The Great January Audio Gear Exchange

STRONGBADF1

STRONGBADF1

Audioholic Spartan
No Infinities in the photo...Highly disapointed!:rolleyes::D

Come on and get to the meat of it.:p
 
ImcLoud

ImcLoud

Audioholic Ninja
Like a dope, a hungry dope, I forgot to take a picture of it.

I can send you the recipe if you PM me with an email address.
Thanks Swerd, the pics your brother posted of the brisket have me intrigued and I'm always looking for new recipes for roasts and smokes since we do a lot of entertaining and having my vegan {strict, except for the wearing fur part, that doesn't bother her, lol} wife do all the cooking would make short work of our popularity, lol... We have a house keeper that comes twice a week and does all the cooking for them two days, which ends up being the few days me and my sons get to eat meat since my wife doesn't like cooking it :rolleyes: . But I feel like a douche asking her to cook for a dozen people, even though she works for us, 2 eight hour days....

I have a digital AmeriQue smoker that works very well, we had 9 guests about a week ago and I made 2 - 9lb boneless rib roasts {basically boneless prime rib}, and since I didn't have time to do anything fancy, my butcher told me to just cover it with lipton onion soup mix, and it came out amazing... {you can have that recipe if you like}

Cover roast with lipton soup mix {damp rub, wet meat, pat dry, rub seasonings}, cook for 30 min. at 450, then lower to 350 until 135 internal temp... LOL, not really a secret but hopefully you take it in trade, :D if not I have a good pineapple bbq sauce that my wife likes to ruin with tofu covered cheese less pizza.... :eek:

thanks again..
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
I'll get back to more of this audio stuff but I just made Cheryl a cup of Sweet Maria's coffee that Swerd roasted. I cleaned out my grinder first like I saw Swerd do to his and I used a scoop to measure the beans to be ground for that Aero Press. I let it cool for a minute or so before letting Cheryl try it. She commented on how good it was and how my normal coffee sucked. She still hasn't seen the amp even though she walked by it repeatedly. Score. :)
That coffee is Guatemalan Huehetenango Finca Rosma. It was roasted to a medium level on New Year's day, so it's already a week old.

Alex - I'm really glad you took that picture. It shows all of the speakers except Kurt's Phil 3s. On the outside, wearing black grilles are my dome tweeter STs, standing closer to the center, without the black plinths or grilles are Alex's ribbon STs, and sitting on audiophile-grade 4-legged stools, are the glossy black MB27s.
Kurt's cabinets looked like this before the drivers were installed. I wonder how Dennis got his dogs out of the way long enough to take the picture?
KurtKabs 006.jpg
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
That coffee is Guatemalan Huehetenango Finca Rosma. It was roasted to a medium level on New Year's day, so it's already a week old.
Alex, that's his nice way of saying that coffee sucked, too. :p

Sounds like you need to get yourself a coffee roaster to prepare for when Cheryl starts to bust on you about the amp. :)
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
No Infinities in the photo...Highly disapointed!:rolleyes::D

Come on and get to the meat of it.:p
This is all anybody saw of them all weekend.



I have transcended to a higher plane but in the interest of deferring some of the cost of transport I brought these back for resale. It's been said elsewhere but for about a month they will go to the current owner of my modded pair and then to Eddie of the Deck. This is really a demonstration of Kurt's generosity. I'm having a little trouble figuring out who my new BFF is right now but it's not Dan. He didn't give me anything for free. :D

... and this is why I've been away for a while. This is like way too much fun for me.

I just polished off the remainder of Cheryl's coffee with a little milk and honey. Mmmmm ... :)

BTW, the site looks nice too. Way to go Team AH but who is Cliff and how come I'm not an Admin yet? :rolleyes:
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
For me that Phil3 demo showed what me good, loud and low sound like together. There wasn't any sign of room treatments and nobody seemed to care about any of the wires. The small stack of electronics off to the side got little attention and the only real recollection I have of the particulars is the mention of Van Alstine (?) and maybe Dennis said something about 100 watts not even coming close to phasing the Phil3s.
The amp Dennis used is an Audio by Van Alstine rebuild of an old Haffler DH-200 or DH-220 amp.

avahifi - Hafler Power Amplifier Rebuilds

Someone had given the old amp in good working condition it to Dennis. Frank Van Alstine (he knows Dennis from audio shows where he, Jim Salk and Dennis share display rooms) learned that he had it and told him to send it to him for a complete rebuild. The new amp uses the old Hafler chassis, heat sinks and transformer, but has all new circuits. It produces 125 wpc and is stable at very low impedance. It easily drove the Phil 3s to very loud levels in a large room.
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
Wrong. She just hasn't needed to use it in an argument, yet. :D
... but it's so inconspicuous!





Are you saying you would notice that if somebody left it lying around your place? :confused:
 
Dan

Dan

Audioholic Chief
Thanks Swerd, the pics your brother posted of the brisket have me intrigued and I'm always looking for new recipes for roasts and smokes since we do a lot of entertaining and having my vegan {strict, except for the wearing fur part, that doesn't bother her, lol} wife do all the cooking would make short work of our popularity, lol... We have a house keeper that comes twice a week and does all the cooking for them two days, which ends up being the few days me and my sons get to eat meat since my wife doesn't like cooking it :rolleyes: . But I feel like a douche asking her to cook for a dozen people, even though she works for us, 2 eight hour days....

I have a digital AmeriQue smoker that works very well, we had 9 guests about a week ago and I made 2 - 9lb boneless rib roasts {basically boneless prime rib}, and since I didn't have time to do anything fancy, my butcher told me to just cover it with lipton onion soup mix, and it came out amazing... {you can have that recipe if you like}

Cover roast with lipton soup mix {damp rub, wet meat, pat dry, rub seasonings}, cook for 30 min. at 450, then lower to 350 until 135 internal temp... LOL, not really a secret but hopefully you take it in trade, :D if not I have a good pineapple bbq sauce that my wife likes to ruin with tofu covered cheese less pizza.... :eek:

thanks again..
If you look on my link there is also a prime rib folder. About two years ago I did a huge 7 bone prime rib on the smoker that Swerd did enjoy. I made a paste with rosemary, oregano, parsley and basil with salt olive oil and garlic. Smeared it all over the roast and smoked it with oak for about 3-3 1/2 hours to the perfect medium rare you see.

"I'm having a little trouble figuring out who my new BFF is right now but it's not Dan. He didn't give me anything for free. :D" I will point out that I brought two six packs to the party but you and Kurt didn't partake. Neither do I but I had a nice pour of Handy rye 125 proof :eek: when I got home.
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
I will point out that I brought two six packs to the party but you and Kurt didn't partake. Neither do I but I had a nice pour of Handy rye 125 proof :eek: when I got home.
Were I still a drinker there really is no question who my new BFF would have been.
 
STRONGBADF1

STRONGBADF1

Audioholic Spartan
So any thoughts on the two pairs of songtowers compared to the Phil 3's???
 
Irvrobinson

Irvrobinson

Audioholic Spartan
Finally, after all these years somebody on this forum is showing pictures of their meat and it's something I actually want to see.
Wow, congratulations, that's the best innuendo I've ever read.
 
majorloser

majorloser

Moderator
Wow, congratulations, that's the best innuendo I've ever read.
Anytime I see where there is pictures of an event where Alex attended, I have to wonder about what the pictures will be.

Now I'm just waiting to see what Adwilk will do with the latest picture of Alex.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
So any thoughts on the two pairs of songtowers compared to the Phil 3's???
The $64,000 question… We all know that talking (or typing on a keyboard) about how speakers sound is like dancing about architecture. But this is AH, a web forum, so I'm not going to give up and say it can't be described, you'll have to hear them for yourself. Almost, but not quite :rolleyes:.

All Dennis Murphy designed speakers have as flat a frequency response as possible. And all his speakers do not have audible distortion or noise. Nothing resonates, shrieks, howls, or breaks up. So comparing those reveals little.

Let's separate descriptions of speaker sound into these categories:
  • Tone range
  • Tone balance
  • Imaging
  • Presentation (for lack of a better word)
The differences in tone range of the Phil 3 and the two STs are the easiest to hear and describe. The bass of the Phil 3 goes down to 25 Hz, and the two STs go down to just below 40 Hz. You will notice that first. That does not mean that STs have unsatisfying bass, but the Phil 3 clearly has deeper and more powerful bass. The differences in the upper end of the audio range are much more subtle, and it's hard to describe clear differences in tone range. We know either of those ribbon tweeters can produce sound smoothly well above 20,000 Hz and the dome tweeter doesn't. But that doesn't matter at all unless you're a dog. And recorded music doesn't go that high anyway. I will have more to say about ribbon tweeters, but their high frequency extension is not what makes them sound different or better.

Let's define tone balance as the overall balance of sound of a speaker, bass heavy, neutral, or treble heavy. Dennis strives to achieve neutrality in tone balance. Any differences between speaker models are subtle and often depend equally on musical selection and room location of speakers and listener. The Phil 3s produce more bass, but their tone balance is still more similar to the STs than it is different. Another example – while listening to my STs and Alex's ribbon STs, I thought I heard mine were a little warmer or had a little more bass. My STs were closer to the wall behind them and his were standing out into the room more (see the photo Alex posted earlier.). I've moved mine into a similar location before, so I'm familiar with what happens to the sound. It becomes a little less warm. So those differences I heard Saturday could be explained by room location, and not by differences in the speakers.

Imaging. All these speakers are among the champions of audio imaging. They have a tangible and wide sweet spot. The most noticeable difference is the STs are monopole speakers with drivers mounted on the cabinet front, and the Phil is a modified bipole, with an open back midrange operating from about 650 Hz to 2700 Hz. You can vary the amount of rear wave you hear by adding or removing polyfill stuffing from the cabinet behind the midrange. This can generate significant differences in the depth of the audio image. You can make them sound like monopoles by fully stuffing the cabs, or you can achieve a electrostat-like effect with very little stuffing, or some place between those extremes.

And now, presentation. I'm on less solid ground here, because I don't have a good handle on this word as a description of audio. It's a catchall for all the rest that I can't describe well. It includes overall dispersion of sound in the room. Because I own MTM speakers, I have become familiar enough with their "presentation" that I think I can recognize an MTM's presentation when I hear it. (As soon as I say that, someone will no doubt say, "Oh yeah, prove it!" My answer is "Be fruitful and multiply", but not in those exact words :rolleyes:.) At least sometimes, I can hear differences between MTM speakers and 2 or 3-ways. The STs are wonderful MTM speakers (among my favorites) and the Phil 3 is an excellent 3-way with uncanny ability to create large audio images of unusual depth.

To sum up, these speakers have much more in common than they have differences. The Phil 3s are obviously more different. The differences between STs with a dome or ribbon tweet are very subtle and I can only identify differences after carefully compare them listening to a wide variety of music. If I had to put it in words, the ribbon tweeter is ever so slightly less noisy. And the ST dome tweeter is among the very best dome tweeter I've ever heard. So choosing those words to try to identify differences exaggerates the real differences I think I hear.

I hope I've been clear, OK?
 
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