photos of a cobbled together system

[bte-anthony]

I thought i'd share some pictures of my system. No racks, no nice cables and not much care for its appearance.
The amp has been pulled apart and rebuilt so many times that cosmetically its looking rather tired. The cd player has a buggered mains switch so i repaired it by adding a toggle switch on the rear and bypassing the front panel one. There are some rust bubbles on the top plate that i keep meaning to sort out but things get in the way. The jbe however is shown some care and is pretty much bang on apart from a crack in the rear of the lid. The xlps isnt mine so is shown alot more care.
The speakers are looking pretty tired too, kids have drawn on them, the dog has peed up them and there are cup rings on the tops. But i dont care too much as they were never meant to be anything but prototypes and a 'proper' pair was going to be built. I will build new ones when the kids are older.
The amp is due to be completely rebuilt when i get the time, and the casework will be something abit different to this one when i get round to it.
I call it a 10 foot system, as it looks fine from ten feet away!
Have a laugh at the pics
Cheers anthony
http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee261/rolo_chihuahua/hifi%20pics/DSC_0076_zps5xatijmd.JPG (http://s230.photobucket.com/user/rolo_chihuahua/media/hifi%20pics/DSC_0076_zps5xatijmd.JPG.html)http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee261/rolo_chihuahua/hifi%20pics/DSC_0077_zpsrthnakig.JPG (http://s230.photobucket.com/user/rolo_chihuahua/media/hifi%20pics/DSC_0077_zpsrthnakig.JPG.html)http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee261/rolo_chihuahua/hifi%20pics/DSC_0078_zps2dnfnncr.JPG (http://s230.photobucket.com/user/rolo_chihuahua/media/hifi%20pics/DSC_0078_zps2dnfnncr.JPG.html)http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee261/rolo_chihuahua/hifi%20pics/DSC_0074_zpspmjfuilg.JPG (http://s230.photobucket.com/user/rolo_chihuahua/media/hifi%20pics/DSC_0074_zpspmjfuilg.JPG.html)http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee261/rolo_chihuahua/hifi%20pics/DSC_0073_zpsosdoqjkg.JPG (http://s230.photobucket.com/user/rolo_chihuahua/media/hifi%20pics/DSC_0073_zpsosdoqjkg.JPG.html)http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee261/rolo_chihuahua/hifi%20pics/DSC_0072_zpsrl1ia8ev.JPG (http://s230.photobucket.com/user/rolo_chihuahua/media/hifi%20pics/DSC_0072_zpsrl1ia8ev.JPG.html)

[keiths]

You're kidding - it looks fantastic. Love the turntable and speakers. And the 'Floyd poster :drool:

[petrat]

That's an interesting system!
Care to tell us a bit more about the DIY parts ... amp and speakers?

[Firebottle]

What he said :interesting:

More details please, the speakers look intriguing.

:cool: Alan

[prestonchipfryer]

Your system looks lovely Anthony. Especially like the JBE. :)

[Andrei]

Love it! Are those Darlek speakers?

[anthonyTD]

Looks fine,:)
And it obviously has a connection with you when it is playing music, and that's the main thing, by the way, i had a JBE many years ago too,[possibly an earlier one than yours] sometimes wish i had held onto it, as it had potential to be something special, mine had a mayware uni pivot arm fitted.
A...

[synsei]

Hi Anthony, it's nice to see the entire system rather than the teaser shots in the photos of the passive pre you built for me :D

Welcome to AoS my friend, it is really good to see you here... ;)

[Audio Al]

Looks only count until you relax shut your eyes and listen ;)

[bte-anthony]

Thanks for the invite sysei!
the jbe did have a sonus formula 4 with a benz cart on it at one point which was taken off to fit a home built arm and was promptly lost......its in the house somewhere. the origin live ol1 has a brass counterweight but has been left otherwise alone. it has an ortofon sl15 on it which i wont replace unless it wears out or is damaged as it sounds lovely.
the arm cutout was butchered by whatever oaf owned it before me so there is a carbon fibre plate epoxied to the slate to provide an arm board.

the amp is my own design which uses ecc88s configured as cascodes to drive triode strapped el34s. there are no nice bits in the amp other than an alps black attenuator on the front end. i prefer to concentrate on getting the topology, component values and power supply right rather than slapping an expensive component bandage on it to cure what i dont like about it. its been faffed with so much though that it now could do with a new one built to the same design now it has been refined, although it is on song now and i am happy with it, the legacy of numerous rebuilds and changes mean its like a rats nest inside and i dont like the idea that it isnt neat and tidy an more.

the speakers are a derivative of the metronome, built based on the plans for the mark audio chr 70 bipole plans. these use chp 70s and an audax tweeter as i preferred the overall balance like this rather than the straight chr 70 speaker. the tweeter is crossed over simply, with a nasty motor run 1uf cap. the port length was slightly tweaked to suit the chp 70 and being a downward firing port it doesnt interact much with the room modes. i used the alternative second driver position on the side rather than having it rear firing as there are oddly shaped voids in the alcove behind the right hand speaker. this gives less wall reinforcement but does provide superb mile wide imaging.

the squeezebox has no mods, lots of scratches and a maplins smps psu as the original one got lost. and sounds perfectly nice. squeezecentre runs off my laptop with itunes providing the library which is stored on a 1tb world book nas.

as for cables, tbh i have no idea what most of them are. they are a collection of crap i have acquired over the years or have been given

cheers anthony

[Firebottle]

the amp is my own design which uses ecc88s configured as cascodes to drive triode strapped el34s. there are no nice bits in the amp other than an alps black attenuator on the front end. i prefer to concentrate on getting the topology, component values and power supply right rather than slapping an expensive component bandage on it to cure what i dont like about it.

Very interesting, a man after my own..... and all that. Great to have you onboard :cool:

Alan

[petrat]

Thanks for the background info, Anthony ... very interesting.