Part 5 of a Series, by Steve Graham The sharp eyed among you will have noticed (in part 4) that I said the Altecs stayed in my listening room for a week or so. Why such a short stay? Well there’s a story. Though not apparent right away, my nearly fifty-year-old Altecs have a certain ‘bouquet’ residing in, or on, their cabinets. An oenophile might say they have heady mixture of cigar smoke and old MDF, with a finish of mild but insistent mildew. I’ve removed the drivers and crossovers from the poor Altecs and have banished the cabinets to the garage. Stinky Flamenco cabinets, banished to the garage The other thing is, my quasi-dedicated basement listening room (it also shares space with the TV) needed some rework. My dear wife (she is a gem, I may have mentioned that already) lets me decorate and arrange this room just about any way I want. Well, the room, though sounding acceptable up to this point, does not entirely suit the Altecs. The room needs a redo to suit my dancers. I’m referring to the Altecs, in case your imagination is headed in a different direction. If you build and [...]
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My Audio Life – Part 5
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Battle of the Cheap Line Stages, Part 4
Part 4 of a DIY Showdown, by Steve Graham Board Assembly, Integration to Chassis and Testing This installment concludes the DIY Line Stage showdown. I had hoped to have two half-way decent line stages at the end of this experiment, but it was not to be. We do however have one very good line stage that I think is comparable to commercial products costing much more. I hope that a few WoS followers have been inspired to take the plunge and build one of these. If you have, please leave a comment, and/or share some pictures of your finished project. If you are still with me, the finish line is in sight. This where all the bits and pieces from various sources will come together to yield your line stage. Take your time and follow the assembly instructions available for download below. One thing though, the N-F-P will work best into power amps that have a fairly high input impedance (as does my Ref 110). Most tube amps should be fine, but if you have a solid state amp check the specs. Anything 20K ohms and higher should be fine. Is DIY Going Mainstream? Perfectionist audio is [...]
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Line Stage Update: one more Aikido available
by Steve Graham The N-F-P has gone to a new home. Harri S. of Milton, Ontario had the high bid and is the proud (I hope) owner of the over-achieving line stage whose build I detailed. I was a little sad to see it go, but Harri’s full purchase price went to the Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland, Ontario, for the capital equipment renewal program. The picture above? That’s the prototype, also built around an Aikido 12Vac board and I am making it available for sale as well. At the start of the line stage project, I had hoped to have two for sale. The board from Asia was a non-starter, so to keep to my original intent of offering two units, I’m letting the Aikido prototype go, too. As with the first one, the full sale price will be donated to GBGH. The N-F-P detailed in my four part WoS article was kept as simple as possible so it could be easily duplicated. I couldn’t resist colouring outside the lines a little on the prototype, the features of which are as follows: – Tubecad.com Aikido 12Vac board – The power transformer is more, well, powerful – The input selector switch [...]
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Sun Valley 211/845 SET Tube Amp Kit from Japan
Some cool news from Victor Kung of vkmusic.ca: VK Music will soon carry the SunValley 211/845 amp kit from Nagoya, Japan. SunValley is part of the Toyota Group of Companies. Victor is currently working on the English assembly manual. Sun Valley SV-S1628D PCB and Point-to-Point Amp Kit Tube set : 211/845, 12AU7 x 2, 12BH7A x 2 Power output ： 845：16W+16W; 211：7.5W+7.5W (8Ω，THD：10％) Weight ：15kg Made in Japan Price: TBC. It will be under $2k (US). Some photos below.
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Domestic Harmony, Chapter 5: The Truth About Anna
Domestic Harmony: Part 5 of the ‘Jamie and Paul’ series By Steve Graham The Truth about Anna Jamie eased her way through the door of Stuart’s Stereo. Stuart was standing behind the counter looking a bit anxious, but Jamie just thought he was expecting more teasing. “I thought you’d chickened-out when you met Pat and then disappeared,” Stuart remarked. “Pat and I just went next door for a coffee,” countered Jamie. “He used to live up the street from us and we wanted to catch up a bit on family news.” “Right, I’ll just get Anna from the back,” Stuart said, with a big smile. He returned a moment later with the fancy box Jamie remembered. He opened it like the last time to show Jamie the ‘something’, then closed it up again. “How would you like to pay?” he asked. “Cash,” replied Jamie. She didn’t notice the funny look Stuart gave her as she was looking at one of the gold ‘somethings’ in the display case, wondering if Paul would like one for Christmas. During warmer weather, Jamie would often leave for the yoga studio with just her health card and a house key tucked into the small pocket [...]
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Mundorf XO Part 3, aka The Law of Diminishing Returns
This will be the last part of my writeup on Frank Fazzalari’s amazing crossovers for the Radian coaxials. It’s long overdue, and it’ll be brief. Part 1 of this series detailed the big switch from the stock Radian crossover (built to handle nightclub loads of power), to the simple ‘XD’ unit that Frank supplies under the Radian 312 moniker. What a revelation to hear what these drivers are capable of sounding like with our little tube amps! Even the old & outdated 5215B’s I was using, sounded fantastic. Part 2 of the saga took that up a huge notch; this saw Frank replacing the white Audiophiler MKP caps with Mundorf’s wonderful EVO Silver/Gold/Oils (the white Evo’s). The difference was not subtle. And it was well worth the upgrade cost (something like $140 above stock). Let’s call this the “Level II” upgrade, to keep things clear. Lastly, Frank got ahold of two of the massive Mundorf Supreme Evo Silver/Gold/Oils, courtesy of Simon at Audiyo. These are over $300 US apiece(!), and they are big. As in, bigger than a hockey puck. So out came the Level II’s, and in went the big boys. The big boys next to Canada’s largest coin, the twonie Well, [...]
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Good News / Bad News: Final update on the Linestage and 6DJ8 articles
by Steve Graham Since the last update I’ve been corresponding with Hari S. (I hope I’ve spelled his name correctly now), the buyer of the first N-F-P. Hari had questions about improvements to the N-F-P. Before returning the tubes used in the 6DJ8 shootout to Thetubestore.com, I decided to have one last listen to the Genalexes in the prototype N-F-P. After that I connected the ARC Ref 3 back into my system. The tube set in the prototype is the same as the one Hari bought, NOS Tesla input tubes and new production JJ in the output positions. The tracks used for comparison were: Digging in the Dirt from Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Live, Golden Heart from Mark Knopfler’s album Golden Heart and The Mystic’s Dream from Loreena McKennitt’s album The Mask and Mirror. The following comments I sent to Hari: The Tesla/JJ combo: Not the ultimate in resolution but pleasing sound. The bass, depending on personal tastes and the system they’re used in could be called a little over-ripe or if it matches your tastes you might call it “organic” as I do. The midrange and treble are pleasant, again not the ultimate but they play together [...]
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My Audio Life: Part 6
My Altec Adventures (continued) By Steve Graham The media room renovation is almost complete. The room has essentially a nine foot ceiling. A small part eight feet high, roughly in the centre, runs side to side and conceals duct work. About half of the floor has been covered with Dricore™ and the rest has been raised slightly. The blue on walls and ceiling have been covered with paint of a neutral colour, new carpet in neutral shade has been laid, new wood blinds hung and the base board and door trim reinstalled. A few of the acoustic treatments have been remounted on the walls but I’m hesitant to go further until the Altecs return. The TV sound is listenable but I still have a few slap-echo problems to deal with. I was looking at the acoustic treatment on the walls of the local multiplex movie theatre the last time I was there. From my research I suspect that the cloth covered treatments at the theatre contain Roxul® Rockboard®. The Altec cabinets, apart from having a certain ‘aroma’, are also pretty beat up. The master plan is to make new cabinets and “improve” on the originals at the same [...]
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Coherent Audio to host local meet in Hamilton on Mar.6th
Our friend Frank Fazzalari of Coherent Speakers is organizing an Audio Meet in Hamilton, that will showcase some of our local audio talent, with items including: Coherent loudspeakers Triode Lab amplifiers Transcendent Sound’s OTL Son Of Beast amp Furutech & Mundorf, from AUDIYO (Simon Au will be there) Nordost / QRT Fluxion amplifiers A selection of used LP’s for sale ….and more I’m planning to be there and hope to see some of the locals I’ve met over the years. This gathering will take place on Monday March 6th, from 5:30 to 10:00pm, at Carmen’s Best Western Premier C in Hamilton. (in the Castelli Ballroom) Some light refreshments will be served. Location: http://carmenshotel.com/contact For more info, please email Frank: fsmfazz@sourcecable.net Update: for pics and highlights from the meet, look here: http://wallofsound.ca/misc/news/photos-from-the-coherent-speakers-audio-meet-in-hamilton/
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Photos from the Coherent Speakers audio meet in Hamilton
Well, many thanks to Frank Fazzalari; his audio meet was a resounding success! There was a great turnout of people, and everyone was buzzing about the excellent sounds and cool products on display. There was pizza, drinks and munchies too, and good conversation. It was awesome to see some old friends again. Here are some pics and my assorted comments. Coherent audio meet at Carmen’s, March 6th 2017 Coherent’s glorious Model 15 were the star performers, seen here flanked by the Model 12GR. A closer look at the electronics. Triode Lab 2A3 SET amp on the right; Transcendent’s OTL amp on the left side. On the shelf are the preamp and DAC, being fed by a Macbook Pro running JRiver, and displayed by a Sanyo screen projector. Coheren’t Model 10GR on display showing its internal lattice construction. (WoS is currently reviewing this model) The heart of Coherent’s flagship speaker is the Radian 5215B BeNeo driver. Seen beside it is the heart of all Frank’s speakers – his custom design crossover. A closer look at the Coherent 308 crossover. The inductor is cleverly sandwiched between the mounting pads and out of sight. For more on Frank’s Mundorf-based crossovers [...]
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Domestic Harmony, Chapter 6 (The Conclusion)
Domestic Harmony: The 6th and concluding part of the Jamie and Paul series By Steve Graham As followers of “The Vinyl Café” on CBC radio will have heard Stuart McLean has passed away. Stuart was a well-known writer, broadcaster and humorist. My condolences go out to Stuart’s family, friends and colleagues. I started writing this series as a bit of a tribute, albeit a poor one, to Stuart’s popular Dave and Morley series of stories in his weekly broadcasts. Though not to everyone’s taste, the “The Vinyl Café” was if nothing else harmless and charming. Stuart, through his broadcasts, promoted Canadian music and Canadian musicians, which is no bad thing. Weekend at the Lake “You’re getting right sneaky in your old age, keeping this trip to yourself,” Jamie remarked to Paul as they made their way along the Queen Elizabeth Way to Niagara-On-The-Lake. “Hey, not so much of the ‘old’, thank you,” countered Paul. “You know you’re hard to surprise, it’s not often that I can.” “And it was especially sneaky arranging with Lisa to take my Friday and Monday yoga classes and keeping all of this a secret from me until the night before, I barely had [...]
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DIY Powerhouse: Elekit’s TU-8340VK Amplifier Is Not Your Grandfather’s Dynaco
Elekit TU-8340VK Amplifier, Part 1 of 2 by Steve Graham In fact, this new amplifier isn’t even your father’s Elekit. Up to now, Elekit power amps have been single-ended (not push-pull), and except for the 300B-sporting TU-8300R, a bit underpowered in my estimation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – as long as you have a sympathetic room and speakers. With the TU-8340VK, Elekit is going mainstream in a big way. It’s a push-pull amp that can use output tubes ranging from 6L6GC’s (32wpc ultralinear, 18wpc triode) to KT150’s (50wpc ultralinear, 28wpc triode) and tubes between these two extremes including EL34’s and 6550s’, to name but a few. The user can even switch between ultralinear and triode mode ‘on the fly’ – the partial disassembly required to access jumpers, as was the case with some earlier Elekit amps, is a handy switch with the 8340. Four 12AT7/ECC81 tubes are employed, for phase splitting and voltage amplification duty. But let’s back up a bit to 2016. Victor Kung (of vkmusic.ca) is the North American distributor of the Japanese-made Elekit audio products. Calling Victor a distributor is a disservice, it sounds cold and commercial. Victor is passionate about good sound and the DIY [...]
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My Audio Life: Part 7
By Steve Graham Octogenarian Gives Birth to Triplets I thought I’d start this installment of My Audio Life with a supermarket tabloid-style headline. Noam and I had a brief and slightly silly email exchange where he shortened My Audio Life to MAL. “Maybe we should start a Wall of Sound clothing line called MALwear”, was my response. I can see it now, hoodies, caps, T-shirts and baggy shorts so fans of this site can proudly display their support for WOS. Maybe if I slip Drake a couple of choice 1956-vintage, NOS Valvo Hamburg 12AX7 long plates from my stash, he’ll appear in a future video sporting some MALwear. If Drake or any of his fans are reading this, please don’t take offence. It’s meant in the spirt of fun only. Drake, if you want a personal apology you can call me on your, “Cell Phone”. Silliness aside, all future installments of MAL will lead with a bold title to grab the reader’s attention and hopefully help it pop up on internet searches. So here goes: Should HiFi Equipment have Donor Cards? or perhaps: Hip Hop Mega Star Caught With 12AX7 Tubes Embarrassed Singer Says, “I [...]
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Elekit TU-8340VK Review (Part 2): Could This Be Your Last Power Amplifier?
by Steve Graham Of course you know I’m not going to answer the title question until the very end. So, you instant gratification types – I’m one of you – use your favourite scrolling digit and skip to the end, as long as you promise to come back and read the whole article. Now that you’re back, I have a little housekeeping to do first. Victor Kung called me just after part 1 was posted and informed me that I had made a couple of errors. In my defence, Victor is a wellspring of knowledge which he is only too happy to share, but at times it bursts forth from him with such speed and enthusiasm that I couldn’t jot it all down. Anyway, here’s the correction: “He (Victor) ordered special production runs of Takman 2% carbon film resistors to replace the stock generic 5% resistors normally supplied by Elekit. As well, he ordered two expensive, custom Amtrans resistors for use in a critical power supply location.” Later on in part one I should have said, “The amp I built came with the stock Elekit output transformers, the 66 piece Takman 2% and two Amtrans 2W resistor option and eight [...]
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Dr. Atsumi Ohno (1926-2017), Inventor of the Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) Process
We received word from Steven Huang that the acclaimed Dr. Atsumi Ohno has passed away in Japan; he was 92. Our condolences go out to Dr.Ohno’s family and friends. Although most audiophiles own cables which utilize the OCC technology, few know about the man behind the physics, chemistry and metallurgy of this process. Steven’s father worked closely with Dr. Ohno at the University of Toronto, and Steven maintains an informative page about Dr. Ohno and the science teams who developed and patented OCC. (link) Below is the message from Steven Huang of Audio Sensibility. Dr. Atsumi Ohno. Inventor of the Ohno Continous Casting (OCC) process. Dr. Atsumi Ohno (1926-2017) I received the following sad news yesterday of Dr. Atsumi Ohno’s death from Hiroshi Soda who ran the University of Toronto Ohno Continuous Casting (OCC) Research Lab. Dear Steven, I want to let you know that Dr Ohno passed away on April 13 in his sleep. He was 92. It was sad news but a lot of good memories remain. Hiroshi Soda My father, Dr. Robert Huang (left), first met Dr. Ohno while both were doing their PHD studies in engineering at University of Toronto in the early 1960s. Dr. [...]
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Apr.28 Hamilton Event: Limited Audition of Fluxion’s new 211/845 Monoblock Amplifiers
Mr. Young Ahn of Fluxion E&M is a busy man. Busy building amplifiers, mainly. These NT-6 monoblocks are his most ambitious undertaking, to date (he tells me he is working on an 833 amp!). The NT-6 is a single-ended power amp, it’s switchable between 211 and 845 tube output power. As with all Fluxion amps, the transformers are wound in house. I saw a finished amp today, it’s a stunning piece of equipment. And there will be a listening opportunity on April 28th – details below. This is a private event, contact Mr. Ahn for further info. FLUXION new product introduction and audition Date: Friday, 28 April 2017 Time: from 8 pm Place: Hamilton, Ontario (near Lincoln Alexander Parkway / Upper James) Capacity: 10 people only, by appointment Contact: Young Ahn, fluxion.biz@gmail.com Product Details: Model : NT-6 Type : 845 / 211 switchable monoblock power amplifier Continuous output power : 18 watts(845), 12 watts(211) THD : 1 % @ max. output FR : 20Hz ~20KHz(-1dB) Input sensitivity : 1Vrms
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Mundorf XO Part 3, aka The Law of Diminishing Returns
This will be the last part of my writeup on Frank Fazzalari’s amazing crossovers for the Radian coaxials. It’s long overdue, and it’ll be brief. Part 1 of this series detailed the big switch from the stock Radian crossover (built to handle nightclub loads of power), to the simple ‘XD’ unit that Frank supplies under the Radian 312 moniker. What a revelation to hear what these drivers are capable of sounding like with our little tube amps! Even the old & outdated 5215B’s I was using, sounded fantastic. Part 2 of the saga took that up a huge notch; this saw Frank replacing the white Audiophiler MKP caps with Mundorf’s wonderful EVO Silver/Gold/Oils (the white Evo’s). The difference was not subtle. And it was well worth the upgrade cost (something like $140 above stock). Let’s call this the “Level II” upgrade, to keep things clear. Lastly, Frank got ahold of two of the massive Mundorf Supreme Evo Silver/Gold/Oils, courtesy of Simon at Audiyo. These are over $300 US apiece(!), and they are big. As in, bigger than a hockey puck. So out came the Level II’s, and in went the big boys. The big boys next to Canada’s largest coin, the twonie Well, [...]
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Elekit TU-8340VK Follow-up: Reviewed with Lundahl transformers and Triangle speakers
Elekit TU-8340VK Amplifier Follow-up: French Impressionism, Triode Existentialism and Swedish Idealism? by Steve Graham System Parameters: Triangle Antal XS speakers, mid 2000s vintage ‘Jane’ Aikido 12Vac line stage with a few tweak parts Cambridge Audio 840C CD player PS Audio Power Plant Premier for AC Conditioning My usual motley array of DIY interconnects and speaker cables Input & phase splitting tubes: Tung-Sol reissue (Russian) 12AT7W/6201 Output tubes: Electro-Harmonix 6550 The Triangle Antal XS Speakers (We come from France) (video) A big thank you to my buddy Ed for graciously volunteering to bring these speakers over to my listening room. Ed, you are a gentleman, I don’t care what people say. The Triangles are normally driven, chez Ed, with DIY 300B SET monoblocks and a transformer-based passive attenuator or highly modded active line stage. At first glance the Triangles seem like a sort of scaled-down version of my PSB’s. A 1” metal dome tweeter, a 4” midrange, two 5½” woofers and a port grace the front baffle of these slender floor standing speakers. Their rated impedance is 6 ohms and sensitivity 91db/w/m. They are, in theory, an easier load and require significantly less power for equal loudness than my PSB’s [...]
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Coherent Audio will host another Hamilton meet, on June 4th
Following the successful and fun meet held on March 6th, Frank Fazzalari has notified us that he is planning another get together on June 4th. Same location, but this time it will be at the rooftop space. Dolce Rooftop Featured items will include: Coherent Audio Model 12GR and Model 15GR speakers Triode Labs amps and preamps Tsakiridis amps Antelope Pure 2 ADC /DAC (perfect for high-quality ripping of vinyl) Nordost cables (tbc) All are welcome, to enjoy some great music, good company, special deals, and complimentary drinks. Details: Coherent Audio Meetup Sunday June 4, 2017 from 12pm to 6pm Best Western Premier C Hotel By Carmen’s 1520 Stone Church Rd E, Hamilton, ON L8W 3P9 Dolce Rooftop
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The Scoop On Elekit’s Brand-New 300B SET Amp: Introducing The TU-8600R
Victor Kung of VKMusic.ca has given us the green light to share a very exciting announcement. The long-awaited replacement for Elekit’s 300B SET amp (which we loved to death) has arrived. Well, it’s almost here. The amp will make its’ North American debut at the LA Show next weekend (June 2-4). After that I will be receiving the prototype for a full review!! Availability on these shores is scheduled for late September. The following is the press release and some tasty photos. Enjoy. VK Music announcement YOU asked for it. YOU got it!! We listened to your requests, and the highly-regarded ELEKIT designer, Mr. Fujita, has taken these requests into consideration. We are happy to present to you the release of the newly designed 300B amp (late September 2017). The new 300B amp has a lot of improvements over its predecessor (the TU-8300R). Here are a few of its new features/specs: Tube Set : 12Au7 X 2 + 12 AX7 X 1 + 300B X 2 Now compatible with low to high impedance headphones Frequency response (-3dB) : 10Hz – 80kHz Max. output (THD 10%) : 8.3W + 8.3W (input voltage : 250mV r.m.s) Residual noise : 42uV rms (IHF-A) Power consumption [...]
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