The present & the future...

[Reid Malenfant]

Wow,some amount of good kit you have there! Have you ever been into valves?

I must admit to never owning any valve gear, however that doesn't mean i haven't been blown away when listening to some nice valve amps I have some very pleasant memories of sitting down & listening to some incredible performances via a pair of Jadis JA200 monoblocks drool.gif

The thing with me is i do like to turn things up on the odd occasion (read quite often LOL - no missus & a detached house....) & unless i invested in something like i just mentioned i'd soon run out of headroom unless i changed to some much more efficient loudspeakers.

Unfortunately i fell in love with Yamaha NS1000s' the very first time i heard a pair & something i didn't mention earlier (because i forgot ) is that i own 3 pairs of them. The pics of the single speakers i use at the front at the present are destined to become rear speakers in my AV setup.

The new front speakers will consist of 2 x 15" per channel for bass between 13 - 100Hz or if i feel like really going nuts 25 - 100Hz @ 122Db. The upper bass/mids will be 2 x 9", mids 2 x Yam 2.75" beryllium mids & treble 1 x 1" yam Beryllium dome per channel in a B,M,T,M,B arrangement. Or if you like a D' Appolito gone mad wow.gif

As you can imagine this will require quite a few amplifiers as i intend to use an electronic crossover to feed individual amplifiers (which i already own). I guess i could one day swap out certain amps like the mid & treble amps for valve equipment & see how they sound, right now though it's not in the budget so to speak

I do love class A amps though & it has been known for me to design & build my own amps (ex electronics engineer). Right now i just happen to have a rather large box full of components to build 6 x single ended class A power amps which i intend to use to power the main speakers, but that's another story for another time

Bests to you..

[Ali Tait]

Mike here also has a pair of Yammies,and a while back I visited for an evening along with an original WAD 300b PP amp,which Mike was interested in.I have to say that was a match made in heaven! (Not me and Mike,the Yammies and the WAD! )

I'd never heard the 300b sounding better.I think he's still happy with it!

[Reid Malenfant]

lol.gif You are dead right, the Yamahas love class A or valve amps in general They really didn't go down too well with the general public when they were first made available over here simply because they showed up the shortcomings of most of the amplifiers that most people were using.

You just need to remember that joe average hifi guy was using class B amps with bextrene or polypropylene bass mids & soft dome tweeters which really didn't show up the nasties produced from crossover distortion. Connect the NSs' up & it was a recipe for disaster

Funny though, the Americans loved them & bought them left right & centre. Must be because they were running decent class A amps or valve gear rather than muscular class B stuff.

I can honestly say that the very first time i heard a pair on good equipment i had one of those jaw dropping moments. I wasn't alone as i happened to go along for the listening with a good freind. It must have been less than 20 seconds of listening to them that we both looked at each other with a look of total disbelief on our faces So i bought them & another two pairs. Thankfully i knew the shop owner & got all 3 pairs at a very good price

[Ali Tait]

Yes indeed they are very good speakers.I prefer statics these days though,don't really get on with boxes these days.Since having the statics,I can always hear the box now.

[Reid Malenfant]

Indeed, when i bought the KSA250 i auditioned it on a pair of ESL63s & it sounded wonderful The chap was a little afraid of turning it up though, can't say i'm surprised

Electrostatics are great but like anything else they have there shortcomings, like lack of deep bass unless the panel is large. Add a clean sealed box sub & i guess you could have a match made in heaven No surprise that Martin Logan appear to be well received..

Next speakers will be 18mm MDF sandwich with 6mm of dry sand between 2 x 18mm layers of wood. This should eliminate any sound eminating from the box & i'll also make all panels so they aren't at the same angle to eliminate any standing waves & prevent reflection through the driver cones.

Below 100Hz it's just a question of making it stiff as all hell, loads of bracing

[Ali Tait]

Well I have two pairs,both kits from ER Audio-the ESL III and the top of the range Acorn.I bought both of these built beautifully from a friend who used to be the UK distributor.The III's have a cone sub built in to the base,which can be run from an active crossover,but to be honest,the panels sound better without them,they just can't keep up with the speed of the panels.Both are large,with the Acorns over two meters high.Both do good bass,but the Acorns are better in this respect.Some pics of the III's-

[Alex_UK]

Mark, after reading all the above, I'm pretty sure I have an accurate mental picture of what you look like...



Am I right?

[Techno Commander]

[Alex_UK]

Just noticed even the title of the thread fits... I know I'm right!

[Ali Tait]

Mark, after reading all the above, I'm pretty sure I have an accurate mental picture of what you look like...



Am I right?

Hahahhaha brilliant Alex!!