What are you talking about

Many people talking about mid bass, mid high and etc but are they referring the same frequency that they are talking about?

To cut the confusion, here is the refer frequency range:

KLau

Speaker Maintenance

Can you see how delicatel this person pamper the speaker. Actually there is story behind this.This actually happen while we are trying to “poison” a guy into ls3/5a. After letting the guy listen to 11 and 15 ohm black tag rogers. We just show the guy how to take care of ls3/5a.

A english lemon oil is the recommended to rub on the speaker cabinet. You can use other natural oil but it might further make your speaker darker especially walnut. This English lemon oil is not so oily compare to others and according to Bluesea:

1)Rub off any dust and then use a fine cloth and apply the oil to the cabinet.
2)After this rub it with your bare hand and this will let the speaker cabinet soak more.

 
 
Klau

Which power tube?Shuguang EL34B,Electro Harmonix EL34,Reissue MULLARD EL34,Reissue Gold Lion KT88,Treasures 6ca7-z,Ei KT90 ,Groove Tube EL34m , 6CA7

Shuguang EL34B

Electro Harmonix EL34
Reissue MULLARD EL34
Reissue Gold Lion KT88

Treasures 6ca7-z

Ei KT90 (Not in production)
Groove Tube EL34m , 6CA7(no longer listed on groove tube webpage).


First i have to say i have tested or listen to the above tube either in my own system, friends or in dealer system and not the result is not conclusive.
I would categories them under 2 batch distinctively by the origin of the tube.
I found even with the claim of different design I still find the sound characteristic is almost the same.
The first batch will be from China Shuguang that are more tonally pleasant but with bloated bass and sound “dirty” at the high.
This category of power tube is more suitable for small speaker or speaker with tight bass.In my system base on ls3/5a, i tends to favour this group.
This including the:
Treasures > GT 6CA7 = > GT EL34m(1ST BATCH)  => SHUGUANG EL34B

The second category will be from Russia.The sound is thin withn tight bass.Full range or big speaker tends to favour this group of power ube.
I also put the EI kt90 under this category as the sound is much closer to this category:

Ei   >    Gold Lion   =>   mullard   >     EH


>      BETTER
=>    EQUAVALENT OR BETTER.

I found that more better i rank  is usually improve on the dynamic and sound less "dirty".
This might lead to improve imagimg , soundstage and etc.Tonality is usually the same even with the claim of different design.


KLau

Power tube saga.Treasures 6ca7-z,Gold lion reissue KT88,Ei KT90,GE 6550A

Power Tube.


Last week was a very interested week where 4 type of power tube been tested on Marantz 8b.To make this possible the bias is been modify to accomodate the 6550 and kt88 tube. The sequence tested is as follow;

TREASURE 6CA7-7, Shuguang celebrate make this to celebrate 50th anniversary.

Treasures 6ca7-z

Gold lion reissue KT88

Ei KT90

GE 6550A.

At that night I rank them as follow

1ST GE6550A

2ND Ei kt90

3rd treasures 6ca7-z and reissue kt88.(Both have their own sound characteristic that may appeal to different user)



As time is not permitted we have not tested the Sylvania and telefunken metal base EL34 that in the owner collection.

I still say NOS tube still rule.Even  Marantz 8b that been optimise for EL34 i still prefer  the NOS GE 6550A 


*More picture will be add later.


KLau.

To the rescue. Melody sp3

Melody sp3-To the rescue

I have listened to this amp many moons ago and did not give me much good impression. I ask for opinion regarding this amplifier  and all of them give me thumbs up .I still remember that night we have a shootout with marantz 8b, Diva bluesky, pilot sa232, and another cheap push pull el34 made in china amp. That night I rate the SP3 at the last place. I can only say this amp might need some more time to run in (Did you know how many rave review, especially by the HK magazine?)

So last night has been call to rescue it. At first listening the sound is not much different although a lot of goodie have been put in. The sound still sounds slow and dull.

The speaker cable or the interconnect alone already cost more than the amp. Beside wire, the fuse have been change to audiophile fuse (the price can buy normal fuse 300 pieces) and all the stock have been change .I saw  telefunken ecc83 and  6l6..The stock use 5881 tube.

Upon arrival i start by reposition the speaker and later confirm the owner including overv setting the bias. I have to trust the owner as time is too short for me to check by myself.
Later I start tube rolling from the telefunken ecc83 to stock(printed melody) and later the 6922 and at last the 12au7.Nothing much progress and after discussion with FHwong we suspect there might be tube wrongly inserted.So a call been make back to china(no kidding) and confirmed everything is right in the place.

Later I replace the stock feet with 2 slab of stone and there is slight improvement but still not up to the par.

I bypass a regulator and directly plug to the wall plug.Emmm….still the same.

Now I suspect the wire. To save time another amplifier been send in replacing  the SP3

Ahhh…this is more like it. It’s time to let go this amplifier. Anyone interested?

BTW anyone have anymore suggestion on something I might miss out?

Time to say goodbye

Finally It’s time my buddy, KenC move back to West Malaysia. The first question I ask him is ‘What about your horn?, do you want to send it back?”

We started the horn together and mine is singing long ago.HA!HA!.

So we check it out and found that there is water in the horn for months and there is no water dripping and whatsoever.(This means your horn is solidly build:Ha!,KenC, next time you must treat me a meal.ok?)

Currently KenC is organizing a Clone Proac Response 2.5.You can check it out this tread in Lowyat forum:

Or you can try to get him from here

http://www.tinkeringken.blogspot.com/.

Proac Response 2.5 is using scanspeak 8513-tweeter and 8535 woofer.Wilson watt & puppy also use the  driver but reported been modify.

Klau
*I have not affiliate or interest on the above group buy.Please find more for yourself.

Crystal Cable , Crystal connect and Crystalspeak

Crystal cable crystalconnect interconnect 1 meter pair

Crystal cable crystalspeak speaker cable 2 meter pair.

A relatively new cable company that run by Gabi Van der kley from Holland. If you knew Siltech and this 2 company is closely related.

If you believe in small is beautiful and this is the cable that will suit you. Pack like a jewels using leather casing and my wife mistakenly thought I bring her jewels when she first saw this and later disappointedly found out it’s my new toys again.

The cable use gold/silver alloy as the central core conductor helically wrapped in a dual layer of ultra thin kapton foil as a shield and makes a silver colour in appearance.

I plug in the interconnect follow the direction of the ding ( a small clip with crystal logo) although the manufacture mention the cable is none directional.

The speaker cable is very unique that there a connector at the middle. You can either change spade, banana plug and length by pluging in different length of wire.

At first I plug in the piccolo crystalconnect interconnect and later together with the piccolo crystalspeak

speaker cable and found out both have a almost same characteristic.

Sound;

The first thing I notice is a wider and deeper soundstage. Singer seems to be singing further back at the rear speaker. This make the positioning especially accompany musical instrument more spaces among them.

This cable exhibits a very low noise. Background become darker and makes detail much easier to pick up. The scale proportion is and I enjoy more especially realistic in size orchestra.

The bass is tight and shift lower. It is like comparing the bass characteristic of the kt88 tube with an el34 tube. I think this cable is more suited to a floor stander. The balance of the cable is smooth and neutral. Sometimes I feel it’s too analytical or shimmering .It’s like back in my 20’s where I tune my equalizer at a V shape where the bass and treble all the way up but the mid all the way down. This will make the sound of the string instrument lack the immediate attack. It also always present string instrument like guitar as secondary to the music. I can sense that system with strong mid range may benefit from this cable.

As I’m writing this, the cable is run in at around 50 hours from new and the sound is not yet stable. I am expecting the cable to further open up. The manufacturer recommends a longer time is needed to run in the cable.



Associate equipment

Amp;quad 606, quad II, Pioneer A400,Musical fidelity A1,
Pre;passive 100k, 250k, clone marantz 7, audionote 7

Speaker:Ls3/5a biwire LE + Foundation designer 2 stand

Cable:Zu, gryphon guideline mk2, vandenhul the first, wireworld silver eclipse, diy cable.

Cdplayer;denon(modified)

Rooms:9ft x 15 ft  x 10ft


KLau