Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

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Oldpinkman
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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by Oldpinkman »

OK - Lowthers. Bit of a saga. I arrived at Owens to filthy looks from Shirley for filling her living room with them. Owen, ever diplomatic and sensitive to another mans feelings, declined to be drawn on my "what do you think of them" probes, so clearly he thought they were shit. He took me in to listen to them. They were shit. However, he has a listening room around 25ft long by 12-15ft wide, and ideal for Quads (he has both 63's and 57's he uses in there). The Lowthers were in the position the Quads occupy - 6ft apart, 6-8ft off the back wall - listener 15 feet away. QUad heaven. Not Lowther heaven by a long way. No bass - shouty upper mid - tubby sound. Prior to removing the Audio Nirvana drivers they came with, in the vain hope EX3's might transform this sound, we shoved them back to within a foot of the wall.

My my. Hardly good, but no longer shit. Actually, now a curates egg - good in parts. Bass adequate (they only had to see off ESL's) and a certain "fast" "live" sound. Still coarse though. Removing the drive units was revealing. The cabinets appeared to be well enough constructed, with no obvious defects, although a bit of a heath robinson feel inside. But the heavy drivers were fixed (sort of not really fixed) with self tappers into MDF instead of captive nuts. And when we offered up the Lowthers, the mounting holes didnt match, and there were no others, so we had to rotate the drivers 5 degrees and drill new ones. (But the ad said the Audio Nirvanas $300 were chosen to replace the previous Lowthers - supposed to be EX3's £900 - because the AN's were preferred. Presumably the speaker fairy filled in the holes made by the Lowther drivers)

Then - the drivers were wired - using 5 amp mains single core - to their spade terminals, but looping the wire through the hole in the spade. Honest. Would I lie to you? I had a qualified audio engineer there as a witness. In fact I think the missus took a picture of the surgery - maybe later. The new EX3's have combination speaker posts (banana and clamp) so we poked the wire through the hole and clamped down as a temporary measure (no use permanently as they would work loose). Reassmbled and... the right driver was dud. Open circuit!

A few choice audio engineer oaths later, we investigated and pondered a repair. To shorten the story, contacting the vendor on ebay led to a suggestion we have a go, we started then bottled it before doing serious damage, contacted Lowther today who offer an exchange scheme instead of repairs (too tricky soldering aluminium wire on voice coils), and I have received a refund to cover the cost. Will get it done this week (maybe next - real busy) but Lowther are just up the road. So eventually we refitted the AN's using adequate spades properly crimped.

Surprise suprise, they now sounded less harsh, and definitely had points of merit. In fact we actually listened to them for half an hour or so, until the girlies dragged us out to the pub. Very precise imaging, and quite an attractive sound, if a bit coloured - but heaps better than the dodgy wiring in the middle of the room.

Enough for one installment - even on my own ramble. Night night till next time :guiness;
Not Funk Firms paid marketing department - but friend of Arthur K's and ex-Pink Triangle.

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Has Pinky got the hump agin or sumit :roll: :think: :whistle:

:epop:

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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

He as moved his ramblings to tas. Martin is sycophantically nice to all his musings. :grin:

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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by CageyH-FX1200 »

Perhaps he has forgotten his password again.

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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by terrybooth »

CageyH-FX1200 wrote:Perhaps he has forgotten his password again.
You mean his browser has.
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Oldpinkman
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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by Oldpinkman »

I like TAS. It shows great promise for being what I wanted at AOS, but without the suffocating ego. Really, I'm trying to wean myself off forums (I realise I am failing) so at least cut down to one. I haven't posted on Wigwam either for a week or so, and I know my password and have no issues, and meant to peddle a couple of items, one of which went of its own accord on TAS. I think having my last post on HFS deleted with an aggressive moderating comment, and being told to avoid shilling an amplifier last sold about 15 years ago, manufactured by a company which went out of business around 10 years ago, left me happy to enjoy the Alexandsr meerkat style to the Tasmanian devil style

But I'm not sulking and I know my password, and I am off out to service a caravan :guiness;
Not Funk Firms paid marketing department - but friend of Arthur K's and ex-Pink Triangle.

Open minded, but always right

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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Chum - referring negatively to someones credibility is not acceptable, I was irritated, so instead of Admin-ing for a change I gave you some back, just to show you how conflict escalates, and I was rightly told off by Slinger.

If you don't like the results then don't start it.

And no post was deleted.

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Oldpinkman
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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by Oldpinkman »

I think the "ad-hominum" was only that if you take it that way - but since you did, I apologise for it. What I meant was beware falling into the "and another thing" trap, where extending an argument beyond what is necessary allows the discussion to get deflected by the more contentious extension, drawing it away from the more assured main point. LDR's in domestic audio amplifiers are illegal currently. The point was well made. Breaking that law and using them anyway is probably not the ACTUAL risk to health you were implying. Or the asbestos removal men would be round removing the LDR's from the 4 security lights on my property. It's knowing when to take "yes" for an answer. More advice on debating technique than an intended assault on your character.

As for the post, again I apologise, it wasn't deleted but "cleansed" with the deletion of a photo to the accompaniment of some aggressive moderating comments. The photo was intended to be a light-hearted way of dealing with DSJR's comment that "the Pip needed a decent line stage" without pointing out the absurdity of the comment made hanging in mid-air, by publishing the diagram for that line stage to show it had one. (And since the designer has chosen not to publish that circuit, adding a suitable veil for discretion). What was DSJR's point? Presumably that the Pips reputation was effectively as a phono stage. But the transconductance phono stage, passes through a further gain stage if the header configuration is for MC, and then passes to the line stage before you get a chance to hear it. In the "active" mode, that line stage is a further x10 gain stage, and in the "passive" mode it is simply attenuated by the SA before passing to an output buffer. But you can't listen to the phono stage without listening to the line stage in either mode. I thought the piccie was more fun and less aggressive.

But I think that is the wrong style for this forum, and like Gus I prefer a more genteel environment with less "thread cleansing". Most of the time :guiness;
Not Funk Firms paid marketing department - but friend of Arthur K's and ex-Pink Triangle.

Open minded, but always right

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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

Richard(s), I compared a Pip to the later issue post 1996 AVI S2000MP+P preamp and stand by my comment. The Pip sounded like a very good preamp, the AVI didn't 'sound' at all in any meaningful way and features one class A discrete gain stage per channel (with quite hot running metal-cased output drivers). The Pip sounded smaller and rather 'nice' in comparison, as did the DAC I tried at the same time, dramatic tonal and dynamic contrasts diluted just a little. Because of seeing AVI Ashley's other face on one notable occasion (I can forgive but never forget), I sold my original one in the late 90's, but bought another one cheap a few years ago. It really is very good indeed and is as transparent as it needs to be, also making an excellent phono stage and direct output input-switcher for the AP20. In very recent times, I've done a non-scientific comparison with AVI pre vs. CD player straight into the power amps, which have gain adjustments on them, so can vouch IMO for it's transparency and truthfulness to the sources fed it.

I think I can mention my old preamp now as again, it hasn't been made since the early noughties and was designed primarily to drive lengthy interconnects to remote amps set very close to the speakers.

That's a thought for the Doc... If, for example, I had a pair of NVA 'mono' amps, is it still best to keep interconnects between controller/preamp as short as possible, or could they be positioned next to the speakers with longer interconnects. Would a passive volume control still be suitable here? Sorry if this is seen as a stupid question.
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Re: Pinky's Funky Rambling's....!!!

Unread post by terrybooth »

_D_S_J_R_ wrote: That's a thought for the Doc... If, for example, I had a pair of NVA 'mono' amps, is it still best to keep interconnects between controller/preamp as short as possible, or could they be positioned next to the speakers with longer interconnects. Would a passive volume control still be suitable here? Sorry if this is seen as a stupid question.
I've asked the same question in the past. Unfortunatley I can't remember or find the answer.
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