Home/Computer Audio

[derekgates]

Damn, impressive all around! That dual sub setup should be *insane*!

I use dual SVS SB13 Ultras behind my couch with some Boston Acoustics E100s performing full range (powered by Outlaw 2200 amps)

I built some headphone amplifiers (Objective 2) but haven't taken a dive into speaker amp building/diagnosing. Super cool to see, @fmorelli

Cool that you are sharing these projects.

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

Nice clean setup. Those E100's look cool!

 

[derekgates]

Nice clean setup. Those E100's look cool!

Oh thank you. I have been a longtime Boston Acoustics fan, starting with some VR-960s then VR-975s (with VR-12 center) and finally scored some E-100s and E-70s which are insanely hard to obtain. They were the 'last hurrah' of Boston Acoustics and they threw every bit of R&D into them...

Boston Acoustics Reference E Series E70 Speaker System

Take it to the limit. I've come to appreciate that, when it comes to evaluating speakers, first impressions count—big time.

www.soundandvision.com

Boston Acoustics' design team was definitely thinking along those lines when they developed StabiliTek, a multilayer cabinet system that combines rigid alloy extrusions with acoustically inert sandwich construction for all of the E Series speakers. The cabinets' aluminum and medium-density-fiberboard parts are acoustically damped with foam gaskets, and the deep channel that runs down the speaker's rear, central, metal backbone can also conceal speaker wires.

The E Series models all use Boston's 1-inch aluminum dome VRH.O. tweeter, which features an extruded aluminum heat sink to improve power handling. The tweeter is slightly offset from the cabinet's center to minimize diffraction.

The E100s play uniformly down to 40hz, easily.

They have tweeters on the rear (with a toggle switch) to widen the soundstage even further. BA had plans to supply unfinished wood panels, to allow matching with your home theater as well.

Incredible speakers. I wish I had more wattage to feed them! I am working on dedicated Outlaw 2200 for the front stage; 200w for center/left/right... but am also considering Emotiva XPA-1 (Gen 2) if I can find some... need two powerful monoblocks.

(the finish on mine got nicely destroyed by UPS... ah well)

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

Seriously, and I am not joking, try out a Crown XLS-2502. 440W per channel into 8 ohms, 775W into 4 ohms, 1200W into 2 ohms. Found for about $650, less if on sale. Get two and bridge them for 1550W into the E100's 8 ohm load.

Or get two xls1502's, and bridge them for 1050W into 8 ohms, which is still prob more than you'll ever use.

I like the old school nice big audiophile amps, but when my parasound went out, I temporarily used what WAS my subwoofer amp (an xls 1502) to drive full range NHT's and...well, never went back. Now I have a bunch of them. You can turn off all the lights/etc. so they aren't garish in the room, and the fans are near silent. Adjustable input sensitivity, they will take RCA's if you are using unbalanced connectors, built in crossovers if you need them.... IMO unbeatable value. Below is a pic of some of my amps for the main system (I have a few more elsewhere), pay no heed to the gain knob positions, I had just stuck them in a new equipment rack while I sort out main system setup.

Chris

 

[derekgates]

Seriously, and I am not joking, try out a Crown XLS-2502. 440W per channel into 8 ohms, 775W into 4 ohms, 1200W into 2 ohms. Found for about $650, less if on sale. Get two and bridge them for 1550W into the E100's 8 ohm load.

Or get two xls1502's, and bridge them for 1050W into 8 ohms, which is still prob more than you'll ever use.

I like the old school nice big audiophile amps, but when my parasound went out, I temporarily used what WAS my subwoofer amp (an xls 1502) to drive full range NHT's and...well, never went back. Now I have a bunch of them. You can turn off all the lights/etc. so they aren't garish in the room, and the fans are near silent. Adjustable input sensitivity, they will take RCA's if you are using unbalanced connectors, built in crossovers if you need them.... IMO unbeatable value. Below is a pic of some of my amps for the main system (I have a few more elsewhere), pay no heed to the gain knob positions, I had just stuck them in a new equipment rack while I sort out main system setup.

Chris

I like the Outlaw 2200 because I can put them on the glass shelves in my 'cabinet' (weight limit) and they are priced around $280 used. I started purchasing them to prevent the overload protection kicking in on my Onkyo 3008 while watching at reference level and haven't had an issue with them but I read about people running 500w+ into these E100s (holy hell).


VERY impressive rack setup you got there.

I was looking into those Crown units many years back but worried about the rack mounting and the seemingly blinding lights of the units. They are made for hardcore PA uses... look to be built to handle abuse. I find it amusing I was looking at those a long time ago and talked myself out of it. Those are going back on the list of things to consider, need to figure out space for FOUR though, yeesh!


You guys are on a whole other level than where I am coming from! What a nice surprise.

 

[fmorelli]

@Chris@VargasTurboTech - for a long time people used to hop up the Carver amps for cheap, good sounding power. I'm sure you remember all that.

If you shop smart, you can get good-sounding stuff and spend low dollars. No doubt. Money is not an indicator of sound quality. I tell my guitar customers this all the time. Even though my stuff is on the high-end of the spectrum. Like watches - cost is not an indicator of accuracy.

Filippo

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

Looky what trouble I just got myself into.

old kappas! 7 kappa series 2.
No clue what I’m going to do with them yet but they should be used.

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

 

[fmorelli]

Uh .... good part about expensive equipment is that it's not as easy to stack up unless your disposable income is untapped

Part of my problem is that my wife is a saint. She's not a limiter, so I have to excersize a modicum of control.

I've always wanted a set of Klipschorns. Have no place to put them. Thank God.

Filippo

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

Wow these kappas are old school but sound very good. Clean, crisp. Right now listening to them via phone plugged directly into an xls2502, which is enough power to cook them. Honestly, for the era, they're brilliant. I think I'll clean them up and keep them a while. I paid $300 for what listed for $1800 back in the early 90's, or about $3500 today. Cabinet construction is extremely solid. Placement is lame, setup is lame, just plunked them down and let 'em rip. Very pleased, this is a fun trial.

Fmorelli, if you can get kipschorns give them a try. They are flawed but have a special something that warrants a nod, if not outright love. I dig it. It's one of the reasons I love second system speakers... I (personally) feel like I have more freedom to accept flaws and pay attention to the strengths. I have the main system for reference. It's fine.

Chris

 

[fmorelli]

Exactly the point. One can assemble excellent sounding equipment for short money. The 80's onward saw some very nice equipment in the realm of speakers and soild state amplifiers.Onward into the 90's etc. Theater sound and such becomes a different animal. But for music in stereo, one can do really well. The only issue with older equipment is that the amps and crossovers can use some help. Mostly, capacitors go out of spec. But there is a wealth of support for the old "good" equipment on line, and components pieces are inexpensive. Which reminds me - I need to pull the crossovers out of the Epic CF-4's. I told Bob Crites I'd send them out last month for restoration.

Filippo

 

[NoQuarter]

Ha... the comment about the lights on the Crown amps.

Here is ours that has a piece of tinted window film over it to try and tone it down

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

Yep, my rack has a tinted glass door too, but for anyone that doesn't have that (or wants more shading) check out these:

LightDims Original Strength - Light Dimming LED Covers/Light Dimming Sheets for Routers, Electronics and Appliances and More. Dims 50-80% of Light, in Retail Packaging. - Light Dims Led Light Blocker - Amazon.com

LightDims Original Strength - Light Dimming LED Covers/Light Dimming Sheets for Routers, Electronics and Appliances and More. Dims 50-80% of Light, in Retail Packaging. - Light Dims Led Light Blocker - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

Chris

 

[fmorelli]

Yep, my rack has a tinted glass door too, but for anyone that doesn't have that (or wants more shading) check out these:

Works good for check engine lights, too!

Filippo

 

[derekgates]

Yep, my rack has a tinted glass door too, but for anyone that doesn't have that (or wants more shading) check out these:

View attachment 37227

LightDims Original Strength - Light Dimming LED Covers/Light Dimming Sheets for Routers, Electronics and Appliances and More. Dims 50-80% of Light, in Retail Packaging. - Light Dims Led Light Blocker - Amazon.com

LightDims Original Strength - Light Dimming LED Covers/Light Dimming Sheets for Routers, Electronics and Appliances and More. Dims 50-80% of Light, in Retail Packaging. - Light Dims Led Light Blocker - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

Chris

Exactly what I was about to post. I use Light Dims on just about every piece of HT equipment around my house, air filters with blue lights, chargers, etc. Love those things!

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

Been a while. Sold the NHT's, sold the infinities, moved the powered JBL's to the bedroom for night time rain sound use (it's an easy life). Using Revel M106's on the computer now, and the big news is picked up some Revel F226BE mains. The beryllium tweeters are amazing, and these are very high quality speakers. They have a near-live sound to them, percussive across the frequency spectrum, which is hard to imagine unless you've recently listened to live music.

Sub project is still steaming along nicely, but I'm a long way away from making sawdust -doing bracing now.

Nice side benefit to these (which, btw, I did not pay anywhere near retail for) was moving the M106's to computer use. What a joy to listen to!

 

[doublespaces]

So you're running a pair of these?

 

[Traf]

When i saw the title i was thinking "damn cool i'm gonna post about my shit".
Then i read the thread, i better go get some orange juice.

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

So you're running a pair of these?

I like the Revel's a lot. The F226BE's are incredible but on the pricey side.

Basically the way this all unfolded was I wanted to hear the Revels, the spinorama data on the M105 and M106 suggested they were extraordinary speakers, so I kept an eye out for them on the used market. M105 actually measures a touch better but we're splitting hairs -either would be fine for most small room/low listening levels. M106's came up first and I replaced the main speakers in the big room with them. Fell in love. They were too small for my dynamic needs in that room, but I loved 'em anyway. Hence going with the BE upgraded towers.... which means those homeless M106's landed on the computer. Muhahaha.

The F226BE's are basically the same speaker as the F228BE's, but $3k less retail and use 6-1/2" woofers instead of the 8" woofers on the F228BE. I have the bass covered with the next multi-sub design, and the smaller baffle on the F226BE's makes for slightly improved horizontal dispersion, so it was a no-brainer; suits my needs, measures better and costs less. Look at this off axis response!

For those not in the know, frequency response is important, but on-axis frequency response is just one part of how a speaker sounds in a room. There are a few different valid perspectives on how to make a quality loudspeaker, but Harmon's contention is that you want to control directivity and have smooth off axis response. The rationale is established from rigorous double blind listening tests, but at the end of the day it's essentially because you do hear on-axis response but most energy pushed into the room is the off-axis response -it all makes a pretty big difference once at the listening position. PLUS, if you have "errors" in the off axis response, you can't correct it with equalization -i.e. you can make on-axis flat but you'll still have off-axis bumps or holes, so the room never really gets filled the right way with the right amount of energy. At the end of the day on a high level you want a perfect speaker with flat on-axis response and smooth off-axis response tapering off with increasing frequency. The F226BE's aren't perfect but they're damned close. This results in a speaker that (above the bass) isn't as picky about the room they're put in, sounding similar regardless of the room. A pretty big deal compared to the "guess and check" method of days long past.

Great review of them:

Revel PerformaBe F226Be Floorstanding Speaker Review (erinsaudiocorner.com)

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

When i saw the title i was thinking "damn cool i'm gonna post about my shit".
Then i read the thread, i better go get some orange juice.

Dude post away. No snootery here, it's the pursuit of enjoyment of music or movies. I'm more of a collector, I like trying out new speakers, especially old vintage ones you can pick up for a few bucks used, tweaking things etc. There are a lot of musically pleasing systems that cost a fraction of what I've put into either of the systems. I spent some more on the Revel's because I could, and it's in line with my goals, but they're 100% not for everyone and I guarantee there are some in here who wouldn't tell the difference between them and something 1/4 of the price.