Blumenstein Ultra Fi

[tdogzthmn]

I know the Feastrex are part of a future "Ultra Fi" product and I too am waiting to see what form that will take.  For my current needs my Orca's and sub are more than capable for filling my space with great and appealing sound.  My next step would probably be moving to a Stereomour from the SEX 2.1.  I enjoy the sound immensely but find some distortion occurring once I turn the gain past 2.  Does the extra watt or so from the Stereomour make a significant increase in control at higher volumes or are these the natural limitations of the 3" cone?  Not looking for an earth shaking wall of sound but something audible over a crowded living room of guests.   

[Doc B.]

Yes, Stereomour has more beans to give the Orcas than the SEX amp does. It's a couple watts more powerful, 4W vs 2W.

[Hank Murrow]

Dear tdogzthmn; My Orcas and their BUF subs play with a BHCustoms Linestage and 2A3 amp(3.5 watts) in a LR of 14x19x8 dimension. I have driven them to near bottoming levels and find they create a huge stage well beyond the speakers on many recordings. I imagine that the move to the Stereomour might allow much the same result for you.

Cheers, hank

[Clark B.]

Hank, Doc, I can definitely concur.  The SEX amp is probably the best nearfield amp I know of for these - especially because of the non microphonic nature of the 6dn7.  But the stock stereomour, however, is certainly the choice for the demands of a livingroom listening environment.  While you probably won't get a crowd (bigger than 2 ) "dancing fervently" to the Orcas, you can in general use even more power with them to get even just a bit higher volumes/control (so long as you aren't actually using that power - the drivers are rated at ~5 watts).

New developments:

--Old becomes new.  The Orcas are still, not surprisingly, a wonderful set of speakers.  They are still truly gratifying to listen to, even compared to our bigger projects that are about to be released.  Honestly, they've been a tough benchmark to surpass in terms of their simple, humbly portrayed musicality.  Its not entirely surprising that I've had a tough time surpassing their aesthetics considering that customers new and old are still comparing the presentation of the Orcas to that of speakers costing multiple times more.  Their particular brand of "small speaker, big sound" thing is still a new technology that catches people by surprise. 

--The Dungeness Sub will be formally released next week.  Sorry the details aren't up on the website just yet.  Its taken us a bit of time to get new photographs and break in our pairs of them to the point that we feel comfortable writing ad copy and setup advice for them as they are a bit different from the Orca subs in terms of placement considerations.

--We've also been working on some Mark Audio based mid sized bookshelf models lately as well.  They are getting into the 40's strongly.  We have intentionally side stepped the trend of other makers/designers to get merely "lean and clean" bass out of these drivers.  Our cabinets are essentially a gigantic Orca enclosure - so considering that the Orcas get really strong bass (quantity, not extension) out of a 3", then these really get good bass out of 6" or 8"...
The tough part for us has been choosing which one we will move forward with as they are both good - and fairly similar in overall tone character to each other.  I've also discovered that yes - while I was breaking them in 24/7 for a month solid on the bench, that once I installed the drivers into cabinets that their excursion had not been worked out properly because they were not in a tuned box demanding <50hz out of them.  So the tweaking process over the coming weeks is two fold - some small cabinet tweaks, and alot more breakin of the drivers installed in cabinets.

--The Feastrex boxes have been truly revelatory this time.  In this case, the primary box design came from PJ, with some i's dotted and t's crossed by PB, detailed notes taken into account from a listening session last year with Dan, and Molly's input on overall musical aesthetics ever since she's had exposure to these unique drivers.   

This go 'round, I friggin' love these things, and can't wait to rebuild the cabinets out of proper stuff.  The cabinets as shown are intended to work full range or to be actively crossed to woofers (because they are ported in the rear).  In Dan's system, the addition of woofers was awesome.  It will be really fun to hear the progression of them in his system. 

Thanks to all for your support and encouragement of our pursuit of the speaker arts!

Cheers,

Clark

[Natural Sound]

If you don

[Clark B.]

Tom,  I really liked reading this!  What a quest!  I can only agree with you about the 45 tube... Check out what I'm running in my Paramour II based SR-45's

However, this is amongst a veritable stable of amplification that we've got around here... come to think of it, its about due time for some long term reporting:

--I myself am a really big fan of the Paramount 300B's and Beepree for impressing guests.  As the company has grown, I find myself doing this more regularly from our showroom.  These are always the first amps I play because they give the most compelling sense of "little speaker, and holy crap the huge and awesome sound."  I do also, on a personal level, have a fair amount of "bass head" in me as well which gives these amps significant gravity for my daily use.  Generally I have an affinity for super clean highs to the point that my attention is brought more down to the large, weighty bass and fundamental low mids.  The Paramounts really dish this out at high volumes and low distortions.  The Orcas seem to just gobble up (and display even better dynamics), but will sometimes complain if given too much power from these amps.  In a funny way, I sortof get a kick out of having this ability, though I absolutely rarely and even then only slightly overdrive my Orcas because its a really bad habit to get into.  They've also got to be about the best 300B amps I've heard.  They have to have immaculate build quality by the kit builder, and then your sound is even bigger/better than some $30000 300B monsters that I heard at Feastrex.  No joke.

--At nighttime when I'm staying up late and working on the computer or something, I kick up the footrest of the lazy boy, turn the volume down, and snuggle up (nearfield) to the 45's, which are just amazingly holographic with our year + broken in pair of Orcas.  Nothing has touched the hypnotic clarity and pure "ease" of these amps especially in the high frequencies of anything else I've owned.  Of all amps for the concept of "music therapy" I think that these really deserve consideration.  They sound so easy, intelligent, and composed.  But they also walk softly and carry a big stick.  - which is a core tenet of the sound design philosophy of the Orcas themselves - to not smack you over the head with their power but to draw you and seduce you just like a good 45 amp can.  The SR45's are truly restorative to my minds balance and my personal (not professional) motivation.  My SR-45's will (hopefully) eventually be able to come home as the listening amplifier for the casa-Blumenstein Feastrex based Bottlehead system, but of course, I've got to let other people listen to all these great pieces first

--Castle-Blumenstein is just a humble little system actually (for now).  We've been using 5 y/o Paramour II 2A3 mono's driven by a Foreplay III into 7 year old (!) early serial number (006,007) "Kiwi's" (birch Orcas with the recessed drivers).  (I also bring home bamboo Orcas to listen to and break in from time to time).  Of course, there is something to be said for working well within your limits on a day to day basis.  This system is so predictable to me.   Its funny enough for me to admit that its probably what would be considered as my "reference-" as its a system that's stayed exactly the same for the longest time.  However, the value of 7 year compassionately, (not hurredly!) broken in drivers is never to be underestimated.   I get so much genuine musical pleasure from this system I'm surprised that I ever changed any of the Orcas' design.  - oh right.  Our customers kept giving us great ideas...

So in conclusion, the Stereomour 2A3 would be my best rec for where to start as well for the best "daily driver."  What we've got here (echoing Natural Sound) is a great compromise between these extremes in dynamics and imaging between the 300B's and EML Globe 45's.  And once the Stereomour warms up it can really give the Orcas a run for their money bass wise as well.  - And it can be converted to a great 45 amp!  And its so simple to operate.

keep enjoying the music,

Clark

[saildoctor]

I need to get me a pair of those EML 45's!  I remember how great those sounded in my 45-ified Paramounts on the Blumenstein HQ demo rig!

[Grainger49]

Clark,

Since you have Paramour IIs and love the 45s I am surprised you haven't converted to 45s at home. 

BTW, I had a pair of speakers serial numbers 3 and 4.  So how did you get 6 and 7 at home?  There is an odd number before them.

[Clark B.]

I did sell an odd number to a fellow very early on for use as home theater speakers (and they are still holding up very well I hear). 

Also, random trivia, is that I started numbering my speakers kind of willy nilly (not sure) around 50 pair into the business.  One day, I realized it was more than a hobby.  So I finally started put number 1 on them.  There's so many old projects I forgot to even photograph.  haha!

The Paramour II's have been run with TJ Mesh Plate 45's for a few years actually.  That was the system I ran into my Fostex FE208ES-R bamboo speakers for a few years.  It was excellent, amazing.  they had unbelievable tone that would really penetrate walls and dominate all your thoughts.  But ultimately, even they never quite came up to the level of my Feastrex NF5-ex's so I sold the speakers and also needed more powerful amps for the Feastrexes so I went back to 2A3's

Since all that, I've gravitated towards my Stereomour as my true reference 2A3 amp.  Its an even more sophisticated design than the paramours and I love the sound of the stock OPT's and stock circuit very much.  (which is why I run it at the shop - to keep the best stuff on hand for demonstrations)

Cheers,

Clark

[Natural Sound]

Dude, we need to talk about the Prince poster 

I have the Stereomour output iron and plate chokes in my Paramour II's. I agree with your comment about the stock OPT's. They sound about 100 times better than the Speco's that were in there prior to my upgrade. Re-purposing the old Triad plate choke into a power supply choke made a nice improvement in dynamics too.

I may pick up a Stereomour kit this winter to run a system in my home office. At which point I'll probably need another pair of Orcas and a sub.

[Clark B.]

Haha! surprised you recognize it.  This was back in the college days... used to play Prince to get people going at dance parties.

That sounds like it would be a pretty awesome home office and I'd be honored to have our speakers be a part of it.

Cheers,

Clark

[Grainger49]

And I was trying to tell what turntable that was in the back corner.  I wouldn't have known Prince from Madonna.  Well, she is blonde, right?  I could have told by the hair.

[Clark B.]

Thorens TD 126 MK II.  An old standby that I had setup pretty well for years and years until the motor quit on me.

[Grainger49]

AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, I did it.  I pulled the trigger on a pair of Dungeness subs for my Orcas. 

This is my, in chronological order, Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas from my wife (we don't really give Halloween and Thanksgiving gifts but this is the way she said it).

[Paul Birkeland]

AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, I did it.  I pulled the trigger on a pair of Dungeness subs for my Orcas.

An excellent decision!  The compactness of those smaller subs makes them super flexible in terms of optimizing listening position.

-PB