Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

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karatestu
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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by karatestu »

Currently listening to my flawed speakers :grin: after a day outside in the cold, wind and rain. Brrrrrrrrrrr..........

The speakers are warming me up nicely. Listening to Led Zep I at the moment. I can't quit you baby is coming over in all it's glory. I am noticing things in this track that I have never heard before and I have played it LOTS over the years. Subtle decay to Jimmy Page's guitar can clearly be heard, some notes go on for longer than I realised. The extent of the echo on some of Robert plant's vocals is plain to hear now. There was always some but is like the window has been cleaned (one of doc's favourite phrases). In places the instrumentation is sparse and you can really hear the emotion they are putting in to the performance, subtle things and technique come shining through.

now on to track 9 - How many more times...... :grin: I must say the musician that has most benefited from the semi Omni and now the isobaric thing is Jimmy Page. His guitar work in the mid section (playing with a bow) has never been so spine tingly hair on the back of your neck standing up. Some of John Paul Jones' bass playing skills are usually hidden because I don't think they put him high enough in the mix in places. I can hear a lot more of his playing now ( I could listen to his bass playing all day long). John Bonham is in the room with me, the power is awesome, his bass drum technique unsurpassed.

What's up next..........................
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SteveTheShadow
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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by SteveTheShadow »

That's the thing with semi-omnis; they really do open a window and let you hear the human qualities of the musicians as they perform. Technique, and instrumental reality is what they seem to major in.
Additionally, on suitable recordings, such as many of those in the classical field, you get the venue being brought into your room. Live jazz recordings also allow semi-omnis to pull off the same trick, in fact anything live is a revelation when heard via a semi omni speaker. They are absolutely involving.

Except......Try taking a semi-omni out of a domestic living room context and you can very easily find yourself in trouble.

With mine, it has been nigh on impossible to convince anyone about their very special qualities, unless they have heard them in my own room because they won't drive a large space.
Sit in their near field in a large room and they actually do work pretty well, but with a six deep row of occupied chairs, only the front row will get anything like the full panoramic effect.
Those standing at the back can forget it as all they will get is a wishy washy wall of indistinction. Within ten seconds of a record starting, they will lose the will to live and start talking over the music.
Take a pair of semis to somewhere like Owston and you will look like a complete prat within seconds, to anyone sat more than eight feet from them.
Even in a dealer dem room like MCRU's you are on a hiding to nothing. Yes, they'll fill the room, but it won't be with enough conviction to keep people interested.
Semi-omnis need to be heard in a real room, where as you, me and the Doc's Cube customers have found, they are absolutely magical.

It is soooooo incredibly frustrating that the bloody things keep their magic resolutely hidden from the show or dem room audience.
You can, if you are a manufacturer, bludgeon a dem or show room into submission with massive solid state amps and six figure priced Radialstrahlers of German Physiks true omnis, then the magic will come out and the punters will sit there open mouthed both at the sound and at the eye watering prices of the speakers and the amplification needed to drive them.

What these poor punters don't know however, is exactly the same awesome sound is available at a fraction of the price, from semi omnis in real rooms. Pity the damn things hide their awesomeness so effectively in front of the public, preferring instead to amaze and entrance only in the privacy and intimacy of your living room.

But... for those of us who have experienced these wonderful devices in their own rooms, nothing else comes close.
However the word is slowly but surely spreading. As yet, we are quite a way from the tipping point, because tradition is so strong, but progress is being made.
Somebody’s telling me the latest scandals.
Somebody’s stepping on my plastic sandals. Joe Jackson (1979)

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karatestu
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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by karatestu »

My speakers wont be going any where near Owston or Uddersfeeled you can be sure about that. The thread that the doc started over at AT has not attracted much attention but i suppose it was only ever a link to this thread. Being a regular HFS poster (this is my home now :guiness; ) i don't think i am taken very seriously over there :roll:

I may take them to a bake off in some one's front room one day, but only when the final design and construction has been completed. Saying that they will probably stay as they are in prototype form for a little while whilst i return to playing about with my amps, record player and cdp. Lots to do not enough time !

We ought to have a semi omni get together love in at some point. Simon Hickie will be building some soon :pray: so that will make three of us. Then there are cube and cubix owners. With two box three way semi omni you can just use the top cabs for a two way and even more variation :grin:

I am yet to hear any semi omni speakers apart from my own. :cry:
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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by SteveTheShadow »

A semi-omni get together sounds like a superb idea Stu.
I wouldn't worry about being taken seriously.
I gave up fighting it and just do my own thing now.
Folk can think what they like...sod 'em.
People I trust and respect have heard my own take on semi-omnis in my own home and they know how good the buggers play music. The naysayers are of course entitled to their opinions, which is as it should be.
It doesn't mean we have to listen. :lol: :lol:
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

With some of them it just makes them look stupid because of all the bollocks that has been spouted by them for years. Ego means they can't accept that and prefer to fight reality. A lot of anti NVA, not just speakers, is because of that.

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karatestu
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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by karatestu »

Are we heretics fighting the good fight against the armies of nay sayers? No need to fight, the truth will prevail eventually. The doc was described as a "maverick" on another forum. Well, I say it's good to be a maverick. Why follow all the other sheep ?

Today I will be mostly comparing the two isobaric bass drivers wired in parallel and series. See what unfolds there. The bass has it's own monoblocs so easy to do.

Another idea I had last night (must stop this thinking of hifi when trying to go to sleep) was to try some isobaric loveliness with the 5 " mid bass driver. :grin: If the doc says there is no problem with the cubix and their 8" drivers then I can't see how it could be an issue with the 5 inchers.

I made the smaller cabs (like the bass cubes) so the whole back panel is removable. I can easily make another baffle and place it half way down the small cuboids. They will be more of a cube shape then. Cabinet volume is big enough I think. I just need to make sure that the new baffle will not interfere with the bottom of the tweeter.

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

All I can say is I wouldn't bother, but I am not in any way trying to stop your fun - do as you wish. Look how much you have learned by just doing it.

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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by karatestu »

Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2017 10:15 am All I can say is I wouldn't bother, but I am not in any way trying to stop your fun - do as you wish. Look how much you have learned by just doing it.
Maybe I will try it some time. I just don't want the fun to end. It's like the best party you ever went to - you don't want all the people to go home and the party end. :grin:

Listening to the bass drivers in series at the moment. Not sure about this yet. Playing the same cd over and over again, then I will change back to parallel wiring. I find that to be the best way to spot differences if they are subtle.

Since my ap20 and LS2 went home into my kitchen diner system I have had to use some nasty naca5 on the mid and treble whilst I retrieved the Avondale blacklink cable that was soldered to my transmission line's tweeters. Done that today and replaced the naca5. Much better. I am sure the LS6 will wipe the floor with them both :grin:
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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by Alfi »

Oh yes, it sure will Stu..

You mentioned clean windows as Docs favorite metaphor regarding NVA products - how about open windows on a bright spring day?


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Re: Doc modding Marantz imperial 7

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

That is listening to the music itself, live, without a PA, as then you have a window again.

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