Are These Finds Good Deals?

[Eppie]

You should also check out the Gutenberg Youtube video that they link to from that page, if just to see how big these puppies are compared to a human.

 

[Mark E. Long]

Wow, check out those specs! 20-20kHz +/- 1dB

Specifications

• Freq. Range: 20Hz to 20kHz +/-1dB
• Crossover Frequencies: 200Hz-1200Hz (8th.LKRY electro/acoustic)
• (200Hz LKRY-HP. 1100Hz 6th BTW LP electro/acoustic)
• Sensitivity: 95db/2.83V/1M
• Impedance: Nominal 4 ohms (min 2.5
• Ohms @ 290Hz Max 30 Ohms at 3kHz)
• Driver Complement:
• LF 2 x 18” woofers
• MF 2 x 12” mid-range
• HF 1 x 6” Ribbon Driver
• Weight: 490 Lbs
• Dimensions: 81”H x 26″W x 27.5”D

490 lbs gezzzz incredible driver complement too !

 

[Kleinst]

They look kind of like the huge Tyler Accoustics speakers which look interesting but don’t know how good they sound although this is that on steroids

I have to admit if you had a pretty huge room, those would potentially be pretty kick ass. Although if you want good surround, you would need speakers all around so not sure how that would work for theater

 

[Eppie]

Well, I think I finally found my high end speaker kits. PBN has a speaker kit section and they sell through madisoundspeakerstore.com. Some of Noerbaek's designs sell for almost $4k for just the drivers and crossovers. You can buy a damn fine finished speaker at that price. Don't know if I'll spend that much on a kit but if I ever win the lottery.... hell, I know damn well if I had that much money I would have someone else build them.

 

[Mark E. Long]

Well, I think I finally found my high end speaker kits. PBN has a speaker kit section and they sell through madisoundspeakerstore.com. Some of Noerbaek's designs sell for almost $4k for just the drivers and crossovers. You can buy a damn fine finished speaker at that price. Don't know if I'll spend that much on a kit but if I ever win the lottery.... hell, I know damn well if I had that much money I would have someone else build them.

These are massive but I’ll bet sound good in a large room
Or a gym lol !

 

[Eppie]

These are massive but I’ll bet sound good in a large room
Or a gym lol !

Yeah, the 777 is huge. Imagine those with the matching woofer towers.

I like the SBA 951 kit. Satori drivers and beryllium tweeter. If the kit is $4k I wonder what a finished pair would cost?

 

[ryanosaur]

Yeah, the 777 is huge. Imagine those with the matching woofer towers.

I like the SBA 951 kit. Satori drivers and beryllium tweeter. If the kit is $4k I wonder what a finished pair would cost?

Very similar to the late Rick Craig's Selah Audio kit:

Illuminismo Kit — Selah Audio

A hybrid active-passive monitor for the most demanding applications.

www.selahaudio.com

I was highly interested in these when it looked like my Phil3s might fall through due to Dennis' "retirement" back in 2019.
Can't help but wonder if it's the same drivers across the board.

 

[Eppie]

Very similar to the late Rick Craig's Selah Audio kit:

Illuminismo Kit — Selah Audio

A hybrid active-passive monitor for the most demanding applications.

www.selahaudio.com

I was highly interested in these when it looked like my Phil3s might fall through due to Dennis' "retirement" back in 2019.
Can't help but wonder if it's the same drivers across the board.

Looks to be the same drivers. Satori 9.5", 5" and 1" beryllium. Sela doesn't specify the exact model but Maniscus has the driver model numbers for the PBN. The SBA 951 has a rectangular cabinet but it's interesting that the PBN Scanspeak B741 has a similarly shaped trapezoidal cabinet to the Illuminisimo. That Sela kit is a lot cheaper than the 951 though!

 

[Mark E. Long]

Yeah, the 777 is huge. Imagine those with the matching woofer towers.

I like the SBA 951 kit. Satori drivers and beryllium tweeter. If the kit is $4k I wonder what a finished pair would cost?

It’s an incredible looking system with the sub cabs I agree . And I like these kits here too I started a build many years ago that resembles the SBA 95 kit built the cabs out of solid 1 inch oak for the sides and 2 1/2 inch thick for the tops and bottom plates they are 18 inches deep and 64 inches tall all cabinet grade wood . Then I kind of lost the desire to finish them they’ve set for 15 years covered up in the back corner of my shop lol . Now I want to load them up with jbl components and turn them into a Synthesis based home build I may get the energy to turn them into a bass cab for that . I’d have to cut them down for that tho .

 

[Eppie]

It’s an incredible looking system with the sub cabs I agree . And I like these kits here too I started a build many years ago that resembles the SBA 95 kit built the cabs out of solid 1 inch oak for the sides and 2 1/2 inch thick for the tops and bottom plates they are 18 inches deep and 64 inches tall all cabinet grade wood . Then I kind of lost the desire to finish them they’ve set for 15 years covered up in the back corner of my shop lol . Now I want to load them up with jbl components and turn them into a Synthesis based home build I may get the energy to turn them into a bass cab for that . I’d have to cut them down for that tho .

No time like the present. Be sure to share some pics. Thanks @ryanosaur for the Selah link. Some great DIY stuff on their site. I'm curious how the crossover of the Illuminisimo compares to the 951. PBN uses all high end components which can add up. Maybe that accounts for the price difference? $3,200 puts it more within reach.

 

[afterlife2]

Various stuff I saw that looked interesting, but didn't get a chance to post. Bought nada.

 

[ryanosaur]

I would say one of the nice things about SB Acoustics Drivers is that many of them offer very good performance to cost. Of course, their Be Tweeter seems to be setting the standard… others that were as good or better either disappeared (Tranducer Labs) or are just silly expensive for minimal performance gain.
Regardless, the finished version of that Illuminoso was selling for over $7K, and for the price of the kit you got everything but the cabinet.
I’ve wondered since Rick passed if he had a partner or family member that would keep the business together. He was very well respected in the business. I got to meet him in 2019 and heard his Cali-4 design at the CAS. Solid work.
Regardless, Jim Salk is leaning pretty heavily on many SB Acoustics Drivers with that 9.5" Woofer holding down the bottom end of his SS9.5 Flagship Speaker with the SB BE Tweet up top. It's his Mid Range choices that are really very interesting with options from Accuton, Eton and Audio Technology. He still uses Seas in many of his designs along with Raals.
ScanSpeak is no doubt near the top of the food chain, but the cost of their drivers is pretty high. I would love to play with their Revelator and Elipticor gear...but oh my the cost!
As for premium XO components, I wouldn't bother. So much of that stuff falls into the same category of high end Cables: nonsense. If there were measurable differences in performance, it would be a different story, but there simply is not any evidence: other than subjective opinion detailing how gold-oil is different than silver oil in a cap....
I'll stick with Audyn Q4s until someone can really show me something incontrovertible to make me want to spend on specialty products from Clarity, Mundorf or Jansen.

 

[Eppie]

Various stuff I saw that looked interesting, but didn't get a chance to post. Bought nada.
View attachment 50264View attachment 50265View attachment 50266View attachment 50267View attachment 50268View attachment 50269View attachment 50270

That Samsung looks like a rare beast. 3.1 amp with ipod connector, HDMI and tube pre-amp? Hard to make out the model. Looks like HT465CQW but I can't find info on it. The proprietary speaker jacks make it look like part of a HTIB setup.

 

[Mark E. Long]

No time like the present. Be sure to share some pics. Thanks @ryanosaur for the Selah link. Some great DIY stuff on their site. I'm curious how the crossover of the Illuminisimo compares to the 951. PBN uses all high end components which can add up. Maybe that accounts for the price difference? $3,200 puts it more within reach.

ive found the top end for my idea from the guy I bought my Synthesis center from he has a few of these left they are high but I guess if you figure in driver cost and design these are a way for me to go and just design a lower bass cab we’ll see how the winter goes .these have great specs and he said he could come down a little on the price too . These are an exact voice match to my 880 array only a little bigger .

 

[afterlife2]

That Samsung looks like a rare beast. 3.1 amp with ipod connector, HDMI and tube pre-amp? Hard to make out the model. Looks like HT465CQW but I can't find info on it. The proprietary speaker jacks make it look like part of a HTIB setup.

I was hoping it was 4K player. Sure does look cool with tubes. I've passed by a couple of times and it's still there when I was there last week.

 

[Eppie]

I would say one of the nice things about SB Acoustics Drivers is that many of them offer very good performance to cost. Of course, their Be Tweeter seems to be setting the standard… others that were as good or better either disappeared (Tranducer Labs) or are just silly expensive for minimal performance gain.
Regardless, the finished version of that Illuminoso was selling for over $7K, and for the price of the kit you got everything but the cabinet.
I’ve wondered since Rick passed if he had a partner or family member that would keep the business together. He was very well respected in the business. I got to meet him in 2019 and heard his Cali-4 design at the CAS. Solid work.
Regardless, Jim Salk is leaning pretty heavily on many SB Acoustics Drivers with that 9.5" Woofer holding down the bottom end of his SS9.5 Flagship Speaker with the SB BE Tweet up top. It's his Mid Range choices that are really very interesting with options from Accuton, Eton and Audio Technology. He still uses Seas in many of his designs along with Raals.
ScanSpeak is no doubt near the top of the food chain, but the cost of their drivers is pretty high. I would love to play with their Revelator and Elipticor gear...but oh my the cost!
As for premium XO components, I wouldn't bother. So much of that stuff falls into the same category of high end Cables: nonsense. If there were measurable differences in performance, it would be a different story, but there simply is not any evidence: other than subjective opinion detailing how gold-oil is different than silver oil in a cap....
I'll stick with Audyn Q4s until someone can really show me something incontrovertible to make me want to spend on specialty products from Clarity, Mundorf or Jansen.

Have to admit that the ScanSpeak drivers are pretty sexy, Danish engineering and all. Manufacturers seem to reserve the BE tweeters for their premier lines which puts the finished product out of reach for many but some of those kits put top end drivers within reach of the hobbyist. The PBN kits have the crossovers assembled so that factors in but I see that Selah assembles the crossovers as well. The Clarity parts are already expensive but Mundorf and Jansen are on another level.

It's nice that Selah has the legacy models archived. Some interesting designs using drivers that I recognize. I wonder if some of those drivers simply went out of production?

 

[Eppie]

I was hoping it was 4K player. Sure does look cool with tubes. I've passed by a couple of times and it's still there when I was there last week.

Found a review of the 5.1 version! https://www.soundandvision.com/content/samsung-ht-e6730w-home-theater-system

Yes, it's a HTIB system. The question is whether or not the unit is a straight pre-amp/amp or whether the unit has been tuned to match the speakers. If it's the latter, the unit is worthless by itself. The amp was tested at around 45W/ch. Blue-ray player is 1080p, no 4k. Not surprising as the review is 2012.

 

[Eppie]

ive found the top end for my idea from the guy I bought my Synthesis center from he has a few of these left they are high but I guess if you figure in driver cost and design these are a way for me to go and just design a lower bass cab we’ll see how the winter goes .these have great specs and he said he could come down a little on the price too . These are an exact voice match to my 880 array only a little bigger .

I've seen you mention these. Sounds like a great option to get end game speakers for much less cost. I hope it works out for you.

 

[Mark E. Long]

I've seen you mention these. Sounds like a great option to get end game speakers for much less cost. I hope it works out for you.

Agreed just weighing the options would definitely save bucks and be a neat project I think .

 

[Verdinut]

I was hoping it was 4K player. Sure does look cool with tubes. I've passed by a couple of times and it's still there when I was there last week.

I would just skip that Samsung product with tubes. The heat will shorten its life. Solid state is the only logical way to go in 2021.