My kit

[cooky]

Here's a few pics of my more recent system developments, mainly man sized speakers powered by pro electronics.
First up my Tannoy 215 DMT clones powered by an MC2 1250 amp/Chord pre/Meridian 506

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2116/3539865229_678850d389_z.jpg

I sold the Chord and got a Benchmark DAC1

Then I picked up some Westlake TM1 clones in need of tlc

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3299/3562698707_fe94c6a2e4_z.jpg

I restored them/reconed them(2235 bass and 2440 mids) with eye-wateringly pricey JBL genuine parts.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3310/3562700891_ab53db47da_z.jpg

They sounded utterly incredible, the Smith horn was very smooth, the dynamics, headroom, detail and excitement were pure JBL but they were pug ugly, too big and had to be broken up.

Next came another MC2 amp, a MC650 this time together with a Tannoy badged XTA 226 DSP xover. I can't recommend these components highly enough, very very high quality/build with sonics to match.
Time for another speaker project.http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2532/3932244724_b51b18c333.jpg

This Array 1400 style project is well documented over on Audiosmile.
They consist of JBL SAM1 horns but with an improved 2435HPL Beryllium mid/hf and JBL 2235 bass/mid(I sold the 045ti uhf drivers and ran the Be driver out to 17Khz)

[Reid Malenfant]

Jesus :stalks: :stalks: :stalks: :stalks: :stalks: :stalks:

OMG, real speakers! None of these bookshelf or standmount wannabees :eyebrows:

I'm loving it :smoking:

[macvisual]

Outstanding, wOOw!!

Jealous me.........yip.

[wiicrackpot]

Mama !!!......that is a kickass system :stalks:,is one MC650 enough to drive them biggies?.

[cooky]

Cheers guys..there's more.

The 3 inch Be comps were excellent but I have a soft spot for the presence a large format 4" comp driver can provide so came a spanking pair of JBL 2452's these are throatless neo drivers with a 1.5 inch exit.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5102/5790212447_361de24ae8_z.jpg
Brush Wellman make the Be dias for JBL's totl 475 Be, they also make aftermarket 4" Beryllium dias for JBL and Radians 4" comps. So...http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2606/5790779998_854d93e50f_z.jpg

New mids deserved new bass mids so unable to find/afford TAD's or JBL 1501's I opted for some neo magnet Precision Devices PDN.BR40's-noted for an exceptional midrange from a 15" driver and with massive power handling/low distortion they are excellent.http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5108/5592705025_bd8771a599.jpghttp://farm6.static.flickr.com/5022/5592704883_33c1033aba.jpg

The system is active 2-way and with only minimal peq we get a very flat +or- 1dB on the SAM1/2452/Be from 750 to 17khz-not bad;-)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2530/5796554134_218de77d13_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5143/5592626059_5432942dc6_z.jpg

[cooky]

Mama !!!......that is a kickass system :stalks:,is one MC650 enough to drive them biggies?.

If passive yep, easy but I've got a MC1250 on bass too:)

[Ant]

Wow!

Impressive kit you have there, although the Tannoys would benefit from a nice PC sticker - Something like this:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_L5pP3UqNjB0/TP_4rgPnKiI/AAAAAAAAAPk/mGoRli9X40s/s1600/yorkie.jpg

Cool,
Ant

[macvisual]

15" drivers, awesome.

How does it sound then???

[WOStantonCS100]

OMG, real speakers!

+1

Oh my, oh my, oh my................................

[camtwister]

Frank, this is the first time of seen MC2 amps used domestically. I wonder how they would respond with a valve pre in front of them.

Don't you have problems with the long throw of your drivers? Do you get a realistic soundstage sitting so (relatively) close to those cabs? The bass anti-nodes must be half way down your street, never mind your room.
:)
Cool.

[Marco]

Awesome system pics thread, Frank - just the sort of thing our members like to see! :respect:

I'll have to pop round for a listen. Wish I'd heard those huge twin 15" Tannoys of yours, though.... I remember Ian telling me that when playing UB40's 'Madam Medusa', he nearly felt sick with the way the huge slabs of sledgehammer bass were pressurising the room!! :eek:

Just my kind of thing, as I get precisely that effect at home with my Lockwoods..... :eyebrows:

Do you get the same frighteningly massive scale and impact with the JBLs?

Marco.

[cooky]

Thanks Marco,

The Westlake/JBL's were actually better than the Tannoys for pressurising the room-they could hit you hard in the solar plexus(a JBL trait), their bottom end sounded snappier and more controlled/extended too.
What they couldn't do was image in any way approaching the point source Tannoy sound but the sound was huge and incredibly smooth.

The latest speakers image really well-the orientation of the diffraction slot/biradial horn has a lot to do with that(according the Greg Timbers@JBL).
They are not nearfield:eyebrows: and to answer Camtwister need about 2m for the wavefronts to integrate though again not a point source.
The MC2 are neutral sounding amps that reveal the source very well so I'd guess a tube front end may sound delicious.

You are welcome to pop down anytime Marco-I'd like to here your Lockwood Majors at some point too.

Frank

[Barry]

Goodness - those Tannoys look as though they can shift some air! :stalks:

Not sure if they would be for me but impressive nonetheless. We have some other members here who are fans of JBL, and who will, no doubt, be along shortly to express their admiration.

[DSJR]

Do I know you from elsewhere ?:lol:

I don't think many other people have heard of MC2 in domestic circles and it was you I think using these with those proper pro Tannoys a couple of years ago?

I wonder how good or bad the humble Tannoy 12DMT's are?

[John]

Love you choice in speakers Nothing like big drivers to give you scale

[Jonboy]

Lovely Stuff Frank,great to see big speakers, i like the use of theremalite blocks for speaker stands, perhaps you could tell us how the physical properties and what musical benifits you have found with using a low mass celcon block, does the black paint add any thing either ? , personally i have used dense concrete block to great effect

I'm not really that Anul just a tight arse and pulling your plonker :eyebrows:

[cooky]

Jon,

Plonker well pulled;-) The black pva paint did stop them crumbling though.

Hello Dave,
I got turned on to MC2 during my MAdman days-pretty much every post prod/studio I used that wasn't monitoring over active ATC's or Genelecs was using them to drive their mains.

12" DMT's? I've owned the Mk1's and found them great but a bit bass shy and a little 'tubby' sounding-the mk2's have a larger cab and enjoy a more filled out bottom end.

[ComradeSaigon]

Hi Cooky,
I like your array display of the CDs. I think I'm being inspired/converted to CD Listener music lover only. You still have to use your fingers to sieve though to get what you want.
Nice.

[nortonl]

Hi Cooky. I've owned 2 MC2 amps (MC650 & T1500) and while they're incredibly smooth and powerful I found they were somehow removing low level subtle details like decay on guitar etc. I am now using a QSC RMX1450 which preserves these subtleties and has comparable welly to the MC2 amps. They are pretty cheap so I would recommend having a go sometime.

In fact, if you shop around you can get a new one for £430. It is so good it makes me sick at the whole hi-fi industry.

MC2 & QSC were used on Tannoy SGM 12X and i12. The latter needs a very powerful amp to give it's best.

[DSJR]

I am now using a QSC RMX1450 which preserves these subtleties and has comparable welly to the MC2 amps. They are pretty cheap so I would recommend having a go sometime.

In fact, if you shop around you can get a new one for £430. It is so good it makes me sick at the whole hi-fi industry.



Oh I agree 100% here.... The MC2 amps I bet are perfectly ok on high-level playback, as bigger ATC's are, since the quiet bits come up in proper proportion to the peaks these huge amps handle with ease. Maybe at very low levels, they might just absorb subtle spatial clues, I don't know.

Domestic so called top end "HiFi" gear on the whole has a totally different profit structure to pro gear, cachet led and priced for the 1% of mega-earners out there, certainly the way pro gear often used to be was good value, 'cos the pros wouldn't pay domestic money. Those huge Tannoys and Westlakes may be stuff wet dreams are made of on here, but how many of these could actually be used in the average home? Studios are closing and scaling down to piddly little near to mid-field monitors, any remaining giant soffit ones being there to impress the people being recorded I understand. Thing is, these piddly little desktop actives don't seem to be able to reproduce excess added compression very well, but maybe the engineers just don't know how to persuade the suits who work for record companies?

[Reid Malenfant]

Dave, Dave & Dave again :lol:

They could easily be used in the home...

While at stupid volume levels they may well have the power to rearrange the furniture (& your internal organs), at lower volume levels the amount of distortion they'll produce would be possibly an order of magnitude lower than a reasonably sized floorstander at the same volume levels :)

This is the beauty of something like these, they'll virtually never run out of headroom, no matter how many frothy ones you have partaken of :cool:


:lol:

[DSJR]

I'm just thinking of the supposedly bland (!) big pro amps that Colloms used to get all sniffy about - and the reputation my beloved old Crown amps had as well (fingers down a blackboard etc...) The pre "SL" ATC's used to have a sound that truly thrilled when played at realistic levels, but which collapsed completely when the volume was turned down (heavy cones and over-damped drivers in general I think). of course, this ain't Tannoys or the better JBL's out there and ATC have come a long way too since Ashley James was sales manager twenty years ago....

If you chaps have a "den," an understanding wife (or no partner at all) and the money to spend getting it just right, then ffs go for it. When Frank posted his system details a few years ago (MC2 and Tannoys), I nearly wet meself :lol: For now though, my "perfect speaker" will have to be something far, far smaller :)

[roob]

I take it Frank is single and has no neighbours:D

[MartinT]

I am now using a QSC RMX1450 which preserves these subtleties and has comparable welly to the MC2 amps.

That looks to be a LOT of amplifier for the money - balanced inputs, too! If I were buying on a budget I would look seriously to one of these.

[The Black Adder]

you have a very special system my friend... Love those Tannoy DMT's... I can bet they shift some serious air.