Tekton Double Impacts

Nope. Nothing peculiar about my room. It is 10’x19’ with an L-shaped opening on the 10’ side that my speakers reside at... which means the left speaker is 2’ from the side wall and the driver face is 3’ from the front wall but the right speaker opens up to the 8’x8’ dining room cavity.

Congrats Dave, I must have missed that. Looking forward to your impressions. 

My 2 channel upgrades are nearly complete. This thread proved to be a valuable tool in selecting amps and convinced me to buy speakers without an audition. Thanks to all for your contributions.

The DI's with upgrades have 60 hrs of run time and are sounding excellent with an LM508IA 48W SET. This is a beast of an amp and could have easily sent me to the chiropractor. The sonics of the Devore O/96 and LM508 setup heard at Pitch Perfect while impressive, don't really have much on the DI's. The bass definitely sounds tighter with the DI's and images are better defined but that is usually attributed to the Live Dirac hocus pocus I run. Tonal accuracy may be a smidge off compared to the O/96's but again, the DI's sound more live.

A notable also ran is the Raven Blackhawk. The vocals were wonderful with plenty of high frequency shimmer. I would have kept it, had it not needed a repair. That was my opportunity to upgrade, yet again :(

@brotw  Congratulations!!! That's a great pairing. Happy to hear you are loving your system with the LM and DIs in it.

Hi brotw, 
 My sentiments mirror David's, no doubt that your amplifier and speaker pairing sound exceptionally well.  Congratulations. 
Charles 

Thanks guys. I've got a NOS 6SU7GTY in the 6SL7 spot and Psvane 805 T/2's which made a nice improvement. Listening to The Bad Plus has me thinking of Gaia isolation footers and pucks to clear up that stand up bass and kick drum even more. Love those 48 watts for percussive music.

Thanks guys. The NOS 6SU7GTY in the 6SL7 spot and the Psvane 805's made a significant improvement. Some Gaia isolation footers and pucks ought to tighten up bass and kick drums. Percussive jazz like The Bad Plus really grooves with the extra power. 

I just ordered the DI SE in a color called "Rosso Folgore" I saw it in the sample pics on his web site and it's beautiful. Karma said it could be 16 - 20 weeks. I'm OK with that, as long as I know what to expect.

l also just got the Linear tube Audio UltraLinear amp. So far it's the most incredible 20 watts I've ever heard. For those of you that used the Micro ZOTL 1 watt to power your DI's and liked the sound, it's like that but Sweeter top, tighter bass with a lot more power .

@brotw   Nice to see a mention of The Bad Plus. I enjoy their body of work. 

@lancelock   Great to hear that you are on board with the SEs. Should be a very sweet finish.

16 to 20 weeks?????

Congrats Lance. Love the color you chose. It's making me wish I hadn't gone with such a conservative color now! Sounds like you have another winner with LTA's new amp. Bet the SE's will sing hooked up to it. 

Glad to see they are giving more realistic lead times and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised with something closer to 16 weeks or less. Mine should finally ship early next week making it 10 weeks since ordering. 

I wanted to share some new updates with my DI’s, upcoming SE’s and associated equipment.

Aric Audio is working on upgrading the 300B amp he built for me while I’m having him move everything into one of his new, heavy duty, sweet looking brushed aluminum chassis. Aric has reported that he’s been able to create and even more organically textured sound with a dead silent background. Music to my ears! I’m also having him build me a matching 12SN7 linestage. The synergy should create even better music and they will look as good as they sound.

I wanted to try some different isolation footers for my speakers since I’d be needing some for the upcoming SE’s. After reading much praise about the Isoacoustic Gaia isolation footers I purchased the Gaia I’s even though I was quite skeptical of the sonic claims many were making regarding them. I figured I’d end up returning them as they probably wouldn’t live up to the hype. Boy was I wrong! I put them on my DI’s and was shocked by how much they cleaned up the sound. An even quieter background that allows the most subtle of details to emerge, smoother and richer vocals, better imaging and a tighter, more musical bass. While they aren’t cheap at $1300 with the carpet spikes I consider them a bargain for the improvements they made. Obviously YMMV, but on my carpet and padding over concrete floors the sonic improvements equaled a component upgrade for me. I wouldn’t have believed that was possible with just isolation footers

Yes, more confirmation that these feet might really be worth it. The non-SE owners should be ok saving some money on the GAIA II 120 lb limit (14 lb margin) for the standard DI's. Thanks for the report

Brotw, I'm sure the Gaia II would work for the DI's but the sales rep suggested the Gaia I for them. Even though the II's are rated to 120 lbs their isolation effectiveness diminishes the closer you get to their upper weight limit. It would be interesting to test them both on the DI's as the II's are half the price of the I's making them a much better deal. 

I bought LiteCoins pretty cheap. I'm desperately trying to hold on to them, but it might be time to buy a new pair of speakers 🔊, that is, if say the mini-ulfs come out soon.

Place your crossovers outboard, upgrade the drivers to Beta woofers and finally upgrade to Alphalite midrange drivers. This will shave off  about 8 pounds per speaker and deliver better sound quality 🙂

Don't you need to adjust the crossover for all that change in drivers?

No. Not at all. Neodymium mid driver is nice. Most likely what is in the SE. Smoother response and same effeciency. Crossover parts and wire are most important however . Can now use the Gaia II more safely😁

There have been more changes to the crossover with the same drivers (over time) than would ever be needed with these upgraded drivers.

I use the Beta woofers and mid units.  Will be trying the Neodymium Alphalite soon.  Both are drop in replacements no problem at all. 

Thanks. So you would wire them in series for 4 ohms then.

Now that's a thought Grannyring, the money saved using the Gaia II's could go towards the cost of the upgrades. Once I get my SE's I'll seriously look into modding my DI's. It would be very interesting comparing the modded DI's to the SE's. My biggest concern is soldering new wire onto the tweeters without damaging them. Any tips on minimizing heat to the tweeter? Would Duelund caps work? I've heard good things about the big Duelunds. 

@mac48025 Placing an alligator or crocodile clip on the terminal between the wire and the terminal mount will act like a heatsink and not overheat and possibly desolder the tinsel leads to the diaphragm.

Edit: As a precaution if the alligator clip you use is very high tension and has really sharp teeth, maybe put a layer of aluminum foil between it and the litze wire behind the terminal.  Some alligator clips are meaner than others. No sense damaging the delicate tweeter wire. 

No worries on the tweeters. First off no need to rewire all of them for the upgrades.  You can just deal with the tweeter connections to the crossover. Use this heat sink as @jcarcopo refers to....

https://www.amazon.com/Elenco-ST-23-Heat-Sink/dp/B00R6SQGG6

Easy and you will not ruin the tweeters. 

@grannyring Yes sir, that's the one.  No teeth at all is best. (deletes funny double entendre) 

@mac48025. You will want to mod the SEs as they will have the better drivers. I can assure you the crossover parts can be upgraded in the SE reflecting more of what I used.

Duelund would not be possible due to the crazy high cost. Remember the cap values are as high as 220uf, 68uf, and 10 or 12uf. Sure in the 1.5 uf cap on the center tweeter. A 12uf Duelund CAST cap costs $1300. A 40uf Duelund cap costs $3300. A custom 68uf and several combined caps to get you to 220uf would cost some $10,000 per speaker! Oh my! If you go this route have a master woodworker make you a great set of new cabs and outboard crossover boxes. Two inch thick front baffle and works!

No worries, great choices beyond Duelund here!  On values up to 15uf you can use the wonderful Jupiter copper foil or  Jupiter HT Aluminum foil caps in wax. On the large value caps I used Mundorf Evo Oil to make up the 220uf cap. The best sounding large value cap I know of is the Mundorf Supreme Evo Silver & Gold. It is expensive, but nothing like the cost of the Duelund. The stock SEs will not have parts of this quality. Also go with Path Audio resistors. All of these are too big for the cab and will placed externally. 

These parts are better sounding than the electroltyics or lower range Clarity film caps used in the stock and SE speakers. 

Dueland should be valued in bitcoin at those remarkable prices.

LOL! Agreed. Imagine also using Duelund inductors in the DIs! They are the best and very costly. Then wire it all up using the wonderful  Mundorf silver and gold wire placed in a silk and cotton sheathing.  Oh what a DIY fantasy dream! 

Thanks Jcarcopo and grannyring. As you can tell I'm a total novice to modding but I think I can handle it. 

Whoa, I had no idea Duelund caps cost so much. I think using Duelund wire will suffice for me.....along with Jupiter and Mundorf caps. Let my research begin. Thanks for the part suggestions and tips gentlemen. I'll experiment on my DI's first before modding the SE's. 

grannyring, after modding the DI's I know you have a more refined sound but one of the qualities of the DI's I wouldn't want to lose is their "liveliness"....that natural, live, realism they impart. Have your mods affected this quality of them?

No. They are more resolving. The electrolytic caps used in the DI are dark sounding. That is the sound quality of electrolytic caps. The parts I used opened up the speaker, made them more resolving, improved imaging, greater weight and body and most importantly......more natural sounding. The nervous or slightly ragged edges are gone and music is now flows with more focus, fidelity, and smoothly. Please do not take refined to mean dull and dark.

The Duelund wire is a lively wire full of life, but never too forward or bright. Also understand that better parts make a speaker more quiet....that is less noise. Great caps and resistors can reduce noise. Noise you don’t know is even there until you hear the difference. This is the refinement I am talking about.

Thanks for the detailed answer grannyring. That makes a lot of sense to me and I know exactly what you mean about noise being that you don't know is there until it's gone. Every time I think my system is as quiet as it could get I change something that brings about another level of silence that allows more detail, textures and musical subtleties to emerge.....which brings about the refinement you're describing. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us. 

Hi Tom,
Bill (Grannyring) has in  my opinion given you excellent advice and recommendations.  The speakers you heard in my home were Coincident Total Eclipse II with Duelund CAST copper foil capacitors.  Fortunately I only required one pair of 5.6uf for the tweeters, that was it thankfully. 

This was done about 5 years ago and cost me about 600 or 700.00 dollars.  Absolutely worth every penny.  As Bill noted the cost using big value or multiple Duelunds grows exponentially in a hurry. It was Bill who suggested the Duelund CAST to me 5 years ago, time truly does fly.
That one simple tweeter capacitor change elevated the sound from "very" good to superb in my opinion. 
Charles 

Thanks Charles,
It was due to your speakers and Duelund caps that made me think of Duelund but I had no idea they would add up so quickly. Mundorf and Jupiter are certainly quality caps and it sounds like they did wonders for Bill.

I will wait until my SE's and new amp and pre amp are burned in before I do any mods so as to be familiar with their sound before making changes. I hope to have everything in place shortly after the new year and can have you over to listen to things before I start modding anything. Every component in my system will be differant from when you last heard it and I look forward to your impression of the changes. The speaker cables will still be the same at least :) 

Thanks Tom,  I really look forward to hearing your system again with the insignificant changes you've made. I enjoyed my last visit there but very interested to listen given the recent transformation. 

Charles 

@mac48025 The Audyn True Copper series caps we used in your builds have competed favorably against the Jupiter and Mundorf caps at least in tube amps and preamps. I've seen several reviews where they stood head to head and even took home the ribbon for having a great response throughout the entire spectrum- especially in the midrange region. Nothing wrong with the caps you mentioned- but also wanted to throw in some other options! I've also used the Audyn Cap Plus as my go-to budget cap in several speaker designs. It's very neutral, yet revealing, and gives that nice black background between passages. Another option in lieu of replacing the large value caps (220uf for instance), is to bypass 10% of the value with a high quality film cap (so 200 uf 'lytic and 20 uf film in this case). 

The Audyn true copper caps are also very good indeed. I have them in my DI. Not quite as good as the Jupiter copper foil, not as rich or resolving of micro details, but very good indeed. Jupiter copper foils are very expensive however.  

Bypassing ’lytics in power supplies is definitely a notable improvement- second only to using large film or motor-run caps (in my opinion). In speakers, I find it a mixed bag, but have had "decent" results in bypassing a large series midrange band-pass capacitor in the high pass of the midrange circuit. In most cases those don’t get much bigger than 20-40 uf for the most part, so just replacing them using a mid to high-quality film can still be budget-friendly (and more practical). Large films do take up lots of space for sure. In fact in some of the smaller monitors I’ve built, I’ve even re-calculated the net internal enclosure volume to counter the volume displacement of the large cans!

Agree 101% The Clarity TC caps are wonderful in power  supplies.  

I just saw that I could get a 280 uF in 1,100 volts- I'm sold! 

Oh my. Building a 845amp? 

I had actually shelved one a couple of months ago, but was thinking a pair of these caps in series would be perfect for the B+!

Wondering if anyone had to wait for their DI grills a long time, got used to the sound of the speaker without covers, then got the covers and noticed the sonic change. If so, what were the differences?
Well, am only interested a little, actually...
Am posting to see if I get lucky and this becomes the 4000 post on the thread. Getting close, I see....
...OH and BTW, don't forget to check your DI speaker screws after shipment. They tend to get loose in transit.

Hi Aric,
 If you were commissioned to build a cost no object SET amplifier,  for the power supply would you prefer for ultimate sound quality
1.  High quality electrolytic caps with film bypass cap or
2.  Film caps exclusively (No electrolytic at all) ?
In the signal path, very high quality coupling capacitors or an interstage transformer?  I imagine a good case could be made for either. 
As I've said before I appreciate your insight.
Thanks, 
Charles 

Would you guys quit talking over my head? :) While I don't know the differences in the different types of caps you're talking about it sure makes for interesting reading and I'm learning more all the time. 

Aric, I keep forgetting that you're a speaker designer with all we've done together involving amps and preamps. Since I love the look of the giant Duelund caps so much I think I'll make some faux ones to put on my crossover board and use less expensive caps that are actually wired to the speakers....or better yet I'll make my external crossover box look like a huge Duelund cap!

Aric, would you make an amp based on the GM70 tube? I would love to try one.

@charles1dad  Those are good questions! For a cost no object, I would likely go the exclusive film cap route in the power supply- since even the best 'lytics will tend to drift with age (however good quality modern caps last MUCH longer than those of the 70's and 80's). What I like to do in most cases, is use electrolytics bypassed with small film in the first stages where massive filtering is required, and then have the last stage be pure film since it's the last part of the filter before the audio stages. 

As far as coupling? That's another tough one. Inter-stage trafos are technically superior in the phase region (where multiple stages are required), and also when you need a step up or impedance matching transformer. However iron has it's drawbacks in terms of frequency extreme rolloffs, so you trade "possible" phase issues for "possible" response issues. However in practice using good quality parts- these issues are small and splitting hairs so long as the design is done right. 

I for one think that high quality caps can get a design that sounds phenomenal so I typically don't look into the interstage transformers much. However, on a tube that requires a huge voltage swing and lots of low current to drive it (ex: 845, 805, GM70), it's almost necessary to use an interstage trafo as there's so much in the signal path otherwise. 

@333jeffery - Someday perhaps! I think my first 1kV triode will likely be the 805 or 845, as I've got the basics on a design down for those. The GM70 is very similar, but in all cases these designs are not cheap to do right. Using over 1,000 volts and requiring 2-3 stages to drive these huge tubes is a very deliberate complexity. The 300B, and 2A3 are next in line as far as needing low current, high voltage swings. The easiest tubes to drive are the Pentodes or Kinkless Triodes (KT88, KT120, KT150). The general rule is the less stages in the signal path- the easier it is to make an amp that sounds transparent in my opinion. 

Drat! Too late to edit. That should’ve been "as far as needing high current (low impedance), high voltage swings".

Aric,
Thank you for your clearly explained reply. I certainly realize that there’s more than one way to design and  build an excellent sounding amplifier. I do like exposure to various perspectives and continue to learn from knowledgeable builders such as yourself.
Charles

@charles1dad  Anytime! I appreciate you asking for my insight on the subject. Best, Aric

mac,  I must say you've got a lot of new toys coming your way!  You'd  think it was Christmas or something.
I'd really like to see the chassis Aric is using.  Any pics?

@grannyring
Bill, did you ever sort out the values of the inductors on your version of the DI?  Mine is an earlier run so if I ever get around to upgrading my crossover it would be great to have that info.

OBTW, biking in Michigan has come to a close.  The mileage/post battle wasn't even close.    DI posts-4000   Bike mileage-2525