It is always a sad day to lose someone who has had such an influence on so many in the audio industry.  I, like many others here on this forum, have purchased many tubes from Ron.  I was and still am amazed on how well he ran his business.  Communication was lighting fast, professional and courteous.  As far as his shipping speed, it defied science.  

Anyway, I learned of his passing through his estate auction that was advertised in one of the threads here.  I spent way more than I had intended overall, but ended up with many wonderful items, all acquired or collected by Ron for good reason.  While most of my purchases was LPs and optical disks, I did purchase three sets of speakers, a set of monoblock tube amplifiers, a phono stage, and some other miscellaneous audio gear.  One of the most exiting buys was his main reference speakers, the Essence Audio "Amethyst 10A Reference" designed by Dale Pitcher.  I will make sure they are properly setup, fed and continue to provide aural bliss in my listening room.  

Though my interactions with Ron were business related, I developed a respect for him personally and I imagine many here feel the same.  May his contributions to the industry live on!  

Jeff,

Very sorry to hear about Ron's passing, he was one of the good guys in the audio game. I understand from other posts on Audio Circle that the auction company did a miserable job handling pick ups at the house, forcing Ron's widow to help buyers move boxes, etc. Just very sad.

I hope you enjoy your toys. I understand those new speakers are monsters (650 lbs?). Hope you have a fork lift to put those babies in their proper place😎.

HK

Very sad to read indeed, the passing of Ron Sheldon. Reiterating what Jeff stated: "Communication was lighting fast, professional and courteous.  As far as his shipping speed, it defied science."

J of A, those Speaker's went to a good home in yours. ....look forward to your impressions.

I got around to connecting my newly acquired Essence Audio 10A Reference speakers today. Here is a pic of the assembled speakers being driven by my almighty ZMA.  These are lesser efficient speakers and definitely welcome the additional power the ZMA offers.



Based on the owner's manual that Ron retained (could be the only one in existence!), I was able to determine some basic specifications on the speakers.  They are 8 Ohm, 89dB efficient with a frequency response of 18Hz - 35 KHz! 

They are very interesting and unique speakers.  Apparently, there were only about 100 pairs ever made by Dale Pitcher.  They are comprised of five transmission line modules, stacked from largest to smallest.  On the bottom is the bass module, followed by the mid-bass, midrange, tweeter, and super tweeter modules.  

The key to these speaker systems is the alignment.  Dale included five alignment charts (one for each module) that is to be used to properly setup and orientate each module in relation to one another.  The purpose of this exercise to to make sure that based on the distance from your ear to the ground ("B") and your ear to the top center of each module ("A") each module is in proper alignment to the module below.  So, you start with the bass module.  You then align the mid-bass to the bass, then the midrange to the mid-bass, and so on and so forth.  The reasoning behind doing so is to ensure that the timing is perfect, or as close as humanly possible.  Dale was big on making sure that the sound produced from each module arrives at your ear at the same time.  Aligning the modules is critical for this to occur.  

Here is the "Bass to Mid-Bass" alignment chart....


Anyway, I wasn't sure the ZMA would have enough juice for these big boys but they are driving them quite nicely!  I have not taken the time to precisely measure and align according to the charts, but my plan is to do so tomorrow.  Fun stuff!  

Good luck with the set up Jeff. I bet it will sound exceptional once you get everything properly aligned. Enjoy.

HK

Those are heat shields.  I use them on my 9 pin tubes that they fit.  They are a bit tight on some 9 pin tubes.  They come in lots of sizes but are sometimes hard to find -- old Mil-Spec stuff.  I even attached a ground wire to one on my ZP3 for RF shielding.

Thanks guys.  Yeah, I am looking forward to the task at hand.  Should be a fun and interesting (hopefully fruitful) exercise.

Archie is correct.  I am using those Mil-Spec head shields.  What I like about them is they also put tension on the glass envelope so they double as tube dampness.  Also, like Archie did, you could solder a wire and connect it to the chassis to drain EMI away from the tubes.  

I am going to listen to them as they sit today to get used to their sound.  Then I will bust out the laser measurement tool and align according to the charts provided.  

Also, sitting next to them is a set of 80 wpc Reference Two mono blocks from Canary Audio.  They sound really good with the 40wpc ZMA but it is asking a lot fo the ZMA to move that much speaker mass especially at higher listening volumes.  The Reference Two is 300B tube type amplifier  (24 tubes in total between both mono blocks!)  

Ill keep you all posted....

Jeff, how tight are those shields on the tubes?  I find they fit well on my 12AX7 and 12AU7 tubes but they are very tight on my Russian 6N1P (and others of this type).  I stopped using them on my ZMA and CSP3 for that reason.  I might go back to them though.  They do seem to reject a lot of heat and you're right about the vibration elimination.  I'd be nice to find some for the larger tubes but there are so many different sized tubes it's hard.

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YES!  That makes perfect sense!  Thank you for that.  My mind wasn't even going there but that is one of the blessings of these separate modules is the ability to not only move them backward and forward, but also to toe them in and out.  Wow!  I've definitely got my work cut out for me but I'm excited to see what I can get out of these bad boys.  

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Another idea I had not considered, and again makes a ton of sense.  Collectively, it is a hefty job to ask of one stereo amp or even a pair of mono blocks (tube-based of course).  I have the wiring scheme for tri-amping them so definitely a possibility.  Now, that setup could very well be the end all, be all.  

Great info and suggestions Steve.  Thank you!

It is an Artnovion "Logan" diffuser.  I really love their products.  They are pricier but perform wonderfully and are SO much more atheistically pleasing then many others out there.  

I will likely take the rest of this week to listen to them "as is," then take on the task of aligning them per the Essence alignment chart data this weekend.  From there I will make some observations and report back on the differences.  

The next step would be to do as Steve suggested and utilize measurement tools at various frequencies to determine the best toe angle for each module.  Fun stuff!