K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the 70’s.

[DarrenHW]

Cool, personally I don't like Alcaps in the Mid so imagine that will be a significant improvement, what are you rewiring with? Look forward to your thoughts.

My new inductors are in the country and will hopefully be delivered today .

[DarrenHW]

Some changes over the past few weeks, nothing revolutionary but things are moving forward.



I'm getting closer to some semblance of normality in the lounge since the move around. I tried sitting the sub on a concrete slab and was very impressed with the improvement, it's still located behind the seating and sitting it on the slab has really helped it (audibly if not visually) disappear into the room. Encouraged by this when I pulled the rack out to convert the HiFi ring main into a radial (another step forward) I dropped in two slabs for the racks to sit on. Whilst not as much of an improvement as the sub it was a step forward, noticeably cleaning up the sound with the bonus that it makes the racks easier to level and (whilst I appreciate it won't appeal to everyone) I like the look.

Moving the smaller Ikea shelving next to the larger unit has freed up the top shelf and now provides a platform for a tape deck, I have a piece of slate salvaged from an old hearth which I'll have cut to size and will sit on top of the larger unit. The tape deck on top of the larger cabinet is one of the new arrivals, a Nakamichi DR-3 which is ready to do battle with the Technics RS-AZ7.

On the subject of new arrivals I've been debating cartridge choice for the last few months, I'm pretty much sold on the Hadcock and as I have a number of DIY arm tubes of various weights I can accommodate just about any cartridge. The AT440MLa was the first cartridge I ever bought and I was very happy with it, I then tried a Shure M95HE and preferred it's more vintage sound to the detailed but soulless presentation of the Audio Technica. I then picked up a Shure V15 III, which I enjoyed but it still didn't really take the sound where I wanted it to. I did consider moving up the Audio Technica food chain or trying a Nagaoka, then I bought a second hand DL-103 and my decision was made. Unfortunately a couple of hours after installing the DL-103 the suspension failed. It's taken me a couple of months to let this go but the 103 and the DIY heavy weight Hadcock were such a great match, I thought it worth the risk and eventually gained the confidence to order a brand new balanced output 103R. I have this hooked up to the Croft via the Nick G modified Lentek I bought from Marco, I'm still in the process of breaking it in, 10 hours so far and no collapsed suspension, hopefully I can make this one last a bit longer!

After trying a number of speakers as surrounds for the Home Cinema I've decided on the Celestion UL8's and have them fitted to completely non-audiophile CRT TV brackets.



The UL8's work best in the space I have available and are quite happy being close to the walls and ceiling. They integrate very well with the Ditton 11's I have as rear speakers, I'm in the process of finding a replacement modern tweeter for the UL8's and once chosen I'll recap them with the same caps as the front speakers. The front speakers are still a work in progress but with the end in sight. I've recently replaced the stock 44 mid range D5 driver with the MD500 as used in the Ditton 66, this has been another significant improvement and has convinced me to find a pair of ABR's and build a pair of Ditton 66 clones. I'm still experimenting with the crossover, the last time I took a photo of them they looked like this:



I then completely recapped the tweeter section with Clarity Caps and changed the Cross Caps in the mid range for Mundorf ECaps with a Clarity Cap bypass capacitor. This sounded far more natural with better tone than the Cross Caps and no noticeable loss of detail, I'm currently burning in some Ansar Supersounds as per Ken's recommendation and look forward to putting the Ansars and Clarity Caps head to head. Externalising the crossover resulted in a cleaner sound and makes swapping capacitors much easier, I'll be incorporating an external cross over into the 66 clones.

The only other change of note has been to the power feed. As mentioned earlier I have converted the ring main to a radial circuit, this resulted in an audibly cleaner supply. I have also changed the mains filter, still shopping at the bottom end of the market I picked up a Belkin Pure AV Isolator for the TV and Sky HD:



This contains 3 different types of filter and the differences in each filter are easy to see. This again is an improvement over the last mains filter I was using and for £22.76 delivered it's worth every penny.

Now I'm just waiting for everything to burn in. Once the speaker caps have settled in I'll make a decision and recap the LF section of the 44's and hopefully pick up some ABR's so I can start work on some Ditton 66 clone cabinets. If the 103R makes it through the break in before I destroy it I'll have some sort of idea whether the decision to go for the 103R over the stock 103 was worth it, although this will be based on my memory of the couple of hours I had a working 103 for so not the most accurate basis for comparison. Other than that I will continue my search for a Series 5 Quad power amp, it's frustrating these are so difficult to come by, I'd really like to get some work done on the Croft but I don't want to commit to this until I've made my amplifier choice, the search continues....

[Puffin]

The first thing I would have done is clear all the rubbish out of that room. What a bloody mess

What a nice neat set up. I bet it sounds as good as it looks. I have my own soundproofed man-cave which gets tidied about once a year. You ought to see it at the moment! Still it sounds as shit as normal......so I am happy

[DarrenHW]

Thanks Rob, the rooms only that clear as I've had a pretty big clear out recently, I didn't want to sell anything until I was convinced I was sticking with this configuration. Funny you should mention it as the only things left in the room that I'm not keeping are a pair of 4500a mid/bass drivers. I sold the 4500's to a friend, I sorted him out with a TT which lead to him wanting some speakers with a bit more impact than his MS bookshelves, the 4500's certainly fulfilled the brief! I've offered him the mid/bass and a spare tweeter with the recommendation he keep them in the loft in case anything happens but he's reluctant to have them take up space

[Gazjam]

Groovy room Darren, nice system mate.

I have one of those Belkin Pure AV Isolators and it works as well as the PF30 I used to have in my main system.

[DarrenHW]

Thanks Gaz, it's getting there.

I'm very pleased with the Belkin filter, significant improvement for less than the price of a budget HiFi power lead!

The bias lighting's just about done too. I picked up a dimmer for the LED strip lights (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2915506218...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) and I've used insulating tape to cover individual LED's to balance out the difference in light reflection caused by the TV being angled. Not as neat or as accurate as your CinemaQuest lighting but at about £10 I'm happy with the improvement so thanks for starting your D65 tread in the first place .

[karma67]

i'd be interested to know what the LF section sounds like with mundorfs.i doubt i 'll be doing mine due to the arrival of 66's,it will be a shame to sell the 44's but needs must so if you know anyone who'd be interested let me know mate.

[jml3p]

Hi Darren
Just been drooling over your lovely set up. Your blog is great
I started looking at your cartridge for sale and then your list of stuff and then your inter connects, up until now I have never heard of Klotz, - very new to hifi. As you have them in your fab system, you must rate them. I am contemplating new inter connects between my amp and cd player. Just wondering if you could offer any advice please?
Hope you do not mind me contacting you
Kind regards
Jonathan

[DarrenHW]

i'd be interested to know what the LF section sounds like with mundorfs.i doubt i 'll be doing mine due to the arrival of 66's,it will be a shame to sell the 44's but needs must so if you know anyone who'd be interested let me know mate.

Sorry J, I'd missed your post, but looks like your 44's have found a new home now? I definitely want to try the Mundorfs in the LF but at the moment I'm playing with some Beovox 5700's so the Celestions are on hold, when are you picking up the 66's, would be good to meet up if we can arrange it?

Hi Darren
Just been drooling over your lovely set up. Your blog is great
I started looking at your cartridge for sale and then your list of stuff and then your inter connects, up until now I have never heard of Klotz, - very new to hifi. As you have them in your fab system, you must rate them. I am contemplating new inter connects between my amp and cd player. Just wondering if you could offer any advice please?
Hope you do not mind me contacting you
Kind regards
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

No I don't mind you contacting me at all, thanks for the kind words, I'm still pretty new to the world of HiFi too.

I'm pretty lucky as Marco (AoS Owner) lives down the road from me, he brought round a selection of interconnects (Belkin AV, Gotham, Van Damme etc...) in the same price bracket and the Klotz / MS Audio combination was the best by a long shot. Check out this link http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...t=Klotz+MC5000 for the AoS consensus.

Another option if your budget's tight would be to use Van Damme XKE (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3912633161...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) with Neutrik plugs (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2817602074...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT). I use these in the Kitchen system and for a 20m run to the sub, not as good as the Klotz but hard to beat at the price.

[rikardo1979]

Mains. A visit from Marco involving mains cables and cable management convinced me there would be benefits to installing a dedicated ring main. I’m in rented accommodation so limited to what I could do, my chosen solution was to install a dedicated 4mm ring main. I went with 4mm as it was the largest I could back feed into the consumer unit and went for a ring due to the fact that I couldn’t use larger cable.

nice setup m8

And these sockets reminds me a job I was doing at work about 7-8 years ago
I was fitting few 2 gangs in security room for radio charging station. Just a few