Visit to Audiophile Bill to hear his horns project

[adyc]

When can the photos be posted?

 

[the sound of Tao]

I so like the extraordinary way that you approach things Bill, it’s definitely all in. Your gear is fascinating in itself, it all feels so tailored and the process that you engage is absorbing and meticulous. Amazing stuff. Love it. Looking forwards to that first video… zero pressure of course .

 

[Blue58]

What can I say that Marc hasn’t said apart from reiterating what a wonderful host Bill was yesterday, supplying pasties, beer and superb music. I’m eternally grateful for a memorable day out and for sharing our passion for all things audio, but particularly HORNs and SETs.

Bill surpassed all my expectations with his beautiful speakers and now I lust after a pair to replace my Duos. There’s just no comparison visually or sonically.

As for the sound? analogue was soundstaging all the way into the back of the room and beyond in a rather spooky way. A different experience to my Duo‘s forward sound. That was until Bill played some tape on his Studer. I’ve never heard tape before and to hear some well known jazz standards from Duke Ellington and Cannonball Adderley was the proverbial mind blowing experience. Completely in the room musicians with the most realistic portrayal of instruments I’ve ever heard. Gobsmacked! I’ll never be the same again.

I woke up this morning thinking about Bill’s horns and I don’t think that will go away for days.

Thank you to Bill for being a gracious host and to Marc for enabling my visit. Cheers Guys!

Blue58

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Morning Marc and Barry,

I am truly thrilled you both enjoyed the day and all the music, pasties, beer and cake. Honestly it was an absolute pleasure to meet you, Barry, and also for you both to visit. I hope you can visit again - you are certainly most welcome. The next things to hear are the really big horn, which is so close to being installed together with my field coil driver project - based on my earlier mdf prototypes on the bigger horn, I am 99% sure it brings an even greater sense of magic and extra clean articulation in the upper bass.

Marc - glad you liked the bass with the Horning Sati / DaVa in action especially playing difficult prog. As you know, I play prog once in a blue moon at best. To hear the bass lines so crisp and fast with all that madness elsewhere was gratifying for me.

Thank you also for that delicious Norfolk cheese, chutney and crackers. Between Helen and I, we demolished it all by 9pm lol.

Really glad you both liked the tape - I am eternally grateful to my good friend, Leif (from wbf), for mentoring me in the tape world and for allowing me to buy his Studer 812. It is a really spectacular source and leaves a big old grin on my face most days. It is quite scary how epic it could become with either the MTSL boards installed or external tape pre.

Finally just a really big thank you to Barry - Barry and I had never met before and he extremely kindly bought me 2 vinyl LPs - it was a very kind gesture indeed but I quickly realise Barry is just a very genuine and great guy. I hope we can all stay connected to enjoy the hobby together.

Anyway - is Father’s Day here today so I am going to have a lazy one with a traditional roast chicken and a load of vinyl.

Enjoy.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Well Bill, it was the least I could do for all the time and effort you put into fabricating my tonearm cables.
Seriously, you passed a major test yesterday. Barry has a really good ear for things, both good and bad. He's pointed out any number of shortcomings in my system and suggested ways that have helped. And like me he's often underwhelmed by so much purported "great" stuff out there. He's also made massive efforts to maxx out his own triodes/horns based system. And I've recently heard a new, excellent chapter in his system w the Extreme now singing.
So for him to so love what he heard yesterday is another feather in your cap.
And as a total digiphile and established analog skeptic, for him to rave about the Studer was fascinating to witness.
But of course the analog here only sounds as good as the spkrs allow, and that means the horns...
For me, it's things I don't hear elsewhere that catch my attention, the things my Zus do well (and better than a lot) taken to a whole new level, and the synergy of factors where the whole is way greater than sum of its parts, that are my takeaways.
For two substantial wooden structures to effectively appear to produce no music, the magic just appearing and hanging, carved out in space, but no feeling of exaggerated soundfield or bubble effect, is so spooky good it literally defines magical. The boys can confirm I didn't stop babbling about this all day. Bill has some theories about this, including the open baffle nature of the Ripole subs and semi-open baffle nature of the horns, meaning zero cabinet signature. And also the superior nature of the BD full range horn, and Bill's heroic efforts in achieving seamless transition from the horns to 8x 15" subs.
And its upon this amazing foundation that the rest of the stellar performance is built. Including quite amazing bass, truly warm and fast, the very opposite of one note or cloying. And the ability to realise the full dimensionality of performances, whether it's the ambience and swell of the Duke Ellington tape, the nailed down beats plus air on the Eric Trufaz funk, the super lifelike vibrancy and calm on Terry Callier vocal, and the polyrythmic control and dynamic prowess on the Yes hyper kinetic prog.
If the requirements from a speaker is to absolutely nail what's on the recording, impose no character, and maintain control with a light touch, I'm not sure I have heard anything that ticks so many boxes.

 

[adyc]

Well Bill, it was the least I could do for all the time and effort you put into fabricating my tonearm cables.
Seriously, you passed a major test yesterday. Barry has a really good ear for things, both good and bad. He's pointed out any number of shortcomings in my system and suggested ways that have helped. And like me he's often underwhelmed by so much purported "great" stuff out there. He's also made massive efforts to maxx out his own triodes/horns based system. And I've recently heard a new, excellent chapter in his system w the Extreme now singing.
So for him to so love what he heard yesterday is another feather in your cap.
And as a total digiphile and established analog skeptic, for him to rave about the Studer was fascinating to witness.
But of course the analog here only sounds as good as the spkrs allow, and that means the horns...
For me, it's things I don't hear elsewhere that catch my attention, the things my Zus do well (and better than a lot) taken to a whole new level, and the synergy of factors where the whole is way greater than sum of its parts, that are my takeaways.
For two substantial wooden structures to effectively appear to produce no music, the magic just appearing and hanging, carved out in space, but no feeling of exaggerated soundfield or bubble effect, is so spooky good it literally defines magical. The boys can confirm I didn't stop babbling about this all day. Bill has some theories about this, including the OB nature of the Ripole subs and semi-OB nature of the horns, meaning zero cabinet signature. And also the superior nature of the BD full range horn, and Bill's heroic efforts in achieving seamless transition from the horns to 8x 15" subs.
And its upon this amazing foundation that the rest of the stellar performance is built. Including quite amazing bass, truly warm and fast, the very opposite of one note or cloying. And the ability to realise the full dimensionality of performances, whether it's the ambience and swell of the Duke Ellington tape, the nailed down beats plus air on the Eric Trufaz funk, the super lifelike vibrancy and calm on Terry Callier vocal, and the polyrythmic control and dynamic prowess on the Yes hyper kinetic prog.
If the requirements from a speaker is to absolutely nail what's on the recording, impose no character, and maintain control with a light touch, I'm not sure I have heard anything that ticks so many boxes.

What is OB? Can I ask what is the size of the room? It must be big to house 8 x15” subs.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Argh! Ron has warned me about abbreviations...OB open baffle
Bill runs them Ripole loaded ie pairs of 15" drivers facing each other with a small gap, that effectively eliminates boom but preserves all the snap and warmth.
Amazingly these drivers are all high efficiency too, 103dB I believe, meaning he can stick with a Class A amp rather than have to go to Class D.
I believe the Ripole configuration, Class A, full analog adjustability, zero cabinet signature, means that he's been able to pull off the trick of what seems to be overkill on bass into a wholly convincing, practical real world solution.

 

[spiritofmusic]

His room is a standard kind of size, maybe 16x12. It's a testament to what he has achieved that even in such a tight space, w clutter of multiple amps, a big tt, prominence of the horizontal Studer, general clutter, and us sitting a little too close to the horns, that the sound hangs together as convincingly as it does.
With more space will come more magic. But the magic is already there in less than optimal space, which is quite something.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Some photos of new big horn in situ sans driver

 

[Ron Resnick]

Bill, how tall is that speaker?

 

[Lagonda]

Wow, that looks really good Bill !

 

[morricab]

Some photos of new big horn in situ sans driver

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Whoa! That’s cool Bill!

 

[spiritofmusic]

Bill, how tall is that speaker?

Ron, I did have Bill's tape measure out yesterday Lol.
I believe it's approx 5.5', maybe a little taller. I'm sure Bill can confirm.

 

[christoph]

Ron, I did have Bill's tape measure out yesterday Lol.
I believe it's approx 5.5', maybe a little taller. I'm sure Bill can confirm.

To check if they are spiral-staircase-able?

 

[Lagonda]

Ron, I did have Bill's tape measure out yesterday Lol.
I believe it's approx 5.5', maybe a little taller. I'm sure Bill can confirm.

Will they fit under your eaves Marc ? Can you get them up the stairs without Ra noticing ? Maybe give her the gift of a spa day, and hurry !

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Bill, how tall is that speaker?

With this horn on, it is around 180cm.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Ron, I did have Bill's tape measure out yesterday Lol.
I believe it's approx 5.5', maybe a little taller. I'm sure Bill can confirm.

with big horn it is just short of 6’ - 180cm

 

[christoph]

with big horn it is just short of 6’ - 180cm

How tall (low) is the sub tower?
And on that the horns will add up.
What is the diameter of the "small" and the big horn?

 

[christoph]

Some photos of new big horn in situ sans driver

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Monica is aching to finally visit London again after missing London for (too many) years

 

[Audiophile Bill]

How tall (low) is the sub tower?
And on that the horns will add up.
What is the diameter of the "small" and the big horn?

Sub tower is around 110cm. Big horn is 800mm diameter. The smaller version is 550mm.

You have to factor other things in such as footer height, the platform that the horn attaches to, the thickness of the back chamber etc.