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Inspire by Dennis Had Enjoying Vacuum Tube Audio

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  #51  
Old 02-23-2019, 01:13 PM
Miami Ed Miami Ed is offline
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I have tried these speakers with my modified Magnavox 8600 and 196 single ended pentode amps running about 3.5 watts. These probably sound similar to your amp. My reaction is the same as yours, the bass was simply not there. Great for acoustic music though.

I switched to 6F6 metal tubes in the Inspire Firebottle last night. The midrange was really nice with extended highs but again, not much bass with the LS 3/5a's. Solo classical guitar was jaw-dropping good with these tubes but anything else sounded a bit anemic. Tonight I will either go back to the 6CA7's or the 6550's that came with the amp.
Bombadil, the 6f6 tubes are just not a good match for the LS3/5a's. The 6550's are much better in this setup with 5AR4 rectifier. Better balance, more bass. For what I listen to, this combination is really good. I may took to the KT88 or KT150 in the future.
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  #52  
Old 02-25-2019, 03:41 PM
Loudinny Loudinny is offline
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I may end up putting my Dennis Had Inspire Fire Bottle PSE amplifier with built in volume control up for sale. It's a great sounding amp that because of my current love affair with Dennis' 45 amp that he built for me, is just sitting in my cabinet. Its way too good to not be enjoyed by someone!

Attachment 58183
How many watts does that amp put out?
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  #53  
Old 02-25-2019, 05:12 PM
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Beatlebum Beatlebum is offline
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Power Tubes PSE 10-10-17.jpg

Depends what your preference is.

Regards,

Tim
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  #54  
Old 02-25-2019, 11:06 PM
Loudinny Loudinny is offline
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Attachment 58343

Depends what your preference is.

Regards,

Tim
Thanks Tim, just out of curiosity why the volume pot?

If using a Pre amp would you just max it out?
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  #55  
Old 02-26-2019, 06:46 AM
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Beatlebum Beatlebum is offline
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Loudinny,

I don't require any additional gain so I don't need an active preamplifier. I have experimented with passives and other volume controls and in those cases, yes, I adjust or max out the onboard volume attenuator (Blue Alps I believe).
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  #56  
Old 02-26-2019, 12:49 PM
Loudinny Loudinny is offline
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Loudinny,

I don't require any additional gain so I don't need an active preamplifier. I have experimented with passives and other volume controls and in those cases, yes, I adjust or max out the onboard volume attenuator (Blue Alps I believe).
Thx Tim, so how would this amp behave with a preamp with say 18db of gain?
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  #57  
Old 02-26-2019, 03:45 PM
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Loudinny,

Should be fine. Most of DH's Inspire preamps are in the 15db gain range.
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  #58  
Old 02-27-2019, 12:14 PM
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Loudinny,

Please shoot me an email or text.

Last edited by jdandy; 02-27-2019 at 12:49 PM. Reason: Posting personal phone number or email address is against forum rules
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  #59  
Old 06-19-2019, 08:56 PM
bearcity bearcity is offline
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What speakers Dennis and I are listening to - Part One

As some of you may have read over on the amp thread, I was over in Cary last week visiting with Dennis, Allan, and Tony. Along with picking up my amp Dennis had been working on, he and I needed to exchange some speaker hardware. A bit of back story. A couple months back Dennis sent me an email with a picture of a Madisound kit he was excited to buy. It was a monitor with a Fostex and a rear loaded folded horn. As it happens I bought and put together, a year or two ago, its bigger brother, a small floor-stander, the BK-12, using the same Fostex 4.5” driver. For me it was a relatively small investment to delve into a rear loaded horn. I was never able to tame the Fostex. Just all over the place and one note base. I had pretty much given up on the project a while back.

Fast forward to April and my trip to Raleigh for a concert and a visit with Dennis to drop off my amp. While scheduling my trip I asked Dennis if he had pulled the trigger on those monitors. He said no so I asked if I should bring the BK-12s for a listen. An enthusiastic “by all means” had them in the car. Honestly, I figured we would hook them up and he would share my disappointment and back in the car they would go. Likely Dennis would be glad he had not waisted time and money like I felt I had.

After some amp and tube rolling and listening to the latest 45/2A3 (a sweet sounding amp by the way) I brought in the BK-12s, hooked them up and, well, as I remembered. I recall Dennis saying something like, “they sound like a speaker in a box.” Sitting at his drawing board (also the sweet spot in the room), he starts looking around his work space. He picks up a tweeter, grabs a couple clip leads and wires in the tweeter sitting on top of one of the cabinets. A little improvement but still pretty bad. He then re-clips the leads so the two drivers are in series and locates the tweeter back some, away from the face of the cabinet. Picture this tweeter propped up on this cabinet with any old shim to keep it from rolling off and clip leads running this way and that. And the other channel matching at this point. But the sound! This thing, all of a sudden, sounds listenable, maybe even good. Its like night and day.

Well now Dennis is excited. He thinks with some listening and finesse he can get these things sounding really good. A few moments later he is pushing the buy button on a pair for himself. I offer to assemble and finish them for him so he has them sent to my house in Asheville. I then talk him into keeping mine while I am building his so that he can play around some more. We sketch up a tweeter stand and pick a better tweeter he and I are both familiar with. Now we each have our tasks to perform. Dennis has his genius with electronics and a golden ear. My previous career was as a furniture maker so the Madisound kit and a custom matching tweeter stand is in my wheelhouse. Off to my concert and Dennis to his home and a project we are both excited about.

More on this to come...
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  #60  
Old 06-22-2019, 07:41 PM
bearcity bearcity is offline
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What speakers Dennis and I are listening to - Part Two

To continue with the story and get to what speakers Dennis and I are listening to right now. Since my last visit in April he and I had been trading texts and picts on our progress. Dennis selected a stain and over many weeks I was able to get his parts sanded and pre-finished while at the same time jigging up to be able to get a couple of identical tweeter stands made up. He had been playing with caps, inductors, and resistors to get the two drivers sounding just right. I found out later he also did some significant deadening of the Bk-12 box. I would get picts of my speakers in the shop listening room, at his home, and even in the back seat of his convertible en route between. I would send picts at progress stages. Stained, lacquered, clamped, and so on. As I was able to get the BK-12s assembled and two pair of tweeter stands built, finished and ready to go, it was time to head back to Cary. Couldn’t wait to hear the results. Even though I had previously lost interest and faith that anything of significance would come from these speakers Dennis had convinced me otherwise. Dennis couldn’t get enough of them.



My BK-12s and amp with mockup tweeter in Dennis’s listening room.



As per usual a visit to Cary starts at Serendipity, Dennis favorite lunch place. They do make a darn good sandwich. We all caught up with each other and discussed some gear as well. I still look forward to getting over to Allen’s to hear his Altecs, but not this time. Off to the shop to hear the updated BK-12s, among other things. It did not take long to get things warmed up. Moved things around a bit. Ended with a slight rearward tilt, just inside of the room corners, and toed in.

By this point we were all in agreement that these were enjoyable to listen to. Not embarrassed by the much larger 4-ways Dennis voices most of his amps on. My impressions: a very revealing speaker with remarkable midrange. They fill up a small to medium sized room quite well. Not concert levels by any means but my wife and kids do turn it down so they can talk. The low end was there, not great, but respectable considering this is a 4.5” driver. The sparkle is achieved by the added tweeter but the real strength is in the speed and full range point source precision and imaging coupled with the midrange I remarked on a moment ago. Since having them home I have heard the banjo and percussion sound quite like the real thing. More so than my Proac DT-8s. Tube and amp changes are heard distinctly. Dennis commented, “an amp designers speaker.” If an electronic change is made you know right away the audible result. I have had them home a week and am still enjoying them quite a bit. I am not going to claim these are some giant killer or anything like that. They have thier limits. Certain musical selections just fall apart. That little Fostex finds a resonance with the folded horn and the result is ‘muuuuush’.

I have two active systems and now, three sets of speakers I want to listed to. A tough place to be in I know. Do I build a bedroom system around these little guys. Not sure if I am that committed.
I think I’ll keep them in the living room for now and switch off between them and the Proacs. They really don’t take up much spaces.


Dennis’s set up in the shop listening room.


D’s stands all wired up.


Mine at home. PSE and KT amps. Lp-27a as well.

Anyway, that is what Dennis and I are listening to our amps on right now.

Scott

P.s. Dennis voiced these BK-12s with my just modified KT amp and it shows. It mates to a slightly better result than my Inspire PSE. (BTW, my amp is basically a custom ‘Inspire Universal’ best I can figure.)
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