4krow

Great Wayne. I have almost the same story with a set of JBL speakers that used an electronic crossover. Yup it was set up wrong. Best deal I ever got.

In my case, I started with the Bell System, and couldn't have made a better choice. Then the breakup of '83 happened, and slowly at first, customer service declined in small ways. Then they called us 'US West' and that was a step down, but nothing compared to when the new name became Qwest. At that point it was like not wanting people to ask who you worked for. You know, "Oh I work for the IRS, but only the good part." In this case, we made a bad name in every state that we serviced. After I left 10 years ago, they changed their name a couple of more times. When they call to tell me of retirement benefits, I tell them to just take me off of EVERY list that they have, and consider it even.

It's been 10 years since my last official career. It took about 5 years for the night terrors to die down. I was proud of my work, and ashamed of my company.

I dunno. As others have been lured in, so have I when it comes to, let's say experimentation. Some ideas have my attention, while others simply are a ploy to the ignorant. In cases like this one, there seems to be a possibility of some truth. I remember PS Audio had a 'cleaning cycle' incorporated in one or more of it's power conditioners that I owned. The result was practically nill to my ears. I have even once heard that if you pause a CD during play, the sound is improved. No reason given. Maybe if this disc also had a lens cleaner included with it, there would be the likelihood of improvement.

Seems that I have heard about this fluid having a certain lifespan. If there is a way to change it out, it makes sense to do so if the fluid is at the end of it's useable life. I would expect that drying out would be from age or overheating or both.

That's the thing. Mostly it is desirable to match these colors. Then there are times that you can get away with contrasting color or a close enough match that the eye doesn't get bothered by it. The real problem that I have in any case is finding a coating that is durable enough for even normal use.

Yup, I agree. Now, why didn't I think of that? At first, I thought that the tubes would be laying on their sides on grooved trays, but this idea is also good.

Exactly KVE, I have the same issue, and understand that there is much more to be gained from the attic arrangement. If you do go that far, I think there should be a medal given for it. We all have the same feeling about having to work in the attic.

Just this morning, I was looking at replacement potentiometers for the C1 if one was ever needed. There are many to choose from that are of great quality, so if it comes to that, there is little to replacing one of these in your unit.

There are those that say caps must also be broken in for best sound. I have noticed that many caps sound brightest when first installed, the settle a bit in the highs only after a few hours. About 2 years ago, I bought an amp with PIO caps, sorry don't remember the brand, and have to say that indeed it was the clearest sound ever for me....until I had the transformers changed out to a specialty type. Here we go again, the amp is almost too clear for me now. If it is not one thing it is another. Find the combo that suits you best is the message here.

I think that these are all good responses, given the different environments that they are used. In one case, it would make little sense to overspend on a crossover for an average speaker. On the other end of the scale, perhaps a more demanding application with great speakers (and crossover), great system, and great ears will give better results. As always, you cannot over emphasize the value getting the sound we really want, no matter the path we chose to get there. I am only relaying this because of the years of past experience building speakers at higher cost levels and not really being satisfied. Finally, I arrived with an OB design that I wish were found years ago. Pretty cool journey, in spite of, or because of parts chosen.

On one hand, I find this to be a can of worms. Now on the other hand, I do believe in using a quality film capacitor, but not at a $600 price that breaks the bank. I will say that there are small differences that I have heard in the past, mostly in the higher frequencies between caps. When building one set of speakers, I recall using the Sonicaps, but the preference was small comparing them to other caps. Also, I would consider the total sound quality of the speakers, and judge accordingly. I would suppose that using a cheap cap might be where you would notice the most difference between the two. Having said that, it would great to be able compare different caps during the build, the results might surprise you.

No promises, but I may be able to take your C1 on in the near future. I have three units now that must pass the test before I ship them off. That always seems to be no big deal UNTIL one does not pass. Round and round we go after that.

My work partner, Terry R. lived in Hereford. We worked the area for the phone company central offices. Saw just about everyone of them. Those were some of the good years.

Bonzoro, I used to live in Bisbee. Radio stations were rare, at least the US ones, so I finally got X-FM. It was as good as I could do, since I drove all over the Southern part of AZ. Where did you end up at?

A buddy of mine in FL has had 2 electrical fires...no make that 3. 2 of them were stereo related! In the last fire, he tried to use a fire extinguisher but for some reason it failed and he got his hands pretty burned up. Makes me want to look into getting one of these Halon extinguishers. did I spell that right? where am I? wtf

Most impressive speakers and futuristic for it's time. There were so many great products back in the day.

I cant think of a better idea than cleaning the INSIDE of an RCA jack! remember, a SMALL signal passes through that connection. just imagine only a little bit of crud in there. 1-2 volts can easily be affected from passing cleanly through such a connection. same goes for volume controls, etc etc.

DUKES BIG 4, XRCD It really gets no better than this for clarity.

The web page that I directed you to explains all of the questions that you have.

http://www.hlabs.com/products/crossovers/index_files/Page384.htm I somehow got this right

I wish that I still had the Harrison module that I used way back, because it was able to act as a line level crossover for just such an application as yours. You could choose frequency and even slope. It was a little passive type black box that was easy to adjust and if nothing else, would give you and idea if you were going in the right direction or not. Might be a good idea to look at all the products that Harrison Labs have to offer.

"Let none of your success or failure ever be due to a lack of effort." It was the luckiest choice of words that ever left my lips when dropping my sons off at the Navy recruiting office 16 years ago.

+1 on the Night Fly. One of my favorites. I have to mention 'Genius Loves Company' a duet album by Ray Charles. Some special recording techniques were used there and it shows.

LT, That is absolutely a stellar example for the kind of layout that would be practical. Thanks for sharing.