PAC system evolves

PAC

At the request of Alan, I thought I'd post some details of the current system in use.  It doubles as my everyday listening system and is also used as a basis for conducting kit reviews for Hifipig.

Source components:

Garard 401 in home built plinth/arm board;  re-wired and serviced myself.  3009 Series II improved arm/Denon DL110 cartridge (fab combo):  Using Fildeity IO leads at present to the phonostage (Gram amp 2) and Reference Plutos to the main amp).

Michell Gyro SE/SME 309/ Shelter 5000 MC cartridge...a pretty sublime set up with great synergy. This feeds an EAR 834P Signature phonostage/preamp:

Seen inside the cabinet: Consonance Mini Droplet 3.1 CDP. There's nowt mini about it.  It weighs in at 25Kg and makes some pretty astonishing music;  the most addictive disc spinner I've yet come across.  The Lumleys pictured are now sold (:-()

Main Amplifier:  Consonance Cyber 10 Signature.  2A3 TJ Mesh plates in push-pull configuration for just over 11 Watts of huge sound stage and beguiling presence. 

Main Loudspeakers:  Horning Agathon Ultimates.  Massive scale when called on, utterly transparent sounding and enough bass to rattle the windows...across the street:

Rear view:

View of "hifi corner":

Cables: All my own except for the speaker cables.  I now use Talk3 (Chord Odyssey pictured).  Does the job well and it's low capacitance makes life easy for the amp's output stages.  CDP to amp I use Reference Mercury.  EAR834P  to AMP I use Reference Pluto cables.

Sound:  Big, bold, controlled and with fabulous presence and scale.  Camn also do polite..that's what the volume control is for!

Alan

Looks really nice Paul, both the setup & your place. The speakers are particularly intriguing!

uglymusic

What he said!

PAC

Thanks chaps.  Speakers are something of an oddity.  Rear drivers are 180 degrees out of phase (fire inwards) so can be placed tight into corners (they're corner horns) but equally at home out from the wall.  There's only one cross-over at 6KHz.  Lowther shines between 200Hz and 6KHz, and as it starts to naturally roll off at 200 Hz, the bass kicks in naturally and takes it to 20Hz.  6KHz crossover is only for the Lotus tweeter which never makes its presence felt by being forward.  If the HF detail's on the recording, you'll get it from the tweeter.  Very seamless and balanced arrangement. Not for the feint hearted though as the dynamics are unlike most loudspeakers I've heard.  The rise from silence to full on SPL's with transients is immediate with a very deep and undistorted sound-stage.  I always thought I'd heard speakers do dynamics well, but most were very "boxy" compared with how these things breathe.  Some pics are out of date (different cart shown on 401 etc) too.

Alan

Glad you like them so, I must admit to being aware they existed but knowing next to nothing about them. So being corner horns, I take it the horns exit underneath the speaker? I couldn't see a horn - mouth anywhere...though it looks like the drivers themselves produce enough bass!

Jim

Very bloody nice!

I've heard lots of good things about the Hornings but haven't heard them yet. I'd really like to hear a pair one day. And of course the 401 is damn fine B-)

PAC

Cheers Jim.  I'm a huge fan of Tommy Horning's kit, and was lucky enough to acquire one of the very few sets of Agathon Ultimates hitting the UK.  They've now been replaced by the Eufrodite Loudspeaker which is even bigger!  Can'r see myself parting with them (I said that about the Lumleys though and look what happened...). Will attempt to build an improved plinth for the 401 this year.  My first attempt is pretty solid but aesthetically I'd like to do something different with it. 

Jim

So there's no crossover on the bass drivers?  How does that work?  Have they been mechanically altered somehow?  What size of cabinet do they load into?  Sorry, loads of questions!

I go against the flow somewhat with cabinets and plinths etc.

I like low mass and super stiff.

My 401 is in a Torlyte plinth I've had for years.  I've heard and tried the heavy options and they kill the sound stone dead IMO.  The first things to suffer are timing and dynamics.  With the Torlyte the music sounds far more natural to me.

But I've gone that way for years now and with speakers cabinets also so it could easily be familiarity.  We all get used to what we have very quickly I reckon.

PAC

The horns are internal folded horns exiting underneath the 'speakers with all drivers perfectly time aligned and phased at exit.

There's no crossover required.  As the DX4 unit starts rolling off, the Beyma bass units are designed to kick in so that there's no dB roll off or peak.  In reality they start coming in just as the Dx4's start rolling off and by 200Hz it's the bass drivers doing all the work.  To listen, you really can't delineate any seams in the switch between drivers, its that well designed.

The cabinets are very large and very stiff, being constructed from inch thick birch ply and internally heavily braced.  Volume including the horn is around 150 litres per loudspeaker.  The cab's are about 1180mm tall, 360mm wide deep and 480mm deep.  They do go very loud but equally with class A amplification you can still retain all the detail and bass notes at lower volumes so can get lost in late night music and retain the sound staging depth.

Jim

It sounds like the bass units are horn loaded and the DX4 just uses front radiation then? Are the Beymas 10 or 12 inch?

PAC

Hi Jim, http://

no, that's not correct.  All of the units are loaded into the internal horn (as well as the front ones forward radiating).  It's quite a complicated design.  For a full description, see here.  The mid and treble units are loaded into one common chamber and the bass units into another. the chambers meet at a critical point before the horns exits at the base. Beyma's are 12 inch short throw units.

Jim

Thanks Paul, I'll read that through later