audioquattr system, from A to Z

[audioquattr]

Audioquattr, those new basshorns are mighty close to yr listening position. I totally get how they ended up there instead of centrally...indeed Ralph's big Cessaro demos at Munich always have his basshorns where you had them, and the deep bass wasn't convincing when I listened in 2016. So re time delay etc, I get it. But to have sub bass radiating so close to where you sit...that's hard to imagine.

I got what you mean but you don't notice the basshorns. You don't hear them till you switch them off.
You hear the bass coming from the same position as the mainspeakers are projecting it. You won't hear them aswell, only with a crap recording.
Go visit some windmills and tulips overhere after corona and hear for yourself afterwards .

The drivers in the basshorn are 5.05m away as are the mainspeakers. The nearest outside part of the basshorn is 2.35m though.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Netherlands quite the place for top draw systems...Emile's Extreme TD Audionet Alsyvox...and yours.

 

[LL21]

Thank you spiritofmusic!

The midbass (double 11") from the Zeta to the mid (big top mounted horn) Xover at 350hz (1st order).
The Zeta is not filtered at the bottom. It acoustically works because of its hornsize (120cm) down till 76hz .
The new basshorns from about 27hz to 76hz crossed with its own active amp.

I only use 1 18inch subwoofer only from 10- 27hz.
It totally can not keep up with the speed of the basshorn. That's why i put it 8-10dB lower and highcut at 60dB/oct. It is great though for ambiance etc..

Absolutely fantastic...the room, the setup, the care and of course the attention to detail. Oh...and of course the insane amount of high quality bass! Congrats! Really will come back to this as a reference in the future for sure.

 

[LL21]

Thank you Microstip!
I knew it would be better with the basshorn but i couldn't believe it was so much better.
You're right, full bandwith same technology makes really sense.

That is absolutely one of my top focuses in thinking long-term about a possibly upgrade to our X1s which we have been enjoying for over 10 years. Any upgrade needs to provide that full bandwidth...and particularly with the ability at those lower registers to really move air convincingly in our room, not just theoretically achieve low hz at 1m with a microphone at 1 watt in an anechoic chamber.

 

[brad225]

That is a spectacular system in a beautiful room . You should be very happy and proud of the system you have been able to assemble.

 

[audioquattr]

Thank you LL21 and Brad !

 

[christoph]

Part2.

The bass was full and fast but not coherent and integrated with the midbass.
I couldn't get the phase right (to my ears).
I very much had doubts about that before the placement of the basshorns at the frontwall.

Since i have this room (since 2012) i have tried subs/bass systems through the whole room.
In 2014 i placed the woofers in the sidewalls, so in front of the main speakers. So i could perfectly time align them or at least delay the bass to the main speakers. This worked perfect.
Also because of roomnodes this was a better place.

So finally after several weeks i decided to get the basshorn in front of the main speakers. With "some" mods and a "bit" of work to the sidewalls it is all good now. I mean it is really great .
The basshorns are about 2.7m lenght. Now the distance listening position to the basshorn driver is the same as listening position to the main speaker.
I moved the basshorn as long as i got the best integration, even 5mm difference you could here.
The bass is now full and fast and very coherent and fully integrated with the midbass from the main speakers (Zeta's).

View attachment 64958

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Here you can see a bit of the distance of the hrorn for the driver..
Yes i need to clean it but for seeing the shape of the internal horn it is easier now
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Congrats on your new addition of the Sub horns!
It looked very nice where you put them first but the final position also looks (and obviously sounds) awesome.
Can you elaborate on the unusual tube complements in your Pacific (RK 5u4g with Elrog 300b in the front sockets and PSvana WE 101d in the back sockets) and in your Alieno Poweramp (are those Ayon 62b with TungSol KT150)?
Have you ever tried those Ayons in the Pacific as well?

 

[audioquattr]

Congrats on your new addition of the Sub horns!
It looked very nice where you put them first but the final position also looks (and obviously sounds) awesome.
Can you elaborate on the unusual tube complements in your Pacific (RK 5u4g with Elrog 300b in the front sockets and PSvana WE 101d in the back sockets) and in your Alieno Poweramp (are those Ayon 62b with TungSol KT150)?
Have you ever tried those Ayons in the Pacific as well?

Thank you Christoph!
Well i allways liked the sound of the PSv we101d and mostly its highs, the beautifull decay on notes and its soundstage.
But it has some lower-midrange leaness. Alone i don't prefer the new type Elrog 300b in the lampi. But as a complement it was the best from all the tubes i have, lower-midrange leaness is completely gone. You can call me crazy.
No Ayons in the Alieno, you are right about the Tungsol KT150.

 

[christoph]

Thank you Christoph!
Well i allways liked the sound of the PSv we101d and mostly its highs, the beautifull decay on notes and its soundstage.
But it has some lower-midrange leaness. Alone i don't prefer the new type Elrog 300b in the lampi. But as a complement it was the best from all the tubes i have, lower-midrange leaness is completely gone. You can call me crazy.
No Ayons in the Alieno, you are right about the Tungsol KT150.

I would not at all call you crazy but rather a brave and adventurous tinkerer
If those front tubes in the Alieno are not Ayons, what are they and have you tried them in the Pacific as well?

 

[audioquattr]

I would not at all call you crazy but rather a brave and adventurous tinkerer
If those front tubes in the Alieno are not Ayons, what are they and have you tried them in the Pacific as well?

Those are EML 300b XLS, since i found the right driver tube combi this is my favourite output tube. But not in the Pacific, i tried but didn't like it there, also not as a complement. It is really trying for the right combi and allways different in other gear.

 

[tsaett]

Visit to Jeroen's system in 2020

Yesterday I had the brief but intense pleasure of visiting Jeroen in his lovely home, thanks for the invitation!

Jeroen is living in a beautiful home in a very nice neighborhood and can consider him lucky to have an excellent dedicated listening room for his amazing system.
I was anxious the whole day to hear his system and see what the bigger brothers (or rather great great granddad?) of my own speakers are capable of doing. Rest assured, I was not disappointed.

His system is well documented here, so I spare you additional infos and photos, though i can assure that in person it is even more impressive.
We only listened to digital.

I asked Jeroen to start with some of his music recommendations, which were mostly very good Jazz trio / quartett recordings, something I enjoy myself very much. As soon as the first note started, you are there with the musicians.
I heard an enormous soundstage, reaching well outside the room walls. The musicians were standing firmly within that soundstage, having body, weight and a "face", bringing the illusion of witnessing a real live concert. The speakers were able to project sounds well into the room, compared to the Alsyvox speakers at Taiko the music is more "they are here" rather than "you are there", something I know and value from my own system. Don't take that too literally though, usual hifi-lingo does not capture the experience in full.

Tonality wise I was surprised to hear a very pleasant (not to be confused with sweet) rendition of all tracks, no sharpness, no glare, no thinness or flatness, essentially nothing I negatively witnessed on several exposures to big Cessaros in Munich. Jeroen clearly has tamed these beasts and created a system to which you can listen for hours, keep you engaged big time and won't induce listener fatigue - It just sounded right.

I then asked Jeroen to play a few of my reference tracks, Kenny Burrel ("Mule") for musicality, Leonard Cohen ("Amen") for voice and The Stimulators ("new years eve on the waterfront") for stage rendition.
On Mule, I was immediately set back to '63, zooming out for the whole track and just enjoyed what the musicians were performing. The Stimulators showed incredible texture on the bass, very realistic voice rendition and bringing maybe the greatest micro dynamic shading I ever heard from a system. The bass felt perfectly integrated and seamless!
The Leonard Cohen recording also was immensely enjoyable, but showed the only area where I thought it is not perfect: On the same perceived volume level as before (and only on this track) I reached out for the remote to turn it down lower than I would have liked, as I felt a bit room overload - not really a fault of the system though.

My takeaways:
- Cessaros are great speakers which react to the slightest (and i mean slightest) change in the playback chain (I kind of knew that already from home)
- Alieno are fantastic electronics, something I might want to look into myself
- Music reproduction is such a diverse field, you can achieve incredible results with many different approaches

Thank you Jeroen for an incredible experience, I think I can confidently call your system one of, if not the best system I have heard.

Christoph

 

[audioquattr]

Thank you for the nice report Christoph!
It was my pleasure to have you both overhere. I am happy you enjoyed it.
Next time we play some great vinyl aswell .

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Many congrats with your new horn subs, Jeroen.

Presumably the horn sub is folded internally so I wondered how you are time aligning with the Zeta since the voicecoils of the Zeta are physically in front of those in the horn sub?

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Oh I think I see you ended with them in front on side walls - makes sense.

 

[audioquattr]

Many congrats with your new horn subs, Jeroen.

Presumably the horn sub is folded internally so I wondered how you are time aligning with the Zeta since the voicecoils of the Zeta are physically in front of those in the horn sub?

Thank you Bill!

You are right in doubting about that (when you read part1), it is that what i was thinking before the install (part 1) and what i experienced after part 1 and what i have tried to explain in post #69.

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/audioquattr-system-from-a-to-z.27192/page-4#post-648590
Fase 2 ( part 2):

...So finally after several weeks i decided to get the basshorn in front of the main speakers. With "some" mods and a "bit" of work to the sidewalls it is all good now. I mean it is really great .
The basshorns are about 2.7m lenght. Now the distance listening position to the basshorn driver is the same as listening position to the main speaker (driver vc).
I moved the basshorn as long as i got the best integration, even 5mm difference you could here.
The bass is now full and fast and very coherent and fully integrated with the midbass from the main speakers (Zeta's).

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Thank you Bill!

You are right in doubting about that (when you read part1), it is that what i was thinking before the install (part 1) and what i experienced after part 1 and what i have tried to explain in post #69.

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/audioquattr-system-from-a-to-z.27192/page-4#post-648590
Fase 2 ( part 2):

...So finally after several weeks i decided to get the basshorn in front of the main speakers. With "some" mods and a "bit" of work to the sidewalls it is all good now. I mean it is really great .
The basshorns are about 2.7m lenght. Now the distance listening position to the basshorn driver is the same as listening position to the main speaker (driver vc).
I moved the basshorn as long as i got the best integration, even 5mm difference you could here.
The bass is now full and fast and very coherent and fully integrated with the midbass from the main speakers (Zeta's).

It is great that you got it working now!