Mika K's system

[Mika K]

^You can be sure I will

I actually have plenty of shots of the house and the kids etc where my interest to hifi and music plays a role of some sort. Some are already bit older so there are some interesting gear there. I guess I could make a separate gallery of these. Here's our daughter S few weeks ago doing ..eh.. something..

[Mika K]

Crossover..

Have been lately thinking of building/ordering new crossovers for my Altec Onkens. The current ones are the originals from the 60's and as noticed few minor distortions when playing louder levels this might be the ticket (or then the driver diaghrams but that's another story). One of my friend updated his Yamaha NS-1000M crossovers with new components, especially the caps, and the change was not subtle.

However as would like to keep the autoformers the diy-thing is not going to be simple as the original ones in the metal box are filled with something simple recap is not an option. There are some sources for ready made diy-kits but have to check those still further..

..and some horn speculations

Have also been planning whether in near future start diy wooden horn project but as seem to be really busy might buy some suitable horn to match the existing driver as Jabo KH-55 to try out. Would need some reference to the current H-811B which are made from cast aluminium and damped with some vibroplast sheets.

If anyone has experience of Jabo horns or some other relatively cheap alternatives please shout out loud

[Mika K]

New xo's

One month since last post here and today received 12kg package to my office desk and was a bit surprised of the size and weight of it. I was expecting fairly smaller package to arrive but this was the correct one - new made in Germany handbuilt crossovers from quality parts.



As you can see compared to single AA battery these are indeed quite sturdy and big sized crossovers to replace my original ones from the 60's. The components seem to be good quality as the build itself, also the autoformer feels very solid instead of some cheap ass small unit. Have also some new internal cables by Ocellia waiting for me to have good slot to open Altecs for little service. When oh when will I have the time for this..

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi Mika, that's an expensive transformer, I can tell just by looking at the shape of the core. Looks like a 'C' type core but I could be wrong... Whatever it's no way a normal beasty

Hope all goes well for you when you get it plumbed in chap

[Mika K]

Thanks, I hope so too.

[MartinT]

Looks like a 'C' type core but I could be wrong...

More like an 'E' core perhaps? Nice looking trafo, anyway.

[Mika K]

Busy times as have had lot of thing going on at the office and also tried to keep my other interests alive - done some biking with my fixed cx-bike, opened the skiing season past week and also took part to the finnish kendo invidual championships last Saturday. And have to also keep family happy as well in the middle of all this or other way around. Phew!

New XO's

During the past week have been listening variety of different music from old school jazz to progressive metal and at the same time playing with the adjustments of the new crossovers.

Due to the limitations of my Altec cast aluminum horns have been using only 800hz xo frequency (well tried shortly the 500hz option but did not work at all) so eagerly waiting also one possible choice for a horn to check the 500hz also. Anyways the new xo's work pretty well and the system sounds now clearer and much more transparent and can also hear substantial improvement in both micro- and macrodynamics when listening albums I know by heart. Also few experienced friends have visited to have a quick listen and comments have been all positive. I guess next have start again doing some tune-dem for the speaker placement as other things start to be in their place.

Sorry for all enthusiasts but no pics at this time as my camera usb-cable is somewhere not at hand Will try to get some pics next time. Perhaps also could clean up the Ocellia solid core copper cable dressing using now to connect the xo's to the Altec system..

[Mika K]

Below you can see the new XO connected to the speaker with the Ocellia solid core copper cable. Unfortunately the Auditorium 23 speaker cable coming from Shindo power amp has those weird slotted banana plugs that do not give very solid contact to the grid of the XO. Perhaps in future have to consider even cutting the banana plugs off to have solid contact also for that part..



Today after came home from work also installed small led lamp next to my Garrard 401 vinyl player. It's about time as during the evenings have been thinking this already quite some time as just don't want to keep full lights on at the living room while spinning records and putting those on/off all the time feels a bit stupid.



Now it's done. Despite of the cold tone of the light it does the trick and now it is a lot easier to operate the deck. Why did'nt I do this a long time ago when autumn started and the nights got darker and darker..

[Reid Malenfant]

More like an 'E' core perhaps? Nice looking trafo, anyway.

No, definately a C core Martin But actually a double C core

http://audio.engineeringvista.com/Tr...els.htm#C_CORE



So how is it sounding with the new crossover Mika? Certainly looks high quality

[Mika K]

Put some comments above earlier:

..the new xo's work pretty well and the system sounds now clearer and much more transparent and can also hear substantial improvement in both micro- and macrodynamics when listening albums I know by heart.

I think that the build quality can be heard. Also album after album I think things are getting better and better - so either some breaking in is happening in component level or then I'm just getting used to the sound these have brought to the system. Or both Perhaps I will post some detailed comments of the differences later when system starts to settle down.