Keith aka Amfibius System

[Amfibius]

OK, the amps are back from amp hospital. Thankfully, all that happened was a broken fuse holder ... spare parts and repair - $50. I love my engineer, but I feel sorry for the poor bastard. He lives in poverty thanks to his generosity.

I took the opportunity to get my tweeters serviced and electrodes replaced. The speakers are 10 years old, and the recommended service interval is 10 years. I ordered new electrodes from Acapella and my engineer installed them. He showed me the old electrodes ... holy cow!!! The new electrodes look like a cone, with a 1.5mm base and 1.5mm height, terminating in a pointy end. The old electrodes have been effectively vaporized ... what was left of it was a disc, barely a tenth of a millimeter thick.

(Sorry i'm Australian, and I think in metric!)

First thing I noticed when I took them home - the plasma flame is a LOT smaller. The volume is a LOT lower. But also - the sound is so much cleaner, and there is no hiss or crackle. Previously, the tweeters would glow yellow for an hour, making a lot of hissing and crackling noises, before settling to a purple flame. Now they glow purple immediately.

Engineer guy recommends a 5 year service interval. He was also very impressed by the engineering that went into the speakers - he couldn't stop waxing lyrical about how much he admires German engineers. I asked him what he thought of the Carys - sorry Americans. He sniffed and said it's a typically American product - it is functional, but not beautiful. In other words, the product works as advertised, but he would find it difficult to fall in love with it, as an engineer.

In any case, almost my whole system (bar the speakers, TT, and phono) is American. SACD player, preamp, power amp, and subwoofers are all made in the USA. So far I have little cause for complaint ... I am not an engineer, I don't look inside. All I care about is how it sounds, and it sounds bloody magnificent from this listening chair

[mgard]

Amfibius,

Just wanted to say your pictures on the front of this thread are beautiful. Your room and equipment looks really nice. That looks like a great music collection you have.

~Mike

[joeling]

Oh sorry to hear of your troubles. Glad that it's nothing major.

Why don't you try some PSVANE 845s ? I believe they are also made by Shuguang.

Regards,
Joe Ling

[Amfibius]

Hi Joe, right now I have the following valves:

- No-name Chinese 845 supplied by Cary (probably Shuguang 845)
- Shuguang PSVANE 845T
- Shuguang 845B
- KR Audio 845

Right now the KR's are installed in my system. I don't know how much time it has had, but so far I am not very impressed - they sound more closed in than the Psvane 845's, with poorer dynamics and less sparkle. All the other 845's glow very brightly, like lightbulbs. The KR 845 has a dim orange glow.

I am going to give the KR's 200 hours to see if it improves. The Psvanes were similar unimpressive when I first got them, only opening up after 100 hours. Fingers crossed.

[Targa02]

I am a big fan of Acapella speakers and the Playback Designs DACs. Finding time to sleep must be difficult!

[Amfibius]

Thanks for moving my thread to the new subforum, Ivan!

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by Amfibius

Thanks for moving my thread to the new subforum, Ivan!

It was heavy, but I did it!

[Wasatch]

Awesome!

[chessman]

Keith, I just re-read this thread with pleasure. I still marvel that a "non-engineer" would or could take apart and successfully modify a $60,000 speaker. Nice job!

[Volks]

I somehow missed this thread-what a great read!.....Beautiful system Keith!