My bits and pieces

[hoopsontoast]

Cool cheers, its a shame that focal spoil their speakers with the horrible inverted metal dome tweeter, at least it has in all the Focal/Neat speakers that i have heard it in.

[DSJR]

That's JM-Lab, which I believe is a different enterprise. the driver i was thinking of had a doped black cone and looked more conventional, albeit with large magnet on the back - I'm sure it was a Focal.................

[MartinT]

Do you mean the Tioxid tweeter, as used in the original JM Lab Utopia range? I loved it on my Mezzo Utopias.

That little T-Amp is very capable - I have one on my computer setup. Doesn't go very loud without breaking into distortion, though. Mine runs a venerable pair of Videotone Minimax IIs.

[Reid Malenfant]

<snip> its a shame that focal spoil their speakers with the horrible inverted metal dome tweeter, at least it has in all the Focal/Neat speakers that i have heard it in.

Funny you should mention this but having heard possibly the same one you are on about i tend to agree. At the same time i was using the Focal inverted Kevlar tweeter & it sounded much cleaner with no breakup. I'm refering to the plain inverted titanium dome.

Do you mean the Tioxid tweeter, as used in the original JM Lab Utopia range? I loved it on my Mezzo Utopias.

Not heard the tioxid Martin so can't comment, i don't like the pre tioxid though

[hoopsontoast]

We have a bit of a fight at the moment

I have bought back some of my old speakers, some Keesonic Kolts.





So we have the SCM10 Vs Kolts

And the Sony TA-F448E Vs Ta2020 T-Amp Vs Bantam Gold

Pictures to follow but initially Round One to the Keesonics.

A quick comparison for the Kolts Vs SCM10's and what i remember of the SCM7's (Written elsewhere)

"Well, when i had the Kolts before, they were quite similar in the mid range presentation, being slightly recessed but very stable vocals in the soundstage. The SCM10's are more refined than the SCM7's and the Kolts, but the Kolts like the 7's have slightly more detail, as i guess they both have slightly elevated treble levels over the 10's.

There is a lack of bass depth (to be expected) in the kolts Vs SCM7's and then same again with the SCM7's Vs SCM10's. I have found that the bass is nice and tight on all Three speakers, but the Kolts seem the easiest to drive and seem a little faster than both the ATC's, but this is with lower powered amps.

The Kolts seem more open than when i previously had them, iirc the previous owner before James had replaced the Capacitors in the crossover. This seems to have helped the main problem I had with them that they were not as lively at low volumes, this mod seems to have bought them alive a bit. Although when i previously had them, I was using them with the Sony 770ES and Rega Brio3 for a while, both which seem a little warm in the midrange compared to both the T-Amps, and similar to the Sony 448E on test atm.
I attempted to solve the liveliness at low volumes with some Rega R1's but while they were better, I had a few niggling bass issues and looking back they were not as satisfying overall as the Kolts, or my memory of the SCM7's, hence the move back to eventually both.

The Proac Tablettes (older ones) I would guess have a similar presentation to the Kolts, but with deeper bass (being Ported Vs Sealed) and iirc, they are slightly warmer in the mid range, I would guess the treble is slightly more refined in the Pro-Acs as well.

It has crossed my mind, that I have potentially up to £500 stored up in the ATC's with their stands, compared to £75 with the Kolts And even if the Kolts only do 75% of what the 10's do in some areas (and I think they might be better in others) I dont think i can justify keeping them. My own DIY design, might even be a direct copy of the Kolts, having looked at the spec sheet between the Seas 11F-GX (H149) Vs the modern day CA12RCY, they are so similar, I might get away with keeping the existing crossover design, and tweaking it.
I need to take the crossover out and do a schematic to see what the X-Over point is, I guess its around 3kHz-4kHz."

[hoopsontoast]

In one corner, we have the amps, the heavyweight (relativley) in the Sony TA-F448E, the featherweight TA2020 T-Amp and the Middleweight in the Temple Audio Bantam Gold. In the other corner we have the Big (relatively again) Bruser in the ATC SCM10 Vs the twinkle toes Keesonic Kolts.









Initial findings, using the Kolts, the Bantam is a bit more refined, the T-Amp a little more forward, especially with vocals. The Sony actually somewhere in between. With the Kolts they do seem to be less dependent on the amplifier.

[hoopsontoast]

Bit of a change, the ATC SCM10's are out, Kolts staying, Sony is sold, Firestone Audio Tube Head pre amp IN

[Roy S]

...and the rack's from Ikea

[hoopsontoast]

Yup, good old Corras, just got another one of their storage solutions for some LP's

[Roy S]

What turntable are you using Rob?