The big sound

Technically, there is no such thing as '2-phase' power. Residential power in the US is Single Phase with a split in the 240vac feed, yielding two 120vac branches. Sometimes this is called 'split phase'. 3-phase has the advantage of charging the capacitors 3X as often, so the rectifiers collectively recharge the capacitors 300 times/second on 50Hz European power (Netherlands). Also, 3-phase power is available in residential areas in the Netherlands and is quite common.

Hi Mark
My mistake my English is no good,866 use in single phase the blue light will not flash, in my experience separated power supply is better even one for each tube of a amp is the best, but 3 phase in this way will be too much !!!
tony ma
 
One of the problems I am having with 'big sound' is structural damage to the house.

No kidding Mark. :D

Folks, if anyone finds themselves in or around New Milford, CT some day, you have to watch the HD fireworks Blu-ray that Mark video'd. It's at least as exicting as being at the fireworks show in person, and the sound will blow you away with its realism and sheer power.

--Ethan
 
What the Basspig has worked hard to achieve is not what I have strived for in my room. I'm not into inducing nausea and paranoia and making people run from my listening room as Mark seem to pride himself on according to his earlier posts. Anyone can hook up a bunch of woofers to power amps and shake their house apart if that is your goal. We all have been told that the basspig has succeeded at this quite admiriably. Being able to shake your house apart with bass waves is not even close to being my idea of the "big sound.'' Cool if it works for you.
 
There seems to be a prevailing opinion in audiophiia that frequencies below 20 Hz just don't matter.

When I heard the Thigpen Rotary Woofer switched in and out of Tony (tzucc)'s system, I could hear a loss of presence when the frequencies below 16 were dropped, even if i could only "feel" the lower frequencies. When Tony first vented the system to the outside, he could make his neighbors think there was a an earthquake, and they were an acre away. He eventually vented it differently to keep the neighbors from getting alarmed.

I like thunder, but my subwoofers are also working hard when there doesn't seem to be much bass energy present.

Just as important seems to be the tight, dry velvet bass envelope that every tone carries however subtle. That seems to require a lot of pressurization and transient response, even if you don't listen to bass heavy material.
 
Carl

like you I remember that BAAS meeting at Tony's house. I was in the rear corner and I honestly had motion sickness for hours but I do agree about those subsonic frequencies. Do you remember when we played Master And Commander with the cannons going off
 
There seems to be a prevailing opinion in audiophiia that frequencies below 20 Hz just don't matter.

Carl-Some people try and convince themselves that nothing below 35-40Hz matters. Others don't feel the same way. I'm one of the others that don't feel that way. There are cues and clues that live and breathe in the very bottom end that add realism and air to recordings. And I shouldn't have said add, I should have said reproduce-assuming it's there in the recording to be reproduced.
 
Steve,

I sure do. The cannonballs hitting the deck and masts were as terrifying as anything I have heard in cinema.

Also, a good one to hear is the "War of the Worlds" movie when the first alien device emerges from the pavement, what a scary sound track.
 
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What the Basspig has worked hard to achieve is not what I have strived for in my room. I'm not into inducing nausea and paranoia and making people run from my listening room as Mark seem to pride himself on according to his earlier posts. Anyone can hook up a bunch of woofers to power amps and shake their house apart if that is your goal. We all have been told that the basspig has succeeded at this quite admiriably. Being able to shake your house apart with bass waves is not even close to being my idea of the "big sound.'' Cool if it works for you.

I believe those 3 phase mercury rectifier power supply and that transmitting tube amp has a very good potential of good sounding, not only use for shaking the house depend how to use them. and I also believe that should put more % of the invest to the sub section to make repro closed to the real thing
tony ma
 
Tony-
Basspig doesn't own that cool tube amp which I would love to hear by the way. Basspig has a bunch of Hafler DH-500 amps.
 
you haven't seen a house shake until you load the room with one or two TRW's (Thigpen Rotary Woofer) where frequencies are subsonic

LOL.. and the USGS is on the 11 o'clock news report :)
 
Carl-Some people try and convince themselves that nothing below 35-40Hz matters. Others don't feel the same way. I'm one of the others that don't feel that way. There are cues and clues that live and breathe in the very bottom end that add realism and air to recordings. And I shouldn't have said add, I should have said reproduce-assuming it's there in the recording to be reproduced.

Anyone who believes that should have heard HP's system with the IRS Series Vs. Put Emerald Forrest on and one's pants flapped in the breeze. You heard the AC at Chicago Symphony Hall. You heard the London underground, eventually cured by the "Kingsway" filter, pass under the hall while they were recording. But most of all, like you said, these frequencies give the cues of space. It's the lows, not the highs, the give sense of a hall's boundaries and solidity!
 
But, when I installed the Acoustic Room Treatments the sound got much better, bigger, deeper, etc. The icing on the cake came with the diffusion that really increased the affect of space.

Rich

The reference text book "Sound reproduction: loudspeakers and rooms" by Floyd E. Toole discusses this. He refers that a diffuse sound field sound spacious and enveloping - just what we are looking.
As far as I remember as an alternative to this technique he suggests using multichannel systems that need less acoustic treatment.
 
Anyone who believes that should have heard HP's system with the IRS Series Vs. Put Emerald Forrest on and one's pants flapped in the breeze. You heard the AC at Chicago Symphony Hall. You heard the London underground, eventually cured by the "Kingsway" filter, pass under the hall while they were recording. But most of all, like you said, these frequencies give the cues of space. It's the lows, not the highs, the give sense of a hall's boundaries and solidity!

My friend bought a master dud tape from the web is a live trio classical recording, cost him more than $200+shipping, it marked "no NR", but the noise really terrible, especially the sub, can't hear the bottom low of the instrument's sound but very loud on the sound of air condition from the sub woofer that make us can't keep on listen to, I wonder what kind of monitor system they use in recording, so the repro of the big sound system the recording must be a good one too
tony ma
 
Tony-normally 15 ips 2 track tapes are quiet without using any Dolby or DBX. Bad mix job?
 
My friend bought a master dud tape from the web is a live trio classical recording, cost him more than $200+shipping, it marked "no NR", but the noise really terrible, especially the sub, can't hear the bottom low of the instrument's sound but very loud on the sound of air condition from the sub woofer that make us can't keep on listen to, I wonder what kind of monitor system they use in recording, so the repro of the big sound system the recording must be a good one too
tony ma

Was this it?

http://www.awardaudio.com/Trio-tape.html
 
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Not that one, is from Europe, the guy also has a shop modifying Studer machine too, compare to our recording, we also have no" NR" in a opening of indoor swimming pool, not a studio but turn off all the fans, only some cars passing but not too loud and not too much because in a country side location, if their worth $200 what shall ours charge ?, same Studer A80 use in recording but ours' is modified with tubes, one more different is sound of musical instruments in recording, I can hear they are not in same level of ours
tony ma
 
Tony-normally 15 ips 2 track tapes are quiet without using any Dolby or DBX. Bad mix job?

The box label marked CCIR no NR two B & K mic but I forgot the number, I gave the tape back to my friend, he said that just for trying will not buy again, he also got some tape from Rich too
tony ma
 
Mercury vapour rectifiers glow brighter as the current flow increases. That Philips amplifier has very little capacitive storage. It relies on the high recharge rate of 3-phase power, and as such, has a similar power consumption pattern to a Magnetic Field Amplifier. As such, the rectifiers will see very dynamic loads, which in turn, results in the flickering you see in that video.

While my system is capable of inducing nausea and vomiting with infrasonic frequencies (thanks to the four 5HP Bassmaxx long stroke Rohacell air pistons), it is just one aspect of a well-rounded system. When playing my Bridgeport Symphony recordings, every single person that has been here to hear and watch it in my theater has said that it is just like being there. Several are musicians who came to see their performance after I recorded it.

My goal with the 39 years of development that went into that system was to be able to reproduce just about any kind of sound, whether it be a string quartet or a rocket launch and do so accurately, musically and without strain. The power response on the low end of the system is an inverted Fletcher-Munsen curve. I EQ'd it to be flat. I must admit, I was skeptical about the Bassmaxx subwoofers, thinking maybe they could be 40% better than what I had. In reality, my six conventional 18" woofers couldn't even match the output of one of the Bassmaxx drivers that I tested in May 2006 with 20-25Hz sine tones. I ordered four of the Bassmaxx drivers because I underestimated their capability. Later learned that the T-H parameters have a max SPL @20Hz of 154dB in half-space. What would one expect from a Rohacell air piston with a five horsepower motor and 4" of stroke? Each pair is nicely driven with a QSC PL 9.0 bridged mono, but I only have a PL 6.0 driving all four--and anyone that's been here will tell you that's too much already. Oddly enough, they don't get in the way when playing a well recorded classical performance. Part of the presense of being in the concert hall is the infrasonics of the large space and the HVAC system. We sense that, even on a subliminal level. Without the Bassmaxx drivers, some of that realism is gone. We can't hear it, but my spectrum analyzer picks up energy in the 4-10Hz range, so I know what it is that's contributing to the 'air' I sense in the concert hall recordings.
 

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