"Please allow me to introduce myself..." from Azzolina Audio

[Azzolina Audio]

Greetings and Salutations to all at this lovely forum from the rural centre of France. My name is Charles Azzolina-Michlin of Azzolina Audio. I have just discovered this forum and would be happy to find a place among you. Besides being fascinated with music and its reproduction I am the founder of Azzolina Audio and manufacture high efficiency loudspeakers. It has been a while since I have participated in any forums and it would be a pleasure to do so again here.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Hi Charles, Marc here. We've been in a little bit of email contact as you know. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Azzolina Audio]

Hi Marc, indeed, nice to see you here. Thank you for the welcome!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Welcome to WBF, Charles!

 

[spiritofmusic]

Charles, I'm fascinated by your designs, Audiophile Bill has pointed me to the provenance of your designs, a real link to the fascinating heritage of the WE type sound.

For me, horns are the inevitable destination in this hobby, ever since I went from high power solid state amps/inefficient multi driver tower spkrs, to a tube preamp, to SETs/high efficiency full range driver spkrs.

For me, I've reached the end of this particular path, having eeked out as much performance as I can, especially in my new dedicated room (which has been such a blessing audibly).

I did for a short time consider as radical move to Apogees ribbons, but I'm off that particular drug now, LOL.

I'm very likely to halve my room into a much more manageable 5.5m x 7m, to as much as anything leave me with the serious option of running yr Hadrons with lower power SETs like 45 tubes, or even 46's.

Your Hadrons, esp the field coil versions, are pretty much the only horns I'm considering, they tick so many potentially positive boxes, and I'm really looking fwds to hearing them soon.

Can you elaborate a bit more on them, and your other spkrs? I'm sure many members here will find them as fascinating as I do.

And do let me know if you think 40 m*2/70 m*3 is manageable w 45 or 46 tube amps re comfortably driving the Hadrons, energizing the space, especially thru the low bass.

 

[Azzolina Audio]

Hello Ron, thank you for the welcome!

Hi Marc, as for speaker efficiency and room size... there are many variables of course - especially the nature of the amplification. Although I do not foresee any problem with the room you describe, Hadrons and a 45/46 amplifier I cannot comment concretely without knowing more about the amplifiers, the liveliness of your room, your listening preferences, etc... . Empirically, the Hadrons have run with Thomas Mayer's 46 SE tube amps in a 40 sq. m. room, with vaulted ceiling, full of people, quite well, low end included.

 

[bonzo75]

Marc, at 54 you are getting a Hadron? What pills are you taking?

 

[spiritofmusic]

Charles, I'll keep some of this to PMs, this thread is about you and your spkrs, not me.

Suffice to say, I've got very lucky w my room, it's naturally warm, lively but not strident, unamplified speech is really intelligible (even if what I say isn't always v intelligent LOL), and clearly shows any change, good or bad.

TM 46 amps energizing a 40 sq m room sounds v promising. I believe Thomas makes a differential version more than doubling output to over 3W.

For me, it's the promise of running horns that are uncompromised and seamless into the deep bass that makes yr Hadrons particularly worth investigating. The sooner I can eliminate my Class D active subs, the better.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Ked, the drugs here in East Anglia are the best.

Anyhow, mind your language, this is the designers thread. Maybe you'd like to tell him why a 54 year old shouldn't get Hadrons, whereas you're always encouraging me to go for AG Trios.

 

[bonzo75]

Well as long as he gets that this was an English pun and nothing to do with speakers

 

[spiritofmusic]

Well Ked, a Hadron is two Quarks, stuck together by nuclear forces.
Imagine the two of us stuck in a room together.

 

[jeff1225]

Welcome to the forum. I am also very interested in finding out more about your speakers, especially your choice to keep the speaker low and tilt the horn up towards the listener's listening position.

Thank you.

 

[Azzolina Audio]

HI Guys, no problem with puns! I should add that you can reach the limit with a 46 SE amp in a room that size... so please temper my earlier comment with this.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Charles, I think the 211s may still be best suited.

As Mike Lavigne found, he often reached the limit w 20W Lamms driving his 97dB EA spkrs.

I'd certainly at least want the illusion of a tap that can still be turned further when listening reasonably flat out on the Hadrons.

211s it is.

 

[Steve Williams]

Bienvenue Charles

 

[DaveC]

Welcome. I love horns! I think they are the best and have my own horn speaker I plan on introducing one day.

Spirit, I wouldn't use Mike's choice to drive his speakers with 20 wpc as any indication of what compression drivers will like.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Dave, sure, I was just using that as a possible data point, maybe incorrectly.

I'm still hoping that my Nat amps incl 70W 211s are going to be fine, esp if I reduce the size of my room.

However they're not the quietest amps, and while that's acceptable on my Zus, it may not be the case long term on much more revealing alternatives like horns, incl Charles' Hadrons.

And so as I look at alternatives, I'm just weighing up 1.46W 46s, 2W 45s, 8-10W 300Bs, and 20W 211s, in a potential 103dB horn (same efficiency on the woofers, both drivers field coil powered), in a 440 sq ft room, playing not just string quartets, but also plenty of high energy bass driven material.

 

[spiritofmusic]

I'm aware I hog forums re my personal story, so on to others to keep the discussion going w Charles.

My personal requirements can be sorted offline.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Welcome Charles - great to have you posting on WBF!

Really loving your speaker building philosophy.

Any chance you can share some more details on this including pictures?

Best regards.

 

[Azzolina Audio]

Hello, and thank you. The goal of the enterprise is to create loudspeakers which are properly designed for single ended triode amplification. This not only means high efficiency and stable load but also compatibility with a tube amplifier's Rg (Amplifier source resistance, leads, etc..). As simple as this sounds it is not as common as one may think. There is of course much more but I must attend another obligation presently. I will be happy to post some details and pictures with a little more time.