AV Eikon : finished

[Angelo]

Today i finished to make the 4 way full front horn-loaded system, after 10 month of intensive handcraft and artesanal work. The name is Audio Voice Eikon.

1. Bass: A pair of vintage 15" Vitavox AK 156 drive units, frontloaded in a basshorn with 60" horn length, entire bass section is driven by two INOSIC RAS300, german 300 Watt into 3,3 Ohm Active subwoofer modules with toroidal transformer and huge electrolytic capacitors. The module features automatic power-on, volume, phase and cut-off frequency control, subsonic frequency control as well as boost and EQ frequency control.The unit switches to energy-saving stand-by mode should after a few minutes no signal be detected. Special version with crossover up to 300hz/24db.

The cabinets of the basshorns are made of MDF, and exclusive brazilian Zebrano Veneer. It can be sand filled. Bass is very defined, transparent and fast, excellent transient response and attack, not boomy at all.
Efficiency 105dB 1W/m

Size:
Height 45"
Width 23"
Depth 31"
Weight 300pounds each

Satellites :

The horns are meticulously handcrafted, in a very time consuming, artesanal way. Wall thickness is up to 6", the massive construction does avoid any kind of resonances. They are absolutly silient by themself, any kind of coloration is possible.

The frame is made of MDF, brazilian Zebrano veneer.
Weight is a massive 150 pounds.

2. Low Mid: 38" Tractrix solid MDF horn, painted with black, half matt poliurethane color , which leaves a sligthly raw surface, with the best acoustic properties, driven by a 8" Fane Studio 8M unit.

3. Midrange : 24" LeCleac'h MDF horn with the legendary 1,4" Vitavox S2 compression driver with aluminium diaphragm. The driver is directly coupled to the horn, without adapter of different material between.

4. Treble: 6" Aluminium Wave Guide with a Coral H104 Supertweeter with Alnico Magnet and a 1" aluminium diaphragm.

Efficiency 109dB 1W/m

crossover passive 150hz/1000hz/10khz / first order, oil in foil caps/mundorf coils

Dimension of the satellites:

Height 69"
Width 38"
Depth 37"
Weight 600 pounds each

Drivers used :

treble : Coral H104

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/for ... ight=coral

midrange : Vitavox S2

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/for ... ht=vitavox

midbass driver : Fane Studio 8M

replaced later with Radian 950pb

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/for ... light=Fane

Bassdriver : Vitavox AK154 :

http://website.lineone.net/~empson/15.html#3

subwoofer : Aura 1808 :

http://seismicsubs.com/_wsn/page1.html



see the " make of " :

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/...read.php?t=141

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/...read.php?t=392

the basshorn :

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/...read.php?t=195

the frame :

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/...read.php?t=369

making the midbass horn :

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/...read.php?t=259

the midbass horn painted :

http://www.audiovoice-acoustics.com/...read.php?t=227




SYSTEM DESCRIPTION :


Satelllite amplifier : Viva Solista SET 845 integrated amplifier, Shuguang M845 metal plate tubes

http://www.vivaaudio.com/solista.htm

basshorn amplifier : Inosic plate amp RAS300

http://www.inosic.de/RAS-300.htm

sub bass amplifier : Rythmik plate amp A300

http://www.rythmikaudio.com/amplifiers.html

source :

cd player : Audionet ART VII

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Iss...udionet_v2.htm

turntable : MicroSeiki DQX1000, Black Widow tone arm, pick-up Shure V15 mkIII,

http://images.google.com.br/imgres?i...D4G88gamof35AQ

phono pre : Ensemble phonomaster

http://www.vinylengine.com/library/e...nomaster.shtml

[Angelo]

[serenechaos]

Congratulations!
Beautiful!!!
--As we anxiously await your reports on how everything sounds...

Robert

[Angelo]

hello Robert

i wrote about the first listening impressions at DIYAudio Forum :

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...5&pagenumber=1

Angelo

[Angelo]

obrigado, Renato :

http://www.diyaudio.com.br/

[Angelo]

Serginho, my woodworker.

A size illustration.

[Angelo]

using a L-pad for the midrange channel ( since i have only one auto trafo , which i use for the tweeter )

changed the common 845 chinese Valves, using now Shuguang 845C, Metalplate ones

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tub...15/156265.html

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=tubes&m=211139

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue15/845.htm
.



the major improvement i got in the midrange. Before using a L-pad , the mids were too predominant, adding some coloration, specially with voices. Now the system sounds more balanced. I think however, lowpass the midbass horn, but higher than tried before, 700hz, might be interesting to try out.... maiby at 1000hz.....

Angelo

[Angelo]

The new valves contribute also, the sound was distorting specially with voices at higher volume with the regular chinese valves. Now it sounds much cleaner , controlled, and practically no distortion anymore. I am however still curious to change, and buy a pair of Shuguang 211's valves...

playing over one month with the new valves on the Viva, i was still not satisified. Playing more different kind of music, against my wish, the above described distortion continued to appear, and i was searching for the reason . The whole system also did not sound as dynamic as i was accostumed, and the treble a little harsh .Finally the reason was discovered : a pair of 33mF x 400 Volt bipolar caps of the Viva amp had dried out. I had to find replacement. Not a easy task. But thank God, i found exactly the same italian ICAR caps at a near city, after calling a half dozen of electronic shops in São Paulo ( nobody carried them ). I also took off the L-pad and Autotrafo in the crossover. I suspect something is wrong with the Autotrafo. So what can i say now ? the system seems to be another one.The whole presentation changed completely. Soundstage is like at a live event, naturalness, micro and macro dinamics, resolution, everything is much much better. The bass and midbass is fast, tight, clean and controlled. Also the midrange has no horn honk , but voices are very natural. Integration is excellent. I am having a immense pleasure to discover all cd's again, and to listen to music at a completely new level. Happy i am....

[Angelo]

Today i made some inroom spl measurments of the system with a Radio Shack SPL meter.
Distance from the speakers was around 13 feet / 4m, and calibration at 80db/1000hz.
Above 400hz, i measured twice, with small differences.

Below the results. What is remarkable, ist that above 10khz, spl decreases rapidly. I didn't expect this....

[sq1ne]

such an amazing project

can you list what the whole system is consisted of?