Speaker Talk 2014-18 Read Speaker Talk 2008-2010 Read Speaker Talk 2011-2014 Back to intro page 31st December 2018
Thanks to all for who visited my website during 2018. Thanks to those who built speakers and responded with comments and pictures of their creations. Nothing pleases me more than seeing my many workshop hours in the hands of others. Lots of things in pipeline for 2019: My New Year Greetings to you all is the speaker seen above, the ATELL-3. Most of December went fine-tuning this 3-way speaker with SOTA drivers from Viawave, ScanSpeak and AudioTechnology. Click image to go to construction.
Next in line is an update of the popular STUDIO 101 with an updated 18W/8542 driver and new and better tweeter - and simpler crossover.
Also in pipeline is a 2½-way floor-stander from SBAcoustic drivers with a very easy to construct cabinet and simple crossover as well. This speaker will be part of two constructions made for the new SBA website with open DIY constructions, allowing you to pick the components you like - or buy the complete kit from Jantzen Audio.
The second SBA construction will be a stand-mount speaker featuring the new SB29BAC Be dome and CRC Rohacell® 6" driver. Also this will be an open construction allowing you to pick the components you like - or buy the complete kit from Jantzen Audio. Stay tuned! 6th December 2018 Now public here 24th November 2018 In pipeline and to be launched before the end of this year are two construction featuring some unusual crossovers. The inherent smooth response of ScanSpeak Ellipticor drivers allows 1st order crossovers to be used, in fact the complete crossover is only three coils and two resistors for this 2½-way with added 32W sub. No capacitors needed. The 21WE and 18WE drivers also run without any high-pass filter and the overall simplicity pays off in unprecedented transparency and coherent soundstage. One of the few speakers I've made that made me run through a lot of recordings to hear what I have been missing so far.
Next in line is potent 3-way from SBAcoustic drivers, here a 9½ inch
bass driver, 4½ inch midrange and the magnificent TW29RN dome. A
combination of 1st and 2nd order filters deliver a smooth and
transparent soundstage with a deep bass from the 9½ inch Satori driver.
Click link here:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/SBA-941.htm 16th October 2018 Please to announce the ATB, AudioTechnology-BlieSMa
28th September 2018 Client work has taken quite some time this summer and culminated with a visit to the hifi show in Guangzhou mid-September - and with an unexpected home trip delay due to hurricane Mangkhut. Guangzhou only some 100 km north of Hong Kong.
In pipeline are two smaller two-way constructions from AudioTechnology, BlieSMa and ScanSpeak drivers. The AT driver is a powerful 6I52-17-06-SDT, with titanium voice coil former in a compact design supplemented by the BlieSMa tweeter, either Al/Mg or Be dome. The Loudspeaker has been sold and packing these monsters in two pallet crates is something I'll try to avoid in the future. Not easy! Packed 125 kg/ea. I'll miss these speakers badly but space is a serious issue.
Later this year the FUSION/FUSION-BAD will be on sale. Fitted with the
bass passive crossover and FUSION FA252 plate-amp/DSP it can be wired to
run either fully passive or semi-active. To be announced later.
1st July 2018
Spring and summer has been unusually hot here in Denmark and doing
cabinet work on the
Ellipticor-4 has been slow, but here they are. For
the size, I believe the best 4-way I have ever build. Building this type
of cabinets is tedious, and having built four others in the same design
doesn't leave many challenges, except for the panel cutting. Cutting
Baltic birch and having the final finish in one is demanding, but seeing
the finished cabinets I'm pleased and its worth all the hours. 14th June 2018 Much to my surprise, The Loudspeaker has caused much more attention than anticipated. Building a speaker of 300+ gross litre was something I just had to do without any expectation of public interest. Visitors have been many and apparently there are quire a few out there with a favourable WAF situation and not least being tired of speakers not delivering the dynamics of real world music. I won't reiterate the virtues of large speakers like these, only pass on the notion made by visitors that treble from a hornloaded driver is something else and in this case as far away from "PA sound" as can be. "Horn treble" has a bad reputation, but from quality drivers, well designed horns and properly tuned crossovers, it can be as smooth as should be and leave conventional direct radiators behind. Having a new reference obviously add pressure on the smaller speakers from my workshop, and few drivers have excited me more than the new line of Ellipticor drivers from ScanSpeak. As said in the very first article on Ellipticor, Ellipticor 1, it takes time to get to know new drivers, their strengths and limitations. Fortunately client work has added deeper knowledge and given me new ideas. Clients may suggest things you wouldn't dream of and sometimes lead to new ideas for future constructions. Currently I'm testing the new 8" Ellipticor drivers, 21WE/4542T00, to find out what I can make from this driver. Can it be used in a simple two-way or how about an 8+6+1 Ellipticor? Time will tell, but preliminary test suggests a potent bass, transparent up-front midrange - and it can be run from a single coil delivering a 2nd order roll-off. I'm still in the final construction phase of the Ellipticor-4 making the midrange and treble cabinets. Bass module is finished. 13th April 2018 These last two winter months have been busy and lots of good stuff in pipeline for launch over the next month or so. To the left a speaker to end all speaker building - if you have the space! 307 gross litres is what it takes to get very very close to what live music may sound like in your living room. 18" BMS bass driver is just the right size to give a kick drum or a double bass the weight and punch of the real thing. 10" midrange driver and a compression driver delivering as smooth and transparent a treble as can be. Not show is a super-tweeter on top handling the upper octave, 10-20 kHz. None of the drivers ever work hard to deliver thunderous sound levels should this be needed. A normal listening level the cones hardly move at all. Extremely low distortion! Go to The Loudspeaker website.
To the right a new 4-way speaker that is already a serious competitor to
my ATS4-HE speakers. My ATS4-HE prototype cabs her holding the ScanSpeak
Ellipticor drivers on top and 10+12" bass drivers from 18th Sound and
BMS. System is tuned to 92 dB and is ~100 gross litres more acceptable,
you get and midrange presence and treble transparency similar to the
monsters to the left, only not capable of playing as loud. Construction launched. Go to website. 25th Feb 2018
Thanks to Lars Frandsen,
HIFIcentrum/Middelfart, space was offered for displaying
the FUSION-BAD at a local hifi show. Speakers were driven from YBA IA350
amplifier and speaker cables were pure silver from BKS (no website). 16th Feb 2018 It's with sadness I hear Ejvind Skaaning passed away on 8th February, 2018. Ejvind Skaaning was a key figure in the formation of ScanSpeak, Dynaudio and AudioTechnology, the latter now owned by his son Per Skaaning. If you want to dig deeper into the merits of Ejvind Skaaning, read the story here by Claus Futtrup (Chief Technical Officer, SEAS/Norway): http://www.cfuttrup.com/history/ejvind_skaaning.html
----o-o-0-o-o----
Above a picture from the window of the local HiFi Klubben store. Appears
they think vinyl aficionados are old farts with shaky hands and just
risen from a - hopefully - good night's sleep... From a marketing
perspective, this may not exactly encourage young people to get
involved, but who cares? Vinyl lives its own life and is doing well. Lots of things have been launched recent 2 weeks: Bookshelf speaker, specifically tuned to near-wall/bookshelf placement Finally the Ellipticor-1 is ready for launch Last, but not least, the ATiRi will be ready soon
9th Jan 2018 First of all, Happy New Year to all who visit my website! Primary focus this January is the launch of ATiRi and Ellipticor speaker kits. Jantzen Audio is awaiting drivers from the manufacturers and as soon they become available, the kits will be launched. Next in line is the final touch to the FUSION speaker. Front grille and a version featuring the Hypex PSC2.400d module, running the bass driver including its 200 Hz low-pass filter section. This will be ready before the end of January. In pipeline is a book-shelf speaker. Yes! First construction meant to be placed on a shelf up against the front wall. Quite a powerful 3-way from 8+4+1 inch drivers. Placing a speaker up against a wall takes special precaution in designing the crossover as we have a significant bass-lift from such placement, meaning from lower mid to treble, the level must be higher than normal to balance the overall sound.
Stay tuned! 13th Nov 2017
Apparently I should communicate more often here. Have mails asking if
I'm still "there". Indeed so, but house maintenance, holidays, etc. has
keep me busy. And please do not expect a new speaker construction every
month. This is way above my capacity. New constructions are in the pipeline. Still waiting for the final Ellipticor tweeters to finish off the construction. Hopefully before too long. Another smaller two way in pipeline with exiting new drivers. Finally a larger classic 3-way from 12+6+1. PLEASE do not ask for details. Nothing will be revealed before they are finished. When not occupied with other things, I've immensely enjoyed my Ekta mkII driven by my EAR-861/32wpc power amp. Read below. 18th Sept 2017 I'm very pleased to launch this new and up-dated Ekta. Click image to go to page. The first Ekta dates back to around 2005 and many times I wanted to update this construction based on a client job and not taking into account an optimal front panel design. The result was a 4th order filter to the tweeter and even a notch filter to tame a 7 kHz peak creating quite some sibilance if not attended. I believe I can do better today by combining design and acoustics at the very beginning. And not only that, I think I can make a more sensitive speaker, better bass, better power handling, better midrange, a better sounding treble - and not least, at lower price! The latter due to the use the the D2608/913000 tweeter, which is kind of an overlooked tweeter, originally derived from the Peerless HDS series. There's a lot of money to be saved from not using the 7000 ring-radiator. The money saved can be used on better crossover components. The 9130 tweeter simply delivers top-notch treble performance with its double magnet, die-cast face plate, low-mass diaphragm, low Fs, etc. Running the Ekta mkII from my EAR 868 pre-amp and modded EAR 861 power amp makes one hell of a system. I'm afraid I have to keep the Ekta mkII as a reference for a modest sized and slim 3-way floorstander. 25th August 2017
Based on feedback, the NOMEX-164 is one of the most popular speakers in
my portfolio. The mkI dates back to 2010 and with the experience gained
since then it's time for an update with some modifications allowing a
simpler crossover and a lower point of crossover. The speaker now
features a better sounding time-aligned 2nd order filter. The NOMEX
cones still deliver some of the best midrange money can buy and the 9130
tweeter a treble that ranks among the very best. With 90 dB sensitivity
and an easy load, this speaker can be driven from
low-wattage/high-quality amplifiers. 17th June 2017 The last three months have been very busy. First and foremost due to two new constructions made for ScanSpeak to present their new drivers at the Munich High-End Show, 2017. A classic 3-way featuring the new 11" bass driver, 28W/4878T00, the new 8 Ohm Revelator midrange, 18M/8631T00, and a 2-way stand-mount from brand new Ellipticor drivers. The latter not least exiting due to elliptical voice coils, something never seen before. I very much look forward to more constructions with these exiting new drivers. The 2-way presented in Munich will be launched as a kit around November 2017.
What characterises two of the new constructions is the use of DSP/plate amps for the bass driver(s). I've used bi-amping for several years but the plate-amps featuring DSP is just simply the way to go for larger speakers. It allows rock solid and deeper bass from smaller speakers - and it allows people to adjust bass level to fit their often less than ideal room acoustics. So much needed! I haven't made any statistics, but I think there were more constructions this year in Munich featuring plate amps for the bass drivers than last year. I'm sure it will catch on and be standard for larger speakers in the future. Hypex is launching a wider range of DSP/plate-amps, Fusion, later this year and I'm looking forward to learn their new products. So, why not full DSP and digi amps for all drivers? Simply because what I've hard from digital amps and DSP simply doesn't match the quality of the best of traditional solid state/tube amps and good quality passive crossovers.
Our attic has been stuffed with speakers, and a few weeks ago I launched
a
summer sale to make room for new constructions.
Fortunately four set of speakers have already been sold. The
Illuminator-4 is still available and it will probably take a bit longer
as it is not exactly cheap, but a kit price of 3900 EUR + cabinets
materials + 250 hours of work doesn't come cheap. I really hate to let go of this speaker.
It's a darn good speaker and the best woodwork I've ever made. Hopefully
it will find a room somewhere delivering what it is capable of. It
deserves the best equipment you can buy. 15th April 2017
It's been a long wait for the SBAcoustics Beryllium domes - and it was
worth the wait. Standard testing can be found
here. Implementing these domes in three of my SBA constructions was
easier than anticipated, as frequency response and sensitivity is so
much alike the TW29RN tweeter that no changes to the crossovers were
needed. At around 300 EUR/ea, they should reach a wide audience. Can't believe how good domes we have these days!
25th March 2017
The winter months are the busiest DIY months of the year. The majority
of speaker kit parcels leaving Jantzen Audio goes to the Northern
hemisphere and whenever it's cold, people go to their workshops and -
among other things - build speakers. So, there have been a lot of mails
and diy-service this winter and little time for the new constructions
planned. Apart from restoring Lenco turntables I've done quite some work
on digital amps for the bass section of larger speakers and in
particular programmable digital amps allowing whatever slopes needed for
our bass drivers, and not only this, but also allows us to equalize bass
performance to suit our mostly horrible home acoustics - and horrible
speaker placement not to forget. Most people never get the best of their
investment due to speakers having to be placed up against walls or in
corners.
Having used
bi-amping for several years I've always wondered why speaker
companies producing larger speakers not more often use bi-amping or
plate amps for their 10-12-15 inch bass drivers and offer a kit where
you simply do not need to buy a 200 watt solid state that not only
deliver the amperes needed but also have a great midrange and treble
performance. We all know how difficult it is to make heavy muscle amps
that can both deliver amperes for the bass and smooth mid-treble
performance. There's no sonic rationale for having a single amp doing it
all. I heard great 200-300 watt amps at the Munich show last year, but
the prices were out of this world. We're talking 20-50 kEUR for a decent
sounding amp like Ypsilon, Nagra and others. 2 x 400 watts can be had
for less than 200 EUR these days and all it takes is a pre-amp with
double output running a workhorse for the bass and your 20-40 watt pet
amp handling mid and treble.
I guess it's a conceptual thing. Apparently the audience for such
speakers do not see their system that way, rather two speakers with
passive crossovers and two serious mono-blocks running it all. High-end
is also show-off and conservative in appearance.
13th December 2016
This Autumn/Winter has been busy on client work and some projects have been postponed, but this SBA MTM should emerge some time in January 2017. As mentioned in the SBA-10 construction file I initially set up a small 2-way from MW16 and TW29 and was surprised from what I heard. So how about two MW16 and we have some 238 cm^2 membrane area, more than most 8" drivers. Initial simulation suggests a very simple crossover. Cabinet will be easy, a skinny rectangular box that should be easy for most diy'ers having a handheld saw and a router. I only used tape and a few clamps for gluing cabinets, so very few tools needed.
To reduce my stock drivers, I made the above 3-Way Classic kits for sale
incl. front panels and ready made crossovers. I made three kits, all sold
by now, with premium components, HDF front panels and Superior-Z in
critical places of the crossover. Wires, terminals, ports, all ready for
mounting.
I recently went to a client from last winter to fine-tune/check his
gigantic 4-way system. These are not speakers you bring in the trunk of
your car to my workshop! 18" bass driver, 12" midrange and horns for the
rest. 115 kgs/ea. Active crossover at 200 Hz and the rest is passive. I
brought my laptop and DAC and finally heard a few tracks as they
should sound. With a system sensitivity of 100 dB/2.8V the dynamics
are scary! These speakers can cause tinnitus you'll have to live with
for the rest of your life! I guess it's time to wish you all some happy holidays ahead. Thanks for all mails and suggestions coming in this year. It's been an exiting year and should I point to some highlights it will be the SBA-10, Illuminator-4 and not least the Munich exhibition i May. Go there and find out how different we think reproduced music should sound, from tiny 3" drivers to gigantic horns. It's a treat and Munich can be really nice in May. November 2016 It has been busy times and a new Up-Grade filter for the vintage B&W 802 s3 has been launched. Click image above to go to page. Next in line is an Up-Grade kit for the successor of JBL-L100, the L112. Click images to go to websites. To the right a new speaker, the SBA MW19. This features the SBAcoustics MW19-8 driver, which is large 7" driver and delivers a credible bass from only 20 litres and one of the most transparent midrange I've ever done. Having such a large driver requires a good tweeter that can handle a low point of crossover and like the SBA-10, I use the SBA TW29RN-B, which has become one of my favorite tweeters. In reality a ring-radiator due to the fixation of the membrane at the center. This speaker features a healthy 8 Ohm impedance, minimum 6 Ohms, and my GlowMaster tube amp loves it. The SBA MW19 was perceived as a studio monitor, but is equally suited for domestic use. Highly recommended if you want a big small speaker. Sept 2016
Pleased to present my first construction dedicated for corner/near-wall
placement. Based on the fact that most people have to place speakers
near walls or close to corners due to simple lack of space or spouse
having specific ideas on living room decor. And also based on the fact
that most people enjoy music while doing other things, they hear
music while others (few) listen to music (audiophiles). Now,
I'm also sure the latter group do not necessarily enjoy
music more than the former group. Quality is highly subjective.
We're into the Autumn months now and during the summer months I have
made plans for the rest of the year and probably into 2017. Six speaker
projects where preliminary modeling suggests interesting 2-to 3-way
speakers for smaller systems. No big speakers in pipeline. Two of the
projects are mkII versions of former constructions, an Ekta mkII and a
NOMEX-164 mkII also. The reason for these mkII version is that I think I
can do better today than 10+ years ago. August 2016
It's summertime and time for house maintenance and fighting vegetable
garden weeds. It's time for harvesting greenhouse cucumbers and
tomatoes. The taste is unbelievable! It's time for bicycle rides and
beech picnics and all the things we enjoy about summer here high up on
the Northern hemisphere. The sun goes down a quarter to ten in the
evening.
SBAcoustics If the Illuminator-4 is above your budget you may take a look at the SBA-10. It's been in my living room for three months not and I don't even miss my ATS-4 reference speakers. For the price it's unbeatable and the only thing that makes a (very little) difference to the ATS-4 and Illuminator-4 is the dedicated 8" upper-bass driver. The SBA-10 even goes a bit deeper and the Satori tweeter for sure puts a question mark to the use of beryllium domes, that's how good it is. Working down to 1.5 kHz it handles all of the treble range - and it pays off. Pays off big time! One thing I was pleased to hear from visitors was how small it is. This was my intention with the cabinet design. It's a potent 10+6+1 speaker and level 2 is 2200 EUR! Frankly, you have to spend serious money on any commercial design to match the performance of this speaker. Finally I have some 10" high-efficiency drivers suitable for 3-ways for sale. Check my sales page: http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/sale.htm May 2016
Guess it's been a while since last update. The cabinets for the
SBA61-NAC gave the opportunity to launch three monitors with different
flavours due to cone materials and crossovers. Click images above to go
to websites.
I've had samples of all SBAcoustics Satori drivers and if successful,
there will be a relatively compact 3-way from 10+6+1. Probably a couple
of months from now. January 2016 Download the history of Danish Loudspeakers
28 December 2015 Thanks to all for reporting back on your constructions in 2015! Always exciting to see ones work in the hands of others. Christmas holidays have been busy and some updates on AudioTechnology 3WC and Illuminator-5 featuring the SS D3004/604010 Be dome have been launched. This was really quite easy as I only needed to adjust tweeter attenuation and didn't have to make basic changes to the crossover. Only the mini Discovery 12W took a whole new tweeter section - and I'm not expecting many builders here, but should you want the best from a mini, it's worth while. Tests on two SBAcoustics tweeters have been launched here. In particular the 1" alu dome has impressed me by exceptional low distortion. The subwoofers have been finished and will be reported soon. Perfect partners for AT-3WC as seen on photo below.
Currently a 3-Way Classic from SBA drivers is under construction. To be launched in January. Happy New Year! 13 November 2015 It's been quite a while since last posting. The OBL-15s have been on the agenda and also some rather complicated client work including compression drivers and horn-loaded tweeters. Compression drivers are tricky and need careful time-alignment to make crossovers work properly. Whenever I needed a break, I would blow my brains out with the OBLs seen below. These can make whatever can rattle in my workshop - rattle! 22-11-2015: Now launched here. I'm waiting for crossover components to make the final boards and it shouldn't be long before launch. Please do not ask for details before launch. Thanks. Next I've had some 26W/4558T00 subwoofers from ScanSpeak and I hope to launch my experiences before the Christmas holidays. Not that there will be any news here as the 26W drivers and the Hypex 4.0 plate amps have been reported elsewhere, but I want to report some experiences from mating the subs with my Discovery 12W, my Ellam 98 mkII and the AudioTechnology 3WC to pick a range of speakers from being very small to what I see as middle-sized (AT-3WC). Subs don't make a pair of shoe-box speakers big but for some the very low-end oommph is enough.
I've had a pair of the new ScanSpeak Be domes, the D3004/604010, and have reported here. I'm looking forward to make versions of the Illuminator-5 and the AudioTechnology 3WC with these domes. And why not the Discovery 12W as already done? The ultimate mini.
Last, but not least, Director of Sales and Marketing, Bo Albrectsen, SB Acoustics, paid me a visit to hear my stock speakers - and offered sponsorship of their drivers. I couldn't be more pleased. I've done a few SB Acoustic drivers for clients and I'm looking forward to try out their products in 2016. Below a selection of drivers I picked for 2-3 constructions. Primary target is a classic 3-Way, an "8+4+1". Normally I would be hesitant to dig into alu cone drivers. I did some NNNN alu cone drivers 10+ years ago and they were horrible, but the 6" here from SBA looked very promising from specs. Initial testing looks promising too and this driver may very well find its way into future constructions. The 1" alu tweeter has been tested and will be reported soon (read here). Exceptionally low distortion all the way down to 1 kHz and exceptional dispersion too. Really impressive.
06 September 2015
As discussed on the
Illuminator-5
pages, drivers' dispersion characteristics has been on my mind lately as
it has such an immense impact on perceived sound. We may have a 2-way
(6" + 1") and a 3-way (e.g. 6" + 3" + 1") and they may have exactly the
same frequency response and they may very well have identical horizontal
dispersion and yet sound like night and day. There are many reasons for
this being partly the intrinsic dispersion characteristic of the
drivers, the crossover topology and drivers' overlap. The latter I find
interesting as a 6" like the ScanSpeak 18WU, having a rather large and
deep cone, soon starts beaming toward higher frequences (Beaming: Put
your hand around your mouth like a conical horn and say something.
You'll notice the change in sound as you prevent horizontal dispersion.
This is what drivers do when we reach a frequency having a wavelength
equal to the diameter of the cone).
Above my most recent construction, a powerful 3-way from AudioTechnology
drivers and the superb ScanSpeak R3004/602010 tweeter. I've really come
to love these small tweeters, R3004/602010 (R for ring-radiator) and
D3004/602010 (D for conventional dome). The 15H52-0613-SDKAM midrange
has a tremendous midrange projection and the level of transparency
equals any fancy new cone material like ceramics, composite
carbon-whatever, Rohacel, etc. This midrange driver spews music into the
room and I never thought I'd say you can place this speaker up against a
wall and not get that usual "closed-in" sound from boosting the bass due
to room-gain leaving the midrange distant and with lack of detail. The
15H52 will still help making a credible soundstage. Now, don't get too
exited, the speaker will still sound better being on stands out on the
floor. 08 July 2015 The summer holidays are ahead and with the speaker shown below, I very much feel like taking a few weeks off. This has been the longest project ever, not least due to the woodwork.
Cost-efficiency, contrary to the Discovery-4, has not been an issue
here. All the best ScanSpeak can produce is going into this 5-way
speaker. Besides a potent bass system, the primary aim here is to do
something about dispersion in upper-mid/lower treble. Thus, the 12MU has
entered the system, providing a dispersion and a presence quality the
usual "6+1" rarely manage, unless special drivers and low point of
crossover is used. 01 May 2015
Buying is easy! A couple of clicks and you have made your purchase.
Selling takes ages! I'm having a
sale of
some of the stuff accumulated over the last ten years. I didn't realise
I had that much surplus hifi on the shelves! Some of my surplus components went into the the design above, the Revelator 4R, featuring the more sensitive, un-coated and more lively version of the ScanSpeak 5" Revelator bass drivers. Click image to go to page. I've had a few requests on this driver and here it is. For tweeter I picked the R2604/832000. 27th March 2015
With the two center speakers above I hope to fill a gap in the portfolio
of floor-standers suitable for surround sound. The Prestige version can
be build for a modest investment, where the Excel version will take you
a little further in sound quality. Key parametre for center speakers is
even horizontal dispersion, thus is must be 3-ways and 4th order LR
between mid and tweeter.
This micro from Discovery W12/8524G00 and R3004/602010 is meant to be
used for desktop application and where space is seriously limited. And
why not make your kids get used to good sound from an e.g.
NAD 3020D amp, being fed from a laptop or other digital sources? The
DISC-12W may be a way to better sound culture. 7th Februar 2015
Finding second hand 50 EUR old Lenco turntable has become a hobby and
the dark winter evenings are fine for doing some restoration work. These
two above are the 3rd and 4th and I have two more in store, both L75s. I
found an L78 on eBay at reasonably price and wanted to see how it may
differ from the L75. The basics are the same, only the arrangement
around on-off button and the brake function is different. I'd still
recommend the L75 if you have the choice as it is simpler to renovate.
My second L75 was made for a client, here seen above with a Moerch DP 8
Precision tonearm. Having both a 9" and 12" Moerch tonearm it's obvious
to make comparison and I'm afraid the 12" is more of a theoretical
advantage over the 9". Are we really able to the hear the slightly
increased tracking error from a 9"? Time will tell when I make a more
systematic comparison of the two arms with the same cartridge.
I had hoped to launch a bigger 3½-way system in December but two months
of work on the crossover just left me more and more frustrated with the
treble performance, hence the project was ditched. Sometimes we just
have to give in and start all over. Well, the bass drivers stayed the
same, only this time I used the ScanSpeak 18W/8535-01 for mid and the
R2604/833000 for treble. One afternoon of work and the crossover was
done! The mid and tweeter appeared to be a match in heaven. The rest was
fine-tuning and the overall voicing of the speaker. The bass drivers are
from the ScanSpeak Discovery series, 8" and 10". Basically it's an
ATS4 from modest
priced drivers, except for the midrange drivers, the most important of
them all. 13th December 2014
Above the
Ellam Disc 15 and
DTQWT-mkIII,
the latter at the photoshoot. This was the finale for 2014. Eight new
speakers and two updates,
8008-Center,
QUATTRO mkII. I
had hoped to launch the new ScanSpeak 12WU mini/Be dome, but it seems it
will have to wait for the new year.
October 2014
Launching a new high-effiency driver is a daunting task and it's taken
almost a year before the first production batch reached Jantzen Audio.
In particular the edge coating took time; the right glue, the right
amount, the right place, etc. The new 8008-HMQ driver is not compatible with the old JA8008, thus new TQWT and DTQWT crossovers are in prepartion and will be released this November.
Restoring an old turntable, making the plinth and setting up a new arm is at least as much fun as mounting new cabinets with drivers for the next speaker. Click image above and read why I love turntables and vinyls. Three new speakers are finished and one already launched, the Ellam-98 mkII. The other two speakers are waiting for the main speaker driver to be released from the factory. One is the 12WU fra ScanSpeak mentioned in the June 2014 speaker-talk. I hope the 12 WU will soon be ready. The third speaker...time will tell.
The Ellam 98 mkII is one I've wanted to do for a long time as I think
the 9800 dome deserves much more attention. It's been around for many
years and I don't think any alu dome has been made that does it better
than this one. To my ears it does as well as the Accuton C30 ceramic
dome. August 2014 After the ScanSpeak Discovery Classic 3-Way, I just had to do an upgrade of the popular SEAS 3-Way Classic, thus the SEAS 3-Way Classic mkII, delivering increased sensitivity and a better and simpler crossover from retracting the tweeter some 20 mm. This allows implementation of a true LR2 filter and adds smoothness to the treble performance and mid-tweeter integration. Please do not ask which one is the best. Thanks! And enjoy! |