Looking nice andy, Love the Vinly holders

This thread has disappeared down the page, so I need to post, to get it up at the top again!

 

Not much has happened since, a coupla weeks before Christmas, I discovered I wasn't getting any sound from:

• the RHS ribbon tweeter, and
• the RHS bass panel.   

This was after I had to move the position of the Maggies slightly - due to wifely pressure; this required me to make up 8x new (longer) interconnects.  Subsequent diagnosis found:

• the RHS ribbon had blown.  I certainly hadn't been playing loud (and I've never blown a ribbon before, in over 20 years of Maggie ownership) so all I can assume is that there had been a breeze through the nearby outside-opening door ... which had taken out the ribbon.    (I've not had my Maggies near an outside-opening door, before the new house.)  So I will need to be very careful with the door, from now on.
• the problem with the RHS bass panel was caused by an interconnect short - not the amp channel blowing!   So that is now fixed.

But no music can happen until I get my ribbons back from Bill Mclean (the Maggie importer).

 

Then I will post.

 

Andy

Oh brother so sorry to hear that happened, I had similar upset last week my krell ksa50s blew a channel, luckily I have a ex krell engineer near by so fix the transistor and had her back to normal within hours ;-)

Oh brother so sorry to hear that happened, I had similar upset last week my krell ksa50s blew a channel, luckily I have a ex krell engineer near by so fix the transistor and had her back to normal within hours ;-)

 

Blowing up a Krell!  Wow - I thought they were one amp that was bullet proof!   You must've been treating it very badly!   

 

Andy

Hope you get everything working soon 

She is perfect now, she had a recap about a year ago and the engineer thinks one of the transistors was faulty and thats what cause the issue, but blowing the transistor actually caused one of the caps to fully disconnect from the left Channel board CRAZY

see the cap disconnected [emoji11]

Blowing up a Krell! Wow - I thought they were one amp that was bullet proof! You must've been treating it very badly!

Andy

Might be with new Krells, but old ones with age nearly all schitt themselves from heat.

Edited January 13, 201610 yr by Sime

Indeed! the joy of the pure class A club ;-)

Well, today I received my repaired ribbons and have mounted them back into their hardwood frames.

 

So at last I have music again! (And my wallet is $980 lighter! )

 

Here are some pics - the position of the speakers had to be changed slightly, compared to post #67 ... demanded by the wifey, so she can have 2 of the 'Orange Slice' chairs put between the speakers, when we she has her book club meet.   So they had to be moved apart by 300mm - also, I had to put the amp/XO cases directly behind the bass panels (like I had them in the last house).  Each amp case has a low welded stand - which sits inside the 'U' shape of the stand bases - with squash balls on top, supporting the amp case (to isolate them from the floor/stands).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next move is to get one of @@Paul Spencer's 15" subs installed in each front corner.

 

 

Regards,

 

Andy

Edited February 4, 201610 yr by andyr

Hi Andy

Does that mean it is 100% operational ? 

May be a good idea to make some satin or velvet covers for the Ribbons while not about.

 

Nice space

Cheers.

Hi Andy

Does that mean it is 100% operational ? 

May be a good idea to make some satin or velvet covers for the Ribbons while not about.

 

Nice space

Cheers.

 

Yep, 100%!!  (At last!)  :thumb:

 

What I will be doing, Matt, from now on is putting the metal 'protective strips' on the ribbons, when I'm not listening.  These are 1500mm long and about 15mm wide ... they (magnetically) clamp to the front of the ribbon cages ... and you have to put them on/take them off very gently. :D

 

Andy

Magnetic strips, sounds nice and easy and not cost a grand every time someone else opens a door in a gale.

 

Well done has been a long road. Takes a while a lounge.

 

Ooooo, a pair of 15's, compact sealed  would be my choice in there as there would be room gain in a small ish room down in the lowest octave. My black carpeted/piano gloss 20 liter 12's would go well in there and suit the decor/system.

 

Paul makes beautiful enclosures, very proud of mine (the Eminence 18's) and they form a methodology template for other enclosures I will be making over the next short term.. Guaranteed they will be heavy, very heavy.

"a gale"? - or a window was opened barely an inch 2 floors below allowing a slight zephyr breath to enter the new residence ...

... &, for the life of me, I have no idea why Andy is entertaining the notion of these magnetic front clamps after having seen my black shrouds in situ.

As a prelim to Paul's subs being installed, I ordered a miniDSP 10x10Hd unit and took it over to Paul's this afternoon (so he can program it).  This will replace my current 3-way analogue active XOs when the subs are installed - and give me LF room correction! 

 

The 10x10 unit is considerably more sophisticated than the basic 2x4 units but the main reason I bought it was that it offers 15ms of delay ... compared to the 7.5ms delay of the 2x4 units - Paul thinks that to dial in the subs, given the desired 24dB LP filter slope and the fact that they are situated a couple of metres further away than the bass panels, we will need more than 7.5 ms delay.

 

I can attest to the great packaging miniDSP use - the unit was held clear of the sides of one cardboard carton by some foam supports ... and then this box was inside another!  Top marks!

 

Currently, I need 4x analogue inputs and 8x analogue outputs 4x analogue inputs bcoz my AKSA GK-2 preamp has 2x outputs for each channel:

• the main output goes through a unity-gain tube buffer, to provide some tube magic
• the sub output bypasses this (and gets better leading edge delivery for bass transients as a result).

  So:

• the main outputs feed the mids and ribbons
• the sub outputs currently feed my bass panels but will feed the subs as well, in the new setup.

The magic of the 10x10 unit is that you can set up whatever relationship between input sockets and output sockets that you want.

 

Meanwhile, I am continuing to enjoy my music. 

 

 

Andy

Edited February 14, 201610 yr by andyr

Very nice room, that's what I call dedication to a passion.

Very nice room, that's what I call dedication to a passion.

 

Thank you, Maurice.

 

I was worried that the sloping wall behind my Maggies would be a problem ... but it doesn't seem to be the case - in that the music sounds pretty damn terrific and there are no obvious "room problems" ... apart from a lack of soundstage depth, compared to the listening room in my previous house (which was twice the size!).

 

 

Andy

Well, last post was May 6th ... today (Jun 27th) the final setup started to take shape! 

 

This arvo, I collected 1 of the sub cabinets, the miniDSP 10x10 unit and 1 of the 15" Dayton Ultimax drivers.  See pic below:

 

Next Sunday, @@Paul Spencer arrives with the 2nd sub and his measurement gear, to complete the installation / configuration of the subs. 

 

 

Andy

Just for U, @davidro: 

 

Not entirely sure what you mean by a mainframe but let's not further go OT...I'll be more than happy to discuss further on your future thread

 

In the 60s and early 70s, computers were all 'mainframes' - they took up a whole room and they had to have aircon - or in some cases, water cooling (eg the Cray supercomputers).  They cost millions!

 

The late 70s to the late 1990s were the heyday of the 'minicomputer'.  These didn't necessarily need a special aircon room - they could fit into a normal office environment - and they cost $100K upwards.

 

IBM introduced the business PC around 1983, I think - and that's where we are today.  Sure, there are still 'mainframes' around - even 'minicomputers - but what most people know as a 'computer' is a small device which either sits on your desktop ... or is carried around with you.     I wouldn't be surprised there's more computer horsepower in your and my miniDSP unit than in any mainframe of the 70s!

 

 

Andy

aahhh....you should tell me next time when you're doing the oldman talk man....lol

 

so something like this???

 

aahhh....you should tell me next time when you're doing the oldman talk man....lol

 

so something like this???

 

 

Hehe - yes, that certainly looks the part!  Probably wouldn't have the grunt to do the processing you require, though!

 

 

Andy

But they're toobs mate. As long as there are toobs. Toobs.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

And that's an LP12 platter on the carpet!

 

 

Andy

 

Only 1..??..

Well, this arvo, programming the miniDSP 10x10Hd was finally completed.  Paul was over for most of the day last Sunday ... but we had to stop, partway through, as one of the Ultimax drivers turned out to be faulty.  Paul arrived with a replacement at noon today and by 5:30pm, he had everything programmed.    (It is a long job ... and you need REW or equivalent, with a calibrated mike and a decent (external) sound card!  )

 

We had a quick listen - just to make sure everything was working as it should - but I will do the first 'serious listening' after dinner, tonight.    Tomorrow @@djb and maybe a couple of others are coming over for the first "official listen".  CD only, unfortunately, as Duc has just finished a slight mod to one of my tonearms and I have yet to mount it back onto the SkeletaLinn. 

 

In the meantime, here's a few pics:

 

1.  the miniDSP 10x10 unit

 

 

This miniDSP is sensational - as powerful as you need for a 4-way stereo setup and absolutely silent on power-on and power-off.  So you don't have to remember to switch off the power amps before switching on/off the miniDSP unit! 

 

It takes:

• 4x analogue input channels ('tube-out' and 'ss-out' for each channel, from my AKSA preamp; tube-out feeds mids & ribbons, ss-out feed subs & bass panels).
• 8x analogue output channels - 1 for each driver.

BTW, the metal strips on the floor are the ribbon-protection strips, which I put on when I'm not listening to the Maggies.

 

2.  L sub

 

 

3.  R sub

 

 

 

The bass panels are rolled off with a 24dB HP slope to match the subs' LP roll-off ... so they will suck less amp power.  The bass frames also vibrate less than they used to, when the bass panels were running full-range (ie. down to 35Hz).  The XO settings we have used are as follows (these are acoustic-response measurements, not theoretical electrical-response settings):

• sub LP - 24dB @ 83hz
• bass HP - 24dB @ 83hz
• bass LP - 18dB @ 255hz
• mid HP - 12dB @ 500hz
• mid LP - 12dB @ 2600hz
• ribbon HP - 12dB @ 4000hz.

So the mid-ribbon XO has been moved up about 1Khz, compared to what I had it with my previous analogue active XOs.

 

The Maggies are delayed 11 ms, compared to the subs - a future tweek will be to see what putting additional delay on the mids & ribbons (to compensate for these HP/LP XO pairs) sounds like.

 

 

Regards,

 

Andy

Edited July 10, 20169 yr by andyr