Hello from Diceman

[diceman]

I have only just started posting on AOS but have been lurking for many months. I am on another hi-fi forum and post regularly for a couple of years.

Generally I like dreaming of new projects and swapping my kit about. I am very bad at actually selling the stuff I buy so I have a lot of kit that may well appear for sale on here soon.

Likes - panel speakers & stupid amplifiers. Designing speakers and buying the drivers for them.
Disslikes - Building the speakers :mental:

Anyway - I hope you will be gentle with me and my dreaming.

[Techno Commander]

Welcome jp. Please tell us more about the "stupid amplifiers"?:)

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi jp, rather an unusual name you have there :eyebrows: Welcome to AoS anyway :)

I quite like designing my own speakers as well, & i actually enjoy building & listening to them. My gripe is finding the space & time to do it in the first place :doh:

All the best, i hope you enjoy your stay :cool:

[DSJR]

Welcome JP. C'mon, spill on all the goodies you have but don't like selling :) You never know, there may be some bargains in there somewhere...

[diceman]

Current kit consists of :-
System 1 (Lounge)
Apogee Caliper Signatures
Krell KSA50
WAD 88VA KT88 based amp with mods
Musical Fidelity F22 Pre
Kinshaw Perception DAC
Squeezebox Touch
Garrard 401/tweaked SME2000 plinth, RB300/Ortofon MC15 super mk2
Kinshaw Perception phono stage
HTPC running Asus Xonar Essence STX

System 2 (Office)
ProAc Mini Tower
LFD PA2
Kinshaw Perception Pre
PC source/Sony CDP555ESD

System 3 (dining room/garage/WIP)
DIY 3 way 70 litre speakers with Volt B250.8/Dynaudio D76AF & D260 Esotec Tweeter.
Behringer DCX2496 active cross-over
Behringer A500 amps
PC source

Floaters (swapsies between systems)
Mr Liang 845 with nice tubes and internal cap/resistor mods.
Heybrook Sextet speakers.
Jm Lab PS5.1 speakers
Celestion Ditton 25 speakers
Martin Logan Aerius (modded x-overs and new panels)
Martin Logan Aerius (in bits)
Morel MW143 and D28 drivers in Epos es11 cabs
SME 3009 S2

I will try to get pics up when I can.

Definitely too much kit for a 2 bed bungalow and a Mrs :-)

[MartinT]

Ooh, Apogees and Krell, a match made in heaven. I'll bet that sounds good.

Welcome to AoS, jp. Mind giving us a proper first name to call you?

[diceman]

First Name is John-Paul so most call me J.P.

Strangely I thought it would be a match made in heaven too. It actually suits the Martin Logans much better. Apogees I prefer with valves, the 35-40W WAD drives them really quite nicely. Personally I find that the Krell excites the natural frequency resonance of the bass panel in the Apogees and makes the bass a little honky :-)

[MartinT]

Interesting, I though the Apogees hit some very load impedances and needed an amp with tremendous welly to drive them. Maybe that was more the Scintilla than Caliper?

[diceman]

Scintilla and maybe the full range dropped to 1 ohm in places and as I understand it never got much above it! The Caliper Sigs were one of the later versions that are relatively flat and 3-4 ohm. If you like rock concert levels then yes you need plenty of welly as they are not very efficient.

Apogees -
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t187/diceman200/hifi/apogeesmall.jpg
ProAcs/JMLabs/Martin Logans
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t187/diceman200/hifi/Picture012small.jpg

[Vinyleyes]

Current kit consists of :-
Kinshaw Perception DAC
Squeezebox Touch
Garrard 401/tweaked SME2000 plinth, RB300/Ortofon MC15 super mk2
Kinshaw Perception phono stage
HTPC running Asus Xonar Essence STX

System 2 (Office)
ProAc Mini Tower
LFD PA2
Kinshaw Perception Pre
PC source/Sony CDP555ESD

I will try to get pics up when I can.

Definitely too much kit for a 2 bed bungalow and a Mrs :-)

Hi JP,

Wow .. quite a collection there ... but I notice you have some Kinshaw gear there. I have my KP phono stage down with Peter at the moment for upgrading as it is 20 odd years old. Did you ever get yours upgraded .. or is it a newer version. How do you rate it against the current crop .. I've never ran across anyone with a Kinshaw before so I hope you don't mind my curiousity
:cool:

[diceman]

I haven't really compared it to much only a michell Iso (oh yes I have one of those as well I forgot!). The Kinshaw was easily better than Iso, not even remotely close and my cartridge/arm is only budget stuff.

What is being done to yours on its 20th b'day upgrade? Any idea on costs? I did send my pre-amp back to Peter 18 months ago (pre-amp was NOS when I bought it a couple of years ago and it popped a cap after 30 mins of running). Peter's service was spot on and very reasonable.