They aren't the right fit for me unfortunately.........bummer.

Still thinking about the best way forward.

I moved back to my DIY crossover and I'm happy enough......for now lol.

Trying out a Yamamura Millennium 5000 interconnect that a mate loaned me. Wanted to see what all the fuss about these cables was all about. Well they are very nice and offer something different. Spooky with voices and lovely natural tone but still detailed and reasonably dynamic. Only tried with digital so far.

Also changed digital front end as I wanted a streamer and DAC in one box so I didn't need to change racks. Also wanted the change to bring an improvement over the Innous Zen Mini and Line Magnetic DAC. An Acoustic Arts ES streamer/dac came up for sale at a good price so I grabbed it. A big improvement over the previous set up and so it should be for it's original RRP.

BTW if anyone would like to hear a great album:

Nick Haywood Trio - Many Rivers

That's what was playing on the streamer when I posted so giving it a share

My plan to build 20w single ended mono amps has to go on hold for financial reasons. They cost a lot to make and other priorities have come up. I still have some of the parts so can hopefully complete at a later date.

I still want mono amps so I can fit all my gear in my single rack. The big bulky F6 amp takes up one shelf and a lot of height so mono's mean I can free up that shelf and have mono's situated behind or beside the speakers. Behind would be preferable.

So I decided to build F6 mono amps. I'll keep the amp boards from my current F6 but the PSU will be re built completely.

Mono chassis pair have been ordered and so have the 2x toridal TX's from Toroidy in Poland. I'm lucky enough to be in contact with a DIY First Watt aficionado who is really helping me with ideas for the build.

Some parts for the mono amps have arrived so I can get started. The front panels on my 2x chassis were silver which looked crap (they were cheap) with the rest of them being black. So I decided to paint them a deep red in an automotive paint.

I was unsure how it would turn out but spraying the primer seemed to go well so lets hope the top coat and clear coat go the same way!










The Toroidy transformers have also arrived. Yeah 400va per channel is overkill but the cost difference was minimal compared to 300va which was the plan. These things are heavy!

Slow progress due to been to busy, windy weather and mistakes the first topcoat is on the front panels. Just a second coat and clear coat to go now.

All the parts are ordered now so just have to find a bit of time!

Digital system update! The Acoustic Arts streamer/dac has left the premises. Replaced by a DIY server powered by Uptone Audio JS2 PSU and Lampizator Big 4 DAC.

Need to decide which player I'm going to use and best options for optimising as it's a windows based server. Just using the Tidal player now to have a listen.

Not that I need a set of mono blocks but I couldn't resist. What a struggle to get them in the house by myself. 37kg each!!

Here's a pic of one of them. KR Audio VT850 MK, 22w parallel single ended 300B XLS.

So much for keeping everything in one rack.....sigh

Wow Ben! Your system keeps on improving. It must sound amazing. I've been curious about the lampizator dacs. How's yours shaping up. Mind you, you've had it a month so its probably been shifted on by now 🤣

🤣

Dec 16, 2021 14:15:57 GMT 12 snewt said:

Wow Ben! Your system keeps on improving. It must sound amazing. I've been curious about the lampizator dacs. How's yours shaping up. Mind you, you've had it a month so its probably been shifted on by now 🤣

It's the speakers that changed the playing field for me. The Lampizator dac is really very good and suits the system. I'd recommend them unreservedly Simon.

The KR amps I wanted to try and either them or the F6 mono's will go depending on what suits better. Will be interesting as these F6's power supply parts are next level compared to my current one.

Will post some pics of the build progress of the F6's in the next day or two. Should only be a week and they'll be up and running. The First Watt amps built DIY are giant killers

Finally the diy F6 mono amps are playing music. What a headache but seems to be worth it. Nedd a bit time to settle down though

Bugger, I chipped the paint on the front panel of one : (

The Solid Tech rack has gone as I needed more rack space.

One big change has been the Herron preamp has been re-homed and in its place is Bent Audio Slagle Autoformer units including the relay input board and remote. Currently built on an Ikea choppping board. These Slagle autoformers are very good and have a completely different presentation to any other pre I've had. They are the kings of tone with a very different presentation to a tube or SS pre. Bent Audio builds them into clever units that have mute, balance, relay volume control and input selection (among other things that I don't use)

Also replaced the polystyrene caps in the speaker x overs with Russian PIO which on there own lack top end so have been mucking around with different bypass caps to get the blend right. U-Cap teflon no good, Jupiter better but not a winner and today just tried Russian K40y-9 and seems to be a good fit.

Also got a trio of NOS Telefunken smooth plate 12AX7 for the Air Tight phono a while ago. Never been a fan of them in the past but in the Air Tight they are super!

I couldn't resist as I heard one of these Australian hand made plinths at another audio nuts place in Sydney. Definite improvement over my basic stacked layer plinth.

Will mount the 12" Wand + and see what works best vs the 12" Siggwan. Will have a 401, my old plinth and a 12" arm for sale at some point.

The 12 inch Wand will be the definite winner, so then you can sell me the Siggwan! LOL

May 11, 2022 15:48:21 GMT 12 Citroen said:

The 12 inch Wand will be the definite winner, so then you can sell me the Siggwan! LOL

Noted Cliff.

That was my gut feeling but time will tell!

Truth be told, my gut feeling is actually the opposite.

I just want your Siggwan!

I have both here, side by side. I like them both for different reasons. Siggwan has wonderful natural harmonic tone, open and spacious. Wand 12” Master has that sense of rhythm and timing, and is slightly more neutral tonally.

AMR-iFi R&D

Time well tell and I think it will be as Colin has suggested. One aint better than the other, just different, and system synergy will likely determine the choice.

I love the looks of the Siggwan!

End of the Wand is weird.

May 12, 2022 17:08:35 GMT 12 andrewp said:

End of the Wand is weird.

Function over form. How else would you cue it with no finger lift?

One thing I love about the Wand is the clever design. 15 mins and I can have a cart dialled in and playing