ExactlyQuote:
Originally Posted by Macca
Probably enough to annihilate a small army.....
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ExactlyQuote:
Originally Posted by Macca
Probably enough to annihilate a small army.....
Serious, serious gear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry
Unstoppable old skool power.... Soviet undertones to some of the kit too.
...and, here I was, looking at Hegel's 'Rost' amp!
https://www.hegel.com/products/integrated/rost
As MY thread is drastically going off topic, I would like you guys to take all of this to a new thread please...
Sorry! Might have been my fault? Inevitable to get a few 'me-too' sidetracks.
Great to see Cassettes still fully used! (AS seen in Lexus LS400 cars!)
We await your next addition.
Sorry Charles I can delete it all if you want. People go off on tangent on my thread too, it sort of goes with the territory.Quote:
Originally Posted by cube-tube
No worries. I'm not blaming anyone. And also, cassette decks in the LS430 as well (mine came with one) behind a wooden door in the dash under the head unit.Quote:
Originally Posted by hornucopia
Again, no worries, but deleting would ultimately be up to you. Maybe move them to a new or different thread?Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
Thread drift, an unfortunate side effect of hifi forums.Quote:
Originally Posted by cube-tube
This is the Way.
I've been playing around with these little guys the past few days and am really surprisingly impressed with these things. The mighty JBL Studio 530. I say these easily outperform the Monitor Audio Silver 3i and Sonus Faber Venere 1.5's that I had.
Luckily, there's no real difference in sound with the grills on or off, so I keep them on as these speakers are sort of ugly with the grills removed.
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...35660645-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...35660648-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...35660646-5.jpg
Yeah, not the pretties looking speakers, but I'm glad you are hearing improvements in sound :)
Actually, I quite like the looks of them... As long as the grills are in place. I only wish we got the cherry veneer over here in the states, but we only got the all black version. They're very unique looking speakers, but man do they sound great. I'm so glad that that giant horn sounds nothing like a horn at all. I'm seriously considering upgrading the capacitors and resistors on the crossover networks, because why not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete812
Listening to this album right now via Qobuz...
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....1TzTf2WyfL.jpg
Some of her more "odd" music, but the sound quality is there in strides, and makes these JBL's sound even more impressive. I've listened to this album several times lately and in recent years, and it never sounded this good even with my beloved X-Statik's! Now that's saying something! Obviously, the Sonus Faber Venere 1.5's and Monitor Audio Silver 3i's don't even come close to what these JBL's are doing.
Yes, I know, totally different gear, totally different room... Still, those speakers couldn't get anything near this level of sound.
Very convincing reproduction of vocals and piano with weight and body, detailed, silky smooth treble that has space and air, and the fact that they completely disappear in the room. Finally for the first time in years, I've got a pair of speakers in a room that are capable of vanishing, leaving only the music behind. For the past couple of days, I've been tweaking their placement as well as crossover points and gains on the subs.
In short, there were plenty of super high dollar systems at that Florida Audio Expo show that I went to earlier this year that didn't even come close to this kind of sound. There were some of those smaller systems that were priced up to the $70k mark that didn't sound anywhere near this good. They were either way too shrilly or dull, and drastically recessed mids, and either no bass or way too much.
"Finally for the first time in years, I've got a pair of speakers in a room that are capable of vanishing, leaving only the music behind."
Wow-that's exactly how I describe my Ocellia Calliopes.
Those part-horns look great -I get something similar from Opera Consonance horns-but with 54 kgs of casework!
The sound-or non-sound? - of a good horn!-and only 600 dollars, max!!
I share your opinion of Shows-you go home thinking 'I do better at home"!
They measure pretty well too, https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...-review.12298/
I know from these past few posts it seems like I'm hyping up these speakers, but they really do perform way above their price point. Granted, they're not the end all be all speaker obviously, and there's plenty of much better speakers out there, but for up to the $2k mark, I would say in the right system, room and set up properly, these JBL's will give those higher end speakers a hard run for their money.Quote:
Originally Posted by hornucopia
I really like the looks of those Ocellia Calliopes. At first glance, I thought they were open baffle. Bet they sound great!
Yes they do. They certainly bring music and musicians to life in my room. And thankfully, they don't have that typical horn or JBL sound.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
P.S. - Crapgame from Kelly's Heroes! Love that movie. Just watched it again about 2 weeks ago... For the millionth time! It never gets old.
Been tweaking subwoofer positions and settings a bit more. Getting better and better all the time.
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...42189391-5.jpg
Brilliant, a horn mid/tweeter done well can be sublime. I'd love to hear those JBL's.
I have rather a different setup with electrostatic panels but with ribbon tweeters/super-tweeters.
Alan, stop by sometime when you're in the neighborhood and I'll let you have a listen! :rock:Quote:
Originally Posted by Firebottle
I have a pair of Martin Logan SL3's in the spare room at my brother's house. I disconnected the crossovers in them a few years back to run them actively bi-amped. Sounded great too I might add. But if I were to run them in this system, I'd have to open them back up and reconnect the crossovers, which is a bit more labor intensive than just reconnecting a couple of wires. I've thought about it, but then again, I only have 80 watts on tap these days, so my amps might run out of steam before the SL3's begin to come to life.
Seem to have sold out on amazon those jbl s . Keep an eye open 2nd hand. Nice find Charles
As you can see, I'm not running the JBL's anymore. They're back at my brother's house.
Oh, thats a bummer, you were fond of them ?
Logans look good as well !
They were just being borrowed from one of my brothers for a little bit, just to try something different in my system. They truly are great sounding bookshelf speakers. But since I had these Martin Logan's sitting for the past few years, I wanted to get them back up and running in my current system.Quote:
Originally Posted by tapid
eBay UK has a set.....at £500, which is circa $800!Quote:
Originally Posted by tapid
Quote:
Originally Posted by hornucopia
Yes, did see those the other week, but other spending seems to have got in the way since lol
Natural walnut rails still looking great after 22 years!
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...54895538-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...54895537-5.jpg
Gorgeous! :)
Thank you Barry!Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry
I have to say, the previous owner took extremely good care of these SL3's over the years, and of course I have over the past 5 or so years that I've owned them. There's literally not a mark on them anywhere, and they still sound superb. No lack of output or recessed treble or hiss coming from the panels that others have with older models. The overall output of the panels are still equal to the woofers, and the treble is still crisp and airy, and that lovely, full bodied midrange that gives instruments and vocals that "real" weight and body. Some say and believe to this day that the SL3 was one of the best designs that Martin Logan came out with, and I believe it.
I've had the chance to hear a couple of the new models such as the entry level ElectroMotion ESL and the much larger and costly Expression ESL 13A. Both models had the same traits of being too bright and a thin midrange, having no warmth or life of any kind. I can't comment on the bass as both systems were running subs. In the end, I was not impressed with either, and actually down right disappointed, especially with the 13A. If I had $15k to throw at a pair of speakers, I would pass up the 13A's and just have new panels made up for my SL3's, have the power supplies updated if needed, and the crossovers updated/upgraded and use the rest of the money on some bigger, bit more powerful amplifiers.
And speaking of amplifiers, the little Schiit Aegir amplifiers sound amazing with these speakers. I'd say they're a perfect match. The only issue is that these speakers are a nominal 4 ohm load with peaks of up to 16 ohms and dips down to 1.5 ohms. The Aegir amps are rated at 80 watts @ 8 ohms mono but are said to be able to run at 160 watts @ 4 ohms, though this is not stated in the manual or on Schiit's website anywhere, ONLY the 8 ohm mono rating. With these speakers and their crazy impedance swings, they have the habit of shutting the amplifiers down if pushed a little too hard. No extra heat, no distortion or clipping, they just shut down. I chalk this up to them simply not being able to handle those impedance swings, especially that dip down to 1.5 ohms. And the thing is, they get comfortably loud in my small room and can usually play all day like that. It's just sometimes there will be a small dynamic peak that's not even loud, but is strong enough to trip the amps into protection mode. This has only happened three times in the past 2+ weeks of me playing them.
Anyway, I didn't mean to go into a rant here. Sorry. LOL
Yes very peaky impedance plot, with 3 ohm dips at 70Hz and around 1.9kHz and 1.5 ohm at 20kHz.
Might sound a bit counter intuitive but I would try adding a 1 ohm high wattage resistor in series to see if the protection mode can be prevented.
You could try a lower wattage resistor at low volume levels as a trial to see if the sound is altered too much.
Kind of like a make-shift Zobel network to help flatten the impedance?Quote:
Originally Posted by Firebottle
Interesting but don't think I'm going to worry about it too much. The amps only tripped on two different movies that had a lot of action going on at the time, the third on a light drum solo on a jazz album. All it took was a certain snare drum hit that knocked out the right channel amp.
You need a Krell for them.
You pay for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
:dynamite:
:D
Well the Aegir amps are up for sale, and in the meantime, I have a minty Roksan Caspian Mk I amp in place. Also removed the DAT recorder. That will be moved to the cassette deck stack in the rear of the room.
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...77945322-5.jpg
constant state of change indeed . its hard to keep up!
Are you using the dbx Venu 360 in the system at all.
If so how ?
For one reason or another, the system is always changing. Sometimes for longer periods than others.
The dbx DriveRack Venu 360 is actually in the closet, decommissioned for the time being.
Here's the latest, with the 22 year old Roksan Caspian powering the 22 year old Martin Logan SL3's. Surprisingly, a fantastic combo! Also swapped in the old NOS 1930's RCA 6F8G tubes into the preamp stage of the Freya+, keeping the stock JJ 6SN7's in the voltage stage.
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...81571653-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...81571750-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...81571656-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...81571700-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...81571701-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...81571711-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...81571654-5.jpg
I used ML for years both Aerius and then Ascent/Decent.
The panels and the current state they are in are an issue. When new they can sound pretty awful and they really do need a lot of time sometimes to break in. Hence why you had trouble with 13A I suspect.
I went through a lot of panels. No pair lasted more than 7 years. I used them for 17 years in total.
What's really odd is some replacement panels actually sounded great from the word go, and some would take ages to break in.
It's a really fine balancing act but when they are running right i.e. the membrane tension is actually right they can sound fabulous.
I thought Ascent was better than SL3 TBH but hey if you like them, who cares? Why? Better bass/panel integration. But that's always an issue with any ML hybrid. They can all sound a bit thin because the bass emanates from the bottom of the speaker with a huge panel only doing mid/treble. What I mean by that is there's no bass coming out higher up the speaker to balance the sound out. Maggies and Apogees never had that issue.
I also thought Summit really wasn't any better than Ascent/Decent.
They can sound excellent with a valve pre and a powerful valve or solid state amp. Certainly if the SL3 really are on form they will be outstanding value for money these days.
Update... Polk PSW505 subs out, JL Audio e110 subs finally back in after 3 years of them sitting in the closet with faulty amps. Finally repaired and updated.
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...00515761-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...00515764-5.jpg
https://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s/...00515762-5.jpg
Wow what a look :D .... reminds me of something that NASA would of designed to go to the moon ...... in a very good way ...coolQuote:
Originally Posted by Barry
Again, this thread is about "MY" system, not others systems or random topics.
Yeah guys, let's remember that please, and limit the thread drift on other people's Gallery threads. Ta!:cool:
Marco.
Thanks Marco. :cheers:Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
You do not 'own' a thread, so a certain amount of thread drift is inevitable.Quote:
Originally Posted by cube-tube
As for some of the blunt comments expressed here, well it is of course a matter of opinion, but 'raining on someone's parade' is not a noble trait. So let's keep the discussion polite, and not let it descend into acrimony.
Right guys, I'm going to step in here... Firstly, Gallery threads (much like sales threads) are a little different from those on the main forum, in that they are *primarily* for members to show off/eulogise about their systems. It's not the place to 'critically challenge' anyone, or be anything less than positive, even if you think you're being helpful.
Some earlier comments have been below the standards required in that respect, both from the OP himself (in response to others) and from contributors. Therefore, I don't want to see any more of that behaviour on this Gallery thread, or indeed any other on the forum, so please bear that in mind.
Charles, please also note what Barry said, in terms of no-one here 'owning' ANY thread, which includes you, even though you are the OP of this one. Your input, providing it meets the required standards of behaviour, will be given priority, but that doesn't mean it's YOUR thread.
Therefore, I'm going to prune all unacceptable input, and from now on insist that any posts made here, by anyone, are 100% friendly and constructive. Anything that falls outside of that will be removed with immediate effect and without further warning.
Ok folks, let's get back on topic, with NO more personal remarks!:cool:
Marco.