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Sentient

Sentient

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Front ends:

* Killerdac, fed by

   - Raspberry Pi (i2s connected, roon endpoint)

* Luxman PD-310 TT, into

   - Duc stepup

   - EAR 834P

* Otari MX-55 r2r

* Oppo BDP-95, modwright modded (for sacd's/dvd-a's/concert discs)

 

Preamp:

* Audio Note M3

 

Poweramps:

* Triode Lab, 2A3 single ended (connected to B&C tunnel horns, >1200)

* Radford STA-15 (connected to Altec 515 bass drivers, >40-1200)

* Yammy P2350 (connected to Mach5 18" passive sub, handling <40 hz, via active dbx xover),,, i found this old amp locally on gumtree for not alot, and i have to say, it's a ballsy animal driving this big passive sub.

 

Speakers hand built by Ray the mad audio engineer, from the nsw southern highlands. This man really is one of a kind. ❤

Edited by Sentient
added freq ranges
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Sentient

Sentient

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15 minutes ago, Jehuty said:

Andrew, long time no see. Nice system you got there. Your Radford is probably the best I've heard 👍

 

Cheers,

William

 

Gday William, yes, it has been awhile. Hope you're keeping well? The Radford has a reduced role, but still an important one, handling the key low to midrange.  Very nearly sold it, but the sale fell through. So, it lives on in this system.  

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muon*

muon*

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I know that AV :D

 

Nice to see you and ya' system again.

 

Some lovely gear.

Edited by muon*
typo, silly fingers :(
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Jehuty

Jehuty

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12 hours ago, Sentient said:

 

Gday William, yes, it has been awhile. Hope you're keeping well? The Radford has a reduced role, but still an important one, handling the key low to midrange.  Very nearly sold it, but the sale fell through. So, it lives on in this system.  

Morning Andrew. Yeah life has been kind to me so I can't complain, just a little bit inactive hifi wise, doesn't stop me from hunting bargains though 😄

 

Low to midrange is indeed key and I reckon the only way up is SET, bet you know that already. If you decide to sell the Radford in the future, perhaps let me know so that I could consider buying it. I love that amp.

 

Cheers.

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xlr8or

xlr8or

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6 hours ago, Jehuty said:

If you decide to sell the Radford in the future, perhaps let me know so that I could consider buying it. I love that amp.

 

I'll buy it from you next, Will. Just make sure you throw in there a nice quad set of version 4 Xf1 fat base Mullard Blackburn EL34's from 1960 for me. 👍

Edited by xlr8or
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Jehuty

Jehuty

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13 minutes ago, xlr8or said:

 

I'll buy if from you next, Will. Just make sure you throw in there a nice quad set of version 4 Xf1 fat base Mullard Blackburn EL34's from 1960 for me. 👍

Andrew got both metal base EL34 and GZ34 in there 😁

 

Edit: That was a few years ago when he was running the Radford with Tannoy Monitor Gold 15. Not sure about now.

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Sentient

Sentient

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On 14/04/2022 at 4:03 PM, Jehuty said:

Andrew got both metal base EL34 and GZ34 in there 😁

 

Edit: That was a few years ago when he was running the Radford with Tannoy Monitor Gold 15. Not sure about now.

 

The Metal base GZ34,  died.  There is a Mullard in there now.

 

I still have the metal base EL34's, 2 sets, in very good condition.   But I feel like they are wasted, if not being used for full range duties.  I have them safely stored, and appreciating over time. 😇

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Sentient

Sentient

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With this talk about tubes, I decided to get out a set of EL34 metal bases.

 

This set all measured strong.  I'm going to put them in, dial the system in, and get it cranking tonight.  Just to compare them to my winged C's, in the Radford driving the low to midrange. 

 

Been so long, since i played these metal bases, such beautiful things. Should be interesting.....

 

 

20220423_075845.jpg

20220423_080427.jpg

Edited by Sentient
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thejt

thejt

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On 13/04/2022 at 7:55 PM, Sentient said:

Front ends:

* Killerdac, fed by

   - Raspberry Pi (i2s connected, roon endpoint)

* Luxman PD-310 TT, into

   - Duc stepup

   - EAR 834P

* Otari MX-55 r2r

* Oppo BDP-95, modwright modded (for sacd's/dvd-a's/concert discs)

 

Preamp:

* Audio Note M3

 

Poweramps:

* Triode Lab, 2A3 single ended (connected to B&C tunnel horns, >1200)

* Radford STA-15 (connected to Altec 515 bass drivers, >40-1200)

* Yammy P2350 (connected to Mach5 18" passive sub, handling <40 hz, via active dbx xover),,, i found this old amp locally on gumtree for not alot, and i have to say, it's a ballsy animal driving this big passive sub.

 

Speakers hand built by Ray the mad audio engineer, from the nsw southern highlands. This man really is one of a kind. ❤

Can I ask you how manage the crossover?? Thanks

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Sentient

Sentient

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On 27/04/2022 at 9:53 PM, thejt said:

Can I ask you how manage the crossover?? Thanks

to the sub?

 

via a DBX active crossover.    

 

there are 3 sets of outputs from the preamp (1 balanced, 2 unbalanced). I use 2 of them.  The M3 really is a well engineered, beautiful preamp (thanks Tax, my old friend).


I run 1 set of unbalanced cables, to my SET amp.  This amp is receiving full range information, there is a passive crossover ahead of the horns, filtering <1200hz. The delivery from this amp is sweet and clean, and very well matched to driving ALL those freq's into the highly efficient horn section. > 90% of the music information, is SET driven in this system. 

 

I run 1 set of balanced cables from the M3, to my DBX active crossover.  It is set at the 40hz crossover point.

 

I then have the low pass outputs from the DBX, connected via balanced cables to the Yammy amp, driving the Dayton passive sub.

 

The highpass outputs (from the DBX) are connected to the Radford Push Pull EL34 amp, via XLR to unbalanced cables.  The Radford is driving the Altec drivers, 40hz to 1200hz (the 1200 upper limit, is handled by the passive crossover inside the speaker).  This midrange section is absolutely critical, in my opinion.  These Altec drivers demand extra juice, and flow more freely and dynamically, than an SET amp can muster (at the volumes I like to listen to, which is stupidly loud in a large room).  The Radford does the job, just, and is well suited to the efficiency of the drivers.  I've tried higher power amps in this spot, but they just dont have the beauty and transparency, that this lovely old Radford tube amp delivers (for this freq range/task).

 

The DBX allows me to volume match, the midrange Altec section against the reference volume of the Horn section.  And also volume match the sub, to the Altecs.

 

This setup does not have any phase or time domain adjustments.  It's all adequately integrated, and at this stage I havent felt the need to play around with cable lengths, or any other method to make time domain tweaks.  

 

Hence, it is *all* analog, after the Killerdac does its thing at the front end.

 

Hope that adequately answers the crossover question.  But happy to answer any other questions on any elements I missed. ✌

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