System Firebottle comes of age.

[Firebottle]

Well it has certainly been a long journey when one looks back.

I have very clear memories of acquiring an 8 inch speaker when I was a spotty youth in my early teens. One of the 45's bought at the time was 'Purple Haze' by Jimi Hendrix so that puts the date at 1967

At last I'd got proper bass (ooh er, lock up your daughters....this is exiting), or so it seemed at the time compared to whatever it was I was using previously, probably a smallish elliptical speaker out of an old telly. Talking of old tellies I have been trying to remember what the cabinet was that this wonder 8 inch speaker was mounted in and I think it was the cabinet of an old floor standing TV.

What stunning bass response I thought, in all reality it was probably a peaky 80 hertz or so, rather different to the 25 Hz I can now enjoy

Ancillary equipment you ask? Hmm, here's where the memory is decidedly fuzzy. Again probably ex TV, the valve audio stage most likely, mono of course.
Didn't every spotty youth of this era strip old tellies for their 'spares' stock The TT was probably an old BSR deck of some sort, almost certainly with a ceramic cartridge.

Move on a few years through a motley collection of stuff and one of the stand outs for looks was a Lecson AC1 preamp, bought from a junk shop for £25.



A real pity the circular power amp wasn't available at the same time. Performance wasn't that good though, in fact the phono stage was decidedly shite. I eventually swapped it with my brother for a Quad 303 power amp, wish I'd still got that.

A little later and I built a 405-2 clone with some 405 amplifier pcb's that I bought at a radio rally for £30 the pair if memory serves me correctly. I was told they were going to be used in an active speaker system but the company had folded. The boards were fully assembled but without the protection system. This amplifier served me well for many years but I always had a niggling doubt that it wasn't as good as it could (should) be.
I proved this when I built my first OTL valve amp in the Millennium year.

The 405 is still in use today as the 'workhorse' for general listening but now re-capped and re-chipped to give the performance it always should have given

The speakers have been unchanged for the last 22 years after buying a tired pair of ESL57's for £150 from a friend of my fathers, then updating and respraying the grilles.



Stunning performance when hung in plenty of free space as well.

Much more recently since my valve design re-awakening I have had the privilege through this very parish of getting to hear some splendid kit. One of the systems that has impressed has been Jimbo's, probably helped by his shared goal of achieving great transparency to the sound.

I now feel I have achieved the level of transparency that befits having electrostatic speakers on the end of the system.
So the equipment line up is now Sansui DD platter, RB300 tone arm with Ortofon Samba MC, Firebottle KIN pre, AXOLOTL pwer amp, Quad ESL57s.



Note the important plastic crate between the KIN preamp and the prototype AXOLOTL power amp. As sod's law would have it the power amp mains transformer is directly underneath the sensitive phono stage in the KIN A bit of an 'orrible 'um was the result without the separation afforded by the said crate.

Well it can't all be perfect can it? I've even been playing new vinyl (shock horror) as well as revisiting the old collection.



Now there is even a noticeable improvement in clarity to the radio reception via the Sky box, as enjoyed last night listening to the Paul Jones blues show.

I'm just a bit chuffed...................

[jandl100]

Dangly speakers. My god. Them's high!

Astonishing is perhaps the only word that comes to mind!

[brian2957]

Well done Alan , this brought a smile to my face , particularly the early teenage efforts to get a decent sound and not really having a clue how to get it out of cheap crappy gear. Now that's what I call having a set of speakers working in free space . If memory serves I heard a similar setup many years ago , with the same speakers I think , and the sound it produced has ' stuck ' in my head to this day . The album used was this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Very-Best-In...ds=incantation They played the 2nd track ' Cacharpaya Shuffle ' and I was gobsmacked . I still use that track as a tester today .
Nice write-up

[Firebottle]

Thanks Brian.

Jerry, the speakers are a bit lower and further from the back wall now, that's an old picture. It improved the size of the sweet spot markedly bringing them out another 50cms from the wall

[Jimbo]

Would like to hear the Quad speakers one day Alan! Valves and electrostats, perfect combination

[awkwardbydesign]

My ceiling is 2.2m! Hanging speakers would make them lower than floorstanding them. I just wish it were possible. Although I did just that with my kids speakers in a different house; 12" drivers too! Added benefits are that floor space is freed up, less dusting, somewhere for the house spiders to hang out, and less vibration transmission to other components. Especially if you use cotton instead of wire; I used to hang my MF/HF cabinets from a cage on the LF cabs and the clean up of the sound was startling. I now try to keep the two cabs separate by any means.

[Barry]

Dangly speakers. My god. Them's high!

Astonishing is perhaps the only word that comes to mind!

And so is the perceived height of the musicians/performers.

[EricS]

I have never heard electrostatic speakers, though I'd like to have the opportunity one day. I can sympathize with the need for a crate to separate a preamp and amp. As I collect more gear that I thought I would have, I am finding similar problems with stacking equipment too close to other electronics.

[Firebottle]

This is an old thread but is the closest to a system blog.

The system has morphed by an incredible degree since, particularly with the acquisition of the Neurochrome 286, see https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...ttle%2C+system

The digital side of things has now taken a huge leap in performance with this combination:



Utterly amazing performance from all digital sources.

Will be visiting NEBO very shortly.

[AJSki2fly]

This is an old thread but is the closest to a system blog.

The system has morphed by an incredible degree since, particularly with the acquisition of the Neurochrome 286, see https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...ttle%2C+system

The digital side of things has now taken a huge leap in performance with this combination:



Utterly amazing performance from all digital sources.

Will be visiting NEBO very shortly.

I thought it sounded pretty good already so it must be amazing now, enjoy!