Anyone here an audiophile?

Very nice Nenu. Good choices for the best gear you can get for the money imo.

Audiophiles love to watch the pretty sounds. If you get the pretty part, then you might be kindred.
 
Cheers Spaceman, it sounds special, incredible micro detail everywhere and lovely deeeep bass.
Tracks with good positional audio have instruments/vocals precisely placed across the soundstage, the environment the recording was made in is clear to hear.
Good live recordings are properly 3D.

The silver interconnects were an experiment and are surprisingly good, they increased the detail, stereo and 3D effects substantially.
Both mine and a friends hifi had the same result, he was previously very sceptical as he was using a well praised £150 interconnect, it was handed its backside!
The silver cable cost a bit less to make, they are cotton coated wires with no shielding, using cotton/air as the dielectric.
I had to reduce the output from my tweeters slightly as the silver cable became a little too bright with the Minimax DAC.
Neither of us will be without them now.
 
Nenu, are those silver/champagne drivers the same used in the Overnight Sensations DIY project?
 
I have to agree, they are very detailed and sweet.
I wish they had a faster roll off so I can use 1st order crossovers, but even so, they are very revealing.
 


HD650's and JDS Labs O2! easily the best money i've spent in the last 5 years.
 
Elsinore DIY tower speakers, custom overbuilt crossovers(ver 2.) off a Yamaha HTR-5590 via optical output from an Auzentech Forte 7.1, two.. er, one 12" polk momo sub (other one died a horrible death) run off a seperate technics amp.
right:

left:

crossovers:
 
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NeuroticTurtle said:
Elsinore DIY tower speakers, custom overbuilt crossovers(ver 2.) off a Yamaha HTR-5590 via optical output from an Auzentech Forte 7.1, two.. er, one 12" polk momo sub (other one died a horrible death) run off a seperate technics amp.
right:
quoted images removed
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I'm not familiar with the design but you should solder instead of using twisted connections or abico ;)

DIY can give very good bang for buck if the designer has done his job well. Who is the author of the design?
 
I agree, although the pictures look like he is partway through making it.

Also mount inductors at different angles to each other that are close to each other otherwise they will interfere magnetically. This is called inductive coupling.
In 3D space there are 3 axis, mount them on those 3 axis.
This is worth reading
http://www.parts-express.com/resources-building-a-crossover
layout2.jpg


The above shows how to place sets of 4 inductors if you truly are out of space (note the diagonally mounted inductor, this isnt ideal but may be all you can do).
If you do have the space after mounting 3 inductors, move the next set of 3 inductors further away and repeat the mounting method, observing how the nearest inductor is oriented and not using the same on the one nearest it.

Your build job looks fine :)
 
I don't get a chance to DIY much anymore. I still have a MIllet Max I use with my HD580s, but my main is 20 yr old Stax, given to me by an old-timer at work.
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I'm hoping to get a corner of my garage set up as a DIY workshop next year.
 
If anyone plans to build this CBT36, it's said the loudness doesn't change if you move closer or further away from it, which is quite interesting.
 
I use silver tinned copper leads under the marette shells, but they're actually tiny brass compression connectors using a set screw, with a wire nut covering.... and yes, the crossovers were supposed to be temporary (hence the glue, zip ties, and 3/4" mdf mounting), as I was planning on updating to the newest version of the crossover on the designer's website when I sourced some waveguides to match. I've got a half finished set of enclosures for the crossovers, but haven't settled on a color or finish for any of it. Also getting replaced is the cthuluesque bundle of #10 awg interconnects going from the 2.5 way xover to the driver sets with some much cleaner looking 4C #12 cabtire and some velvet sleeving

Original design is found here: http://www.customanalogue.com/elsinore/elsinore_index.htm
 
oh and the uhm, overly ornate blue thing is to aid in port velocity tuning using a visible smoke source to map standing waves and calibrate the flaring diameter to avoid port noise.
 
I'm an audio fool with too much crap lol

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Equipment List:

Left rack top to bottom

Sony PCM-7030
Marantz PMD-510 (I think)
Alesis ADAT-HD 24
Alesis XT
Otari MX5050

Right Rack top to bottom

Monster something whatever I got at a garage sale power center, has selectable delays which is nice (on top of rack)

Leviton rack surge superssor
ART power strip that I put LED lights in the pull out lights
Yamaha RX-V1900
Samsung BD-P1500
Sony MDS-58
Sony ES SCD-C2000ES
HTPC (Norco 2U MiniATX case)
Peavy Digi Tool MX
McIntosh MC2105
Altec Lansing 9444A

theres also a technics 1200 with a denon mc cartridge not shown and a PS3/wii

speakers are martin logan SL3's bi-amped and sub is a krk rokit 10s (original version)

headphones... off the top of my head...

Sennheiser HE60
Sennheiser HD650
AKG K1000
AKG K701
BeyerDynamic DT880 (Original)
Grado HF-1
Grado RS-2
Stax Sigma
Audio Technica ATH-AD2000

AmpsSTAX SRM-1/MK-2
STAX SRM-1
Dynamight (DIY)
Dynalo (DIY)
other random stuff
 
I've simplified down to this combo:

AMB Gamma2
Bottlehead Crack
Sennheiser HD800

Works well enough for me :)
 
You use it with reel to reel tape?
 
and back in the day it was the best quality recordings you could buy... everyone loves vinyl (as do I) but one huge disadvantage you have is you have less quality as you get towards the center of the LP (less inches per second pass the needle) with tape its constant...

and before the "tape sounds like crap" comments remember pretty much everything before the age of pro-tools was recorded onto 2" 24 track tape in the studio so most of the recordings we all know and love were all mastered on tape (and even today a lot of people are going back)

that Otari is the rev III, 1/4" 1/2 track... probably mid to late 90's... never looked to see if it has some kind of manufacture date somewhere...

also have a sony I have been refurbing 1/4" 1/4 track (more common)
 
Sixthsense said:
Hah an open reel and an ADAT, nice . LOL you're nuts, i like it.
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actually the ADAT serves a purpose :)

ADAT (and later ADAT-HD24) were a kind of "industry standard" for sharing laser shows... use 8 tracks of the ADAT-HD24 through that XT-20 (via lightpipe) which is modified to pass DC to play back laser shows... the ADAT XT eats tapes so I just use it as an ADC/DAC (modifying the HD-24 to do DC input is impossible and DC output is difficult, the XT had a board called a CADAMOD board made by a company called Pangolin... was removed from a laser display at a major theme park... think mice :))

tracks are as follows

1: X
2: Y
3: R
4: G
5: B
6: SMPTE (sometimes DMX or nothing at all)
7: Left Audio
8: Right Audio

and those other signals go via ILDA to a laser projector

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:)
 
Gmok Bonecrusha said:
That just looks sweet.
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Thanks.

Yeah, My first audiophile pair of headphones was the HD600 which I had for 5 years. I used those with a basic solid-state DAC/Amp and really grew to love the Sennheiser sound. Fortunately I was actually able to sell them for slightly more than I bought them for due to Sennheiser starting to enforce manufacturer minimum pricing a couple years after I bought my pair.

I always dreamed of having the HD800 and also a Woo Audio tube amp. So I finally decided to upgrade to my "end-game" setup which I knew just had to be the HD800 (I also ordered a pair of Audeze LCD-2 to compare with the HD800 but ended up returning those since I only planned to keep the pair I liked more).

I saw that Woo had a newer product that was a DAC and Amp in one unit, plus it also looked really cool. I like the simplicity of the all-in-one unit and read many reviews that said the DAC section was good and the Amp was great so I went with it. I think tubes really pair well with the HD800 and perhaps take the edge off and smooth out the treble on the sometimes-called "harsh" HD800s. I don't find them harsh to my ears at all though.
 
FLECOM said:
and back in the day it was the best quality recordings you could buy... everyone loves vinyl (as do I) but one huge disadvantage you have is you have less quality as you get towards the center of the LP (less inches per second pass the needle) with tape its constant...
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also after an average of 7 complete plays, that LP is no longer considered a true represention of the source material, as the finer details start to wear down.
 
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