Troels,
Alright. I fixed the litze connection by doing some in-situ soldering and
crimping and did continuity at all points on the crossover and
everything passed. I soldered some terminal disconnects to the
mid-speaker wires and hooked them up in the correct phase.
I connected my test tracks and the presence was so much more powerful,
the phase was accurate and determinable. So I decided to take a listen
to some music.
This is where the revelation happened!
I can't tell you how much of a difference these fixes made. As soon as
the first song ("Charlie Be Quiet" by Charlie Puth) started playing it
took only four seconds for the tears to start flowing. THIS was it! This
is the moment I have been waiting for. Over a year of work on my
building skills, woodworking skills, building crossovers, test cabinets,
the NOMEX 164-mk2...Building my own cables and amplifiers...Trying and
upgrading digital sources, DACS, active and then passive
pre-amplifiers... This is what the entire journey was building up
to...and my friend it was good.
It was as if I had reached the summit of the mountain of life and as I
entered Valhalla the Loudspeakers were, calling out to me. Welcoming me
home. This is true audio nirvana.
What had once been a sea of distortion and harshness melted into a pot
of gooey musical sweetness. It was as if the artist was knocking on my
door and beckoning me out to a private and full-scale concert in my own
room. The room disappeared. I was AT the event. I was being performed
for.
I have been a long time tube enthusiast and my favorite tubes so far are
the 845 power tube. When I switched from solid state to tubes I gained a
real sense of realism and power to the music. The bass was even more
present and powerful. But today, on very "cheap" DIY amplifiers that I
built, what I heard made me question if I "need" tube amplifiers any
more. I will do some more listening sessions with my Willsenton R800i
845 tube amplifier to compare and will get back with you, but I can say
that I can live with this transistor amp now. These speakers just
outshine any amplification problems that I may have.
Until I fixed my wiring errors I could hear very audible distortion and
was backed up by online reviews of the amplifier which showed it had
very high distortion. I did not expect fixing the phase and one
continuity issue inside the mid crossover to have such a dramatic effect
of reducing audible distortion and making music even at very high levels
enjoyable to listen to!
The words that come to mind when I think of the TL1 are:
Clarify, Power, Extension, Dynamics, Presence, Accuracy.
Secondarily you could also say that can be: intimate, revealing,
pleasant
If you care about the details my setup is as follows:
Source: SD card with HD FLAC files downloaded primarily from Qobuz
feeding a SoundAware D300Ref Digital Streamer.
Digital Connection: AudioQuest Vodka HDMI feeding I2S
DAC: Denafrips Pontus II NOS mode I2S input Analog Interconnects:
Audioquest Yukon 0.5m XLR balanced cable Passive Pre-Amplifier:
Goldpoint SA2XM Dual Mono Balanced series stepped attenuators (10K
output impedance) Analog Interconnects: Mogami Gold 1m XLR balanced
cable. Also 2m DIY furutech terminated cable.
Power Amplifier: Two Nelson Pass Designed DIY "Amp Camp Amp" run in
balanced mono block mode with XLR balanced input. 15W class a transistor
amplifier.
Speaker Cable: DIY GR-Research 24 strand speaker cable with Kimber
spades.
Speaker Terminals: Furutech FT-866 R Speaker terminals (rubidium plated)
and FT-210 G disconnect terminals.
Speaker Internal Wiring: Stock wiring from kit
Crossover: TL1 Level 1 Kit as designed by Troels Gravesen
Speakers: TL1 by Troels Gravesen
Be happy today,
Dave

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