EC Aficionado (was: The Studio Jr.)

Nice setup! I have an Af without feedback mod. I typically listen with it or the DSHA-3F and Verité (open or closed depending on ambient noise). I've recently started to wonder about nearfields as this work-from-home is not going to finish anytime soon and headphones can get a bit hot in the summer. Do you have a shortlist of suitable nearfields? TBH I have no idea where to start, my most recent passive speakers were low-efficiency KEFs that I don't think would be a good fit.

 

The issue I have run into is nominal impedance. For example, the respected Kef R3 actually will drop down to around 4 ohms at certain places in the curve.

One of the reasons I was looking at the Fritz speakers was because of the steady impedance on them, typically not dropping past 6.

Personally, I am a big Andrew Jones fan. The elac dbr62 is getting major hype right now and having heard the lesser debut series, I can only imagine they would sound great.

I actually have been hard eyeballing the ATC SCM20PSL but I think if @Psalmanazar found out I was running them with like a 3 watt tube amp, he would burn my office building down. jokes aside, I don’t think the frequency goes low enough that I could enjoy them without a sub.

I am also looking at the Revel BE bookshelves but only if there is some massive sale somewhere.

Supposedly full range speakers are more suited to the tube amp and I’ve heard good things about the omega’s but I am not fully sold on single driver designs, mostly due to not having been able to give them a proper listen. #ignoranceisbliss

Anyways, that is my completely biased short list.

 

I'm running Omega "Compact Alnico Monitors" on my Af - Louis whipped up a custom cab which is shallower, wider and taller so they fit somewhat sanely on a desk - and since mine is no feedback I run the rca from tertiaries to the sub.

Af seems to really like them. All the widebander caveats aside, I'm very happy.

 

Nice to know. What's the recommendation re distance from back wall for those speakers?

 

Quite a bit more than I'm giving them, I'm sure.

 

Ha!

I just did a db check and playing sausage mastered music at the volume loudest I can stand listening to, i was about 75 db from my listening position of about 1 meter. So if they are 88 db per watt at 1 meter, it feels like they should be ok, obviously given the low volumes I listen at.

I actually talked to Fritz today and he was suggesting the Carbon over the Carrerra for low volume listening. @purr1n does that match your impressions or should I push to demo the Carrera?

You have me nervous with the crusty carbon euphemism.

EDIT: supposedly it is some new version of the carbon woofer...
EDIT2: oh, the driver's texture looks crusty, i get it (I think)

 

Near field sounds doable @88-90-ish dB/w. My experience at mid/far field 4w doesn't cut it at anything less than 98-100 dB/w with Af.

 

Yeah my Af can’t power OSMTM worth a shit. Although I do enjoy playing Primus’ My Name Is Mud at 63.76 dB. I chatted up @sphinxvc and @Hooncake who are my speaker gurus about this. I am not trolling here, but has anyone really (I mean really) found a pair of speakers that are great powered off of their Af. I know a couple guys have Klipsch speakers and had Af’s and then moved onto more powerful amps.

 

I was one of these people. With Klipsch Forte 3s, loudness was not the issue. I never turned the volume knob on the Af past 1:00. I could have deafened myself easily. Switching to a higher power amp (Aegir in my case) significantly improved bass tightness, texture, resolution while not giving up too much of what The Af was doing well in the mids and highs. Af was still enjoyable and satisfying with these speakers, but they sounded better overall with more power.

One wrinkle: that was with no feedback. I’ve since had a feedback switch added to Af and had planned to compare with Aegir again this time with feedback, but have been enjoying music too much and needing to relax from the pandemic so haven’t been in the mood for critical comparison.

 

I am, but I'm also using mine nearfield.

If I was using it to fill a room with sound either I'd get something even more efficient or hook an Aegir up to the rcas and use the Af as preamp.

 

I tried the AF with the Omega Super XRS floor standers (98 dB). They were quite good, and I’d have happily lived with them, but the extra heft of the EAR 890 was better (didn’t try them with an Aegir). Like @Boops, it wasn’t a volume issue, but from memory that last level of imaging and detail wasn’t quite there. However, with Moth Cicadas (94db), the AF is better than the EAR and the Aegir, and the combo is better than the EAR and Omegas. I honestly never think about upgrading the AF, aside from considering the feedback mod or 300b mod. I don’t listen at loud volumes, but they can play loud. Unfortunately those speakers are no longer available.

(Side note: on a budget, the Aegir is a crazy good value proposition for high efficiency single driver speakers. It really doesn’t do anything wrong).

When I bought the AF, Craig mentioned vintage JBLs. Still trying to troubleshoot a pair.

 

Dummy question:

Got a fat plastic base Amperex 5AR4 as a spare rectifier. Finally tried to plug it in this morning - the base is a little too big to clear the edge of the case.

Mod the case by cutting the hole a little bigger or just use a tube saver / similar device to boost it up a little? If tube saver or similar, are they all pretty much going to give the same sound quality (assuming it's not a $2 ebay special, etc.)?

 

Grab a socket saver from Tubemonger.com. I had a crappy Chinese socket saver fail/come apart as I was trying to get it out of a Freya socket. Switched over to tubemonger and they're much nicer.

 

I now have 2 Af, for each of the 2 locations I spend time at.

1. RCA 5V4GA, Ericsson 396A, Psvane ACME 2A3.
2. Sovtek 5AR4, Western Electric 396A, RCA M-R 2A3 Black Plates,

1 runs from Yggrdrasil A2, 2 from Soekris dac1541. Knowing both DACs pretty well, I don't think that the following observation is from the DAC, so I'm wondering about the rectifier, since originally I listened a lot to 1 with the driver and power tubes in 2. Basically, 2 sounds great in improving the laid-back dynamics and polite mids of dac1541, but also sounds a bit fuzzier than I was expecting. So I started wondering about rectifiers... Last time I looked, significant upgrades over the ones above were crazy expensive. Any recommendations that are not ridiculous relative to the amp and other tube prices? Thank you!

 

It's just had a full service with Craig, he is about to ship it back to Australia but if you are interested @earnmyturns let me know ASAP as Craig is going to ship it very soon. I offered @purr1n the chance to measure it but he didn't reply.

Actually: I forgot and already PMd him about moving to the studio T but he said it was overkill.
It's not listed as 'for sale' but talking to a SBAF friends who might be interested.

 

Thank you (and @zerodeefex) but I got the 2nd Af recently after deciding that I really did not need the extra power (or bulk) of the Studio T for driving my ZMF headphones. I may be making a mistake, but just the logistics of (yet again) buying and selling bulky tube amps in the age of COVID while switching between two different locations gives me the shivers.