Blumenstein Ultra Fi

Debra,

Congrats -- excellent choice.

If I may offer a suggestion, listen to them for a good while without any sub so you can really appreciate all they can do on their own.

Shortly after getting mine setup and sitting on the subs, a buddy stopped in and stopped in his tracks and said "wow, those sound amazing".  They were fairly new at the time and the subs weren't even connected so I told him to take a look behind and notice that all the sound he was hearing was coming from the two tiny boxes on the top, to which he replied, "That's *really* amazing!"

BTW, this guy has my old, very modified Horn Shoppe Horns and Cube sub, a Musical Paradise SE 6v6 amp and a Wavelength Proton dac, so he's used to some pretty decent sound.

-- Jim
 
Glen,

I don't know -- whenever Clark finishes and ships them I guess :-).

Seriously, I'm recovering from pneumonia and have plenty on my plate at the moment, so I'm sure they'll arrive after the current batch ships.  I know Clark and Molly are really busy getting these things built and shipped and I just keep forgetting to ask him where my new set stands in the queue.

-- Jim

 
Yeah, Clark and Molly are in the same boat as Eileen and I, pedaling as fast as possible. We touch base pretty regularly, and we keep putting off getting together 'cause we have too much catching up on orders to do.
 
I have been talking with Clark by email, and decided to add an Orca sub also.  I am very impressed by his service and the speed he responds.

It is such a pleasure to find companies like Bottlehead and Blumenstein Ultra Fi

Thanks

Debra

 
Debra,

Another good move! :-)

Ok, to everybody, I got an email from a friend who is not a bottlehead and not on this forum, but who asked me about the Orcas sometime back afterwhich he subsequently bought a pair.

Last night I got an email from him that went something like this:

"Jim,

My Orcas are getting better every week now... I think these are my speakers for life!"

Just had to pass that along. (and BTW, he's using a 3 watt SE (non-dht) amp and no subs yet.

-- Jim

 
Hi all!

A quick update: we had to slow down a few orders to get everyone who's currently on the order board - on board with this initiative:

We've updated the Orca Sub Design to use a paper cone woofer.  The old BUF Sub was very, very good, but we felt that it needed something else... a "je ne sais quoi." after many evenings philosophizing and measuring, we decided that it needed to possess the ability to really absolutely thunder in order to keep up with the newer Orca design.  So - we gave it that ability, while simultaneously enhancing its integration with the Orcas' upper bass characteristics and a few other things.  Oh - and a few more hertz extension on the bottom end.

We're really excited about this update ourselves and we've finally gotten them back in production again last week, shipping out the first batch as soon as tomorrow and then into next week.  We don't have photos of the new sub on the website as of yet.  Will have some as soon as the dust settles.  



We also updated our website and business name:

http://www.blumensteinaudio.com/

This was primarily a project of Molly's that took her quite some time to complete because she slowly and surely felt out every option and to really meditated and collaborated with Josh and Andrew and I to try to convey the feeling of the speakers themselves - albiet in a virtual sense.  She did not even know HTML before a few months ago.  She was still working in Elliot Bay Book Co where she'd been at for many years.  All I can say is that she's definitely keeping her new job :)  But I've got to get to training her in the shop for a good stretch first here...Lots of sawdust to make!

Cheers!

-Clark and Molly
 

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This is good to hear.  Looking forward to getting the Orca's and sub in my system

Thanks

Debra
 
Debk,
You'll be amazed at the sound that comes from such a small speaker.  I just got mine earlier this week and am really pleased with them.  They look great as is, but went ahead and put a coat of Briwax Teak on them to give them an "amber glow".  I'm really hooked on the glow...tubes, wood, etc. ::).

Joel in Tennessee
 

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Joel,

Didn't kknow you ordered a pair -- did you get a sub too?  Stands?

As for how good they sound now... just wait!

-- Jim
 
No, I'm using my existing sub for now.  It's a small 8" unit and seems to work well with the Orcas. Plus, the wood on the Orca match the cherry subwoofer cabinet now. ;)

I'm using some modified cherry Sonus stands I already had; again matching wood!  Clark showed me how he attached to his stands, so I followed his advice.

I can already tell from only a few hours listening they are getting better and better.

Joel

 
Joel,

I don't know if this will happen with the drivers in the Orcas, but one an earlier pair of horn shoppe horns I had, the final change was rather dramatic -- these were fe-126 drivers though, so not sure if this will happen with the smaller ones or not.

Many people talked about "it" happening to their speakers -- meanint that one day they'd just walk past their system playing in the background and notice that they sounded different -- in fact, much different and much better than before.  Well, I decided I was goiing to listen intently for all the hours necessary to see if I could hear a change that dramatic and what it was, and sure enough I did.

One day -- somewhere in the 400-420 hour mark I suddenly heard this sound of total confusion and distress coming from one speaker and that lasted for about 3 seconds.  My instinct was to get up and turn off the amp as I thought it was a tube self-deestructing.  As soon as I got up there was a sound, that I can only describe as similar to when your ears equalize after landing in an airplane and then the sound was far better -- cleaner, more dynamic, more transparent, none of the weirdnesses of the previous time the speakers had been playing -- essentially like a whole different driver was instantly swapped in for the old one.

After that it was clear that the one speaker sounded far better than the other one and naturally it started to bother me.  I was patient and in about another 40 minutes or so, the other speaker did exactly the same thing, and from then on they were both far better than they had ever been.

I have no explanation for what I heard -- it almost sounded like the surround inverted itself, got stuck and then popped back in place and left me with a whole new driver.  Only thing I could conclude is that this was "it" and that I had heard "it" happen in real time.  The only changes from that time on were very subtle and gradual.

-- Jim
 
I think the most common conjecture is that it has to do with the fiber structure in the cone softening a bit from flexing, letting some manufacturing-induced stress even out. It might be interesting to do laser interferometry or high speed video or some other method of observing the cone surface to see if there is some change in the way it flexes and recovers at various resonance modes when new and again after 400 hours. I wonder if anyone has done that and shared their findings? (I imagine there is plenty of proprietary data to that effect)
 
Joel,

I didn't realize that the natural speaker could be stained.  What a beautiful outcome!  Now I have to find something to sell.
 
Dan,

Yes, that would be really interesting to do and yes, the sound was something not unlike oil-canning.  Whatever it was, it was pretty weird.

-- Jim
 
I used Briwax rubbing wax (Teak) over the finished carmalized bamboo to have them match the cherry stands and existing subwoofer I'm using.  It's a gel that you apply and then buff off.  It took me 3 trys to get the color I was looking for and also improved my upper body strength with all the buffing!

Warning:  If anyone else tries this, don't wax over Clark's signature.  I almost erased it! The wax uses toluene for a cleaner and will remove ink quick!

Joel
 
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