A Dalek visits A falcoron
After my comment on falcoron's - Ron - open baffle speakers in this thread (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20146) and a short exchange of pms I accepted Ron's warm offer of a visit to hear his system and the speakers in question - which are based on Vic of Transfi's Bastani speaker designs (1)
After a drive along the north shore of Belfast lough towards Larne I found myself with little trouble - thanks to Google Maps - at Ron's house. I had met Ron many years ago when I worked in the HiFi retail trade but in all honesty I could not have put a face to his name.
After a very warm welcome and a chat about various interests hifi, music and other we got down to some listening initially with Ron's computer based source and then with a Micromega Data CD transport I had brought with me - which fed a signal into Ron's Stan Beresford DAC via XLO reference digital cable. The Micromega sat on a SSC isolation platform on top of a chair - not ideal but as Ron's rack is bunged needs must. Power was supplied via a TCI mains cable and a Mark Grant mains extension strip.
Before hooking all of that up though I listened to Hugh Masekela's Stimela which I know intimately well and after a little tweaking of the volume of the Berhinger DEQ2469 the slightly excessive bass which was bleeding into the lower mid and booming in the room was brought into line but in doing this a midrange suck out was made more obvious.
Ron has mention in the other thread - see above link - that he is having problems dialling the settings on the DEQ2469 to bring all the drivers into alignment re eq - no crossover used in his speakers - and set the DEQ up for the room acoustics etc. I must say that despite these issues and the 'still work in progress nature of the speakers' (2) that I was very impressed by what I could hear trying to overcome the set up issues.
The quality craftsmanship of the front panel of these speakers - walnut on birch ply laminations - was very good and with more to do re the structure of the speaker - which may cure some resonances in the overall speaker which may have been causing some bass issues - I was still enjoying the music we listened to.
Its hard with a non commercial design - everything in a bought product already being sorted out - to know how much the issues I heard where speaker related, EQ and or room related. In this case a mixture of all three I would say and with the drive units still running in I was slightly hesitant to say much, but Ron took what I said as encouraging as despite the issues there were many positives.
Music played through these speakers had weight and scale and dynamics that one rarely hears in smaller speakers. The sound stage was wide, though a little shallow and despite the suck out that robbed Hugh Masekela of some of the weight in his voice it was still very enjoyable.
After listening to Stimela I played tracks from Pat Metheny's album Secret Stories, Cinematic Orchestra - Every Day, Mr Scruff - Mrs scruff, Rain Tree Crows - Rain Tree Crows, Steve Khan - Public Access and a compilation CD of female singer song writers. Ron enjoyed my music choices which was good.
The lighter instrumental and female music sounded very good and the music with more overmodulated bass less so, as the issues became more obvious.
However and I said this last night, these speakers showed massive potential and when all the issues are sorted out Ron's OBs will be incredible speakers. All the elements are there and I can't wait to hear them further down the line and as a completed project.
Ron has a beautiful looking and sounding system which consists of the following items: Audio Note M2 Pre-amplifier, Hyperion class A 18w valve mono blocks, the aforementioned Berhinger DEQ2469, Stan Beresford Bushmaster DAC, a nasty - soon to be replaced - noisy pro amplifier QTX QA 1600 - you could hear it buzzing through the speakers from the listening sofa - and the computer audio bits and pieces. The equipment rack was also made by Ron.
The photos I took where in a fairly dark room so are a tad grainy but better than none. I love reading these visits to peoples systems here on AOS but find the lack of photos quite often frustrating, so I decided to take some in order to let you guys see Ron's set up and room.
Thank you Ron for the invite and your warm hospitality I enjoyed myself a lot.
(1) http://www.trans-fi.com/bastanispeakers.htm
(2) We talked about ways Ron might strength the frame the speakers are built onto, also the tubes that reinforce the speakers. I am very concious that over damping might kill things and that speaker design is about harnessing and using resonances in the cabinet not just killing them. I am no speaker designer but I thought I identified a few things Ron might try structurally. However the running in and EQ issues need sorted first before anything else is changed.
All photos and text Copyright Adventures in High Fidelity Audio 2012
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by jandl100
