QUAD valve amp advice

[Noisy noise annoys]

View attachment 135139
Behold the cmp acoustics Trilobite. Approx 3'6" high, 8" paper cone (all my speakers use paper cone - I prefer their more detailed natural mid range vocals) and ribbon tweeter with tri-folded transmission line. It is lead lined behind the main driver to dampen box resonance and weighs in at around 40kg each.

This is actually a version I made to replace the less wife-friendly Ammonite which was a coiled transmission line made out of concrete and looking like, well, an Ammonite. She couldn't stand the look of them. To my eyes they were much more interesting than these, but wives have little taste other than mass produced IKEA bobbins.

Last year I ditched the crossover and built an active crossover do each driver is powered by s separate amplifier. The difference was astounding since there is nothing in the way of the amp having full control over the driver. Also it is possible to compensate for the natural roll off of the speaker and get greater bass extension. Works down to around 30Hz I reckon.

Electrostatics are the holy grail - I've always wanted to hear a pair. My mate's brother actually did the thing where he found a pair in a skip because the owner (well his wife) was chucking them out thinking they were old radiators. He knocked on the door and explained what they were to the wife (by this time a widow) but she was happy for him to take them. He flogged them on ebay even before I heard of the story ffs!

They look incredible. How long to make? Dare I ask how much??
I had a few pairs of Electrostatics, all sold, to Japan and Italy (hifi is big there). In the old days I used to trawl the small ads and buy all the hifi, got obsessed with speakers and had a wall of them at my house, I used to switch from one pair to the other and various amps, asking wifey which she thought sounded best...they all sound the same you donk, was the standard reply. She could not hear the nuance of tinny treble and distorted bass it seems!

 

[chrismpw]

They look incredible. How long to make? Dare I ask how much??
I had a few pairs of Electrostatics, all sold, to Japan and Italy (hifi is big there). In the old days I used to trawl the small ads and buy all the hifi, got obsessed with speakers and had a wall of them at my house, I used to switch from one pair to the other and various amps, asking wifey which she thought sounded best...they all sound the same you donk, was the standard reply. She could not hear the nuance of tinny treble and distorted bass it seems!

A friend asked me how much to build a pair for him last month. I told him he wouldn't like the answer (being the unfortunate combination of both a hifi nut and a notorious cheapskate). I wouldn't know where to start pricing. I reckon they cost me around £800 to build. Then there's the two week's labour and months designing based on years of experience building previous models. I wouldn't build a set for less than 3k. I've heard speakers priced at 30k which aren't better to my ears.

Currently I power the bass units with Temple audio monobloc amplifiers which offer great control,( vs an old Onyx amp I found poking out of a neighbour's bin which I repaired which is very refined and musical) and the tweeters are driven by a lumley ST40 valve amp. Valves are so much more fast acting and give a beautiful light and delicate top end.

I have a friend who designs valve gear .... I'm contemplating getting him to design me an open ended 800b valve amp to drive the bass. One day....

While at uni studying something completely unrelated and getting into proper hifi I bumped into a bloke who designed and built speakers - his small company was IAS. After a long interesting chat he offered to cime to my flat and tweak my Heybrook HB1 speakers which were winning plaudits at the time for £100 speakers. Literally 5 minutes with a soldering iron and less that £1 in components and he transformed them into speakers that sounded another level. He commented that Heybrook probably used those £1 components in their £300 models.

I was hooked. I shot off to the uni library and took out every book i could find on acoustics and audio design. I never bought another pair of speakers again.

I'm not saying my speakers are the best (and they're certainly not designed to look the best) because like I say, you have to listen to them and decide what you like rathrer than go on names, but they're the best to my ears because I learned to make them to suit my ears. On the whole I aim for a neutral sound with delicate airy treble, low colouration and flat but capable punchy bass. Since the active crossovers - my god when there's a bass guitar playing, or pipe organ you hear every rumbling note of the melody. I've been tinkering and building for decades, always critical, always wanting more detail, but I honestly sat back the other day and realised I probably couldn't build a better pair. I reached the top of my hill.

After all that effort- like you say - the wife can't tell the difference between these and the sound of the tv. lol

 

[Tipp blue]

Is this a guitar thread?

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

A friend asked me how much to build a pair for him last month. I told him he wouldn't like the answer (being the unfortunate combination of both a hifi nut and a notorious cheapskate). I wouldn't know where to start pricing. I reckon they cost me around £800 to build. Then there's the two week's labour and months designing based on years of experience building previous models. I wouldn't build a set for less than 3k. I've heard speakers priced at 30k which aren't better to my ears.

Currently I power the bass units with Temple audio monobloc amplifiers which offer great control,( vs an old Onyx amp I found poking out of a neighbour's bin which I repaired which is very refined and musical) and the tweeters are driven by a lumley ST40 valve amp. Valves are so much more fast acting and give a beautiful light and delicate top end.

I have a friend who designs valve gear .... I'm contemplating getting him to design me an open ended 800b valve amp to drive the bass. One day....

While at uni studying something completely unrelated and getting into proper hifi I bumped into a bloke who designed and built speakers - his small company was IAS. After a long interesting chat he offered to cime to my flat and tweak my Heybrook HB1 speakers which were winning plaudits at the time for £100 speakers. Literally 5 minutes with a soldering iron and less that £1 in components and he transformed them into speakers that sounded another level. He commented that Heybrook probably used those £1 components in their £300 models.

I was hooked. I shot off to the uni library and took out every book i could find on acoustics and audio design. I never bought another pair of speakers again.

I'm not saying my speakers are the best (and they're certainly not designed to look the best) because like I say, you have to listen to them and decide what you like rathrer than go on names, but they're the best to my ears because I learned to make them to suit my ears. On the whole I aim for a neutral sound with delicate airy treble, low colouration and flat but capable punchy bass. Since the active crossovers - my god when there's a bass guitar playing, or pipe organ you hear every rumbling note of the melody. I've been tinkering and building for decades, always critical, always wanting more detail, but I honestly sat back the other day and realised I probably couldn't build a better pair. I reached the top of my hill.

After all that effort- like you say - the wife can't tell the difference between these and the sound of the tv. lol

THAT IS FAR ABOVE MY LEVEL. I USED TO GET THE SCHEMATIC DIAGRAMS WITH SOME OF MY KIT AND IT WAS FAR TOO MUCH TO UNDERSTAND. Stupid caps.

There is something very addictive about HIFI but, I learned a few years ago that you will never be happy (unless you make your own speakers), and so just stay mid-range. The high end stuff is fantastic but you are always looking (listening) for the imperfection.

Glad I am not the only one who's wife thinks it is daft

 

[chrismpw]

THAT IS FAR ABOVE MY LEVEL. I USED TO GET THE SCHEMATIC DIAGRAMS WITH SOME OF MY KIT AND IT WAS FAR TOO MUCH TO UNDERSTAND. Stupid caps.

There is something very addictive about HIFI but, I learned a few years ago that you will never be happy (unless you make your own speakers), and so just stay mid-range. The high end stuff is fantastic but you are always looking (listening) for the imperfection.

Glad I am not the only one who's wife thinks it is daft

You're dead right. The law of diminishing returns runs rampant with hifi. Ince you're over a hundred quid for a unit then if you double the cost and you get 0. 001% improvement.

I shudder to think how much money I saved having bumped into that speaker chap. All the hifi mags tell you is whatever you have, you HAVE to get the next model up.

I've heard well thought of kit from Linn and Naim that have been downright inferior to much cheaper stuff. Its a minefield.

 

[Baines' left foot]

View attachment 135139
Behold the cmp acoustics Trilobite. Approx 3'6" high, 8" paper cone (all my speakers use paper cone - I prefer their more detailed natural mid range vocals) and ribbon tweeter with tri-folded transmission line. It is lead lined behind the main driver to dampen box resonance and weighs in at around 40kg each.

This is actually a version I made to replace the less wife-friendly Ammonite which was a coiled transmission line made out of concrete and looking like, well, an Ammonite. She couldn't stand the look of them. To my eyes they were much more interesting than these, but wives have little taste other than mass produced IKEA bobbins.

Last year I ditched the crossover and built an active crossover do each driver is powered by s separate amplifier. The difference was astounding since there is nothing in the way of the amp having full control over the driver. Also it is possible to compensate for the natural roll off of the speaker and get greater bass extension. Works down to around 30Hz I reckon.

Electrostatics are the holy grail - I've always wanted to hear a pair. My mate's brother actually did the thing where he found a pair in a skip because the owner (well his wife) was chucking them out thinking they were old radiators. He knocked on the door and explained what they were to the wife (by this time a widow) but she was happy for him to take them. He flogged them on ebay even before I heard of the story ffs!

Fair does to you Chris, this is impressive from the bits I understand.

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

You're dead right. The law of diminishing returns runs rampant with hifi. Ince you're over a hundred quid for a unit then if you double the cost and you get 0. 001% improvement.

I shudder to think how much money I saved having bumped into that speaker chap. All the hifi mags tell you is whatever you have, you HAVE to get the next model up.

I've heard well thought of kit from Linn and Naim that have been downright inferior to much cheaper stuff. Its a minefield.

Indeed!
I will keep you posted with the Quad stuff. Will be a while as I will get serviced etc

If you get bored of your cabs....

 

[manxtoffee]

THAT IS FAR ABOVE MY LEVEL. I USED TO GET THE SCHEMATIC DIAGRAMS WITH SOME OF MY KIT AND IT WAS FAR TOO MUCH TO UNDERSTAND. Stupid caps.

There is something very addictive about HIFI but, I learned a few years ago that you will never be happy (unless you make your own speakers), and so just stay mid-range. The high end stuff is fantastic but you are always looking (listening) for the imperfection.

Glad I am not the only one who's wife thinks it is daft

The rabbit hole I went down into, very addictive. At the time I thought nothing of dropping £10K or even £20K just on a class 'A' amp then same again on preamp/amp & mono blocks or another component and then another 10 or 20 on speakers and another couple of grand on wires.
Thankfully I had sold most of it by the time the big crash set in '08.
Now I make do with some old Luxman class 'A' pre/amp, Lexicon hi-def spinner, Gallo hybrid electrostatics and cheap wires.

 

[chrismpw]

The rabbit hole I went down into, very addictive. At the time I thought nothing of dropping £10K or even £20K just on a class 'A' amp then same again on preamp/amp & mono blocks or another component and then another 10 or 20 on speakers and another couple of grand on wires.
Thankfully I had sold most of it by the time the big crash set in '08.
Now I make do with some old Luxman class 'A' pre/amp, Lexicon hi-def spinner, Gallo hybrid electrostatics and cheap wires.

Until serendipity landed some very high quality silver plated military spec cables into my lap, I used to find twin and earth solid core a very good speaker cable. Years ago though .... I've tried it recently and I'm not sure that the copper quality is as good as it once was - probably the China effect.

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

The rabbit hole I went down into, very addictive. At the time I thought nothing of dropping £10K or even £20K just on a class 'A' amp then same again on preamp/amp & mono blocks or another component and then another 10 or 20 on speakers and another couple of grand on wires.
Thankfully I had sold most of it by the time the big crash set in '08.
Now I make do with some old Luxman class 'A' pre/amp, Lexicon hi-def spinner, Gallo hybrid electrostatics and cheap wires.

"the big crash" otherwise known as "Ipod day"
I was a HIFI seller until that point, was left with quite a lot of mid range separates and speakers that I could not shift (they are slight back en vogue now though).
I

 

[manxtoffee]

Until serendipity landed some very high quality silver plated military spec cables into my lap, I used to find twin and earth solid core a very good speaker cable. Years ago though .... I've tried it recently and I'm not sure that the copper quality is as good as it once was - probably the China effect.

Used to swear by silver Yter cables, which was favoured or *sic flavour of the month with the Italians, hence was a few grand a pop until I found 'supposed' medical grade solid core copper which could had for pennies, but like you say quality is such a variance these days you don't quite know what you're getting.

 

[chrismpw]

"the big crash" otherwise known as "Ipod day"
I was a HIFI seller until that point, was left with quite a lot of mid range separates and speakers that I could not shift (they are slight back en vogue now though).
I

Top quality hifi is still there. What the ipod did, like the cd before it, was to make people value convenience over sound quality. Fair dos - its down to what you value the most I guess. But if I'm listening to music, I'm listening to it - wanting every nuance and bit of detail just as if the performers are in front of you. I don’t do background music and if its not on a decent system then its just no better than noise, as I sit there wondering what I'm missing!

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

Top quality hifi is still there. What the ipod did, like the cd before it, was to make people value convenience over sound quality. Fair dos - its down to what you value the most I guess. But if I'm listening to music, I'm listening to it - wanting every nuance and bit of detail just as if the performers are in front of you. I don’t do background music and if its not on a decent system then its just no better than noise, as I sit there wondering what I'm missing!

Please don't judge, we have a house wide Sonos system and a simple Orb/Rel suround set up. I lost the love for the faff, hence me now getting the Quads out.

 

[chrismpw]

Please don't judge, we have a house wide Sonos system and a simple Orb/Rel suround set up. I lost the love for the faff, hence me now getting the Quads out.

My son in law has a sonos system. Its alright if what you want us a reasonable sound everywhere in your house. Its convenient and there's nothing wrong with that - its just preference.

In fact I've recently gone down the convenience route myself. Although I'll never be without my turntable and micromega stage 6 cd player, I've recently bought a Brennan B2 which now has most of my cds ripped to it. Have to say I'm quite impressed with it as a source.

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

My son in law has a sonos system. Its alright if what you want us a reasonable sound everywhere in your house. Its convenient and there's nothing wrong with that - its just preference.

In fact I've recently gone down the convenience route myself. Although I'll never be without my turntable and micromega stage 6 cd player, I've recently bought a Brennan B2 which now has most of my cds ripped to it. Have to say I'm quite impressed with it as a source.

Yeh, convenience is the key here. Whole family can listen to what they want where they want. Also, I rarely sit and just listen to music anymore, Radio 4 and 6 in the back ground is where I am at.