Random mix of bovinity and electrics

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Ruphus

Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010

Random mix of bovinity and electrics

(Caution: Negligible trash ahead. Just felt like capturing an experience.)

So, here am I, finding it partially amazing, interesting and educating to discover personal practical stupidity. As conclusive one might be at times with analyzing or predicting conditions on the one hand, as dumb one can be on the other hand. A useful fact to learn about, I think; at best keeping me grounded and in touch with the contradiction of cognition. (Which in respect of realization is about progressively nearing the diverse forms of intelligence among species, including humanity.)

You know, like discovering after years or decades that you could have handed a bunch of simple things less large-scaled and better. And that even in very ordinary realms.

So, there is that stereo. Once belonging to my passed away brother. A man of outstandingly anti-materialist characteristic, but selective with technological gadgets and machines. When convinced of a certain built he would become first owner of a certain car model in the whole of a federal German state. If seeing priority in communication, he would let our computer science-cousin build him an external unit for his car phone for to bring about a first cell phone in Germany, or later on organize the very first direct private phone line between there and Moscow.

In primary school gathering electronic parts and building stuff, he studied electronics later. And he would chose technical and some other items consciously. It´s been how I became early aware of merits of the likes like Panasonic, Bang & Olafson, 6x6 Leika, Poggenpohl, Kiton etc.

The stereos in his places would mostly be of different configuration, but always good for great sound field.

Don´t know how he even came about the brand who built these speakers here. It seems to have been so small boutique that you can´t find a single trace in today´s internet. All I know is that this pair cost as much like a middle-class BMW of that time (in the eighties). Feeded by a top amp from Luxman.

The combo is smooth. Never ever obtrusive, yet after hours of listening and high volume, on top even good sounding still with tweeters off and likely some phasing mess.

Yes, the aforementioned condition was the way how they were engaged for over a decade. Still, the listeners raving.

How come the mess up with setup.
The creators hadn´t thought it necessary to label connections on the rear. The speakers consisting of a cone-stuffed corpus, with a separate unit of horn and tweeter sitting on top.

On the corpus bottom being the main inputs, further up then 4 connectors in a row.
A sister who was hosting the combo before me, had called a specialist who made a big fuzz and bill of checking things out and connecting the components.

Having taken the stereo with me to overseas, I was assuming that 4 connectors in a line may present two adjacent pairs. Consequence of assumption: Inspite of having tried back and forth, I was left without tweeters.

Resigning to the idea that the twitters ought to either be blown (knowing that police used to show up regularly to brother´s parties / or of his friends when he wasn´t there), or something like capacitors out of work.

Opening one of the boxes years ago, I saw caps of the size of beer cans ... remembering recording geeks saying that caps couldn´t really dry out ...

To get along as is, I fed lots of HF to have the horn take over some of it, and reduced bass for to get into balance. Always hoping for caps / tweeters to be coming back somehow.

Over the years, trying to re-plug again, and twice also trying to lurk in repair specialists from the capitol who though were too spoiled to travel. (Now feeling lucky about it.)

Last night then, visitors had left and music was still playing. Listening, I summed up once again what a pity it was to have the setup not fully working. And it came to me that the brother would had certainly not combined speakers with an amp of overcapacity.

Me raised, checking one more time; and came to the glorious idea to check out whether tweeters were alive at all, by lending them the feed of the horns. Showed they were intact.

Pondering like a monkey under the suspended banana ... Hmm, what if there actually were no adjacent pairs? Remove this, connect that; this way, that way ... And uh, ah, ... both units working simultaneously! Who would had thought. Finally.

Fantastic, wow! ... and phase? How to figure that? (Many appear to be thinking that reverse phase wouldn´t matter as long as correlated, which is not correct.)
Good to start at the mains, hence with the cones. No visible clues. They won´t move enough before levels that´ll blow neighbours behind the house. Let alone late at night.

Monkey thinks. Scratches head.
Takes the ape finger onto the cones sheet. Kick drum knocks, not sucking in. Mains seem correctly connected.
Shouldn´t their connector placement (+ to the left, - to the right; inverse to the standard me thinks) be telling about corresponding ways of the upper feeds? Try this, try that, auditioning ... Apparently not. Going back & forth ... After lots of listening, comparing different setups within individual unit and in mono to each other, this is how things apparently are meant to be:

Looks like a total chaos to me. But I would be interested to learn whether this possibly complies to some electric logic of layout maybe.

Anyway, now ... a revelation to say the least. Though very late in the night, I just couldn´t stop checking out good old recordings. Familiar stuff since 30-40 years and longer.
Hearing the music with closed eyes like never before. The way it was meant by mixing engineers. (And boy, did some know their sh!t.) Things rolling through the room, or details unveiling, like winds in background of a certain song producing fantastically fitting alteration that sounds as if rhythmic inhaling / exhaling in a half-note step. Vocals popping up, swirling between the spatial arrangement. A stereo field extending tracks almost infinitely. Vertically so defined too.
And all that with before mentioned warmth, never ever harsh and sizzling, which seems to be due to that Luxman feeder. Endlessly translated bass, after HP-filter, kicking you bold and crisp around to pure delight. And still, no unevenness while knobs on default. (A short attempt to see whether IQ could improve anything, ended in return to idle.)

Dawn has passed with me still checking out songs. And after 10:00 a.m. I dare taking the volume knob to 9 o´clock (shaking the house and making you considered about the dogs downstairs, inspite of ~ 40 cm massive, really well insulating floor).

What a sonic sensation. Without words!! -What a dumb head I´ve been in all those years with a needlessly crippled down set-up, assuming things ought to have been wired up in certain ways. ... Similar to back then, when messing up fine hardware options and a lot of work in audio, thinking that connectors from Switchcraft and Neutrik were following a norm of layout, which they didn´t.

And so forth in the legacy of bovinity ... What do I know.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 22 2017 18:32:18

mrstwinkle

Posts: 551
Joined: May 14 2017

RE: Random mix of bovinity and electrics (in reply to Ruphus)

Looks bonkers. I take it there are no fancy modern things like crossovers in there?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 22 2017 21:47:44

Ricardo

Posts: 14797
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Random mix of bovinity and electrics (in reply to Ruphus)

Reminds me of one time I had a guitar student that purchased a new flamenco guitar, and we had been doing lessons with this guitar for about a year, it became obvious his golpe sound was odd, a little soft and muted. I tried his guitar and indeed the tap plate was sort of rubbery. I looked closer and realized there was a protective film over the tap plate that had not been peeled off yet, in this long year of use!