Nice work oh demi-god!  I bet it sounds nice.

Howdy Lon,

It has been quite a while since I last donned my "demi-god hat" .....
I'm not sure that it fits any more .....

Take care .....


Hi Steve,

Well ..... the room is 16' x 26' with a ceiling at not quite 8' at the highest point.

The main speakers (depending on which ones are in use) are 5 to 7 feet from the front wall and the listening seat is about 11 feet from the plane of the main speakers.

I am running a CEC belt drive top loading CD transport into a Camelot Uther DAC with the latest Anagram modifications.  The DAC feeds a vacuum tube buffer which feeds one of three amplifiers .... a Decware Model SE84C+, a Greenvalve Audio Type 10 amplifier which uses thoriated filament power tubes and a mercury vapor rectifier or a heavily modified CGV Electronics 300B amplifier with Emission Labs 300B mesh plate tubes.  They all sound different and all sound very fine to my ears.

The 92 db efficient Parker Audio Troll speakers are a one of a kind set with Heil AMT drivers and Duelund VSF capacitors. They sit on 24" stands that are filled with 75 pounds of lead shot and sand.  The 96 db efficient home brew open baffle speakers use Visaton B200 drivers running full range and Heil AMT drivers crossed over at 12K with Mundorf silver oil capacitors.  I also still have a pair of Ed's Horns that work their way into the system on a regular basis.



That photo was taken before I doubled up on the Hawthorne Audio Augie bass drivers.

Speaking of the Augies, they are running as a true stereo pair crossed over at 75 hZ with each channel having its own dedicated plate amplifier.

As with the amplifiers, each of the speakers has its own sound and I could make a good argument for any of them.

I am in love with the open baffle bass and can highly recommend the Augies.  They have sounded very good with a wide variety of main speakers I have heard them paired with.  It's a "different" sound and takes a while to get used to, but nearly everyone who has heard the Augies has agreed that they produce some very tuneful and realistic bass ..... especially with acoustic bass instruments such as double bass, cello and the lower registers of piano .....

The front wall has a heavy curtain and some acoustic panels for damping and bass traps in the corners.  There are acoustic panels on the side walls to catch the "first bounce" from the main speakers and the CD rack on the rear wall makes a pretty good diffuser panel.

The system has good tonality and throws a huge sound stage with well recorded material with the stage extending well behind the front wall and several feet to the outsides of the side walls.  The ambiance of the recorded space is extremely good on recordings that contain such.   Lead vocals are a treat, projecting just far enough into the room and having a 3-D and palpable presence to allow that "reach out and touch the performer" illusion.  I have a hanging light centered on the rear wall with a dimmer that allows for a very "cozy" atmosphere for the small scale acoustic performances that are the main fare of my music collection.

I have hit a pretty good balance between detail and long term "listenability" .....

If you are ever in the Cincinnati, Ohio / northern Kentucky area, feel free to stop in for a listen.

Best wishes,

Randy

I just finished an interesting experiment on my open baffle speakers ...

Our buddy ChrisK happened to have a pair of pristine Visaton B200 drivers that he wasn't using and he offered them to me at a price I couldn't pass up.

I had been wanting to see how a second pair of B200 drivers would work on my baffles in an MTM configuration, so this was the perfect opportunity.







Larger photos can be seen here, here and here.

At this point, the baffles are "hillbilly rigged" until the weather warms up and I can rebuild the baffles to accommodate the additional drivers.  The plan is to move all of the drivers closer together, but the setup is already working better than I could have hoped.

Since I sit about 12 feet from the baffles, I am not getting any "lobing" or coherency problems and I expect things to get even better when the baffles are rebuilt.

With this setup, the speakers are about 99 dB efficient and the dynamics are absolutely amazing ..... it's amazing how much really good sound you can get from a "tiny" Zen amplifier when the loudspeakers are this efficient .....

Paired up with the Hawthorne Audio "Augie short stacks" I am getting a very big, but precise sound.

Having fun in Caintuck,

Randy

I just took a picture of the setup with The Horns and the "Augie Short Stacks" .....



Larger photo here.

I am having The Horns refinished sometime soon to match the wood in the rest of the listening room and will post a new photo when that little project is done.

Looking forward to ZenFest 2012 .....

Randy

Hi Don,

Thanks for the kind words .....

Mrs. Randy owns the 1st and 2nd floors of the teepee and the basement is mine ..... I promise you that none of my audio gear would make it "up the steps" into her domain .....

Best wishes,

Randy

Randy, They are awsome!
How tall are they, 6 1/2' or better?
I am a sucker for projects that are way overkill, and these are overkill. In fact that is what I would name them, OVERKILL!

And therein lies one of the problems with many OB speakers.
The all-important WAF!
Best
Don

Hi Lon,

I never really thought about the "manly audiophile" thing, but you may very well be right.  For years, I was a big fan of small, high quality book shelf type speakers because they always pulled a great "disappearing act". I was very pleased to discover that a "man sized" speaker can do the same thing (in a slightly different way) ..... and I must admit to being in love with the dipole open baffle sound .....

But, the WAF just isn't there ..... and that is why Mrs. Randy decorates the first and second floors of our teepee and I am banished to the dungeon .....

Best wishes,

Randy