Still waiting for mine. I haven't heard anyting. Not even when they are expected to ship.  Anyone heard anything?

Hey Brad,

Glad to hear they're coming.
Please post impressions ASAP!!! (I'm especially interested since I plan to add the Aurum tweeter to the DFR8 )

We'll be waiting with, as they say, baited breath !!

Cheers,                 Bill                  :D :

I can't imagine the highs will be improved in the range yourr running your Aurum Cantus Brad. It's likely you still dig the ribbons in. Betcha a saltine craker  :)

Hey Brad, looking forward to your impressions of these drivers. Interested in how forward the mids will be, or not be.

Mr C

I've been listening to the DFR8's with my Charlize amp connected direct to my CD player.  My TABOO and CSP is still over my friends house.  The HDT's with the DFR8 drivers still sound quite bright sounding - not very acceptable IMO.  I'll have to see how much of this is due to the sound of the Charlize, the breakin  of the DFR8 drivers, and/or what happens if I was to (1) use the TABOO instead of the Charlize, or (2) put the CSP preamp in front of the Charlize.  My impressions so far of the Charlize is that it is a brighter sounding amp than the TABOO and certainly the Zen CS. This is not unlike what I heard from the Clari-T (another Tripath chip based amp) to sound like.  This would explain why a couple people I know who like these amps have them mated to full range drivers that have a rolled off high end (IMO) due to not having a whizzer or a separate tweeter - namely the B200 and the Fostex F200A.  Keep in mind that my room is very "alive" not having allot of reflective surfaces (no carpeting  of any kind for example) so I think it's a brighter room than your average bear.

Btw, If I were you I'd build the Manowar Sonotube baffles for the SI's.  I think they look much better than the Joint Chief baffles and are much less obtrusive looking compared to large flat baffles. I can't speak to how they sound though I would imagine it's prob about the same as other similarly sized baffles...
http://www.hawthorneaudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=158

Nice pics Brad, and thanks for the first impressions. Just as a side point, You used silver hookup wire in your charlize yes? A few have noted that the silver wire is brighter than copper, with the majority feeling that copper gives a smoother sound.

Mr C

[quote author=Mr Content  link=1146262918/0#10 date=1147070446]Nice pics Brad, and thanks for the first impressions. Just as a side point, You used silver hookup wire in your charlize yes? A few have noted that the silver wire is brighter than copper, with the majority feeling that copper gives a smoother sound.

Mr C [/quote]


Yeah C, My buddy Steve and I thought about this. We have some Cardas copper litz wire on order for building the second Charlize (which we have all the parts for).  Then we will compare the two.


Steve, thanks for your feedback.  I still think that the Charlize is a big source of this brightness, and to a lesser extent, my room.  I tend to discount the room effect because when I listen near field it's even brighter!  I'll make conclusions when I get to hooking my TABOO+CSP back up.  For now, the Charlize is serving to break in both itself (it's got maybe 200 hours on it now) and the DFR8's.

I'm using cryo treated Sovtek 6n1p's in my CSP. Very nice. Yeah, I gotta get my CSP back from my buddy. He lives 1.5 hours away so I haven't gotten over there.

Yes, the Mundorfs gave a little better micro details while remaining smooth and no hint of grain/brightness.

Madisound has some of the Mundorfs on sale now.  If you lookup my past posts (sorry have to wade through allot of them!), you will see pictures of the inside of mine with the new caps in place - may  help with positioning them.  -BB-

I imagine that the DFR8's will take as long as the orig 206e to break in....and be very sensitive to the amp used.  

When I got my 206's two years ago, I'd turn on my tuner and amp while I was at work for 2 months.  It got better, but it wasn't until late last year that I really started to get smoother response and good bass.

Brad I would be interested to see what you think of the CSP/ Charlize combintation. At my place its WOW!

Mr C

Brad I have thought about it. I have a pair of Hiel Air motion tweets. There is only 1 song in all the songs I play, that ever has me thinking about it though. But as you say it may be of benefit. Something worth trying at some stage. Did you notice any down side to adding a tweeter to your HDT's.

Mr C

I have  to echo brad's sentiments  on the  Aurum Cantus ribbon. Mine  have  been in just a  hair  over a  month  now.  The only weakness I was experiencing early on (a  little too much sibilants, especially on female  vocals) has  now become very tame. Some of this may  have  been tube-related.

I  normally change  power  tubes every six months  like  clock-work, they  are  cheap  enough, and I  like's  'em  fresh.
I  had a  set  of the Russian Military  6N15Ns, and liked  them  so  much I bought a case of  50 @ $2.16/tube.

Anyway...  they  had  been in  only  about  4.5  months,  but I  had  been running them  very  hard, and  leaving the amps on constantly. A fresh set of tubes made all the difference  in the world !

I am ordering DFR8s tomorrow !   :
From the sound of the  feedback I'm  hearing, I  will be  burning  them in for some  time (good  time to  re-use the  4.5  month old  tubes).


Brad,  have  you  used the  ribbons with the  DFR8s  yet ?

Next time there is a group Cryo going I be in it. Things like that in OZ are not that available.

Mr C

Hello Rob,

Wait till you hear the cyroed versions. Unbelivable!!

BTW, if you don't mind, where did you source a case of fifty at that price.    

Also, do you have a tube tester to match your pairs, or do you find it's not an issue.

Thanks,                     Bill            

Bill...
The  seller  was the  same  one on E-bay who is  selling the  cases  of 50 on E-bay at the "buy it  now" price of $175.  
At  first  he  did  open auctions  on these  cases, and  I  lucked  out on  one that  ended at  like  3 in the  morning with only  one  bid  ahead  of  me. I  got  it  for $108

I  do  not have a  testerand  have  never  matched  tubes  in  my pair  of  Selects. It's never   been a  problem,  unless  one of the  tubes is  bad, or at  least way off  from the  other, and that  has  only  happened 2-3  times in  5  years.


Brad..
I'm  using  the  1uf Mundorf  Silver/foil from Madisound.

[quote author=RobLikesTubes  link=1146262918/15#29 date=1148039910]
You MUST send them in for a good Cryo treatment - it brings these tubes to a completely different level.  We did a group Cryo  buy/treatment a while back on these forums. Everyone really liked them including Steve.


I  have  16 of  them  being  treated  as  we  speak  :)



Another interesting  thing  you  might  want to  try:  
Mount the  ribbon  facing the  rear, and  wire it out of  phase.

I'm  sure  this  'rear  ambience'  effect  would  work  better if  it  were  mounted  IN the  cabinet,  but  I  like the  effect  a lot.

[/quote]


Rob where are you having the Cryo done and how much is it costing you?

My name is Gnat and I'm a tweakaholic...

I'm very happy with the sound of the DFR8's now that they are breaking/broken in.  But this came about for a different reason - I'll explain later.

Wow, That will have increased the sensetivety by a few db ??? How dose it sound?

C, you caught me!  The things just happened to have exactly an 8" diameter bass and a curved profile similar to a horn.  And they cost $20 each!...

Bottom line is I was walking through Target the other day and when I spotted these bowls, I thought... hmmm... interesing profile... and man that diameter looks close.  Then when I grabbed a tape measure and saw it was 8" I had to take one home to try out.  I cut the bottom out with a razor knife, and listened to it on just one speaker, listening mono, and switching back forth to compare to the other without the bowl.  Things sounded promising and I didn't hear any major problems, so I bought another bowl to audition in stereo.  Well, I don't think I'll be pulling the bowls off any time soon - except maybe to silicon them in place permanently.

I'm lovin' it even with my Charlize chip amp.  I'm really chompin' at the bit to get my TABOO and CSP back from my friend!!!

One of those accidental discoveries.  :)

Nice ,creative, find Brad .
I´ll have to see if I can find something simmilar here In Belgium to try on my HDT´s Thanks for heads up.

Thing is Brad, you just never know. But as you say it is cheap enough to try. Thanks for the offer to send them over, I will look today for something the same or like it.

Mr C

Don't bother searching for it online. It's not there.  I called Target and it cannot be purchased on their website or by phone. Go figure!  It *is* sold in all their stores under the name Zazen bamboo tray.  Target also does not ship internationally - unfortunately.  

Btw, the bowl bases can varry in diameter as much as 1/8".

my comments in short...

Ref 3A Royal Virtuosos: good sounding laid back sound, surprising bass for bookshelf speaker (though this *is* a small room).

HDT w/DFR8 drivers: Note the DFR8's are still not fully broken in.  On all amps including the Carissa we both thought the HDT's sounded better than the 3A's. Way more midrange detail, better bass, more "you are there" presense. I already kinda knew what to expect.  Though I wish I could get the bass we heard in my MUCH bigger room.  In this small room, the bass was not lacking at all.  Def no need for a sub.  Notable comments I heard from Steve, were... "they remind me of Quads in a way"... "wow, that's freaking awesome!"(that was with the CSP,  HDT+Carissa)...and..."that's the best sound I've ever heard in this room".  The treble did not seem to be lacking at all.  A helper tweeter does not seem to be needed with the DFR8's the way that I felt necessary with the FE206EM (with felted phase plug).

Carissa:  In this room, with this equipment, I preferred slightly the sound of the Carissa + CSP.  I just wish it didn't cost $7000, ~ 10 times what the TABOO costs!

TABOO:  (cryo treated SV83's and cryo Sovtek 12ax7-LPS) The sound was very good, approaching the Carissa in most ways. We both thought the bass with the TABOO was better than the Carissa - which really surprised me (it's an 845 SET).  I liked the mids from the Carissa a little more.  There was a problem with one channel distorting when we turned the volume up.  I swapped the power tubes and the noise followed, so it looks like one of the SV83's was bad and I didn't have a spare.  With the volume down it still sounded very good.  Steve said he could difinitely live with this sound.

CSP:  Not much to say. It made everthing sound better except the Charlize.  Not much difference there.  Could be I'm using all cryo treated Sovtek 6N1P's.  Maybe tube rolling (6922's?) would help?

Charlize: For the price the sound is quite good, but some brightness and listener fatigue there.  CSP smoothed out slight graininess but didn't fix the upper mids brightness.  IMO a great second system amp but won't have me selling my tube gear.  I've heard this amp sound better - with my DIY K-slot horns.

I hope someone finds this info interesting.

GL out.

[quote author=gnat leader  link=1146262918/45#50 date=1150097296]I hope someone finds this info interesting. [/quote]
I certainly did.  I would like to try the DFR8 in RCAfan's K-horn.  

Will do.

BTW, I have been wanting to ask you for some time, what does Gnat Leader mean?
Just being snoopy, Brian

That much I knew.  
They are tiny, the ones around here are black,  They get in my ears when I am trying to fish in summer, and you can sometimes imitate them on a number 22 to 26 hook for trout.  
That is as much as I know about it.

Think self deprecating humor.  At one time I was the posting leader on this forum. Don't know if I still am.  

Gnat-one to Gnat-Leader... cover me, I'm going in.

actually, I think Randy has had me consistently beat.

[quote author=gnat leader  link=1146262918/45#58 date=1150247083]...self deprecating humor.  
Gnat-one to Gnat-Leader... cover me, I'm going in. [/quote]
I see.  That's pretty good.

yowza!  You guys must have been on page 2 - I didn't see. Anway, the name really came from a guy and I at work that call each other on our badges (we make hands free wi-fi communication badges; voice-over-IP; think Star Trek communicator) and we would call each other jokingly like ... "kssshht.... Gnat one to Gnat Leader... over"

I did the double suspension trick today to my fe206e.

I was to lazy to remove the drivers. It's not an easy job but I had experience with the passive installation in the hdt.

My hdt are the alternate tuning ones using whizerless driver and amt-1 tweeters.





It's pretty fresh and probably too soon for evaluation but so far it's a slightly different driver than before.

The mids is less forward and may have less energy but it seem more balanced with the rest.

The bass seem cleaner and slightly more present.

I can't speak for the highs because I'm cutting them at 8khz.

I'll wait some weeks to see what happen. The membrane seem pretty stiff for the moment added to this that the drivers are still pretty new.

I also have a pair of decware fe206em.

Those with the new phase plug but without the double suspension (bought in january)

My original pair of fostex with some dynamat on the basket and the diy phase plug are almost impossible to discern from the decware driver.

I'm not sure that the form of the new phase plug have a lot to do with the sound of the new dfr-8