Rumor has it ThomasW has another impovement to his DIY Whispers...

[JonMarsh]

The title line says it all, folks.....

Time for Thomas to spill the beans, and reveal his secrets.... you, too, can upgrade your D.I.Y. projects!

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[ThomasW]

This post is flame bait pure and simple. :B

JonMarsh is making an EXTREME update to his X1-SLAMM clones and is trying to cover it up.

Can you say 125watt/channel, class "A" topology, 67 lb monoblocks?




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[JonMarsh]

Hey now, don't go trying to change the subject, Mr. W!! This thread has NOTHING to do with might be's, or gonna do's regarding MY system at home. That's in the far, far, future- like, at least Saturday!
That's all speculation at this time, until the pedal hits the metal, and the goods hit the loading platform.

Now, don't you think it's time to 'fess up? After all, inquiring minds want to know..... just why would you replace two items with one?

-Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[ThomasW]

The truly inquiring minds want to know why you're going to be sipping tea and eating scones at 8:00AM tomorrow in a private residence in upscale Sacramento? And what you're going to be schlepping home afterword?

And what money laundering scheme, allowed this massive expenditure of your daughter's inheritance?




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[JonMarsh]

In this case it was just the savings for the new home that were plundered, not my duaghter's inheritance. I'm saving the latter for the next video projector.




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[KennyG]

O.K. guys ENOUGH!!!! Both of you, come across with the facts.
You have ratted each other out, now you must both fess-up!!!

[Bing Fung]

This is total begging of the question.....Fess up!

I can't take the suspense!




Bing

[JonMarsh]

I'm not 'fessin up till tomorrow, 'cause I've got nothing to show... yet. ThomasW, on the otherhand, he's just holding out.... for what, I don't know.
I do know he said he heard something on a familiar cut on his Whisper Klones this morning that he only remembers hearing that way on a RATHER expensive system in a store a few years back; he attributes the change to this "tweak". This "tweak" has been the discussion of some debate and controversy between ThomasW and other "reputed" experts on some other forums... the guilty shall not be mentioned, why publicize them?
He even went so far as to suggest that perhaps I shouldn't "tweak" my system, but that "beta" tweaks of this nature should all be evaluated in Colorado. Is the air getting a little thin up there in Denver, Mr. W?

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[ThomasW]

Ok, Ok it's not an upgrade to the speakers, it a new amp. The Whispers are in the "family room". So usually the electronics are my own "hand-me-downs" from the never ending stream of upgrades in the HT.

There were Adcom 565 monoblocks powering the Whispers. Last week I ran across an Aragon 8008BB for sale at a very nice price, and today it replaced the Adcoms.

For those that don't know, the Whispers clones use the same mid/woofer and tweeter as not only our SLAMM clones, but the real Wilsons as well. I've heard the real Wilson Audio X1-SLAMMS driven with Mark Levinson monoblocks. These are EXTREMELY good sounding speakers. Up until this morning my Whispers sounded only "good", but with the addition of the 8008BB powering the mid/tweeter section, this system now has the transparency, detail, resolution, etc, etc, I heard in the original Wilson units. So needless to say, I'm a very happy camper :B

I'll actually do a full blown review of the Aragon 808BB as time permits. I've acquired 3 of these in the last 6 months (2 new ,1 used), and find that they are most worth addition to an audio system. And they provide double duty as 1250 watt space heaters.

Although comparitively rare on the used market, when available the prices vs performance ratio is too good to pass up. This is especially true when the nearest competition is about 2-3 times more expensive. More on that will be in the review

Jon won't be able to discuss his pending upgrade until tomorrow, when he takes delivery of a 134 pound...............

Stay tuned to this station for future info




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[JonMarsh]

Well, I haven't been able to sleep since 4 this morning, and since I just installed Opera on BeOS, thought I'd play with it and check the HTGUIDE site and a few others.... before leaving for my rondevous with destiny....


Actually, Opera was pretty reasonable even on Windoze, and the BeOS version runs great- just having to get used to a revised UI, compared to the last version I ran. It's got javascript support and other goodies we take for granted, but are new for BeOS. BTW, Be boots in 15 seconds and shut's down in about 5 seconds on my system, it's like a Miata sports car to Window's Minivan.


Talk to y'all later.


-Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[John Holmes]

This sounds like fun reading and for some, great playing




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[JonMarsh]

Well, my 134 lb. of "tweak" has been schlepped from Sacramento to Livermore. I'm starving, gonna make lunch and some cables to hook the "tweak" up with. Will report back later- hopefully with good news!


Regards,


Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[JonMarsh]

Tweak is installed; required making a new set of interconnect cables.

Quick evaluation was done with cuts from several CD's, including "McCoy Tyner with Stanley Clarke and Al Foster", "Famous Blue Raincoat" (Jennifer Warnes), "Club Nocturne" (Yellow Jackets), "Solace" (Sarah McLachlan), "Beyond Words" (Oregon), "Between the Sheets" (Fourplay), "You Hold the Key" (Beth Nielson Chapman", "This is Me" (Emily Remmler), and "Companion" (Patricia Barber).

The "tweak" cured some things I'd been hearing that I thought might be unresolved issues with the crossover, or driver resonances- much to my surprise.

(sung to the tune of the Campbell's soup jingle)

Mmmmmm, mmmmmm good,

Mmmmmmm, mmmmmm good,

Aragon Palladiums MKII's are Mmmmm, mmmmm good!

I owe ThomasW an apology, because I was giving him some grief earlier this week when he was getting in a bit of a dustup with a "highly regarded technical authority" on audio on one of the other forums, a person recognized on that forum as an authority on amplifier design, and a Professor of electrical Engineering. His contention was (brace yourself, you've heard this one before) that all properly designed amplifiers sound basically the same if operated below their clipping and current limits.
Hmmmm. Boy, I wish that were so. Then, the amplifier I was using on the upper end of my SLAMM clones before today (125Hz up) would sound just as good as the new "tweak"- it benches just fine, and has gotten reasonable reveiws.
Well, hate to tell you this, Dr. V., and I'll certainly be poorer financially for the experience, but it JUST AIN'T SO!!!!

We're not talking something subtle here, folks. And this is even with CD source- I'm almost afraid to put an SACD on!

Like ThomasW, I found a good deal on the 'net for some barely used gear.

Have a great Saturday night, everyone- I'm going to! Hopefully I'll sleep sometime this weekend.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Bing Fung]

Congrat's Thomas and Jon on your new tweaks. I like the list of your guys gear. You know there ain't a maunual around that going to show how to hook all that esoteric stuff up. That is and aquired art Total high end!

Ps, check out my sub thread, I got's a problem....




Bing

[KennyG]

WoW, 8) you guys have died and gone to Aragon heaven!!! CONGRATS!!!
About 2 years ago I had an Aragon 8008st in my system for two days, I was delirious with lust and power...then reality set in and I had to return it...I will eventually own some 8008's, be they BB, st, or X3's...oh yes...oh yes.

Engineers...they're so funny! Kenny