Blumenstein Ultra Fi

Thanks for the tips Clark!

The Tritons are fun right out of the box so I'm happy to listen as the continue to rack up hours.  Do you have any ball park estimates as to how long the break in period is?  I seem to remember the Orca's were around 500 hours till they really start to show their stuff. 
 
Just finished doing the upgrade kit on my orca deluxes. Sound great! Its hard to compare the difference between before and after as i had the drivers enabled while i had them out and that takes a month. They beat my flat pack p10 uonkend with ff85wk enabled driver. Those dont go as low, the high end is not as smooth and the build quality between me and Clark is quite different;-)!
This is in my bedroom and I only have room for one sub but it makes all the difference.
The upgrade wasn't too difficult with the right extended ratchet to remove the binding posts. Small handed people definitely have an advantage. Now to mount them on the wall. Thanks Clark!
 

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Thanks for the report Taran.

I'm lucky enough that I can get my hands inside the Orcas but by the end of the day they are all red, bruised, and generally scratched up -- still, it makes placing the balls much easier and less messy.

I haven't looked at what's involved with the dungeness subs yet, but I will be running them in mono with a single Hypexx amp with twosets of output binding posts internally wired in parallel -- this will give the amp a 4 ohm load so it can deliver the full 175 watts of rated output.

Did you do your subs as well?

-- Jim
 
Ya Jum my hands were pretty scraped up;)
I did not do the subs. I ran the pair of blumenstein subs i am selling now with one amp vs two amps and didnt notice a difference. Good luck.
 
Taran,

I'm listening to my old, second pair of bamboo Orcas. These are on the solid bamboo stands and even without the DOF kit are breaking in nicely and sounding better and better each day Right now it seems mostly to be the Mundorf silver/oils in the amp that are going through one of their "moods." that is the largest variable in the overall sound. I'm  working on the DeLuxes now -- btw, a long >6" and a deep socket, or if you can get your hand in and turn a wrench, an ignition wrench will also work. I used a length of 1" x 3" hard maple and a soft-face hammer to pound out the old posts. (posted in case somebody else is gettinng frustrated at this point like I was until I got some tools to do the job with.) Once the DeLuxes are done, I'll move the african mahogany bbases into position, place the dungeness subs on that (with the Herbie's soft thin dots with adhesive on one side), then stack the DeLuxes on top of those. I may need to make some sort of mini stand to bring the driver up to the right level, but that should be simple.

Tried and True, the folks who make the  finishing products, now make stains in the same way and still food safe, etc., so I'm going to stain the stack of speakers to match the base, which also matches my rack. I'll let folks know how this stain works, because I'm sure some other folks may be interested in staining their Orcas another color. Yes, this stain can go right on the Danish oil finish that comes on the Orcas, and you can put more Danish oil on  top for more protection (or varnish oil is you wish) Colors are Cherry, golden Oak, Dark Walnut, Java, and mahogany.

Ok, bacck to speakers...

-- Jim
 
Jim, I sent you an email. I have a pair of short Blumenstein stands that go between the subs and orcas in natural bamboo. They are yours for shipping charges. Taran
 
Hi Taran,

Thanks fr the offer, but it would be premature for me to take them at this point. I am still not sure what the final configuration of my system will look like, plus I'll probably get some complaints from the interior design department about the bamboo and birch clashing (Yes, I've heard this before.)

If I stick with the deluxes and dungeness in the listening room, and they stay stacked, then maybe the stain will help offset the clashing. I will also have to measure the height of the deluxes' drivers as my speaker stack sits on a 2" thick african mahogany base with Herbie's threaded stud gliders underneath, plus my seat is fairly low. Then again, I may just end up with the bamboo Orcas and the single BUS sub. lots of break-in yet to go, and then some time with both setups to see which suits me, my gear, ears and room better, and there's just no way to predict that now. I will say that the older bamboo orcas are more than holding their own with no sub yet, and the back of the speaker 2 feet from the front wall (and the bass hasn't fully come in yet either, nor have the DOF kits been installed. The amp, DAC, and most of the cabling also need some more time on them.

Anyway, the point remains the same -- while I'm enjoying things right now, I don't know for sure what the system (speaker-wise) will look like in a few months and I don't want to take something that I may not use.

Thanks anyway for the offer,

Jim
 
Clark,

What are your thoughts of using a Super Tweeter (say, Fostex FT17H 6db slope at 10k hz) with the Orca's?

I was at another Bottlehead user house last night listening to his Paramount through Klipsch Horns and was wondering if I'm lacking some top end sparkle.

Regards

Mike
 
Yes, that's the idea behind it. It is a filter that lowers the mid frequencies slightly to create a signal that has a little more top end and a little more deep bass, to compensate for those losses at the frequency extremes.
 
Hi Mike,

While I don't have your ears, I do generally have experience with Klipsch speakers and I consider them to be generally bright up top.

In regards to the single driver speakers you own, you've certainly got some options.

The Orcas I made pre-2016 used big brass binding posts that rolled off some of the high frequencies.  This, along with a lack of stuffing material (which allowed the upper midrange frequencies to propogate inside the enclosure) resulted in a slightly too-rolled-off sound for some of my clientelle (and, eventually, me).  So we now make frequency targeted stuffing materials in house (coral acoustic wave breakers) that are specifically engineered to absorb the problem frequencies (and no others) inside the small and large enclosures we make.  We also employ newer binding posts and internal wire that are more neutral in presentation. 

These are the main components in the Depth of Field Enhancement kit that we sell for $99 to outfit any pair of pre-2015 speakers. 

Also, in 2015/16, we released a new fullrange speaker model, the Marlin 3" fullrange, that is voiced much like the Orca, but with a brighter high frequency reproduction and more neutral upper midrange than the Orca because of its faceted aluminum dust cap, thicker paper main cone, and smaller enclosure with a smaller front baffle area. 

I do also own a Fix and this too will brighten up the sound if need be. 

My own acoustic spaces, amps and sources allow me to not personally need to use the Fix in my systems with my production model speakers (Orca, Marlin, Triton), but the Fix has definitely been useful with other speaker projects that had inherently limited HF response like the prior generation Feastrex Alpha cone drivers, for instance.  (the new Beta Cone Feastrex's should be ok without the Fix).

Between all these tools - my upgrade kit for your Orcas, or the Marlin model, all and/or a Fix, you should see some more sparkle arrive in your system toute de suite!

-Clark








 
Thanks Clark for your thoughtful reply!

I'll look into these mods before I do anything drastic.... like getting some huge speakers with a terrible WOF! lol

big brass binding posts that rolled off some of the high frequencies
Click to expand...

Mine do have brass posts... but for the life of me how would they roll off high frequencies? What's the theory behind this?

Regards

Mike
 
Just wanted to give an update on my Tritons which have been seeing a lot of use the past few weeks.  They are really a pleasure to listen to and I'm really enjoying the rockability they provide with the larger 8" drivers.  Recently I picked up a Rouge Audio Sphinx hybrid amp with 100wpc.  My initial feeling with the Tritons was that they wanted more power than than the Stereomour was giving.  The two Class D Hypex modules in the Sphinx really do a wonderful job of controlling the drivers with authority, especially in the bass department.  The amp will play louder than I'll ever need but it's good to know I get room shaking output if needed. 
 
Thomas,

Glad to hear that things are improving for you --  sounds like more time and power are what is needed to bring these to  life.

Due to some circumstances beyond my control I unfortunately had to cancel my Triton order. Not at all what I wanted to do, but my hands are tied.

For those working on the DOF upgrade, I finally managed to get the binding posts out yesterday. Hint: do not try to do it from the outside. I used a socket wrench with a couple of extensions and the right size socket for the small nuts that hold the binding post and sandwich the terminals that the wires are connected to. That was easy. The second nut was the real pain -- mostly because none of my tools -- socket wrench or nut drivers were deep enough to go over the binding post and get a grip on the nut. A deep socket would do the trick though. So, I ended up using the only thing I had left -- an ignition wrench of the right size (I apologize, but I can't tell you what the size of the nuts are.) Yes, it was tedious, but once a certain point I could back the nuts off with my fingers. I don't know how you folks with larger hands are going to manage this -- probably going out and buying a deep socket for the job. I then gave the binding posts a whack with a soft-faced mallet and a block of wood. That was enough to get them started and then I just grabbed the outsides with a pair of pliers and pulled and wiggled them out. Tomorrow I'll start gluing the wave breaker balls into place and then I can put these bad boys back in service.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to stain them or not -- it will probably depend on how good of a job I can do, but also how close of a match I can get.

Patience, patience I keep telling myself :-).

-- Jim
 
I was able to get to the nuts with a deep socket 10mm and an 8" extension.  I found that a slight turn from the outside made pounding out the old binding posts easier - but you still need to tap them out fairly aggressively with a block of wood and hammer.  The other thing to be prepared for is a fair amount of wait time as the silicone sets up.  You can really only do one ball at a time and then wait 2 hours before moving on to the next one.  Plan on a day elapsed time.  Final hint is to use the chop stick trick that Clark suggests.  Jim, I know by feel will work best for you but know that there are some structural supports that run diagonally and might make finding middle a little confusing.  Using chop sticks and a flash light I could see where I was placing the balls to find the middle spot.

I've been listening over the last week to the modification and really like it.  What strikes me is the increase in "focus".  It's like someone put an adjustable lens between the speaker and me and dialed in the placement of the instruments and voices.

Rick
 
Hi Rick,

Thanks for the poinnters though I am one of those whocan get my whole hand and a good bit of my arm in the Orca. I've felt all around and the location of all the braces so I should just be able to place these by hand -- and of course let them sit resting on that side until everything is cured. Yes, it doesn't go fast, but that's ok -- I have the other pair playing as I work on this pair. Then  I'll just flip it around when it comes time to do the other pair.

I'm still debating on hether or not I should get the kit for my old BUF sub, and my first, original pair of caramelized bamboo Orcas ith the binding post cup. I probably will, but will have to sell some more stuff before I do.

I really can't wait to listejn to this, and especially when they are fully broken-in.

Take care, and thanks again,

Jim
 
It would be nice to see some photo documentation of the installation procedure for the DOF upgrade kit.  Make it helpful to those in the future that decide to upgrade their Orcas.
 
Thomas,

I'd like to help but I'm not a very good photographer )ok, I'm a crappy one :-).) I like the idea though, especially with the subs -- I haven't even started on the subs yet.

Maybe somebody  else here will step up to the plate.

-- Jim
 
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