Kamran, I’m encouraging you to try a chair. Moving from far field to near field does sounds very different. You will want to play with toe in as you move too. If you do like the new listening position, adding moving a chair isn’t much more

Glad you are enjoying the Pulse! My ZENith MK3 took a month or so to settle in.

Sean, monkey coffins or open baffles they sound better away from the walls. Placement is room specific and is for most people decided by a lot of compromises. 95% of setups 10-12” from the front wall will actually give you a bass boost and loose sound stage. Room modes / treatment will dictate if you hear more or less bass based on listening position.

Palomino brings up something that until you experience it, it’s hard to really get. Decware amps do make speakers disappear.

GroovySauce: It’s interesting that you encouraged the use of the chair.  I’ve been thinking about testing the very thing.  I can easily bring a folding chair downstairs to complete the equilateral triangle and see what gives.  Will let you know…though I really love my couch and ottoman setup.

Which brings me to update with another report on the sonics.  The Pulse is seriously hampering my ability to distinguish the performance of the streamer from the capability of the Fast 15 in Randy’s beautiful baffle, but what I can report is that it’s sounding heavenly.  The most interesting change in the past couple of days is bass.  It was getting better and better  and with the Pulse, it took another considerable jump.  I stopped keeping a track of the number of hours I have on the driver, but I bet it’s close to 600 (if not more).  With every passing day, the urge to experiment with the W15 bass driver is waning.  In my 13 x 17 room (with 7 inch ceiling), these drivers are kicking ass in all departments.  

And this is with a 5 wpc 6V6 power tube on my Had amp.

That doesn’t mean I don’t want to tinker with a bass driver someday, but I have absolutely no urgency to do so.  I also find it telling that Steve doesn’t use a bass driver in his listening room either.

I finally showed off the drivers to some friends (non-audiophiles) who have been following my journey and who were bigs fans of my Klipsch towers and they were blown away.  One person said:

“This was insane”

And another said:

“Before I felt the sound coming from the tower speakers like a wall of sound hitting my face and now, I can’t tell if the new OB speakers are even playing and sound is more room filling.”

In other words, he was talking about the soundstage and how bigger and precise it is.  It was good to get an unbiased validation that this move to OB has been a success.

No doubt, the addition of the Holo Spring 3 KTE and Pulse are lending to this.

Tom mentioned the disappearing act in his post as well and that has to be the #1 favorite thing about these speakers.  I would even say that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to localize them, which is one of the reasons I don’t want to mess with anything right now.

Those are certainly some oldies but goodies that I haven't listened to since a number of changes.  Thanks for the reminder and glad you are enjoying your system.  I intend to play them next listening session. Great for spatial cues.

Some other oldies but goodies I use to test my system:

Fleetwood Mac - Gold Dust Woman.  I listen for separation in the voices, particularly Christine McVie's in the first chorus.  Compare to the second chorus (where her voice is more distinct).  If her voice is too merged together with the other voices in the first chorus, I keep tweaking.

Shelby Lynne - Just a Little Lovin' - this was a Paul McGowan recommendation.  Listen for the faint echo just before the verse that starts with "this old world".  I think he noted that this was caused by tape bleed through in the mastering process.  I've made tweaks to my system where this was less audible so I changed things back or kept tweaking. Some people also listen to the cymbals at the beginning of the song as a realistic reproduction/decay test.

Boz Scaggs - Here's to you.  Another Paul McGowan suggested track.  This is one of my low bass tests.  Right before he begins singing, a low 20hz bass tone is played.  If your system can reproduce it, you hear it, if not, a hole appears in the song.

There are probably others, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Michael Jackson was a staple at our CDApS get togethers.   From the 60s, I like Blood Sweat and Tears.  Well recorded.  And Emerson Lake and Palmer - Lucky Man.

Yeah Kamran, thanks to you.  Sorry

I listened to all CD rips this weekend thanks to you (ha, ha) and enjoyed the music very much.  Honestly, I think streaming loses something.

Anyway, if I get around to it, I'll post the playlist. Lonely Raven had me play many of those songs at Decfest this year as several are his reference tracks, like Yellowbrick Road. He, Bad Wolf and/or Progrobb used to get together a couple times of year and listen to music/swap out geat etc.  We jokingly called it the Chicago Decware Appreciation Society or CDApS.

I could really use some input on my system right now and these get togethers were a great (and sometimes painful) way to see what others think of your rig.  I've also heard some great DACs, amps and speakers in my room.

In my opinion it may be the Aqua 274B making the sound stage improvements--my sound stage presentation certainly improves when I put them in the Monoblocks.

Admittedly it may be several factors. I'm so glad you hit a new plateau, and you could be still moving towards improving sound.

Thanks Sane Old DD!

I was recently encouraged to try nearfield listening so trying that out for the first time with good results. About 6 ft 4 inches on all sides and yes, the speakers dissapear.

The subs are a pair of SVS PB 2000 Pro’s, exclusively used for HT. Not really optimal for 2 channel.

Mine are six feets away from me, that shocked a pair of friends who were not used to such a close listening, for me it is ideal and is mandatory when you play at night and have very low level.
I smiled a day when I saw Steve Guttenberg saying that the best listenings sessions were the nearer to the speakers, it has always been obvious to me.

Hey, Geno- zero toe-in, just firing straight against the back wall.
A little context, I was experimenting one day and had no toe-in, starting at the front wall and just kept moving the speakers closer and closer to me while keeping them the same distance apart. All of a sudden everything just clicked. The speakers were practically on either side of me, but pointed straight back.

Two interesting updates (well, at least one).

My wife finally commented on the equilateral tape cut outs in the listening room and asked me when I was planning to peel them off as it

[quote] “looks like you’re conducting a satanic ritual in the basement” [/unquote]

Still laughing at that one….

To share some bad news, I think my beloved Gold Lion KT 77s have become noisy and microphonic.  I cleaned all the preamp and amp tubes, switched sides and I still hear sputtering noises (mostly from one channel), turned off the tube stage on my Freya +preamp and then completely shut it down (though I should have turned off the amp first if I recall gear turnoff etiquette).  I can still hear the sputtering noise, so it ain’t the preamp tubes.

Also, each time I press a button on the preamp (mute or tube stage), I hear a click from the speakers-which is leading me to believe it has also turned microphonic.

Today, I took the K77’s out and replaced it with Psvane KT88s and no sputter and no microphony.  It’s a shame really.  I have just under 500 hrs on the pair.  I wrote to good ol uncle Kev (or his team rather) to investigate whether they will be kind enough to send me replacement tubes.

In the grand scheme of things, I can barely detect the noise when music is playing so all is not lost necessarily but it should be lasting much more (10x more?) at least before developing such problems.

Haha—I see myself googling Egyptian hieroglyphs in the near future!

I wouldn't dare to even think of "tape on the floor", I would be thrown over board within minutes !  [smiley=10.gif]
No, I use the carpet drawning patterns .....a lot safer !

Steve,

That took a bit back upon first glance. Before I focused I thought it was a crossover meant to go on the back of a speaker. Then I realized it wasn't made for that. So now, I assume this is a 'corrective device' for some known speaker situation?

Could it be made for the speaker side instead of the amp side ? I won't have the space on shelve for this. OK I not really concerned because I guess this is for the Fast 15, but some others may have the same problem.

Steve that sounds like a fair price. I might just wait for my Decware amp before pulling the trigger on the network so I don’t have to order twice.

I've been burning in my Fast15 speakers and already know that I cannot live long term with the boosted highs. Being able to purchase the network from Decware will be very welcomed in my system.

Steve, I am very glad you are thinking ahead and providing a very needed niche product. Thank you.

GroovySauce—I was at exactly equilateral. Based on your advice, I’ve moved back one feet and will continue to test.

Also, based on your advice, I bought a Bosch Laser measure and having a lot of fun with it!

https://youtu.be/6Lv_x70eb_8

Video demo

Quote:


My guess is that you might regret waiting so long.  For anyone on this tread that want's to try a pair, I will wave the restock fee and shipping is minor due to the small size.

Steve


https://www.decwareproducts.com/product-page/fast-15-network

Just out of curiosity, is there still a bypass switch included on the Network scheme?  Or was that just for test purposes in order to get the component values dialed in?
Not clear in the images posted.

I don't own the Fast15s yet, but the possibility is still favored even though I really like my original F15s so far.
That extra 2/3 octave of low end extension is highly compelling.

JBz, think about it for a moment.
Your question is a derivation from the assumption that what ever my (not yet acquired, but soon - later production, possibly) new drivers measure, the ones Steve has acquired are identical in every meaningful way to the ones I will acquire in the future.

I have never seen this happen consistently with mechanical functions.

But, you're right. I do not believe that there is a bypass switch included, as per his published schematic.
Thanks for helping me to define my reasoning.

Who knows. At these frequencies, someone might want to add a tiny bypass cap.

Love the sunlight hitting the baffle at an angle.


instagram downloader firefox

Nice Kamran!

Have you experimented any with tilting the speaker back? It can make a difference. When I still had my Randy baffles, I preferred mine with a tilt. Steve is the one that made the idea known.

Best,

Geno

Kamran,

Those should work well! I like that they come with wedges. That way you can see what angle you like best. And decoupled at the same time.

My method was much more crude, and did nothing as far as decoupling. I just had a 2” square block across the front edge.

You can experiment to see what you like best, but you may Very well end up with them back flat on the ground. It comes down to personal preference.

Best,

Geno