SETs and Horns

[bonzo75]

Its recorded 7 meters away from a iphone. Your not gona get much bass recording on a tiny mic built into the phone.

Please record it from around 4 - 5m

 

[morricab]

Sounds nice and crystal clear to me in mids / high but lacking heft, substance and weight in the mid bass. Could be the phone recording.

I didn't get the feeling it was lacking too much there...very good texture in the bass I thought... I have heard this Line Magnetic system live a couple of times and for the money (around 40K , I think) it is something special.

 

[Phantom-Audio]

I didn't get the feeling it was lacking too much there...very good texture in the bass I thought... I have heard this Line Magnetic system live a couple of times and for the money (around 40K , I think) it is something special.

Its not lacking in bass at all the system hits hard & fast and with precise definition across all the lower frequencies. The OTL amps control the 18inch field coils very well. Your just not gona get much bass recorded on a phone mic, the flaw is in the microphone and how its all processed in the recording.

Its 50k retail field coil version but the permanent magnets are much cheaper at 25k retail but can be had much less depdning on your dealer. the field coil shoots up the price by a large margin.

at this point in the recording the various voltage setup to the drivers was not optimum. The driver behaves diffrently depending on how much voltage you feed it. i was still experimenting on this and took me about two weeks to fully dial
the speaker in.

 

[Phantom-Audio]

This was recorded in the first 5 mins of setting up the speakers so they are not broken in yet. I was about 8 meters away from the speakers here back row second seat. the speakers took a few days to open up.

 

[Phantom-Audio]

Iv tried Various SET amps on these Field Coils all sound wonderful. The Dynamics and clarity and speed on the OTL still have an edge over SET amps iv tried. Its a personal taste on this level whilst i am still looking for SET amps i can live with so i can interchange the amps from time to time. The OTL amps are not going anywhere. They will be permanent keepers.

Atma-Sphere amps and pre-amps need carefull setups on tubes and cable (amps to Speakers) Good isolation platform and matching speakers and the real magic happens on 16ohms speaker. it does take time to dial them in with various tubes but once this is done its transparency and musicality leaves you in astonishment.

 

[Atmasphere]

My horns act as a magnifying glass on the quality of the coupling caps in my amps. I have tried Audio Note and Jensen copper PIO. These add what you might called "warmth", which I think rolls off the high frequencies and probably give more prominence to the mid-bass.

I didn't find that the oil and paper caps were rolled off, but it did seem as if the highs were shelved a bit, although they were extended. I imagine a lot of people would like this sound. I think I've spent too much time recording and working with real instruments to accept something like that, even if they were reliable.

 

[cal3713]

Every cap sounds like something.

 

[Salectric]

My horns act as a magnifying glass on the quality of the coupling caps in my amps. I have tried Audio Note and Jensen copper PIO. These add what you might called "warmth", which I think rolls off the high frequencies and probably give more prominence to the mid-bass. The leading edge of transients also seems less clear. Jupiter beewax caps was a disaster. Don't use them in tube amps unless you are constantly monitoring for failure. I used Mundorf Zinc MCaps for a few years. They sounded pretty transparent, but I had to change them once or twice a year due to leakage issue causing unstable biasing and noise, as described by Ralph. Even when new, the lowest noise I could get from them was about 3mV (my amps are balanced differential). The cost adds up. If my midrange driver was not 112dB sensitive, I probably would not have noticed it. When one of them finally destroyed one of my 300Bs, I thought enough was enough. I switched to Wima FKP4 caps at a fraction of the cost. Residual noise immediately went below 1mV (I suspect the noise reflects the leakage current). They sound extremely neutral, transparent, with excellent transients. For my preamp, I have PPS caps (Polyphenylene sulfide) since I don't need very high voltage. These caps are even more stable than polypropylene at high temperature, perfect for tube amps. The downside is, the range of capacitance and voltage available is limited, and most come in an SMD form factor. My friend also offered me some Dueland caps. He rejected them because they measured too poorly. I verified the measurements and did not have the courage to put them in, and so never heard what they sound like.

Have you tried Copper V-Caps? They are 100% reliable in my experience and also happen to be the best-sounding coupling caps I've tried.

 

[Atmasphere]

Have you tried Copper V-Caps? They are 100% reliable in my experience and also happen to be the best-sounding coupling caps I've tried.

We've had good luck with them and they are some of the best we've heard. They also measure very well.

 

[adrianywu]

I didn't find that the oil and paper caps were rolled off, but it did seem as if the highs were shelved a bit, although they were extended. I imagine a lot of people would like this sound. I think I've spent too much time recording and working with real instruments to accept something like that, even if they were reliable.

Same here. It is like adding MSG in Chinese cooking. Top restaurants in HK don't use it !

 

[adrianywu]

Have you tried Copper V-Caps? They are 100% reliable in my experience and also happen to be the best-sounding coupling caps I've tried.

Not yet. Maybe worth a try, but they have to be much better than the Wimas at US$250 a pop for a 0.47uF/600V, vs. $4.00 for the Wima.

 

[MarcelNL]

Did you try some vintage PIO, the high voltage Sprague's (VitQ) are nice, Klangfilm or WE PIO, there are some very nice Russian PIO's and exotic caps on the Bay, I personally do not like the WIMA MKP much for their dielectric that causes ringing (same for all other MKP and other plastic film caps).

My favorite SET's are vintage mesh tubes, most are low power for sure but I do not need much given the efficiency of my speaker.

 

[adrianywu]

Did you try some vintage PIO, the high voltage Sprague's (VitQ) are nice, Klangfilm or WE PIO, there are some very nice Russian PIO's and exotic caps on the Bay, I personally do not like the WIMA MKP much for their dielectric that causes ringing (same for all other MKP and other plastic film caps).

My favorite SET's are vintage mesh tubes, most are low power for sure but I do not need much given the efficiency of my speaker.

I use vintage cap to restore vintage equipment. I use TCC Super Metalpak PIO caps mostly. Managed to buy a bunch of 0.25uF/600V many years ago. I also have a stash of Siemens which I use mostly for Telefunken equipment, including some Sikatrop caps which are very hard to find now. For modern equipment, I am looking for something that adds as little character as possible. People don't like WIMA because they are too neutral and transparent, and can show up flaws.

 

[cal3713]

Not yet. Maybe worth a try, but they have to be much better than the Wimas at US$250 a pop for a 0.47uF/600V, vs. $4.00 for the Wima.

The nice thing about the WIMAs is that if you've already got other boutique caps, it's cheap and easy to buy the WIMA equivalent and test the difference for yourself. Unfortunately for me and my wallet, I preferred Duelund CASTs on my Accuton tweeters. Regardless, an easy comparison for everyone to try themselves.

 

[MarcelNL]

The Wima's are better than many boutique caps and with a much better ROI, the Duelunds are for sure nice caps yet I prefer no cap on my tweeter. In the comparison as bypass on the power supply for the CPU in my music server the Duelund was outclassed by a proprietary cap a friend of me produces (only drawback is the upper limit of a few NanoF).

Jupiter makes some nice fairly OK priced caps.

 

[DasguteOhr]

I use vintage cap to restore vintage equipment. I use TCC Super Metalpak PIO caps mostly. Managed to buy a bunch of 0.25uF/600V many years ago. I also have a stash of Siemens which I use mostly for Telefunken equipment, including some Sikatrop caps which are very hard to find now. For modern equipment, I am looking for something that adds as little character as possible. People don't like WIMA because they are too neutral and transparent, and can show up flaws.

This russian teflon caps are amazing,size comparison 0.2uf. they take longer to sound really good.

 

[MarcelNL]

there is some seriously good NOS Russian stuff to be had on the bay, often for bargain prices but prices go up rapidly..

 

[Rensselaer]

What happened to Hovland Musi-caps, or Vitamin-Q? Are they still made? Are they anywhere near the level of Kondo hand-made silver foil caps?

 

[MarcelNL]

the original Vit Q may be in use ;-)

 

[DasguteOhr]

Have you tried Copper V-Caps? They are 100% reliable in my experience and also happen to be the best-sounding coupling caps I've tried.

Nice caps, if you find used dörrbeck audio booster caps buy them, amazing sounding form 70th . You can find them, in old Tectronix or Rohde&Schwarz measuring devices. A Killer Cap