My All Bottlehead All Analog Stereo

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xcortes

New member
Here's my system as it stands right now. You can see top down, left to right:

Altec Peerless Step Up Transformers
Phono Seduction
Paramounts Left Channel (midbass, mids and highs) 2A3 version
Sex Amp for Headphones
Foreplay 3 Preamp
Garrard 301 Turntable with EMT 997 Tonearm
Tape Eros (WIP)
Paramounts Right Channel
Ampex ATR 102
Technics RS-1500 with Tim de Paravicini Electronics (recording and playback) and Steve Koto Dolby B Decoder
AKG K1000 Earspeakers
Sony MDR-R10 Headphones
Bruce Edgar Midbasses and Tractrix 300hz Midhorns (with field coil RCA drivers from the 1930s)
Fostex T500A Mkii Tweeters
JBL 18" in a JE Labs Style OB powered by a Marchad Subwoofer Amp

 
Xavier,

That is beautiful!  I haven't seen Fostex tweeters that big, much less the wooden (I assume Edgar) horns on them.

It looks like your interconnects are all unshielded twisted solid wire.  Except the Garrard to SUT, and maybe the SUT to Eros.  Can you tell us more about them?

 
Wow very nicely done. Someone has great wood working skills. BTW: I have the same play fort in my backyard.
 
Thanks for the comments.

My woodworking skills are close to none but I get good help in that department.

Yes Grainger, CAT5 teflon for all my interconnects and speaker cable (single run for the speakers too, each color for one driver and, now that I think about it -one set of frequencies-) except for the tonearm to SUTs where I'm using some Mogami mic cable and for the Ampex to the tape preamp where Mike spitz from ATR installed some Belden.

BTW, the big drivers you are seeing attached to the horns are not the Fostex but the RCA MI-1443 (113 volt field-coil version of the very famous -and righteously if I may say so- MI-1428B).
 
There is a lot of wood in that room.  How about a custom console that you can just drop all of the toplates into?  I'm picturing a large curved wooden sideboard with a couple of rows of slanted shelves (boxes) with all of the amps inset.  On the desk level would be the turntable and preamp.  Kind of like a big phantom of the opera organ console, starship enterprise control panel.
 
"Excuse my probably-obvious question, but what are the advantages to unshielded interconnects?"

Often you don"t need a shield, especially if you braid or twist the wires.

Some of the big advantages to me, are they are easy to make, any size you like and you can use good, cheep stuff.   
 
If don't mind me asking, what type of RCA field coils do you have and how do you power them (assuming they need a power source)?

Very, very, very  nice system indeed. 

Congrats & cheers

Frank Mena
 
what are the advantages to unshielded interconnects?
Click to expand...

As John said, cheap, easy to build and, at least to me sound great. I purchased a reel of teflon CAT5 about five years ago and still have some left.

what type of RCA field coils do you have and how do you power them (assuming they need a power source)?
Click to expand...

The RCA are the MI-1443 which are the 115 volt version of the MI-1428B. They are famous for the delicate sound due to the fabric diaphragms and the complicated aluminum phase plug. These are the ones that the modern Cogent were modeled after. IIRC they were made in the 1920s/30s.

I designed a complicated power supply for them but in the meantime I sourced a Lambda power supply from David Riddle:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEWIB-DC-POWER-SUPPLY-TUBE-AUDIO-AMP-FIELD-COIL-SPEAKER-/350226756828?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item518b2434dc

This PS works great and David Riddle is a very nice source (I also purchased a 3KVA Variac from him) that delivers rebuilt instruments that work as new.

Thanks for the nice words. It's been a long journey but the system is really good now!



 
Last year I intalled stereo bass modules. A Sex amp is used to drive a passive marchand crossover which in turn drives the bass amp. I used an mc 275 mcintosh but now I'm using an ss 25 watts class A Bedini. The bass modules, barely seen, are karlsons k15s modified as per J Tucker on sound practices. With Altec 416s they give me flat bass from 25hz to just above 100. And fast and punchy

And two days ago my friend Jorge from Sadurni Acoustics insisted in bringing me a couple of his upper bass horns to try instead of my Edgar's. He arrived Friday around 9pm and even brought some temporary supports to mount the other speakers aligned on top. He says this pair belongs to the speakers going to rmaf (he sells complete speakers, not single horns) but he's gonna have a hard time getting them back.

Also seen are Doc's big pre and matching repro as well as an original RCA field coil ps that has three tube rectifiers in parallel and a massive choke for choke input filtering.

And of course the fp3 has been replaced now with a BeePre.

All headphones have been sold except the one to rule them all, the mighty R10.

Same signature sound for many years but slight improvements are getting it to amazing levels.
 

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I was worried about the Garrard TT, until you mentioned a different arm. Good thinking.
 
I really just meant the arm. Wasn't it one of the swiveling types like on the zero 100. Sorry if I am mistaken.
 
xcortes said:
I don't understand why worrying about a Garrard tt?
Click to expand...

Would think perhaps confusion about the difference between a 1950s 301 and the run-of the mill rinky dink auto-changers of the 1970s. 
 
Now I get it. Sorry for my misunderstanding. It happens a lot in this little brain.
 
xcortes said:
Here's my system as it stands right now. You can see top down, left to right:

Altec Peerless Step Up Transformers
Phono Seduction
Paramounts Left Channel (midbass, mids and highs) 2A3 version
Sex Amp for Headphones
Foreplay 3 Preamp
Garrard 301 Turntable with EMT 997 Tonearm
Tape Eros (WIP)
Paramounts Right Channel
Ampex ATR 102
Technics RS-1500 with Tim de Paravicini Electronics (recording and playback) and Steve Koto Dolby B Decoder
AKG K1000 Earspeakers
Sony MDR-R10 Headphones
Bruce Edgar Midbasses and Tractrix 300hz Midhorns (with field coil RCA drivers from the 1930s)
Fostex T500A Mkii Tweeters
JBL 18" in a JE Labs Style OB powered by a Marchad Subwoofer Amp
Click to expand...

Which JBL 18 are you using?
 
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