New member, curious

[thaddeussmith]

I'm putting together a 2-way Cornscala Type D system, albeit with double bass bins using the Faital HF140 driver. The current room won't be huge and the DBB wired in parallel will bring me down to around a 3ohm load. Sensitivity is around 98dB.

Would the stereomour be suitable for these?

[Doc B.]

Yup, no problem. You can even wire it for 2 ohms output impedance if you so desire.

[thaddeussmith]

and from a power perspective, the 3.5wpc should be enough to drive what is essentially a double Cornwall? I'm new to tubes, so just trying to make informed decisions before I spend $800 on a kit.

[Doc B.]

Oh yeah, a 98dB sensitive speaker will be able to hit about 104dB with a Stereomour.

[porcupunctis]

If you can't irritate your neighbors with that set-up, then you just ain't trying very hard.  With speakers like the Cornscalas, you may never go over one watt in an average size room.  You will be very surprised with the volume you get.

I think the Cornscala/Stereomour will make a very nice pairing.  Let me know how it sounds.

[thaddeussmith]

If you can't irritate your neighbors with that set-up, then you just ain't trying very hard.  With speakers like the Cornscalas, you may never go over one watt in an average size room.  You will be very surprised with the volume you get.

I think the Cornscala/Stereomour will make a very nice pairing.  Let me know how it sounds.

I live on 10acres with all of my neighbors 250+yds away. Are you still sure? My particular Cornscala variant is basically going to be this, albeit with a double bass bin. http://www.critesspeakers.com/cornscala-style-d.html

Here's a pic of the cabinets, though I think I'm going to use them without the top hats. Similar in size to a Khorn, just slightly shorter.

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.synapticjunctions.com%2Fshared%2FDBBs.jpg&hash=a34936aee490318d102ea9bbd15e19b6454f2b5e)

[porcupunctis]

Your neighbors should be safe for now.  Those are really nice looking Cornscalas.  I've been looking at Crite's website quite a bit and have been contemplating a pilgrimage to Russellville just to see some of the speakers that he's built.  I'm only 3 to 4 hours from there.

My main listening room is way too small for cornscalas but maybe I could find a place somewhere else in the house.

Let me know how it sounds when you get it all put together.

[thaddeussmith]

Ya, I managed to score pretty well with these cabinets.  A member over on my Klipsch forum built them a few years ago and has since upgraded, offering them for free. So I spent a couple of hours auditioning his new setup and drove away with a truck full of expensive plywood in the form of a speaker. 

My space isn't huge either, and these will be total overkill. Some day I'll bulldoze my aging house and rebuild with a dedicated music room - so I'll suffer through whatever deficiencies my current room presents for the sake of "some day"

Thanks for the feedback guys. Still pondering my power solution, but good to know this amp should suffice.

[Grainger49]

To add to the recommendations.  The members here include a shrink, a Latin teaches (a number of teachers in fact), a CFO, the list goes on of the non-technical professions that are Bottleheads.  If you know which end of the soldering iron to hold (not the hot end), you should do just fine. 

I have been kit building for a long time.  The Bottlehead manuals are the best I have ever seen!  I have seen manuals from two other current kit sellers and no one that I have seen gives such clear concise directions.  There is a picture for just about every step.  And if you go wrong there is a friendly community here who gives help, almost, 24 hours a day.

[thaddeussmith]

So it seems SET guys are kind of on the fringe of "accepted audio practices", even more so when you talk about the lower powered 45 tubes. I was just doing some random web reading last night and lots of opinions sway to the side of "they're great for a novelty factor, but you'll surely get tired of the sound and not want to use it as your primary amp" spectrum.

Help me understand the culture a little bit better and maybe some of the things I'll be gaining AND losing by sticking with 45 tubes in a stereomour, vs higher powered tube amps, push pull designs, and even SS. I'm very eclectic in my music tastes and not a particular fan of switching out amps and such every time my album choice changes.

Having said that, however, I have a very good system in my main HT if I need to segregate out jazz from my modern rock listening, etc. Just want to make sure i understand the strengths and weaknesses so I don't have incorrect expectations and subsequent disappointment.

[thaddeussmith]

oh and I'm looking at the Schiit Gungnar DAC. Anyone have experience with this (or even the Bifrost, Bifrost + uber) and Bottlehead amps? I'll be using optical out from my MBP playing mostly 16/44.1 and 24/96 FLAC files.

[Paul Birkeland]

With 98dB speakers in your room, you may never end up rewiring the amp to run 2A3's.

I think a lot of the commentary online has to do with the difficulty of finding adequately efficient drivers with which to run these.

-PB

[thaddeussmith]

Cool. I've pretty much always used Klipsch speakers, so the concept of low efficiency speakers has never really been something I worry about.

I think it's actually going to be closer to 100db now. Did some measurements of my room and the listening position is only 7ft away.. while dual 15"s is impressive, it's just overkill. Fortunately, each woofer is completely segregated so I can use the same cabinets but with only a single woofer. That will put me more in line with a traditional Cornscala type build, albeit in a much larger footprint, and in line with the Cornwall efficiency of 100db. That'll also put me up to around 6 ohm impedance.

"some day" when I get a bigger room I can decide if i need the extra driver or not.

[Paul Birkeland]

The extra cone area sure couldn't hurt!  I'm currently running a pair of 18's for bass duty that are rated in the mid to high 90's for sensitivity. 

-PB

[thaddeussmith]

you do have a point there. decisions, decisions..