Daddyjt

Nothing but good things to say about @Nahash5150 (Nelion Audio) and the Bill D C1. Below is my 2ch system - Bill D C1 ( mod performed myself) and Silver 9t amps recently upgraded by Greg at Nelion. You’ll be in good hands…

Welcome! Let us know how it sounds when you get it running!

Alison Krauss has a new album out - Arcadia. I cannot think of ANY artist - any - that has produced consistently spectacular recordings (both musically AND sound quality) as her. Arcadia is no exception - it is beautifully produced and the content is superb. Track 1, Looks Like The End Of the Road, is incredible. Her vocals, the layered guitars, and the bass - at about :32, there is a bass hit that is lower than anything I’ve heard, short of a few Telarc discs. Track 4, Granite Mills, is a touching rendition of a true historical fire that claimed the lives of several child laborers. If you are a fan of hers, this album does not disappoint. I picked up a signed version at my local record store for $15.

It all depends on what you are looking to do. I will freely admit that I’m a complete outlier in my digital delivery. I have no desire of a streaming service - I have a 3tb FLAC library on SSD that I plug into an Oppo 105. The Oppo on screen interface is a bit clunky, but I organize my FLAC into about 24 files by alphabet letter, so navigation is pretty easy. I like the Oppo for the ESS Saber DACs, the fact that it plays all my SACDs & DVDAs (and virtually any other disc format known to man), and the fact that I can output the video OSD via HDMI to a screen. Most streamers have tiny screens, no video output, and only an App to control. This also works on the Oppo 103, which are usually between $300-$400 on the used market. I realize this seems antiquated by today’s standards, but it works for me…

This track (Everything Must Go, by Steely Dan) is flat-out THE BEST sounding kick-drum I have ever heard on my system. I hate the intro (cacughanous combination of sax, drums, guitar), but at the :50 mark starts perhaps my current favorite SD song…

After a bit of brainstorming, I’m thinking either one of the FIVE different wires snaking through the cabinet was making contact with the back of the cone, OR one (or more) of the driver or bezel screws were loose. The IR sensor or the driver +/- speaker wires are the most likely culprits to contact the back of the cone. Therefor I wrapped both in bubble wrap and zip ties (positioning the zip ties so that they could not contact the metal of the basket and create any noise). I also took extra care in re-stuffing the damping material, and carefully tightened and torqued all driver and bezel screws. I reassembled everything and fired it back up. Still a buzz - Damn… but wait - the noise I’m hearing is way off to my left. Way off. It’s actually my son’s cologne bottle on his vanity in his bathroom 15’ away! Whew. The sub sounds fantastic - and feels like an earthquake with a sweep tone from the Carver Reference disk. Mission accomplished - for the rest of the story, hit up the Chasing Bass thread.

Anyway, I got the plate amp back, and got it installed as quickly as I could. There’s a lot to these things - the speaker wires to the woofer, the bus wire to the accelerometer, the bus wire to the front panel mic input, bus wire to front panel IR sensor, and bus wire to front panel light. So, all hooked up and I ran an input from my 2ch rig to it just to test function. Full stop. There’s a rattle/scrape/buzz sound. Shit. My first (and worst) thought was a blown voice coil on the 18” driver. Shit, shit, shit. Uniform pushing on the cone felt “scratchy”. Damn. So I uninstall the plate amp, flip the box over and then begin the process of removing the driver. The whole time I’m thinking “at least I have a backup plate amp (all DD series subs - 10”, 12”, 15” and 18” use the exact same plate amp) for my other 18” or my 12” should either of them fail. pulling the driver is not easy - 16 Allen screws for the front bezel, then 6 more for the driver. THEN you have to get the driver out - and it’s MASSIVE - see pics. The voice coil is 5” in diameter, and a full 7” long. The magnet assembly is roughly 40lbs alone. Once out of the enclosure, the cone-push test revealed no scratch or rub. None. Now I’m starting to be a bit hopeful! I inspected the cabinet for anything loose or with potential to rattle - nothing. Hmm…

I titled this thread with the “light” because I took the easy way out and sent the plate amp to EBC for repair. For $400 shipped, they get it in tip top shape and do great work. I ran into a few other hurdles getting this unit back into service, and that’s what I’m going to expand on here. If you’re unfamiliar with the DD series by Velodyne, let me just say that they are the most versatile, have the most prodigious output, and are the best looking subs that have ever been anywhere near my price range. I’ve even heard DD subs head to head with JL Fathoms, and the Velodyne went deeper and was WAY more versatile. As the old saying goes, when it comes to subwoofers there’s three things - small size, high (and deep) output, and affordability - but you can only have two. An affordable sub that goes deep is going to be huge… A small sub that is affordable is going to have limited output… Well, the DD subs by Velodyne are about as small as they can be based on their driver size, and have MASSIVE output - but they are most assuredly NOT affordable. The versatility of the DD series comes from two things - one, they are “servo” subs, which means they have an accelerometer attached to the driver cone. This accelerometer tracks cone movement and compares it to the input signal roughly 6,000 times per second. Deviations are corrected in real time, which has an astounding impact on distortion. Typical high-end subs will see upwards of 30% distortion in the neighborhood of 20hz @ 100 db. A DD sub will be in the 2.5% distortion range. The second is an amazing onboard processor allowing adjustment of virtually every imaginable parameter, and also includes an 8 band parametric EQ, on-screen GUI, high quality microphone and a full function remote. Original list on the DD18 was about $6,000. I purchased my DD12 that does duty in the family room 5.1 system for $4,000 in 2006. It’s in a great room that consists of the family room, dining room, kitchen and formal living room - roughly 1,000 square feet WITH 16’ vaulted ceilings (huge volume), and the DD12 is set at 60 out of 100 on volume to fill this space. My theater room that is 220 square feet with 9’ ceilings - and now has TWO DD18’s that I bought for $1,500 and $600 on the local classifieds. The $600 one I bought with a bad plate amp, which I sent to EBC and had repaired/refreshed for $400 - so I’m into a $6,000 sub for $1,000. The $1,500 one is the one I will be discussing in this thread.

I couldn’t agree more - on all counts. The guest room is yours any time you want… I’ve also got that bottle of Blanton’s that needs to be opened…!

Dude - do you know how heavy those things are?? I’d have to build a TANK of a stand - x2…. In all seriousness, what benefit would I see (hear)?

Well. If a little (or a lot) is good, then a whole lot more is great. Right? In the case of bass in my HT, the answer is a resounding YES! I had my 2nd Velodyne DD18 just sitting around collecting dust. It got wet in the flood about a year and a half ago, and to be honest I was afraid to plug it in. With some of the proceeds from selling my 2nd pair of Silver 9ts, I sent the plate amp off to EBC in New Jersey. They are reasonable ($400) for plate amp repair/refresh, and do great work. Even if it wasn’t damaged, the amp is getting on past the 30 year old mark, and due for some attention. Well, I got the amp back a couple days ago, so today was the day. Had a bit of a panic and detour that I’ll detail in another thread, but after some ingenuity I got it up and running. I now have a 7.4.4 HT system, with two SVS SB4000 and TWO Velodyne DD18. Don’t get me wrong, the SVS are very nice and stout subs, but the Velodyne DD series…. They are on a whole different level. An 18” Kevlar cone (that’s just about 255sq inches) with a TWO INCH peak to peak excursion, and a 1,500 class D amp… they move some air. By comparison, the SVS uses a 13” driver (133sq inches) with a 1.25” excursion. playing Top Gun Maverick, Lord of the Rings (the underground battle) and Days Of Thunder (all on 4k), I’m in bass heaven. The two Velodyne subs are kind of hidden behind the seating, but they make their presence known when called upon….

Brand new (25 year old) tweeters now installed - pics below, old then new. I tested function just enough to know they work, critical listening later…:-)

No, that’s a Velodyne DD18 in the photo. It’s no longer there, as the 3.3 definitely required NO sub for music. That DD18, along with another, AND 2x SVS SB3000 (4 total subs, giving me a 7.4.4 Atmos) are all in the HT now. It’s flat-out scary the amount of DEEP bass in that room now….

As the saying goes, I told you that story so I can tell you this one… A couple months ago, I start helping Tim diagnose his issue with his 3.3 - a slight “buzz” or distortion at specific frequencies on specific recordings. (This may not have played out exactly as I recall - @PhilDent feel free to correct any of my errors) First step was swapping speaker cables - sound stayed in the same speaker, so that eliminates all the upstream components. To me, it had all the earmarks of a voicecoil rub on the 4” or the 6” driver. So I tell Tim to pull the 4” drivers and swap them to see if it’s the crossover. In the midst of that, one of the drivers becomes damaged - now I’m feeling like a jerk:-( So Tim calls NHT to inquire about a new 4” driver and ends up talking to Antonio. Antonio as it turns out is the guy that engineered and designed the 3.3, and in his words, “the best speaker NHT ever built”. Antonio says yes, they have the 4” drivers for sale. So Tim asks me if he should replace both, and I figure why not. THEN I start thinking that since I love these speakers so much, maybe I want a couple replacement drivers, just in case. THEN I start thinking that TWEETERS are fragile, and maybe I should have a couple of those too. So Tim ends up ordering us each 2x 4” drivers and 2x tweeters - all for $400 ($200 each). fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I decide to install my new tweeters. The ones in my speakers work fine, but they are ugly - a bit faded and - well - just ugly. I figure I’ll install the new ones, and keep the old as backups. As I get to the task, I quickly run into issues - the old tweeters have the terminals together on the bottom of the magnet assembly, and the new tweeters have the terminals on the sides. The tolerance of the cutout is such that the side terminals keep the new tweeters from fitting in the cutout. So now I email Antonio and ask if the tweeters are electrically similar, as I can slightly grind out a bit for the terminals. He says to measure the overall diameter of the tweeters. Shit - the new ones are 1/4” smaller in overall diameter. This means my 3.3 pair were VERY early production, also confirmed by the green/red binding posts. Antonio told me they have none of the larger (older) tweeters. He says the new tweeters are identical electrically, but he says “let me look around and see if I can find any of the old ones”. About a week later, I get an email that he did indeed find a couple. He tested them thoroughly and sent the pair to me for $150. What a stud - I remember a time when service like this was fairly common… Not so much any more. Thank you Antonio and NHT - you guys are a class act.

I have an update on NHT’s customer service, but I realized I’m missing a big piece here, so I’m going to do one of those “I have to tell you this story so I can tell you the next story” things… After my experience with @PhilDent and the 2.5, I started looking for a pair of 2.9. They seem more plentiful now, but back then they were fairly scarce. I found a set in Bozeman MT - about a 5 hour drive from me. I rented a minivan, loaded up the family, and we made a weekend getaway out of it. The speakers were in great shape - they were in a beautiful home that sat on about 10 acres with about 1/4 frontage on the Galatian river. Probably a 5+ million $ spread. Anyway, loaded up the speakers and spent the weekend in Bozeman and came home. prior to finding the pair in MT, Tim had found a pair for me in LA. I shot him some money, and he agreed to hold them until I could make it over to his place. So at this point, I technically had two sets. Long story short, I fell in love with the 2.9 - it was everything the 2.5 was, but more. Up until about 6 months ago, I had more or less decided that the 2.9 would be my “forever speakers” - especially since I have 2 pair, I have spare parts:-) Then the 3.3 pair in Idaho Falls pops up - about a 3 hour drive. Needless to say, THEY are now my forever speakers! I know these photos exist elsewhere on the forum, but in the interest of continuity, I’m inserting them in this thread…

I love scenes in movies that make me physically uncomfortable for the people being portrayed - think the dinner scene in American History X, Joan Cusak at the pay phone in Arlington Road, etc… In Fury, the meal scene was beautifully awkward and uncomfortable - truly great film making….

You can’t go wrong sending gear to @Nahash5150 (Greg). He does exactly what he says he will, and for a very reasonable price. Most importantly though, he understands how the equipment works - he doesn’t just swap parts until it works, he figures out WHY it failed in the first place, and fixes the root cause.

For Kinzel I prefer Time Warp;-). Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo (might) have deeper bass, but there is nothing like the bass hits on Star Trek Next Generation on this disc - truly scary stuff. For soundstage it’s Sandman by America on SACD. For dynamics it’s Private Investigations by Dire Straits SACD. For just WOW its Piece By Piece by Katie Melua.

Found this searching the inter webs. I certainly don’t agree with many on the list (Tracy Chapman, Billie Elish, etc) BUT they DID get a few right - (Private Investigations, The Chain, Flight of the Cosmic Hippo…) https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/03/best-audiophile-songs-test-speakers/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI7DW9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHR2scdh4F4al5VNEbM-Qjtr9p3xT9iMb2PsVPYyjSRto-oGOxP9NGuwbuA_aem_c-QRHFgd9NJUy1ArtUGq_w

My grandfather: ”Never skimp on your shoes, your mattress or your tires…”

which input are you using? If not phono (CD player or tuner) try a different input (aux 1 or aux2). The rotary source selector switches are a known issue at the age of C1s...

I just started watching “Landman” on Paramount+ while traveling last week. All I can say is WOW. I’m only a couple episodes in, and I am HOOKED. Billy Bob Thorton plays an “actuator” of sorts for one of the many big oil companies in Midland Texas. The show is a fabulous mix of drama, comedy, tragedy and downright touching moments. Throw in a virtual buffet of beautiful vistas and shots, and it’s easily the best thing I’ve seen on TV in the past couple years. Tyler Sheridan seems to somehow be improving his craft with every project he is a part of. Top tier stuff here folks…

That’s sure not a popular truism in todays culture….!

Welcome - TFM 15/6 amps are seeing a fairly large resurgence with the need for many to amplify anywhere from 2-10 surround/Atmos speakers in modern home theaters.

The good news is that they pop up frequently for right around $300. I know that the mini-DSP is capable of the same thing (I have one on the shelf), but the build quality, user interface, and rack presence (looks) all tilt heavily in the SMS-1’s favor.