Electronics! Falling into the geek rabbit hole.

Viva has 1230s and Dirty Weekends???? :fmicon:

Guessing you've been looking at those 1230s on KSL basinbeater? I've seen those in person, they are mint. That guy is a huge ADS fan. I bought some L500s from him this summer. I tried but couldn't get wife approval of those 1230s. I think he also mentioned that he'd take a good bit less than his asking price when I was looking at them at his house.

That amp is really cool, but how does it sound? I probably should have taken my SX-1000 to to you fix it instead of this local guy who told me "no problem, it'll be done in 2 weeks". That was in October and I still don't have it.

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Originally Posted by basinbeater

Hey viva, you have a pair of ads l1230 isn't that right? How would you compare them to the Zu?

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Great question. I actually have the ADS 1290s, with 2X 8" woof / single mid woof, 3" middy, and the tweet. The Zus seem to go a little lower in the frequency range, and tighter, than the ADSs, which is consistent with their respective ratings (35 Hz vs 40 Hz). As an example, certain well known to me tracks with heavy bass emphasis had noticeably less distortion going through the Zus. The cabinets are significantly smaller, too, which is nice in my small living room. The construction is also very good. Very, very pleased with this upgrade.

For sale:

One pair ADS 1290. Excellent working and cosmetic condition. Refurbished by former ADS engineer (Gary Somethingoranother, in Phoenix).

One pair ADS 690. Beat-up cabinets, but work and sound pretty nice with a quality receiver. I may use these in a garage system should I go that route.

One pair Linn Ninkas- really great sounding, but base extension is limited unless you bi-amp. Excellent cosmetics and come with original boxes. Sounds great with my Sim Audio Celest integrated (which I'll also will also sell).

I think his name is Richard So. I’m about to send him some woofers. Where are you located?

Happy to hear you prefer the Zus to the 1290, I think those are pretty well regarded in the ADS lineup.

YES! I believe that's our man.

I live in the 81147.

And I'd like to revise something that I wrote previously- the Zus don't have less distortion at lower frequencies (usually a symptom of blasting your system), but the lower frequencies are less muddled, there's better separation and clarity.

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Originally Posted by basinbeater

Attachment 357598

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I'm pretty sure my dad bought one of these new. Wonder if he still has it kicking around somewhere.

The gb150d amp sounds great, and it can even drive the big b and o ms150. It sounds very good, almost on par with the honey badger I would say, and the honey badger a have dispatched all the manufactured amps I have tried, from krell (admittedly a home theater amp, but still) parasound, Denon, Sony, marantz, phase linear, linn. I did a/b testing between the two, and would be perfectly happy with the gb150 in the main system. The case and the compact amp board design has made it a good test bed for me to implement other things, like arduino and input switching. Hopefully I'll apply those learnings to a complete custom preamplifier. It really could do with a little larger power supply, with the big speakers it runs out of gas a little bit at higher volumes, but that is due to the rotel transformer not being able to provide enough juice. Original receiver was rated at 100w per channel, and the gb is supposed to be good for 150+ like the badger. It makes those 4 ohm cantons sing.

You can look up gb150d and find some diy links, it's not on the current hot list of stuff to build, but that crew seems to build, work it out to the max and move on to the next thing. All systems in my house at this point are running diy amps.

Just finished dark side of the moon front to back..
Attachment 358220

sent from Utah.

I was looking at those ads, I saw them on facefuck, but I think I am going to pass. I don't thing they will have the bass to compete with the b and o.

The sony is a fun unit, pretty unit for digital sources, like tv, or cd player, as the dac is pretty good for an old machine. And recapped it actually sounds pretty good. But a nicer analogue preamp will sound better. Older stuff is what is in my budget, but very impressed with the nad 1155 post recap, and of course, the apt holman is current king of the hill.

sent from Utah.

The Zu is definitely sharp looking. Would love to have a listen. You will have to bring them to the first maggot sound off summit post pandemic. In salt lake of course.

Edit, just learned Zu is based in o town! Time to recalibrate the ogden scale.

sent from Utah.

Second to the glowing reviews they get that was the next reason for buying them. Made locally. And a 60 day no questions asked return policy is nice too. For whatever reason we have some very high end speaker makers here in Utah. Tekton, RBH, Zu, Wilson. I don’t have the details but I think a lot of these guys are tied together somehow with Kimber Kable, ex employees there.

Now we are getting into it. Got a new power supply and figured out how to get my scope to interface with the computer. Whoa! Full screen! Haha.
So first circuit to mess around with is a simple audio signal buffer.
Just finished putting it together on a breadboard and then hooked it up and gave the new power supply a whirl. It works! Sorta. It should be producing a signal that is exactly the same as the input, well, simulation showed 97%. Mine is outputting clean signal, but at 10% level. So, I'll rebuild and try again. Now it's really going to get fun...
I aim to successfully build the circuit, put it on prototype board, test it, understand 100% how it works, and be able to measure different characteristics of it, and install it in my project amp, the one with the sweet display... But tonight it was fun getting the tools setup, working, and testing a first circuit.
Attachment 359753Attachment 359754

sent from Utah.

Building a TK842? It will be twice the original.

Next time I crack open the amp, I'll see if we can get tk421 on board.

sent from Utah.

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Originally Posted by basinbeater

Next time I crack open the amp, I'll see if we can get tk421 on board.

sent from Utah.

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man i wanna learn how to do all this nerdery

should i just start with a basic amp kit?

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Originally Posted by basinbeater

Next time I crack open the amp, I'll see if we can get tk421 on board.

sent from Utah.

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I don't know why I am fixated on this. Buck was my favorite of the male characters from Boogie Nights. I crack up every time I see this thread title because I can't help thinking of the movie.

Haha, it's so fun. Swing by the house one day, and I'll show you some stuff, and give you some pointers on getting started.
For me it all started with a few repairs. The research it took to understand how stuff works was crucial, and after several successful repairs, I felt like I generally understood how amplifiers worked, and was ready to tackle my first build. 3 successful builds later, and more repairs, I am trying to take the next step, designing my own circuits and building them, and learning to evaluate them. What's fun about this is the rabbit hole is so deep in so many different directions.
I'm thinking a gain clone kit might be a good first build. I did a honey badger for my first one. Jump in, the water is fine.

sent from Utah.

Also, lt slice is a pretty cool simulator.

sent from Utah.

Definitely not at basinbeaters level yet but I've recapped a few sets of speakers recently. It's been keeping me busy after work in the evenings. These Dynacos that my dad gave me got fresh grill cloth, new caps and refinished veneer.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1808c399_b.jpg

also dipping my toe into the rabbit hole that is vinyl. Not sold yet and so far it's been nothing but challenges but most of that could be because I'm using gear that is 40 - 50 years old

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6964f8fe_b.jpg

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Originally Posted by dfinn

Definitely not at basinbeaters level yet but I've recapped a few sets of speakers recently. It's been keeping me busy after work in the evenings. These Dynacos that my dad gave me got fresh grill cloth, new caps and refinished veneer.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1808c399_b.jpg

also dipping my toe into the rabbit hole that is vinyl. Not sold yet and so far it's been nothing but challenges but most of that could be because I'm using gear that is 40 - 50 years old

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6964f8fe_b.jpg

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man those grills looks fucking great!!

i've done basic stuff, like CX network rebuilds, but nothing else. need to try something harder.

my la scalas are ugly as shit, maybe i should rebuild those

Those speakers are niiiice looking!
I'll build the amp, tgapp design the speaker, and dfinn put it all together and make it look pretty. Tgr sound system.

sent from Utah.

Ooooh, la scalas. Nice! Let's see em!

No pics yet but also working on refreshing a pair of Sansui SP-3500s. Someone turned them up really loud, melted resistors and plastic on the crossovers. I replaced all the resistors and caps, replaced blown tweeters and mids. Just need to re-foam the woofers now, both had separated from the surrounds.

Buffer circuit plays hip hop. Scope dances.

https://youtu.be/pjTS9Ibc_yY

sent from Utah.

Cool 100pHz square wave playing through the gb150d. Yellow is input signal, and blue is the output. You can see a vmin and max for each along the bottom. They are on different scales, with the input swinging about 3.12V, and the output of the amplifier swinging 79.6V. Square wave is good to look at for amplifiers as it shows you how well the amplifier tracks the signal, if it overshoots significantly, or if there is ringing in the amplifier circuit. It also can tell you if the amplifier has a good slew rate, or the amount of voltage it can swing in a given time. There are many other things you can learn about the amplifier from a square wave, this is just the tip.
This source signal shows a slight curve at the beginning of the flat top square indicating a slight drop in the output, but the drop is evident in the source signal, and the amp output mirrors that exactly. The input is low quality from a cheapo officemax dock. So it looks like a decent quality function generator is the next tool for the bench. eBay here we come.

.Attachment 360075

sent from Utah.

The rabbit hole deepens. I've tested my buffer in lt spice, and built a breadboard prototype and a perforated board prototype. All three check out. Time to do design a pcb and get some made. I added an 18v regulated power supply section so I can feed it 15vac.
Gonna call it the Summit Audio Lab 1 in 1 out buffer. 1 in 1 out because it provides unity gain.

Here is my crack at designing a pcb.

Edit, 5 copies are on the way for a grand total of $8.27 shipped.

Attachment 362042

sent from Utah.

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Originally Posted by tgapp

man those grills looks fucking great!!

i've done basic stuff, like CX network rebuilds, but nothing else. need to try something harder.

my la scalas are ugly as shit, maybe i should rebuild those

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They can't be much uglier than my Khorns. Actually there not that bad, they're the decorator series and have none of the extra wood or grills. I have some rosewood boards that I'll eventually cut up or these. I'm still not sure if I'll veneer them yet, I like the color they've turned but a nice veneer would look nice with the rosewood.
Attachment 362078

That Sony/Dynaco system should sound nice, I have a pair of A35's with an early 70's Sony amp that sound much better than they should.

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Originally Posted by refried

They can't be much uglier than my Khorns.

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challenge accepted

I left the room messy to show them in their natural habitat


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...22979c08ce.jpg

ouch! someone did not treat those very nicely

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Originally Posted by dfinn

ouch! someone did not treat those very nicely

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yeah, they were apparently used as a high school auditorium loud speaker setup before i got them. they're the industrial variant, but i have new crossovers and mostly new drivers in them, and the cabinets don't rattle, so i keep them around

i have heresy II's upstairs, which are good, but not nearly as good as the la scalas

They look optimized for playing punk.

You may have won that, but can you beat these Pioneers? Someone added a pair EV mids and tweeters to them and I was surprised they sound OK, I'm using them as Shop speakers switching between those and B&O S75's

Attachment 362081

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Originally Posted by refried

You may have won that, but can you beat these Pioneers? Someone added a pair EV mids and tweeters to them and I was surprised they sound OK, I'm using them as Shop speakers switching between those and B&O S75's

Attachment 362081

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the skis make that picture perfect

just to prove I'm not a total scub..https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...89c66cb0bb.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Viva

They look optimized for playing punk.

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Need to vandalize them with a screwdriver in order to listen to the Butthole Surfers.

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Originally Posted by tgapp

the skis make that picture perfect

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I lost use of a building I was using for storage, I didn't realize how much stuff I had in there. After too many trips things just got piled up. Everything has a proper home now.

The DQ-20's I was using before the Khorns (along with a Velodyne HGS-18, not shown). I'm using them in the HT system now, they replaced ADS 730's (I'm using 300's and 200's for surround speakers).

Attachment 362084
Speakerlabs
Attachment 362085

Those dq20 look sweet.

sent from Utah.

yeah those dq20's are beautiful, but how power hungry are they, really?

i used to have a pair of magneplanar's, but i found that their no-limit power consumption didn't really jive with me hard-limit budget considerations.

i like klipsch because i can get a few good watts for dirt cheap, and they just sing :)

They're nice, power hungry but they sound great.
The former owner was eaten by a crocodile, It jumped out of the water, grabbed him out of a canoe (in front of his wife) and disappeared underwater again.

With my Sansui G-8700DB (160 wpc) I had no problem turning the volume knob past the 1:00 position to have 100dB (115dB peaks), with the Khorns at 9:00 on the dial I'm over 100dB.

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Originally Posted by tgapp

yeah those dq20's are beautiful, but how power hungry are they, really?

i used to have a pair of magneplanar's, but i found that their no-limit power consumption didn't really jive with me hard-limit budget considerations.

i like klipsch because i can get a few good watts for dirt cheap, and they just sing :)

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For what it's worth, I've got two 180w per channel rms amplifiers that were less than $400 total each. You should try one out... i also have a big rotel 400wpc that I haven't gotten around to fixing yet, but when I do, I have no idea what I will do with it. Big quality power is expensive if you buy new.

sent from Utah.

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Originally Posted by basinbeater

For what it's worth, I've got two 180w per channel rms amplifiers that were less than $400 total each. You should try one out... i also have a big rotel 400wpc that I haven't gotten around to fixing yet, but when I do, I have no idea what I will do with it. Big quality power is expensive if you buy new.

sent from Utah.

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i think this is my next buy:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ref_=pd_gw_unk

looks pretty great, all point to point construction, and 45wpc is plenty for me

Attachment 363531

Been tinkering with these for a few months, finally got to hear them play tonight. When I bought them they had 2 blown tweeters, 2 blown mid ranges, both woofers had separated surrounds and the xovers had been melted and toasted resistors.

I found replacement parts for the blown ones, rebuilt the xovers with new caps and resistors and refoamed the woofers tonight as the last step.

Not sure they are keepers but it’s been a fun project.