A Bright Shining Lie…Why ignoring an inconvenient truth is stifling system performance a blog from Roy Gregory
- Thread starter Elliot G.
- Start date
Where do I start. Too many to list but I will list a few of the highlights:
New Amps:
1. A monster massive custom one-of-a-kind dual chassis Ultimate 300B DHT SET amp, with all Monolith Magnetics irons, using the EML-20A Mesh driver tube by Radu Tarta
2. Reference level 45/2A3 SET DHT dual chassis amplifier with selectable 801A or 26 driver tube by Thomas Mayer
3. A magnificent one-of-a-kind custom Tron Electric Telstar 211/VT-4-C amplifier with all irons wound by Be Yamamura and with Graham Tricker implementing Be Yamamura’s 211/VT-4-C “Air” amplifier circuit. I believe that this is the original prototype, more elaborate version, of the later Telstars
4. One-of-a-kind Whammerdyne “The Truth” 2A3 Direct Coupled reference amplifier
5. One-of-a-kind Eternal Arts “Arpa” AD1 SE monoblock amplifiers by Dr. Burkhardt Schwäbe
6. Custom one-of-a-kind Audio Note P3 amplifier with silver transformers and 4300E tubes
7. Custom hotrod’ed First Watt F2J amplifier
8. Custom hotrod’ed First Watt M2X amplifier
9. Custom hotrod’ed First Watt F5 amplifier
New Pre-amps:
1. Custom filament bias 4P1L preamplifier with Bartolucci output transformers by José Martins
2. Essence Electro-Acoustics Jasper tube preamplifier
New Dacs:
1. Custom chipless DSD-Only version of Marcel van de Gevel’s ValveDac DSD512 dac, perhaps the most innovative dac design in the last 30 years, it actually uses tubes in the digital to analog conversion process, and not just as buffer output stages
2. Custom chipless Pure DSD Dac based on Jussi Laako’s Signalyst DSC1 "discrete" delta-sigma D/A-converter specifically designed for 256x and higher sampling rates and optimized for seventh order modulators used in Signalyst HQPlayer
New Speakers:
1. Fertin Acoustics 20EX-Carbone field-coil drivers with silver voice-coils, brass phase-plugs, carbon-fiber spiders and Cryogenically treated mounted on set of new JE-Labs style custom Open Baffles
2.Loth-X Polaris - Dual throat larger brothers to my Loth-X Troubadours
3. Tonian Labs Classic 12.1S with the famous PHY H30 LB15 Sag 12" full range drivers and the Tonian Acoustic TL-R2 ribbon super tweeter
4. Custom one-of-a-kind Athos Audio 4-way horn/Raal-ribbon/Open-Baffle system handmade by Attila Ivan in Hungary, with custom 4-way monoblock electronic crossovers
5. 100% restored and rebuilt Apogee Acoustics Caliper Signature ribbon speakers finished in Porsche Graphite Blue Metallic paint color
6. Custom one-of-a-kind Essence Electro-Acoustics Reference Super Gems with outboard crossovers, My second set of these special Dynaudio based speakers by Dale Pitcher
New Custom Built HQPLAYER Processing Only Server:
Ultrafast extremely low latency custom server to achieve DSD512 playback with the most demanding HQPlayer filters and modulators.
As you can see, I’m a kid in a candy store enjoying every listening session with some very VERY special audio equipment.
Thanks for asking. If I get some free time in the future I may add pictures and do a write up on these components on my Friday Night Listening member’s gallery page.
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Used capacitor banks. Replaced the standard single 15,000 uf output blocking capacitor with a bank of 15 separate 1000uf per channel in the basic circuit. Used DC LInk film capacitors in the 10uf positions on the amps, not electrolytics. Replaced all Nichicon Muse capacitors with Silmic II capacitors. Used 4U chassis for additional heatsink surface area as opposed to the 3U FW basic chassis. And a few other less significant tweaks.
A real proof that, as Floyd Toole wrote, "Stereo, therefore, is not really a system at all but, rather, a basis for individual experimentation."
IMHO we go in trouble when people try to rule it in absolute way forgetting that some people mostly want experimentation and enjoyment their way, not the approved way.
I had Apogee Caliper Signature speakers…very nice sound! I preferred all my Acoustats over them though.
That’s a lot of nice new amps…must have been a backbreaker to move all those speakers around with all this amps to find the optimal potential for each amp…
If I may ask:
Who did the refurb and what ribbons/panels where used?
I'm a big Apogee fan myself
In my case the original panels were in excellent shape and did not need replacement. The focus of the restoration was with the deterioration of the foam around ribbons which causes the Buzz sound. And of course to retention the ribbons back factory specs.
The work was done by a gentleman in Florida name E. Pagan, who has decades of experience with all models of Apogees, including the Duetta II, Duetta Signature, Stages, Centaurus, Caliper 1 & Caliper Signature. His preference are the Caliper Signatures due to that to him they sound more magical in small rooms or medium rooms, and in large rooms will produce better execution on low bass frequencies due the lower bass notes needing the extra space.
He has restored Apogee’s for many years and feels that the best ribbon panels that you can have are the original Apogee panels with the matching crossovers as according to him, “each single Apogee speakers are tailored on the inductor coils of the crossovers to match each ribbon panel”.
My Caliper Signatures have all original ribbons and original crossovers and a silicone shore 8 on soft scale mix to regenerate the cushion that the foam lost after decades. Also all ribbons have been detoxified of magnetic particles and dust accumulated over the years on them inch by inch ( a lot of patience and time required to perform this job and not damage the ribbons).
Here is a picture of mine, the outer pair:
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Well you like open baffle designs, so I have to sort of like you.
I'm not sure I get the tube DAC and allure? It seems imprecise.
I am and I am not surprised you don't mention vinyl.
I totally get your fascination with HQ Player and home built computers. Have you ever put one of your servers on a head to head with a know brand?
What is your though on the Whammerdyne. I have know Pat for a lot of years. I wanted to get his Truth amp, but I was not able to visit during the Covid excitement and bought the Dartzeel instead. But I do like a tube and miss the sound. I put my 845 back in for a while and really like it. But its issues such as leaking voltage and noise drive me back out after some time.
I do enjoy Open Baffles a lot and have nine sets of speaker systems that feature Open Baffle, including my Fertin Acoustics and Supravox fullrange field-coil driver systems, and of course the mighty Martin Logan CLS II’s.Well you like open baffle designs, so I have to sort of like you.
Almost all tube dacs without exception use the tubes in a buffer role. The ValveDac is the first to use them as part of the conversion process and as far as I know unique in this regards. The well thought out design and execution are the keys to achieving high precision. The ValveDac is a totally different beast and should not be associated with other tube dacs.
I currently own three turntable systems, a Micro-Seiki, a Transrotor, and Rek-O-Kut idler.
No comparison, there is no commercial unit that can achieve the speed and level of low latency of my custom builds, unless you go to a custom builder. The software has to also be streamlined to achieved low latency, which the commercial units do not do. My latest unit can also transcode to DSD1024 but not with the heaviest HQPLAYER filters and modulators, which are the ones that I prefer.
Pat and team have designed and built stellar amplifiers. They are one of only a few of a handful who build Direct Coupled tube amplifiers. The DC coupling results in exceptional speed, clarity, and dynamics. Spectral has been designing solid-state direct coupled amplifiers for a long time. The risk with DC coupled amplifiers is that if they should fail they may cause damage to either, or both, downstream and upstream equipment.
There is no silver bullet each one of my amps brings something special in their presentation so not ready to crown an amp, but the Whammerdyne are excellent amplifiers.
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We've been building 'direct coupled' tube amps for nearly half a century. A bit more direct-coupling than the Whammerdyne... I do agree direct-coupling can really help with transparency, as long as you pay attention to your power supply issues.
Anything made by Dale Pitcher has to be a bit older these days- why do you say they are 'new'?
“New” to me. They are very old, but in case that you haven’t noticed, I do not subscribe to the “newer is better” mentality, or for that matter to the “more expensive is better” philosophy either.
I hope you don't have to service that preamp. They are a bit tricky to disassemble. Its old enough now that changing out filter caps might not be a bad idea.
Ralph you do know that the Essence amps and preamps were built utilizing classified military technology; therefore they are difficult to disassemble by design. That was just for giggles, that is the myth anyhow, from what I remember the guy that actually did the circuit designs had some experience working on military radars.The Expressive Technologies Model 1 preamp was also infamous for being difficult to disassemble for repairs or inspection.
Getting back to the DC designs, Dennis Fraker of Serious Stereo also championed the Direct Coupled designs. I wonder if Dennis is still around and building or designing new products.
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Sorry- that might be the story but that isn't what you find! There's nothing military or classified in there...
Ralph, are your OTL amplifiers direct coupled from input to output, without a single capacitor or interstage-transformer in the signal path? Obviously I realize that the outputs are direct coupled to the load, but the reason that I ask is that now I remember, you offered, and may still do, Teflon capacitors upgrades for your amps, which would be kind of silly if there were no capacitors in the signal path.
Super cool. Not sure how many were made.
At Pacific Audio Festival the Whammerdyne room featured Songer Audio speakers which use house made field-coil drivers with carbon rod spiders. I mentioned these Fertin drivers as using similar
No. The input is direct-coupled to the balanced differential voltage amplifier. Its output is capacitivily coupled to the driver circuit, which in turn is direct coupled to the power tubes which drive the speaker load directly. The caps are thus a smaller value (typically 0.1uF) but still allowing full power to 2Hz. Its advantageous to prevent the amp having DC response as its bandwidth would then be lower than that of its power supplies, otherwise it could modulate the supplies as a result. In this way IM is reduced and stability is improved.
That’s what I thought, hence the question. Unless you are designing microwave amplifiers, and I’m not talking about the kitchen appliance, it is very risky to go fully direct coupled from input to output. I know that you use Teflon capacitors because they have minimal derating with high temperature, up to +150C and all those parallel tubes create a substantial rise in the temperature around their immediate location. When you get a chance read up on Ferroelectric thin films capacitors, as they are the laboratory reference and have very special characteristics.
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