Magnepan LRS

[admin]

SteveFord,
Sounds like a memorable adventure. I remember staying in some questionable motels back in my youth. I get less of that these days with the popularity of AirBNB and online reviews of places. Still, makes for good stories.

[AnotherJohnson]

There's a lot to be said for motels.

Ain’t that the truth.

[Big Dog RJ]

Sounds like that lady's bias was out of whack... although probably the chap was trying to maintain his impedence swing...

Oh! Boy

[SteveFord]

Busy weekend here.
Took delivery of a VTL ST-85 (which is more like it!) and sold off a deHavilland UltraVerve 3 preamp.
That preamp was on the market for under ten minutes before it sold!
That deHavilland sounded so good with the Conrad-Johnson MF-2275 but just horrible with the little VTL, it lost all of the highs, everything was midrange and bass.
Put in a Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 and the highs came back but it's just too much in your face for a small room.
Right now I'm preamp shopping, I think I know what's coming here...

Back to the amp, I had to laugh as the power tubes say Groove Tubes on them, I haven't seen those since maybe 1980 in a Marshall 100W head.
The little guys appear to be some sort of Chinese stuff, I think, so I ordered some Sylvania JAN tubes this morning.
The original owner used this for the rear channel for home theater and it was on consignment at a shop.
I'll bet the original tubes disappeared once they took it in for sale, VTL doesn't stick in weird junk like this.

[AnotherJohnson]

Cool…

[admin]

Looking good. Let us know what you think when you get the new tubes in there.

[Big Dog RJ]

Nice one mate, the change in tubes should definitely get the amplifier working back to spec. I would also look into the small signal tubes as well, just to make sure all brands and tube types are reputable and reliable...

I remember back in the day, when I had those massive Manley Reference 350's, one of the driver tubes was very rare type that only VTL and Manley used at the time. I tried various other types but nothing worked. Eventually Eve Anne sent me a few spares, and when I placed those in, what a great difference it was. The output tubes were exchangeable between 6550, KT88, 90 & 120. All of them had their own signature sound but at the end of the day, I stuck with what she recommended, and that was the KT90. Beautiful sounding tubes and a perfect match for those particular amplifiers.

Have a good one, and let us know how it goes.
Cheers, RJ

[SteveFord]

Four Sylvania JHS-12AT7WAs from May of 1959 are in the little VTL and they sound just like I thought they would - GREAT!
That's an awful long time to just sit in a box but they're finally being put into service.

My tube hoarder buddies are always sending me tubes whenever I get something new and I finally told them if you don't have Sylvania that's okay, I'll pass.
But but these are better...
I'm sure they are but I know what I like and Sylvanias always have the sound I prefer.

As you've probably guessed, I have old military Sylvanias in the 17LS and EV1s.

[tj-sully]

Awesome stories guys!

[AnotherJohnson]

Lots of Carver stuff in this thread. Here’s the latest

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/ ... ing-direct

Short story = he’s back supervising/building and you can buy directly from him through his internet store.

Maybe this is old news. Like so many things associated with Bob Carver, there are adamant supporters who love everything he’s ever done, and their less loving counterparts.

[admin]

We'll have to wait and see what comes of it. Few names in the audio world have his recognition,... but much of that recognition is not positive. Some truly horrific stories about the crimson amp.

[SteveFord]

Last I heard he's decided to go from tubes hardy putting out any heat to driving tubes near their maximum.
Phlame Tubular?

At any rate, I've made a few changes to the LRS system.
The Conrad-Johnson MF-2275 and the Carver Crimson 275 went off to new homes and happy owners, I moved on to that VTL ST-85 which I really like and then the esteemed Big Dog RJ said take a look at your preamp which was very hurtful. I had a nice cry and ate a gallon of chocolate ice cream and passed out in a sugar coma on the bathroom floor.
Once I recovered I decided what the heck, let's try the 17LS downstairs one more time and see if it works out any better than it did before I hung up a bunch of hats and other stuff so the room wasn't so live.
Sho nuff, it did work out okay so I moved the 17LS back upstairs to the 1.7 system, put the deHavilland UltraVerve 3 preamp up for sale (sold in under ten mintes which is a record for me) and bought another 17LS and did the usual Sylania tubes. One of the tubes acted weird on the emissions test and then instantly failed in service so in went a spare.
Because things were sounding pretty good I moved the Rega Apollo-R to the boob tube system and purchased a Rega Saturn-R which, of course, meant messing with the subwoofer's settings as there's more bass with the Saturn.
And this is it, a simply system which is as done as it's ever going to be.
I WAS thinking about trying Magnepan .7s but I just know there will be too much bass in that little room so time to leave well enough alone.

[admin]

Very nice. Good utilization of the cabinet.

Do you have to keep the backdoor closed when listening? Bipole speakers are often very sensitive to what is behind them and I've found that to be true with my maggies.

[SteveFord]

I should probably get another quilt from my sister but usually open, I don't seem to have the problem with the sound like I did upstairs where there was the stair case to contend with. I'm only sitting 8' back from these little guys, they're like giant Mini Maggies.
What I've found is they do like is some junk behind the speakers to break up the rear soundwave and absorb it a little bit.
Right now I'm flipping between a Saturn and Apollo-R, I think the Saturn is going to have too much bass for that small room.

[admin]

What I've found is they do like is some junk behind the speakers to break up the rear soundwave and absorb it a little bit.

This is exactly what I have found with my maggies. I have acoustic panels on the wall behind the speaker. It really helps the soundstage.

[SteveFord]

You need a big room for the 20 series but boy, do they sound good!
A buddy of mine works with Magnepan for product development and he crammed Tympanis into a too-small room, he's been having some issues but won't give up. He was funny: you know you're right, the more junk I pile up behind them the better it sounds.
I'll get the corner done after I recover from surgery, I'll be asleep for a week.

[admin]

Yes, definitely benefit from some absorption behind the speaker. I actually have a speaker height and width acoustic dampening sheet behind each speaker. I have it hidden behind curtains for cosmetic purposes but it works great and fits the entire rear wave due to it being approximately the size of the speaker.

It's this: https://www.thefoamfactory.com/closedce ... prene.html

Good luck with the surgery, make a quick recovery!

[SteveFord]

Thanks for the link and well wishes, it'll be a relief to get it over with.
The Rega Saturn just had too much bass for that room so back went the Apollo-R and now things sound like they should.
In an unexpected twist I bought an MF-2275 to replace the one I just sold!
I really hated selling that amp so I'll find a use for it.

[SteveFord]

Finally got it, took a bit of screwing around to get the sound right to my ears.
Wound up with Magnepan LRS on Magnarisers, Kimber 12TC, VTL ST-85, Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS, Rega Apollo-R, REL T-1 sub, VTL straight into wall, rest into APC H-15.
All it took was that last quilt from my sister and done.

[Big Dog RJ]

Nice one mate,
Enjoy those fine tunes!
RJ