goodsoundclub Podcast

@Gazny we never did get a response to what speakers you got aside from "$60 from Ebay". No offense, but there's a lot of $60 speakers on Ebay; care to be more specific?

 

It is a pair of Magnavox speakers, I don't know much about them but they are pretty simple in nature, cool L-pad on them, 10MFD cap, and both tweeter and woofer are AlNiCo drivers, can't say what type of AlNiCo as I simply a novice gathering my thoughts through experiences. The reason I say not the best isn't to put myself down or these down, instead I just show some self-awareness or nervosa of knowing better exists. From the MDF cabinet, to the bracing, to the stamped spider, or the semi enclosed magnet. Why I come to this conclusion is i've been shown better as in, much more expensive and complex magnets. They are bigger, fully enclosed and usually have a European heritage.
But better is subjective. I believe these show signs of what that kind of magnet type and higher sensitivity can bring to the table in addition to what is to come for my journey or direction. Next step for me is still the right tube amp, but more on this later. Given what I know, these are not very "good" but they blow so much out of the water in terms of current designs at least for me. There are other theories behind this, but I rather keep them as such till I get my ears on them, anyone can theorize blindly and I don't want to lead anyone astray or be held accountable for purchases.

They have shown me ported designs have a much more sensitive boundary wall effect, don't even get me started with sealed boxes. This design the name escapes me right now is much more acceptable for more applications IME, of course you get a similar effect with other types of speakers. Leading me to believe Open Baffles might not be for me given their size, but open box really might be one of the better speaker configurations for most people at a desk.

Given my experience with them, I plan on the next step to be my own "custom" speaker, maybe a exotic L-pad (I have a lead on a few tvc or avc) while both are prohibitively expensive, there might be something to it. Just offering the flexibility it offers I'm shocked L-Pads are mostly in Pro audio. They have a real nice, character change too. At least in this model.

But for their price, it is one of the best lessons I have learned. Truthfully, many of the experiences K4star has shared with me have been very important to my audio journey. Never been matter of fact, simply try it and find out. Nothing beats this in audio, and I can not recommend them for this reason. As in dealing with varying vintages you encounter challenges or flaws.

With these, they had so many spider nests and junk inside I had to give them a good cleaning to remove the distortion. But I love them, and to upgrade them or from them. It would be so much more than what I paid for these. Drivers would be 500 ish and the Lpads are about 300(be a fool to not just use resistors), and the cabinet would still need to be built, not including all the level 420 black audio magic needed to complete the build, nor the tube amps that I would have to cycle through to get them perfect. Im sure you understand that, I am not expert in speaker drivers, designs, or what else there is.
I just got them because I was told to, and it was a blind faith thing.

This is the original listing
https://www.ebay.com/itm/304054776308

 

But in reality the experience is priceless, and even with me being cheap, the 1k ish to build dream speakers is chump change when we get down to it. I believe RD has a good thread on this. Given the trend in Audio of NEW GOOD, OLD BAD is honestly marketing.

So much of vintage is beyond what we could ever imagine today, audio engineering now is a joke and isn't taken seriously. Driven by BOM and not so much passion. One of the reason I like Sound Smith and ETA, price is there but the passion I've seen is so beyond what I get from other manufactures. Once you get to be a mega corp with 10 subsidiaries it just isn't the same. Not enough loss leaders to have people fall in love with a brand, almost all of vintage is a loss leader to some extent.

Truth is I believe OLD GOOD, NEW BAD and I don't mind being wrong because I unashamedly enjoy and love what I have, and I think everyone should too. Not trying to convince anyone, as this is all simply my own opinion, but I am simply standing on the shoulders of giants.

 

There are many good gems of old out there, there are equally many bad old failures out there. There are some really good resources.. Vintage knob .. Etc to help research and some gems that there is no advertised data about but people who are in the know, look out for them. My work monitors are 30 year old RadioShack minis that needed a small crossover tweak and they are giant killers, even by today's standards.

And yes, I am cheap too but if you add up all the cheap, it probably isn't anymore , but it is fun.

 

Can we see a pic of the “open box” aspect @Gazny ?

 

Here it is, semi open, some rear venting. I was planning on hearing it without the back but I am having some trouble placing the cross over in a suitable location. I also included a photo of sinas, with a full open box being full range has its advantage of not needing a cross like in mine. And at the bottom you can also see other photos of the speaker internals.

 

My speakers are coaxials, there is a paper tweeter mounted concentrically with the woofer and you can see the crossover capacitor taped to the magnet frame. I am just using these 1960s Isophon speakers temporarily until I can build my dream three-way system. The unfortunate and terrible situation in Eastern Europe means delays as I was working with a number of people in Ukraine & Russia to source drivers and crossover components.

A more recent photo below shows them sitting on old pine benches I got from a local woodworker. I need to cover the front port with a plank of wood, the original cabinets were ported and I removed the back panel as soon as I got them. I also have to replace the crossover capacitor, I got a pair of Siemens 4uf MP caps in the mail today so that will be a weekend project.

As it stands, the pictured system is probably the most satisfied I have been with any speaker system I've ever heard. I think it cost me around $600, including the benches but not including the Macbook. The elaborate version will probably end up costing me $20k for a 20% increase in enjoyment.

 

I replaced the capacitors in my speakers. The difference is quite massive. The seller had foolishly thrown out the original caps and replaced them with cheap poly ones, of the incorrect value no less.

Firstly, the PH2132 coaxials from the front:


New cap in situ. I used monocore wire harvested from a 1938 Telefunken radio to hook it up.


What's left to do is sand the cabinets and apply propolis varnish inside and out. That will have to wait for next weekend. I have already started an application on a wood case for my Philips CD player:

 

Hey everyone, we decided to release another episode. So here it is.
As always, feel free to ask questions.

we also have had an email address for a while, but I decided to add it to a link tree
https://linktr.ee/goodsoundclub


Usagi Electric
https://www.youtube.com/c/Nakazoto


Music
https://waxahatchee.bandcamp.com/
https://volarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/d-wrex-s-t-ep

And it is on all the major platforms and aggregators

 

Imagine a tube computer feeding a DAC

 

In the latest episode, Tom & I discuss the Texas audio show, my new-found obsession with Grado's, some CD player stories and the importance of recording aesthetic.

Links to other podcast services can be found at https://linktr.ee/goodsoundclub

 

Some music we spoke of

 

Missing the banter from the GSC fellas. Y'all are a unique voice in this polarizing hobby. I'm excited to get caught up on the misadventures of our hosts. It's fun to learn with you guys.

 

The last episode of the podcast Tom & Sina were discussing some great stuff. The best part imo was when they were dabbling in some banter about the sonic footprint of gear. E.I. Sina loathing gear that is heavy handed with the sonic footprint. Music that doesn't allow the essence of the recorded material to come through.

It would be great to hear more about their thoughts on some important factors to consider to achieve that clarity or natural timbre/tone the fellas were speaking about.

Also loved the cd player talk. They mentioned some cd players that have the tda1540 chip if memory serves. Wondering if Tom modded is player.

We haven't gotten a proper updated on the speakers Sina designed. If 16 months went into those bad boys, we need some notes on how they are holding up. I speak for the GSCP listenership when I say. We need to know what the heck is going on with those speakers!

I need to go back and check, but I don't remember what speakers Tom is using at the moment.

Finding a hifi product podcast is simple. But you guys are on the lords path shining a flashlight on the best parts of the hobby. There are blogs out there with some of the info you guys speak of but nothing in podcast form that I know of or on youtube for that matter.

Great show fellas. Heck, I would settle for a good blog post from the boys. I'm just pumped this content is out there and love the direction you guys are providing the community.

 

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...oodsoundclub-podcast.11742/page-4#post-377892

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...oodsoundclub-podcast.11742/page-4#post-377906

I won't dislike your post, but it helps keep threads more tidy if we're not answering questions already answered, so please take a moment to just read a full thread before asking questions. Also:

Don't be a dotard! Read these "rules" AND introduce yourself before your first post!

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the kind words. My speakers are doing great, I am still moved to tears every time I listen to them, which is remarkable considering they are far from finished and I have at least 8 things in mind I can do to improve them, some of which require monetary outlay and others just need my time and experimentation.

The lack of episodes is partly because I am busier than ever with my day job, but also because we are looking at a very tough few months ahead of us with winter and a large global recession. It feels a bit crass to talk about audio in light of that, and the best advice I can give anyone right now is to reduce discretionary spending and hold off on big purchases.

I will bug Tom about recording something soon though

 

Thanks for the update! No pressure to record. I know the last thing anyone doing a podcast needs is...where are the episodes. Screw that. But with this thread maybe some updates on the misadventures would be fun.

Contrarian opinion. A great distraction into a hobby could be just what those hurting need. Especially from guys who are less focused on spending money and more focused on creative ways of finding good sound. That could be just the distraction or just the focus that helps some hurting folks through.

But, not a bit of pressure from me. The good news is I can relisten. In fact I just did relisten to an episode and that's what got me wondering where @Gazny landed with his speaker project. When he mentioned having a cabinet maker I instantly got jealous.

I gotta be honest. I want to try my hand at a speaker build like the design @k4rstar did. I like simple tube amps and have been hesitant to go open baffle. That acoustic resistance concept sounds interesting to say the least!

I'm glad they are bringing the enjoyment you had hoped Sina! Its great when a plan comes together.

 

@yotacowboy

screw it. Not gonna argue. This thread is one of the bastions of awesomeness on the internet so i am not gonna sully it with snark.

Three cheers to the work @k4rstar and @Gazny are doing. We need more folks like them out there spreading the goodness this hobby has to offer.

Thanks again fellas.

 

Hey everyone just got done uploading and editing a few things.
Here is a link to the music segment only.
Also it has been released on all the other podcast platforms.
Thanks for listening.




Always looking for music, feel free to recommend anything you think me or Sina would like.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiShDQ4qpjhOcDOXA4L5PjyPU6z987nyZ