DIY Audio Projects Forum

Hi folks,

Here is the start of my Hi-Fi Room. Dimensions are about 3.6 m (12') wide, 2.4 m (8') high. The room is attached to another so the rear wall is about 7 m (23') back. Medium profile carpet, stipple ceiling.


Speakers: Fostex FE206E in a orignial Dallas rear loaded horn enclosure.
http://www.frugal-horn.com/ronhorns.html (Note link is to Dallas II)

Amp: Elekit TU-879S (SE 6L6GC) Tube Amplifier Kit

Sources: NAD c521i (transport) and Laptop, both into a Musical Fidelity V-DAC II

The room is bright. I need to get damping on the walls and thicker curtains. Not sure if I will try DIY sound panels or go with a commercial product.

Here I have the horns pushed into the corners trying to use the room boundaries as extensions of the horn mouth, while also trying to keep some distance from the side walls. The speakers have a small sweet spot so these are for one person at a time. I toe mine in at about 30-degrees. Regardless, the FE206E is bright and I find this setup only suitable for shortened listening sessions. Very detailed and dynamic, almost haunting at times. I think there is potential with a good active equalization to flatten the response. The bass that is present is well defined, but I estimate a steep rolloff that starts at 55-60Hz. In the future I would love to try a better driver in this horn enclosure.

Cheers

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[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]

I like the window at the end. Nice feel.

_________________
Projects: "Lagoon" - tube preamp with cathode follower | "retro-Oatley 6J6" - 6J6 push-pull headphone amp with OPTs | "retro-Hiraga" - Jean Hiraga Le Monster
Website: retro-thermionic

This is a photo of my TV room upstairs.

Actual room space is 4 x 4 m with a vaulted ceiling and open to adjacent kitchen (on left). Low profile carpet. The room is mostly neutral with a hall/live like sound. Speakers are Fostex FX120 DIY Bass Reflex Bookshelf Speakers. The speaker stands are by VTI and can be filled with buckshot or similar for weight. There is an 8-inch sealed sub in the corner. Amplification is a Denon AVR-591 with the crossover set at 80Hz. The FX120 speakers sound wonderful when they don't have to handle the low bass frequencies. Right now the home theater system is configured as a 2.1 system. I'll need to do some wiring work before rear speakers can be connected. I like the 5.1 sound with movies but I never have been impressed with 5.1 sound for audio recordings or concerts.

The sources are a Oppo BDP-83 (CD, SACD, Blu-Ray) and a Sony Google TV player. The TV display is a 47-inch LG 120Hz LED. Power conditioning is a Panamax M5400-PM (automatic voltage regulator).

Cheers

_________________
[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]

Hi Folks, more changes to the living room setup.


The speakers are the big new addition. The speaker are an open baffle design after the Martin J. King Eminence Alpha 15A Experimental Open Baffle Design that has been inverted. The mid-tweeter is a Fostex FF85K.

The amps are OddWatt Audio KT88 monoblock tube amplifier kits.

The sources are an old NAD c521i (used as a transport) and Laptop (foobar 2000), both into a Musical Fidelity V-DAC II. The volume control is a simple DIY passive attenuator (Alps Blue Velvet 100k).

I'm really enjoying these open baffle speakers. So much so that I have decided to move the horn speakers and turntable into the rec room. The plan for this room now is digital sources only. I've got my eye on a few DAC preamps. The longer term plan is to move to an active crossover system and bi-amplification.

Cheers

_________________
[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]

Hi folks,

The Fostex FE206E horns were not getting use in the main room so I got some help and moved the beasts down into the rec-room.

Setup: Laptop (Foobar) into a Musical Fidelity V-DACII (via USB) into a Elekit TU-879S (JJ EL34 Blue Glass) into the rear-loaded horns. Amp output is about 5W which is very loud with the sensitive horn speakers. Very simple setup that sounds pretty sweet. I really love how much detail you can pick out with these speakers.

Cheers

_________________
[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]

Hi,

Attached is an updated photo of the system in the rec room. I have added a new cd player, a NAD C516bee CD player. I'm not sure if the cd player will remain in the rec room system or if I will swap it with the old NAD C521i which resides in the main system upstairs. Also shown in the photo is a Elekit TU-879S (SE, JJ EL34 Blue Glass about 5-6W) amplifier which is powering sensitive Fostex FE206E drivers in a rear-loaded horn enclosure (Dallas).

The cable runs are very short and the power cables are kept away from the single cables. Nice sound. No firm opinion on the new CD player yet.

Cheers

_________________
[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]

Hi Gio, Cool ....now if you turn the fireplace into a sub woofer enclosure......

Are the enclosures the ones from Madisound?

Good listening,
Bruce

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Some of my DIY Tube Amplifier Projects:

• PoddWatt: 5751 / EL84 Push-Pull DIY Tube Amplifier Project
• OddBlocks: KT88 Push-Pull DIY Tube Amplifiers (Mono Blocks)
• ForeWatt: ECC802S (12AU7 / ECC82) DIY Tube Preamplifier Project
• GrooveWatt: Tube (Valve) RIAA Phono Preamplifier Project

Gio

Do you like the sound of your EL34 SE?

_________________
Projects: "Lagoon" - tube preamp with cathode follower | "retro-Oatley 6J6" - 6J6 push-pull headphone amp with OPTs | "retro-Hiraga" - Jean Hiraga Le Monster
Website: retro-thermionic

Hi Mark,
Yes, I think the Elekit TU-879 kit can be a good sounding amp. What I like best is you can use many different power tubes - I've tried 6L6GC, EL34, KT66, KT77, 6550 and KT88. For the driver you can use 12AX7 or 5751. There is more than enough gain with the 5751 to drive to full power. While others have noted that the circuit is old school and could be improved, I find that with all the different tubes combinations that are possible it is not hard to find a good sounding combo. With the stock china 12AX7 and EH 6L6GC the sound was so so (IMO). The big improvement comes with a 5751 - Sovtek and Philips NOS both work equally well. Of the power tubes, I have found I prefer JJ Blue Glass EL34 or Tung-Sol KT66. The JJ KT77 were good too. Gold Lion KT88 also worked well, but I find those big bottles sound better with a higher B+.

Cheers

_________________
[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]

The attached photo is of the basement Rec-Room setup. The Speakers are Fostex FE206E Rear-loaded horns. The amplifier is a Gobo LM1875 IC based amp. More info on the amp in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4869

The source is a NAD C 516 BEE. The chip amp can put out about 15W which is more than enough with the sensitive horn speakers.

It's probably been about 4 or 5 years since I have had a good sit down with a chip amp and I can say that despite being spoiled with a number of great sounding tube amps, a well implemented chip can still sound pretty darn good. Ironically, shortly after putting this kit together a friend sent me home with a LM3875 pcb kit with output protection, minus IC from eBay ($8!) and a suitable transformer. I'll have to get that in an enclosure as I'm sure it would work well driving the lower end of an open baffle setup.

Cheers

_________________
[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]