Horns and Triodes...?

Thanks Tom- I've been looking into single-driver solutions to appease my wife while still keeping me happy. She refers to my LaScala's as "the twin dishwashers" and would like nothing better then to see them replaced with something taking up less space and with less of a retro look. In my mind they'd be hard to beat with my 300B SET's but I've heard so many good things about the single-drive solutions that I'd like to investigate further. If they can top a Sonata that is some high praise indeed. Is there anyplace online I can look at plans for the Voight Pipe you built..there seems to be many variations on them?

Marco

Yes, Marco you can look here for the plans(in metric, and INSIDE DIMENSIONS).
http://kosat.consultit.no/~ketil/lowther/voigtpip.html

Those are the original Lowther Club of Norway plans, and are the correct ones. Stick with those. The only beneficial mod to make, is to use my "swinging door" mods on the sides of the baffle-board, to extend the width for eliminating baffle-step losses that are common to narrow cabinet designs. Makes the bass much better. They do not ever swing forward of the baffle face, but can be angled backwards to reduce the bass augmentation for certain records. Contact me if you are going to make these.

IMO, these with either Fostex or Lowther, on your 300B will have those "twin dishwashers" permanently in the storage room.

Here's the rationale. Basically, when you remove the crossover from the speaker system, you are then achieving the same result as "active" speakers. You directly control the driver from the amp, with nothing in between. Big difference. Also, the traditional problems with crossovers and driver overlap are eliminated. Another big difference. Especially since the LaScala crosses over right in the middle of the vocal midrange. Third, you will get just as much top end extension(with Lowthers) and the (40Hz)bass will go lower than your LaScala's. Efficiency is very close, with the Lowthers doing about 100db/watt in the Voigt Pipe cabinets. And, there is a certain technical "synergy" between the SET amp and single driver speaker, that is just unmatchable with any other type of speaker on a SET. They are "made for each other", and you won't ever hear your SET better than on a pair of fullrange single-drivers. This is where the "magic" is.

One caveat: Lowthers and other single drivers take a VERY long time to break in. At the start, the bass is poor. They are stiff, and tight tolerances, so you have to start at low volumes, and then increase SPL over the first 30-50 hours. They don't come into their own till after 100-200 hours, and are not fully broken in until after 500 hours. This is very real, and not a "psychological effect".

If he was daring, he should have tried to build a set of Voigt Pipes with the Fostex 208 Sigmas. I did this succesfully about 2-3 years ago and still have the cabinets left over. The finish was not "pro" but the sound, the sound for about $400 worth of materials was quite simply staggering. You may ask where did I do the woodwork? Got several large pre cutted plywood boards from Homedepot for about less than $50. Then, at home, I did the bulk of the work. Home= 1 bedroom apartment. It took me about 2 days. I had no previous woodworking experience, but the I had been bitten badly by the DIY bug. So, I did it.

Now the Fostex are filling a pair of ZHorn Garudas that I bought from Tom Zuworsky. They sound awesome, especially with my fully battery powered Final Music 5 and 6 preamplifier and amplifiers. The sound is fast, taut, and even without a subwoofer, decently full. To add more PUNCH, I added a powered subwoofer. 10 watts of grainless battery powered glory. No Cairn and Cairn can compete with this.

Another interesting set up is what TWL has. Check his system profile. Strange, it makes me drool when I think about it.

My dream....to either construct a full, with excellent bass extension horn or get a refurbished Klipsch La Belle/Scala, especially with the AKL or ALK updated crossover and some excellent minimalist wires.

That will take me to heaven!

PS: I must be somewhere between Earth and Heaven, maybe Purgatory? hehehe

Yea, I'd love to build a pair of the Voight Pipes myself, and was seriously considering it there for a bit. Tom was kind enough to send me some pointers, I'd picked out the Lowthers I wanted to put in them, and I was on the hairy edge of pulling the trigger. Even had a cabinet-maker friend of mine lined up and we were just trying to figure out what variety of solid hardwood to make'em out of and brainstorming about how to sex them up a bit and turn the basic design into something really special and unique. (Well, actually, he spent most of the time making fun of me for my stereo addiction...). Then reality set in. I too live in a one bedroom appartment, fifth floor walk-up, no less. Moreover, going from Thiels (and equipment to drive the hungry mothers) to horns is no small endevour (especially up and down five flights...). Someday, when I have room for a second system, I'll go the horn route. In the meantime, I suppose I can always impose and listen to someone else's, once they arrive....

As for the friend, his wife is very discerning regarding what finds a home in the living room and what doesn't. When she could not only tolerate but actually liked the Abbeys, there was really no question that they were it. Don't matter how good something might sound, if you can't bring it home, won't do you much good.