Hopkins' System

Listening to the Peggy Lee video on my phone and comparing it to the sound of the same track played on the Qobuz app of my phone, it is obvious that there is some lower bass missing - but the vocals sound pretty good, and oddly enough the bass is not really missed that much when listening to the speakers. Even with modern tracks - I was playing "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk this afternoon - the sound is really engaging and easy to "get into" (I attribute that to the high transparency). But I am sure that properly implemented sub-woofers (perhaps even in the corners behind the listening point) could sound really good. Maybe someday...

I received the panels that will be hung on my back wall next week. They look nice (IMO), and the build quality is very good.



The wood panel behind will be moved to the side wall.

The 3 panels have PET felt. They are available in either 5 or 10cm depth. I chose the 5 cm depth for esthetic considerations, and I don't expect them to "transform" the sound in my room, but they should definitely help.

They are made in the Czech Republic:

The company answered all my questions promptly. The panels were well packaged and arrived safely. So I can recommend them!

In terms of sound quality, I expect that it should give a little more focus to the sound of my open baffle speakers, but I'll see. My room is over 11 meters long, so it makes sense to have the largest (well, longest) space possible behind the open baffle speakers, and have some form or room treatment on the back wall. On one of the side walls, I have my TV in front of a large window with an acoustic curtain. By rotating the TV, the sound from the speakers can be reflected away from the listening position.

On the other side wall, there is a couch and I plan to test redirecting first reflections as well. It is interesting to experiment.

I have bass traps in each back corner. I'm not terribly happy with the way they look, and may just replace them with something more discreet.

Work in progress...

Low-fi (budget-wise) but fun!

I was listening to some B.B. King last night and remembered an LP I used to play a lot when I was around 15:


It is a live recording (EDIT - it is actually an audience overdub! see below). It has an excellent version of "Sweet Sixteen", in which a spectator is screaming her head off throughout the performance. I found that version on YouTube:


I ordered the LP on discogs.

Since my early teens (late 70s) I was lucky to have a small cheap record player in my room, with two small speakers. I do not remember what model it was. I still have vivid memories of some of the music I played at the time (like those screams on Sweet Sixteen). I would be curious to listen to that same record player today and see what it sounded like!

As it turns out, the LP is made of early studio recordings with overdubbed audience noise!

Strange choice to have those wild screams in there, but it works, and his early sound is so good!


I believe this is the original track which was overdubbed:


It was recorded in 1959. Great song and performance.

He sings about his love for a woman who wants to leave him.

"You can treat me mean baby
But I'll keep on loving you just the same
But one of these days, baby
You're gonna give a lot of money
To hear someone call my name
Yeah, Sweet Sixteen..."

This compilation by Fremeaux is nice:

Listen to the release B.B. King 1949-1962 The Indispensable (The Indispensable) by B.B. King on Qobuz https://open.qobuz.com/album/3561302541426

Here's a cool video of Charles Brown performing live that song I recorded above:


Here's an artist who remained at the top of his game until he passed away.

The original album is really enjoyable and is well recorded:

Really enjoyed listening (again) to this tonight, so I recorded it to share it


Ellington with a South American touch.

He was quite the world traveller. This blog post about his State Department sponsored "Far Easy" tour is interesting:


Different times... Obviously the political landscape has completely changed since 1963. Today, in Iran, they jail and kill musicians!

I received today the Record Day "Nat King Cole - Live at the Blue Note Chicago" and it is a "must have" for Cole fans.
There are quite a few numbers with extended piano solos. Here's a snippet from "Our Love Is Here To Stay":


There are lots of discussions, as always, about the sound quality on the Steve Hoffman forum. I'm perfectly happy with the SQ, and can't wait to listen to this on my open baffle speakers this weekend!

Happy with the way this looks (and sounds).

hopkins said:

Vocals - the infamous Peggy Lee track - don't forget to ask your wife about this one!

Click to expand...

Here's another take on that Peggy Lee track. The placement of the speakers in this configuration gives a better sound, IMO, with less "reverb" (also somewhat attenuated by my panels). It's hard to compare different configurations - the time it takes to change things around you forget what the previous setup sounded like. Videos can help "confirm" things.


I had my girlfriend listen to some tracks (mostly 80s pop) and she thought everything sounded great - lots of detail but easy to listen to - but she's never heard "high end audio" It's been a while since I have heard other systems myself.

morricab said:

A bit of weight missing but the detail and clarity is nice...at least it's not murky sounding...

Click to expand...

I plan on trying my open baffle connected with the woofers of the Teufel (so those would play below 200hz or so - I have to check the crossover frequency). However imperfect the test may be, it may give me an idea of what some bass support offers.

YouTube shorts are nice to share solos - when played from YouTube, the video automatically loops so you can listen to it on repeat for some time These early recordings on 78s did not give much space to musicians so everything had to be "to the point", and here it certainly is:


The entire track is quite something to listen to. Members of the Ellington orchestra teamed up with Teddy Wilson and a fine rhythm section (Allan Reuss - guitar, John Kirby - bass, Cozy Cole - drums) to produce this memorable track on March 31, 1937.

Here is the full track: https://storage.googleapis.com/cloudplayer/samples/033 Fine And Dandy.flac

Order of solos: Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Cootie Williams (trumpet), Teddy Wilson (piano), Harry Carney (baritone sax).

As usual, Mosaic records did a fine job with the transfer to digital.

I have these Teufel speakers positioned in a roughly equilateral triangle about 2.8 meters from my listening position (couch).They are only 80cm (32 inches) from the front wall. Others have not had issues with these speakers positioned close to the wall, but in my case I found that bass was a little muddy.

I don't feel like moving those speakers every time I want to listen to them. So I filled the rear ports with some PET felt. Bass is now tighter and the sound overall is more balanced and pleasing, with better clarity in the mids.

I spend the evening listening to some Count Basie from various eras. I have no problems listening to these speakers for an extended period of time. They are relaxing to listen to.

I listen to them usually between a volume setting of 10 and 15 out of 24 on my powerDAC. I can listen to them pretty loud if I want to, maybe not "party level" but plenty loud... They are rated 87 dB (2.83 V / 1 m).



Quick and dirty solution to hold felt in the ports:


I don't expect all would share my taste for these speakers were they to listen to them. When it comes time to make compromises, we all make different choices. There are naturally compromises at this price point.

Somewhat related... I saw this Video that Darko just released, entitled "The Music First Audiophile Manifesto".


He's having his Jerry Maguire moment...

My personal perspective is that we simply constantly navigate between sound and music. Music is why we are all here in the first place, but we all have in parallel the curiosity to improve sound quality.

A friend who is a professional pianist has "absolute pitch". He explains that it's a bit of a curse sometimes! The same goes for us with our "awareness" of sound quality?

Back to work on my open baffle speakers

I feel that the use of simple first order crossovers on these Teufel speakers have benefits and I will try adding woofers and tweeters to my open baffle. Four Tang Bands drivers on an open baffle provide an excellent midrange, in my opinion, but you can't produce much bass, even with much wider baffles. The high frequencies are quite variable depending on small changes to the listening position, and tweeters can help there, providing also some added sparkle and refinement to the sound. First order filters may have disadvantages, but they seem to preserve some sound attributes that I appreciate, and I don't want to add powered subs. It would be cool to use my open baffle at times in conjonction with the Teufel for bass support (with some kind of switch to deactivate the mid/tweeter and use a specific coil for the low-pass filter). A single high quality capacitor would provide the high pass filter on the Tang Bands drivers. Perhaps the midrange of the Tang Bands would even further improve by not having to produce low frequencies. Anyway, that's the route I want to explore now. I'll see where it leads!

Here is a concert being streamed live on YouTube:


Here is the description provided in the video:

"Born in Fukuoka, Japan, pianist Mamiko Watanabe started with the piano at age four and began exploring composition at age 7. In 1999, she received a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music where she received several awards for Jazz composition and piano. She was a semi-finalist at the Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition in 2002 and 2003, and in 2003 she received the DownBeat Student Award in the Jazz Soloist Category. After moving to New York, she could often be found performing at venues like the Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Jazz at the Kitano and more. Mamiko has toured Europe and Japan and has performed with jazz greats such as Joe Lovano, Kevin Mahogany, and Bobby McFerrin, while releasing five albums as a leader. This performance features the same band that is on her newest release, Being Guided by the Light–a superlative trio featuring bassist Santi Debriano and NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart on drums."

I believe they are playing at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. The room is small. I don't know what microphones and other equipment they are using, but the sound is not that great. You can compare with the Tiny Desk concerts, for example. That being said, it is great that they are having these performances, and cool that they can be streamed "live" on YouTube.

It does not look like too many people are streaming this, so let's give them a little support! I understand this is all publicly funded, so that's where some of your (American forum-members) taxpayer money is going - you may as well watch it