Food or beryllium tweeters for my DeCapo's

The DeCapo capers: The man between the Veena's.

A lonely (and very depressed) Audiophile slowly walked out of the sculptured door of a local Hi- end Audio Salon. Rare anymore. Not many Salons left to keep the flames burning. Their roaring fires have been reduced to smoldering coals that twinkle at the edge of the Internet. The few heroic owners, that still kindle the heat of passion (for true Audiophiles) are forced into new and innovative ways to keep the lamp burning. The dim lights that exist still draw the dedicated few, like moths circling a burning bulb.
As he walks, he sees a reflection of himself in the Salon window....the mirrored image of a desperate man in need of beryllium tweeters (For his beloved :DeCapos). His ghostly reflection slowly crosses over a window sticker advertising the logo of... Reference 3a (the only source for his needs). A little sign below says: Grand Veena's now on display and in stock. Real nice, he thinks, but his tweeters were back ordered.... Thinking back, to just moments ago, talking with the Salon owner (a courteous and refined gentleman) who said , " it will be a long, long wait for those tweeters". The old and haggard face of the owner, chiseled by countless bad sales, turned into a wrinkled scowl, as he softly muttered the words,.... " some Internet groupies have bought them all up ... and YOU will just have to wait your turn". He looked up at the Audiophile, and with a curious smile and said........ "I have the new berylliums in the Grand Veena's though". I could give you a great price on them.. There was a long pause in the air... The Audiophile could feel the warm glow from his Visa Card , even through his wallet. The Veena's could be his.... at 26% interest. He quickly shook off the temptation. "I'm sorry" he said, thinking that his wife would be proud... But I just can't today. ...... The salon owner chuckled and said.... "No problem", but we have ways to help you buy them when we are ready...... He turned and was gone, the sound of his sadistic chuckling fading with him.
As the Audiophile walks by the decorated window.... and then onward toward the dark, trash-filled alleyway, there is a dim figure of a large man standing in the shadows. He wears a shabby brimmed hat pulled low over his eyes. The stench of chemical styrofoam and wet cardboard fill your nostrils. You strain your eyes to get a closer look at him. His long, dark trenchcoat hangs loose over his body ... The gentle crunch of packing peanuts are heard as they stick to the bottom of his shoes. He pushes a couple of large, empty speaker boxes to the side as he slowly walks toward you. You can see the anxious look on his leathery face.
As his hands move to open the front of his weather beaten trenchcoat, you have thoughts of a congressman that may be too excited to text. As his coat slowly opens, you see a faint glimmer of what looks like small, bronze colored bumps all over his body. Your mind attacks you ! Oh NO! A lepor !! Don't let him touch you... your mind begs of you. He could make you a lepor too. He reaches into his coat, as if to scratch off one of the small bumps... He pulls a bump off and reaches out with it .. The Audiophile knows immediately what it is. A Beryllium tweeter ! The man in the trenchcoat HAS them ... You WANT them ! No waiting, no hassle. He looks at you and smiles. " I know that you need them, and They are here.. For you. ..( He says with a raspy voice). I charge a little bit more, he mutters, but you can have them both "tonight" !! The light shimmers from the motel sign behind you... The soft glow glimmers upon the dozens of tweeters hanging under his coat, secured by little strings. A voice beacons at you from inside your mind.... the tweeters could be yours ! You reach for your wallet. Suddenly the door of the audio salon swings open... The owner of the Audio Salon lurches out and screams Don't Do It !! He's a Tweeter Pusher !! ... You watch as the dark shape of a trenchcoat, the only hope for your tweeters, quickly disappears into the gloom of the night. No tweeters for YOU, echoes from the Seinfeld in your head. You cringe as the large hair covered hand of the Audio Salon owner gently covers your shoulder.
I'm sorry about HIM... the owner says with a smooth voice, tempered by years of retail experience. Please, come inside for another moment and I will fix you a cup of tea and you can listen to the Grand Veena's. he gently guides you through the door and the gloom of night disappears behind you. He places you into a nice leather chair, directly between a new pair of Grand Veena's. I'll be back in a moment, I will put some music on and make you some tea. That man must have really scared you back in the alley, he says with a more serious tone. I will call the authorities as well. Enjoy the music. You watch the owner turn and and walk away as his short stature and large hands fade into another room. You are alone. The music washes over you... You close your eyes. All around you is gone... Just you and Diane Crawl together........Bliss.
In the other room.... a large hairy hand opens the back door to the alley. The door opens wide and the dark form of a large brimmed hat and a trenchcoat appear from the deep glom of night. All is quiet, until ubruptly the sound of metal hitting the cobblestone path ( in the alley ) breaks the silence. Rats... Mutters the shape in the trenchcoat. That's he second time tonight !! Cheap string... Why can't you buy me better string to tie these cheap tweeters up with ! I'm sorry, the short figure with the big hands softly replies. I bought them from Machina Dynamic, and they are supposed to help the sound... The face under the large hat took on a bewildered look and then he smiled and said..... there are over 20 tweeters under this coat... And none of them are hooked up to an amp...how can they possibly sound good ? You are an idiot ! His gaze fixed upon the Salon owner, the man in the trenchcoat speaks softly. Do you think that he will buy the Veena's now (?), he mumbles as he lights an old darkened meerschaum pipe with his brass Zippo... The edge of his large brimmed hat momentarily catches on fire. It is quickly extinguished by a passing bird. The Salon owner looked up at the figure standing in the gloom and replied with a small chuckle.... He will buy them them later, he hasn't has his TEA yet. I will pay you after he leaves. The sound of the back door closing breaks the silence and the dark figure in the trenchcoat quickly disappears into night once more. Inside the whistling of a boiling teakettle fills the air and small pills can be heard dropping into a teacup. "Your tea is ready" a gleeful voice shouts over the crawling sounds. A short man can be seen, in the dim light of the Salon, Teacup in his hairy hands, waddling toward ... The man between the Veena's .

Episode two ?

The man between the DeCapo's.

Um, are the BE tweeters really back ordered again? They were when i ordered mine, but it didn't take that long for them to come in. Worth the wait, though!

Rebbi,

I'm not sure if they are back ordered now. When I ordered mine, I lucked out and got the last pair remaining. I received them in just a few days. The customer service is first rate at Divergent Technologies. Whoever answers the phone will help you, with whatever you need from start to finish. Nobody there will pass you off to someone else just to get rid of you. That is becoming increasing rare in all business now. There is nothing about the company and products that I don't like... Except for the looks of the Nextel. I understand why Tash made that decision, and I feel that (with regards to the accuracy of the musical values) he was courageous to follow his dream. I just wish that there was an option to purchase the nicer form of cabinetry ... WAF is the real deal.. No joke. To many great speakers have met their Waterloo here in this home because of how they looked.

In my next post, I will start on my assessment of the beryllium tweeter and how it sounds with the DeCapo as a whole. 'Bout time..eh

"There is nothing about the company and products that I don't like... Except for the looks of the Nextel."

Hey get this Tubeears, my wife likes them! I never would have guessed that one right. OK I'm not saying she is in "love" with them but at least they aren't objectionable. So that is out of the way. btw, they really aren't so bad once in the room. Actually it doesn't really jump out at you EXCEPT for the white dispersion ring in the center of the main driver. She doesn't even mind that. Was I surprised.

I am in the process of testing a cable system including speaker wires, ics, power cords and conditioner, same set-up as with the Merlins, stay tuned for more coverage on this breaking development.

On a further note to other Reference 3a owners without the latest upgrades. I suspect the improvements in resolution are not small with the new BE tweeter, it is simply amazing what I am hearing with familiar recordings, I mean jawdropping amazing, the musical detail these speakers extract from the recording. My cavaets regarding large scale music are receding as they continue to break-in and the sound just gets larger and more convincing.

Hi Tubeears
In keeping with the spirit of this thread and to keep it alive I wanted to add my take on the cable changes with the Decapos. Yesterday my friend brought over his cables. When he first brought them over to hear with the Merlins, I had my doubts that there could be too much improvement over what I had. He insisted I would hear an improvement. He isn't one to go gaga over everything he hears and I DO trust his ears. He insisted and I agreed. After the first time I wasn’t too sure I believed what I heard, so profound was the difference. So we did it again with the same result. Ever the skeptic I was convinced it was real enough to be able to discern the differences in a blind test when listening to the cabling as part of a system.
Included were 3 power cords, to the amp, pre-amp and my Modwright Oppo 95. 1 IC, from source to pre-amp, speaker cables, and a power strip. The IC from the pre to the power amp since I've put the DeCapos in the system is Coincident. As mentioned in a previous post the cabling was replaced my Stereovox 600 sei ics and Studio copper speaker cables. I also have several different power cords that I choose for my system back when I was going through the cable swapping game. The cabling has remained as is since about 2007, no changes. I’ve been happy with the results and I'm not one to continue driving myself nuts with finding the "ultimate" cable. What I have works quite satisfactorily with excellent transparency and no glaring issues. Being the obsessive compulsive lot we are, we all know there’s something better but how far to go in finding it?
Not to get into too many details of the process as it was performed over several hours and with the changes I am hearing in the speakers from day to day resulting IME from the drivers settling in, it can be daunting trying to figure out what is going on REALLY. To cut to the chase first the speaker cables. I didn't notice anything substantive. If you THINK you hear something it just doesn't count. Next we put in the IC from the source to the Pre-amp. At this point we both heard the effect that was realized in the Merlins, a greater sense of coherence and clarity, a bit of the richness from the Stereovox was removed but replaced by a greater sense of the instruments and vocals in front of you, more real. Hard to explain this but I can only attribute it to some type of timing phenomenon, who knows what is REALLY going on with cabling you can only believe what your ears tell you. Next we hooked up all the power cables excepting for the digital into the power strip. I didn't want to replace that just yet. I am using a JPS digital power cord that I have been extremely pleased with. I still remember the first day that I got that cable and the improvement it made. All devices are connected to two dedicated 20 amp circuits with cryoed hospital grade receptacles.
When all was in place, particularly with the last change including the power strip it became completely apparent that what we had heard with the Merlins carried over to the DeCapos. The sound just got larger and more natural. The bass went off the charts. Honestly at the dealer there was nothing I heard that would lead me to believe that these speakers were capable of projecting such dynamic drive and energy. The images became larger, on some recordings seemingly as large as life. Reference music during the process includes Reference Recording of Miles Davis’s "All Blues" a quartet recording with Mike Garson on piano. Bach's "Little Fugue in G Minor" on Telarc with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops. Seal’s "People Asking Why" and Evgeny Kissin J.S. Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C.
What was focused on in the Bach "Little Fugue.." is the opening oboe with the bassoon coming in. This is very delicate and demonstrated with either cabling the amazing ability of the DeCapos to reproduce the correct timbre of these instruments so correctly, beyond what I consider typical for most box speakers. It is an example of why they grabbed my attention initially, the believability factor. The differences in the cabling were a greater sense of what you are hearing is in front of you and not coming from a box, not unlike Quads if not quite as believable either but pretty darn amazing and very close. This is the coherence part. How does a cable ADD coherence. I don’t think it does. What I believe is it subtracts what is heard from the Stereovox, the bit of richness. It is difficult to put into words but it is apparent. And so it went . Most notable on the Kissin recording was the decay of the harmonics. and how this was even FURTHER refined and realistic, a deeper view into the performance. I am a huge fan of great pianists whether in the jazz or classical genre so this is just a really big deal to me to hear these artists perform in your living space that almost transcends the recording. I was again so amazed at what I was hearing. I have a 6’ Chickering Grand adjacent to the listening space and know how it projects in my space. To hear one so gifted play seemingly in front of me in my 20’X18’ room was itself a gift.
The second set of cables just made everything more focused and right. The power cables seemingly increased the size of everything, more vivid and dynamic. On the Seal the sound almost pressured the room. The bass was very convincing, never boomy but clearly defined with all the fundamentals AND overtones resolved. This is due in no small part to the Berning amp which is dc coupled and is as good as anything I’ve ever heard in controlling bass and going low. I’ve owned it for 11 years and with an ideal load it is about as clear and transparent as anything I’ve ever heard. The Berning showed me the true mettle of these speakers and conversely the speakers did the same with the amp. Nothing more ideal than a mid/bass driver with no crossover coupled with an OTL type amp operating at almost zero feedback, and 70 watts of power, about ideal. When I first hooked up the speakers I got some serious boom, this with the front baffle 36” from the wall. I don’t know why here, certainly not at the dealers. It was quickly remedied by placing 2 home brewed tube traps behind each of the speakers.
Actually after reading the above it sounds like a review for the unnamed cables. I have left them unnamed because the focus of this thread is the DeCapo, BE tweeters or food. This is a concurrence of what Tubeears is hearing. To me the hobby isn’t about changing out gear to hear something different. I love to hear different systems but would much rather do that and come home to something where I can kick back and really enjoy the music, being engaged without that constant desire to chase what’s missing. These speakers first of all produce music, the timbre, balance and believability are all there. What I don’t think I’ve found out is how much there is there, how deep does this go? What I am left with is an unexpected result alright, but in a way I never imagined. Thanks Tony for your kind words. I am just in awe of how superb and capable these speakers are. Their price is a bargain but is partly understandable because of the simplicity of the design, a simple capacitor, no complex crossover, a great mid/bass driver and those BE tweeters all so well integrated, coherent and seamless. I wonder what the Nextel coating and acoustic lens have a hand in what I’m hearing?