Updates

In the past few months, work has been quite hectic as well as the family side of things, and haven't had much of a chance to do anything audio. Primarily, still enjoying my music through the Zen amp with the Fostex 127e. On one note, I have begun to be sensitive to the beaming of these speakers. Going to have to investigate ways to reduce this beaming... The plot thickens.

Recently, I purchased a Dayton Audio Class T amp from Decibel Hifi. This was very cheap and came with an power supply as well. This will be an interesting test to see how it sounds as it compares to my Zen amp and the Chipamp. Over the course of time, I am sure I will dismantle the unit and upgrade components where I can. I see already that the speaker connections need work along with the input and volume control. I would also like to build a new case and potentially use SLA batteries to power this puppy.

Still haven't had the opportunity to build the Linestage yet, nor have I even had the time to order the components for the Aikido stage. Shame on me. However, I will get around to it eventually and that should finally give me the missing link in my audio chain.

Been looking around the net for information on Open Baffle speakers. From my cursory reading it appears that OB are quite popular and have a good reputation for being a revealing speaker design. The alternate design I am also looking into are compression drivers mated to horns. In either scenario, a LF driver and amp would probably need to be used below 100-300Hz. At this point, it is interesting to read all the various opinions and technical background on the two designs, and should form the basis of my next speaker project. To that end, an order was placed for a pair of Eminence Alpha 15A speakers from Essential Audio. For the low end, I am currently thinking of a 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley active crossover at 150 Hz, with the Alpha's in a U frame open baffle. The construction and use of this should also assist in my current Fostex MLTL. The U frame should be quick to build, and I will mate them with the chipamp initially, but maybe target a 200W LF amp in the future.

Hopefully have some more updates later and actually get some more stuff done next time.