Radioeng2

These were a pair of OB's I made several years ago that I've loaded the Audio Nirvana in. These were my version of the JE Labs OB design. Instead of back supports, I took the same distance and added it to the width. Then I folded back at different angles each side and varied their width too. But the total wrap around distance is pretty much the same distance as the JE Lab's. I made too speaker cut out sizes so I could do a woofer and a HF driver. Each cutout area is made in such a way that I can quick change the insert for a different driver. Kind of similar to a camera quick change mount. Here is a set of the discs that I made where can kind of see the cut profile to make that possible. And then here is a later version of an insertable driver mount. Made in a smaller driver version, only capable of swallowing an 8" in the larger insert position....I've got Dayton Audio 6.5" drivers in those right now instead of the shown TB 1772. The sectional foldback part was just to see if I could do it and to get a gentle edge profile for the highs. No HF driver needed for mating with the TB's. When you start hearing all the attributes of OB...you just can't stop coming up with ideas and things to try.... ....and the wood flies!! Mark

Dan....If you think that the 4-Ten's are what you want, I would help you out with a deal. We can talk about that on email. I'm equipped to cut holes and am glad to help out those that can't, when it's practical to do so. That's pretty much what we're talking about here. I'm using them as of now and would probably have to build something again. But if they fit what you want to do, then I'd be glad to help out! And it'd be cool to have you in again if that worked out! The Audio Nirvana coax are newer and I've not bumped into any of the coax yet. I've got a pair of their 12's and friend has a pair of 10's. For what I've been doing, most of their line isn't exactly in line with what I need, as their Q is typically lower that what I'm looking for. Mark

Crap Mike...we had ten watts on tap! Whatta want? And that was 10 for each channel! No problem using the pictures of course Dan! Glad you liked OB enough to think about it. But I do wish it wasn't a unfinished build that I had to take and winds up here! I've been almost continually building some version of OB now for 4 or 5 years I think. And I still am! The OB thing has really worked for me. I'd gone from years of 'stats and locked into high power to wanting to play with more tubes and lots of speaker designs otherwise. Where my travels led was right back to a couple of the strong attributes from the electrostatics. Phase conherance. Line source. Dipole pattern. Boxless sound. But what I've also picked up is the efficiency to tun about any power I want. And much greater dynamics! Had a friend who's working on a really cool "box" speaker try one of those coax a few weeks ago. The 10" model. The efficiency dropped so much we thought it wasn't working for a minute when we first hooked it up. Then it didn't measure anything close to it's spec's. The resonance was a lot above spec. Then when inserted into the speaker it just didn't sound right. I'd thought about buying one of the version of it myself in the past and was really looking forward to hearing it. Looked very nice. But the performance was unsettling. And the company couldn't/wouldn't explain the crossover at all. I believe after the measuring and listening, that those went back and he's going a different direction. Oh..and the amp choice running the short full-range lines is about using a true current source amp instead of a voltage amp. It doesn't really care about the ohm load and runs a full range driver very spectacularly! Works differently with the low end and the high end both. Mark

I would assume that yours is based on the AudioKarma plans. Those were designed to be able to make the thing from just a single 4X8 sheet of ply or your choice. Those plans found here.... http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=337891 For a friend, I built one out of the Lowe's birch ply. I just let the edges show but finished a lot like yours. I did cheat and use a little extra for a base to cover wheels. It seemed to turn out ok. Pretty good record rack for a guy that has the room. And reasonable in price! Mark

When I have time, I need to read the whole thing! But, when they got to the part about the radio automation "shuffling" the play list, they couldn't be more wrong. No automation system I've ever been associated with ever had a "shuffle" mode! No professional station is turning their product over to shuffle of Windows Media Player! Actually, a live human being spends hours a day in most cases, carefully sweating over the details of what the "mix" of songs is going to be. They take into account the individual market research, that this article comes off so critical of, to flavor the mix to demands of the individual market and not just blanketly play the national sales leaders or national sales success story of the past for older formats. The programmers work very hard at every element played to try to make it fit the mold of that particular stations image. Whatever that is. These guys are very in touch with what their local callers ask for to! If you didn't have at least some stations play a "format" then you'd find yourself never liking a station for more than an occasional song. I'd never defend everything ever station has ever done programming wise. I'm only commenting on how I've seen it done for over 30 years. And I've happened to have been in the door of more stations than most other people that work daily in this business. I totally agree the "produced" music lacks something! That's why I listen to what I do at home! And it ain't that stuff! It's part of what makes live music and recordings of live music, so much more fun....the realness!! Mark PS...oh and the Google reference is out of date. They sold out of the business a while back. They were only involved for a couple of short years thinking they could somehow sell station time in combo with their internet ads.

Thanks for asking! Not totally sure yet. My wife doesn't have time off coming to use. I do, but can't hardly get away. Trying to get some time away this week and spent so much time taking care of stuff today that'd it have just about as well to have been at work! Going to try real hard to get there to CF! Too much fun to miss! Talking audio with the guys and listening is what I enjoy! Have a new batch of music about 3/4th's cooked up as a matter of fact. Need just a few more cuts that have that grab of being worth listening to... Maybe just for you, I can find some kind of Preius drivin' music... Thanks for shoutin'.... Mark

I've got a couple of friends with Thiels. Plus had the chance to go and tour the Thiel plant in Lexington a couple of years ago...which is highly recommended BTW!!! Thiels need power and quality upstream! They recommend amps that double in power for each halving of impedance. As in numbers like 200w into 8, 400 in 4 ohms etc. Some powerful amps get close to doubling for the first halving, but most don't even for that first step let alone the next one. A big Krell will for one... They are very revealing of what you're feeding them with. If you use typical, sterile consumer electronics, then you'll think that Thiels are slightly harsh and...well...sterile. If you find a overly warm tube pre to drive a so-so amp, then you'll think they are warm at times but can harden on some music. They will just show you what your feeding them. I've heard what happened when we pulled the average input terminals and put good a Cardas terminal on...you could hear a difference. Upgrading the crossover caps, the same, it was obvious. Changing speaker cables, you can tell the difference. They will reveal preamp tube changes too if there is a difference there. I've heard a upgraded Mac SS amp sound good on them. A large Manley tube amp sounds really good. A hotrodded Dynaco MkIII wouldn't run them until the bass (something like below 100hz) was unloaded to a sub, then the Dynaco monoblocks sounded quite good. The smaller 1.5 and 1.6's don't push up to high levels and stay clean unless you unload the lowest bass. The bigger ones do pretty good full range. All (like all speakers) are at there best well away from the back wall and carefully setup for equal distance to the listening spot. Pull 'em apart further and further until the center image goes away then come back a bit. If the electronics are up to it, they'll image like a champ and the drivers blend together very seamlessly. Have fun with 'em!! Mark

I've never heard that model of EV, but I'd think the LF would have a good chance to excede the La Scala's that I've heard. Neither will dig down to the lowest frequencies though. I'd think the mid's and high's would be similar. Not that the EV crossover is shabby, but the crossover in the Klipsch is built from a bit better parts. The tweeter protecter is a bit of an advantage that direction if your into block parties. On value...I've seen a few EV's go cheap with blown out woofers and so forth while often nicer wood in the La Scala holds their value up pretty good. Maybe...$350-400 for a beat up version and double that or a bit more, if all is nice. That'd be my guess... Good luck with 'em and report in if you go for it! Mark

I know a fair amount on the EV Sentry IV. Even have a pair of their external crossovers along with a pair of those mid horns. They are fully horn loaded design on all three sections, and are very efficient. 2 woofers, 12" in the big cabinet. The mid horn is a SM-120. I think the driver on it was usually a 1823M (which as strange as this sounds was built as a siren horn driver). The tweeter a ST350A, a very respected design and was made over several generations. The crossover points were 400hz I think on the low end and 3.5K on the top end. There also should be what was called a tweeter protector, a model STR, with them. These were a pretty common PA system at one time. You can rock a pretty good outside area or a club with them. Most cabinets are pretty rough these days, due to being often hauled around for bands a lot. The drivers are all pretty servicable and available, the crossover servicable too. I have a copy on the original service manual and if you can find the right place, is still posted on the EV website. I happen to know about the IV's as I have a pair of the Sentry III's, which came after the IV's and are more of a home model and use the same mid and HF arrangement. They don't come along too often, though I'm thinking about parting with mine since I have so many different speakers around. And it would help domestically if I lower the count some.... Mark

Nikoli Tesla: Man Out Of Time by Margaret Cheney. The tales are so interesting...especially when you have an interest in electronics! I was so inspired from reading about his extreme inventiveness. And learned a whole new side to Edison and the beginning of electrical distribution and even the story behind the electric chair and why it was even invented! Mark

That is a problem to figure out! I just did some organizing and cut down some on the number of seperated CD's. I did have a seperate section for several different labels. I still have my Reference Recordings CD's seperate but several that were all Jazz, I just went ahead and put them in with the rest of the Jazz in alphabetical order by artist. But I still have Rock/Pop in a section, Country in a section and Jazz in a section. But I also added a segment to both LP's and CD's...Dead People! This is in 'honor' of one of the guys that says he only listens to dead people...meaning way older music like from the 40's and 50's. So I put the older stuff in a section and actually made a label for the LP shelf that said "Dead People". Here is what my music storage looks like. The shot cuts off one identical CD rack to the right of the right most one. 45's in the top rows above the LP's. Jazz in the shorter DIY CD rack. The right rack and the one not shown I picked up recently at Best Buy. Should have probably build a entire new set myself, but didn't want to take the time. Mark

Hi Frankie! Yup, I sure missed out not being able to make it and hated it something awful! I sure missed seeing all you guys! Events just transpired to prevent going. Sometimes life gets in the way of the fun stuff. We'd done a long anticipated Alaskan cruise (), had extra expenses this year and so on. Down to the last minute, I was still hoping to be able to slip over for a day...or two...but even that wasn't able to happen. Sounded like it was the usual good times! I've been playing audio plenty. I'm just about to complete the beauty stage of a full-range driver speaker project, a Western Electric based pre-amp project and gathering parts for another tube amplifier build. I hosted a Zu Audio show at my house just a couple of weeks ago too. That was a really good get together and heck of a lot of fun. Anytime you can get a bunch of audiophools together, we seem to manage to have fun in some kind of nerdy way!! And I will hope to be able to make it over to CF next year and catch up with you and all the guys! Those kind of deals are such fun and being able to make friends at those events is really neat! Thanks for the shout out!! Be good and watch out for those speeding Prius!! Mark

Actually, I'm not sure you'd call them LP's at all, but you get the idea! Have you ever heard the "playing the stacks of wax" thing? I've heard that a million times and never gave too much thought to it, though I knew it had to do with the process. These video's show a bunch of really interesting stuff about the manufacturing process they used at this point in time! Really interesting to a technology geek like me!! Part 1 -RCA Victor records manufacturing process 1942 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xwe-Mt99Dw&feature=related Part 2 - RCA Victor records manufacturing process 1042 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxhiUgK5gzs&feature=related Hope somebody else enjoys this as much as I did! Mark

Why not jump off the digi format of the month club and the constant converting and worrying if it will convert. Just store it as the total real music. I wouldn't dream today of anything but Wave files. I want ALL the music!! Drive space is cheap. I can even load up my wifes Ipod with Waves. You can set here every night, going from forum to forum watching people wrangle around with the format issue and reburning, relabeling and so on...and on....and on.... Just jump off and do it right! I wantta listen to the music! Mark