Horns and Triodes...?

Well, gentlemen, in case anyone is still paying attention to this one, I thought I might offer a touch of resolution. After much consternation and gnashing of teeth, Jim, the friend of mine that started all this, has commissioned an amp from Mr. Korneff and ordered himself a pair of the Cain & Cain Abbeys. The upstream bits from there are still under debate, but considering the Abbeys are snowed in in Colorado and Jeff's amp magic takes time anyway, there's no rush. Thanks again for the pointers.

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.

I tried the Norwegian (the originals, as per Tom) pipes and wasn't thrilled -- with EX-4's.
HOWEVER, what is spectacular: front loaded (tactrix horn) PM-4's driven by "good-bandwidth" 300B (i.e. using big Tango OPT) + an open baffle (sub)woof system.
The tactrix cuts mechanically @120Hz; the woofs x-over 4th order, passive, preceding woofer amp.

And, Tom (Twl) I also experienced PM4's on flat, open baffle with back damping and the same tactrix @ 120Hz. Special construction to support the PM4's.
Sound? Oh well... let me not waste server space with superlatives.

Unsurprisingly, measured response @ 1 m on axis was +3/-2 db to +19kHz. In room response was ~+/-8db which is outstanding in my book.

Now all that's left is money for two PM4's. Better still 4 or 6 to cover mutlichannel needs...

I'm rambling -- Mezmo, sorry.

Greg, that sounds very interesting. Do I take you to mean that there was no enclosure behind the Lowthers, but a tractrix horn in front? If so, that is quite unusual. What subs did you find that were fast enough to blend well with the Lowthers?