Introduced myself already and had some requests for pics....So, here are a few. If you didnt read the intro...heres my story. Have had the PV1 for about twenty years now(wow...hard to believe). I had it running some Infinity Q5(12" Watkins, 2" dome and the old style chrome emits). The speakers I had picked up for a song(about $100 if I remember correctly, refoamed the subs, replace a diaphragm(about a $100 back then) and very carefully resoldered a dome that I was told was impossible, but hey...dont tell me that, I'll just try harder....lol. I had rebuilt a pair of QLS1 speakers. The huge 6 foot tall monsters with like 12 of the same dome mids and 16 emits and that same watkins sub(and a "coupling" 4 inch mid). Needless to say I was very impressed with the sound, granted they had a solid 220 watts per channel of J. Curl designed Parasound 2200mkII. Well I was a tube guy and had a pair of dynaco st70s that I ran in mono to some of the "cheap" altec sm3 that I had modded "some" evil grin, another super deal, I think $30 at a pawnshop and a refoam and some minor crossover mods. But the infinity Q5 blew them away when I rebuilt them. Sadly the Q5 became too expensive to repair(before internet deals), so I retired them and parted them out, but still have and use the very nice walnut veneer boxes in my HT setup for my front subs(12 peerless).
ANYWAY, yeah I can ramble. The dynacos also were sold after the PV1 developed a hum that was more than just replacing tubes. So here I am several years later and I find a CJ MV52; same el34 basic pp as the dynacos...yes I know there are other significant differences, before I ruffle any feathers, the least of which was the price...that one I paid a fair price for, but hey it worked and I could plug and play. Problem was no "good speakers" so I threw together some planars to be mentioned later.
Now I have been planning on building some QLS "clone" speakers and have been collecting peerless 2" dome mids for several years(hey Im cheap if you couldnt tell, and very patient on Fleabay), and also found that there were Monsoon computer speakers that had planar highs, and crappy subs. Hooked up with a guy that did returns for them, or something like that, and he had a ton of the planars, so I bought what I could afford at the time. Only have eight total left now, but at 4"x8" they are substantial, and just one pair rounded out a pair of magnepan mbII just fine(along with a different pair of the same model peerless subs). So I ran the MV52 on them for several years until lightning struck, literally, and luckily just blew the mains fuse, but once I had it down, I mothballed it as I had also just come across a basket case MV50, and had thoughts of sending them back to CJ. That was quickly dashed by what they would charge, dont get me wrong its worth it, just not in my budget, plus I still had that hum in the PV1 to fix. I have modded a few tube amps, mostly old mono PA for low wattage home guitar amps, so I decided to dig into my CJ gear. First was the MV52, I was told there was a bias problem and indeed there was. I have received lots of info on another forum, so I have a good idea where to start. Waiting on parts right now, but also got parts for the PS in PV1, fairly thats the source of the hum. So I am going to recap it(you'll either love or hate the pic below, still makes me laugh). Finding replacements for the Sprague caps that are in there now was somewhat of a challenge. Especially since what is in there doesnt match what the parts list from CJ calls out. So I went with original values and came up with these.....
yeah....gonna have to get creative to fit that big bad boy in the little PV1 chassis. Even though I plan to run it without the cover on, I would still like to be able to put it on if want, so really the only option is to lay it on its side. FWIW the big one is just a commercial motor run cap...I have read the pros and cons, and the price couldnt be beat for something "audiophile" grade, and plus this will never see the signal path, just fire up the HV side of the tubes. So we will see, unfortunately I didnt get everything I ordered, and the cap I was going to start with is of course the one that is missing from the order....soo...... I got bored and started to lay out the speakers. now this is a VERY crude layout, I have been doing most design in AutoCad, but there is something so sweet about actually starting to put lead to wood, so to speak. The front panel for the peerless mids will be the particle board pictured(recycled from some cheap cabinets that were used for storage by the previous owner of my house)...nothing special. The back and sides of the "mid portion will be some cherry wood veneer that I picked up for free at a garage sale(had to take all the rest of the cutoffs that her late husband left behind, think its good karma though, he was smart enough to save some nice stuff, plus she was a very nice lady...I also got some other cool stuff there like an unskinned RC airplane that has to be 50 years old, it will never fly, but looks neat hanging in my temporary workshop). Which leads to the next pic that I have included because I am just down right embarrassed of my basement workshop, its supposed to be finished living quarters, but mother nature had other ideas for the car port my house came with that I was going to enclose.
Yeah, snow brought it most the way down, some cabinets and other stuff kept it up until I was able to get in there and salvage what I could. No cars or my poor boat were in there, somewhat thankfully....took a bath on the boat with no place to work on it. Glatron Carlson cv19 with an Olds455 and a jet pump....sigh.... Insurance gave me enough for me to build a nice big garage, but the city wouldnt let me put it back where the carport was, too close to the property line....so THAT is also on hold. Until then I have a very small outside storage and most of my tools in my basement. Hence these pics of the speaker layout. The planars will be "hinged" as they are very directional so I can adjust for different rooms if/when they get moved to a main listening area. I have also included a pic of a passive crossover that I salvaged from another pair of Infinity speakers similar to the Q series, the name escapes me at the moment but they ran emits and domes as well(but not the odd Watkins dual VC sub 2ohm one coil, 6ohm the other IIRC. So I will use those until I get the MV50 running and decide what to use on the bottom end. I know technically I am in a 4way system, but I may pull double duty with the amp for the mids to run the 4" coupler speakers if the bass speaker doesnt run high enough, included a pic of one of my choices, a reconed JBL 1000watt gtimk1(its actually a prosound speaker they used heavy cones and 4ohm VC for back in the 90's for high end SQ autosound. I have a pair of twelves, tens, eighteens, and 4 15's.....the 15's are brand spankin new....will be total over kill, but I have been dying to use them in something. We will see, I do have other projects to consider...any way....blabbering again....here are the pics....again, this is a very rough layout, and yes I know some of the lines are not straight....in fact some are freehand...lol enjoy.....oh, if you have any of these peerless mids(they all used to be closed back but I took off the cup for my own tuning)....I would be very interested in purchasing trading, sorry if I should post that somewhere else, just figured I would throw it out there......
ugh, message too long.....will do second post
