Lyrita's Fostex based speaker

Yes Purnendu, I agree with you completely.

How long are you in Delhi?

I wish I had known you were coming to Viren's; we could have met !
Goys ,whenever you plan to hit Delhi, do post in advance-we could try to meet.

Hi Purnendu,

Thanks.

Well, you heard the overall system perform - nothing operates in isolation. The 2A3 SET valve amp, the Harmony Ones and Twos (which you prefered), the Marantz CD5001 player, and the Linn Sondek (for a while). System building - that's what the game should be!

Viren.

viren what do you think about the new line of marantz cdp's ?

manek.

Hi
Viren are there any dealers/customers in the South where your amps can be heard.
I would love to try your 2A3 SET with my Altec Horns.

I understand that you own a pair of Quad II/II amps.How would you compare the sound of the 2A3 amp to that of the Quad II/II amps?

Regards
Rajiv

Manek schrieb:

viren what do you think about the new line of marantz cdp's ? manek.

The new lines are nothing great.
I have compared the original cd 6000 ose and the cd 17mk2 against my TS Lim modded marantz. The 6000 ose was nowhere close to my Marantz. The cd17 mk3 was on par although I prefer my modded player. Both times I checked the bass with cd 17mk2 was mushy compared to the modded player. From what I heard the new budget lines from marantz are not as good as the original cd6000 ose. I think you need to go up the line or get a good dac to get some substantial upgrade from your Nad player.

CD17MkIII is with better quality components compared to MkII. It's very decent & matured sounding CDP. I've compared my MkIII with more expensive players & found this is more than VFM & I'm very happy with it.

Yup. The mk3 is a good player. Very high VFM.
One issue I have found with budget lines from marantz / Nad (stock condition) is that they muddle up when faced with complex music passages. Especially with western classical. Example is Track Nr. 7 from burmester test cd-3
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The bass drum can be distinctly heard behind the crescendos. These players mess it up. The sense of space and instrument separation also is missing.

Rajiv schrieb:

Hi Viren are there any dealers/customers in the South where your amps can be heard. I would love to try your 2A3 SET with my Altec Horns. I understand that you own a pair of Quad II/II amps.How would you compare the sound of the 2A3 amp to that of the Quad II/II amps? Regards Rajiv

hi rajiv,

am using viren's SET with this single drivers. if you're in bangalore you can drop in. its pretty huge, heavy and cumbersome to cart anywhere though.

regards

Hi Stevieboy

Thank you for your invitation to audition your amp.
I am based in Madras.I will try to make a day trip to Bangalore to audition your amp.
Please tell me when it will be convinent for you to have me come over.

Regards
Rajiv

purnendu schrieb:

If anyone is in the market for a refined yet simple high sensitivity design, give this model a listen. I came away impressed. I do think Viren has come up with something special here. Purnendu

Hello Sir !

Did you take any snaps ?
Would like to know what you listened to;
I was @ Viren's place a year back - did audition his set up, however, not sure what it was that I heard. Hence a photo would help in refreshing my memory.

Thanks.

Glad to know that 'Indians' are appreciating products made by Indians in our own country !!! Good going Viren - Keep up the good work !!!
Wish more of us listened to Rethm too & commented on it.

Hi Rajiv,

Stevieboy has bailed me out! He has the 2A3 SET with the Harmony One speakers. If you can, please do make it to his place. Then, if you're serious about it, I can make some arrangement with you for you to listen at your home.

It was the QUAD IIs, and a Rogers Cadet amp, that got me started on this journey exploring valve amplification. With those amps, there was such a marked improvement in the presentation of music, over my solid-state amps, it wasn't funny. The QUAD IIs are magical in the midrange, but a little flabby at the frequency extremes. But the music shines through them. They became my reference in the pursuit of my designs.

If I hadn't been able to better the QUADs, I would have given up. I can honestly say, that my designs hold up extremely well. The 2A3 SET is leagues ahead!

Manek,

I have been very happy with the budget Marantz CD5001 CD player. It's still a current model. At the time I first auditioned it, two years ago, I actually preferred its sound to the more expensive Marantz players. The Marantz CD5001 is all I use. The models keep changing, so you really have to listen all over again to make judgements. It's not a given that the more expensive models sound better!

I've found that the upmarket models, in an attempt to make the sound smoother and more extended, actually squeeze out the life in music. Too smooth, too boring! I've just auditioned the Cambridge Audio Azur 340C, their budget model, and liked it very much. So, two good choices in less expensive CD players for music lovers!

Viren.

viren,

thanks for the brief. I have heard this one myself but wanted your opinion on the same. I must admit, its good for the money.

manek.

bhagwan69 schrieb:

purnendu schrieb: If anyone is in the market for a refined yet simple high sensitivity design, give this model a listen. I came away impressed. I do think Viren has come up with something special here. Purnendu Hello Sir ! Did you take any snaps ? Would like to know what you listened to; I was @ Viren's place a year back - did audition his set up, however, not sure what it was that I heard. Hence a photo would help in refreshing my memory. Thanks. Glad to know that 'Indians' are appreciating products made by Indians in our own country !!! Good going Viren - Keep up the good work !!! Wish more of us listened to Rethm too & commented on it.

I heard the rethm sadhana a few months back at the designer’s studio in cochin. They are amazing speakers. The magical mids from the single driver full range combined with a fast detailed bass without any overhang. The feeling of “being there” with the musicians was unmatched. He uses the diva audio classic “tube monoblocks” with a modded maratnz cd6000ose ( valve output stage) with the speakers.
Very involving.
I have heard so many other systems costing much more than this one. They do most of things which can described by typical audiophile lingo but not at all involving. The magic of single driver full range and tubes is amazing. One listen and you do not want to nit pick the system. The system does not let you do it. A must listen for the “music lover – audiophile”.

Hi Viren

Thank you for your detailed reply.
The reason I asked how the 2A3 fared in comparison to the Quads is because I use the Quads with the Altecs.

The Quads as you say are superb in the mids.As you mentioned nothing works in isolation and system building and synergy is very important. I have tried various Leaks,Dynacos and McIntosh amps with the Altecs but the Quads and Altecs really gel together.

Hopefully I should be able to go to B'lore on 30/03/08 to listen to the 2A3 amp at Stevieboys place.

Regards
Rajiv

dug out a few pics for those of you who were asking for the SET amp pics. in the top view one you can see the 2A3s glowing otherwise front view no glow

nice pics, Stevie!
How abt one of your room with the full set up?
What are you listening to these days/

hi kamal,

i had clicked with the speakers but for the life of me i cant find them on my comp!!! will take again and post in a few days.

last couple of weeks has been police, 70s compilation popular tracks like moon river, que sera sera, ventures, dusty springfield, jeff beck from his days with the yardbirds to the days with rod stewart and his later bands, lots of jimi hendrix!!

how have you been? whats spinning round n round on your system?

regards

Hi All

I went to B'lore last Sunday to audition Virens 2A3 amp at Steven's home.While I was in B'lore I was also able to to visit with Siva and Vinny(square_wave)

I spent nearly three hours listening to the SET amp.Viren has built one of the most musically satisfying combinations .In A/B comparisions with Viren's EL84 amp the SET amp walked all over the EL84 amp.

The midrange clarity and naturalness of the vocals was amazing.The Fostex based loudspeakers surprised me with the quality and quantity of bass they were able to produce.This combination of Virens is far better and more musically satisfying than several high priced systems.

Steven took me over to Siva's home and there I had the pleasure of listening to a system completly designed, built and put together by Siva.

I was hoping to hear the 845 based amp,but that amp had been taken away by his friend.Siva had a PILINUS reference amp connected to the system,which had his own DIY transport, DAC,pre-amp and loudspeakers.

The sound was fantastic but a totally different presentation from the 2A3/Fostex system. The power control and ease with which the music was presented was amazing.The soundstage was huge .

After a while Siva disconnected the PILINUS amp and put his DIY amp into the system.Siva's amp in my opinion was better than the Pilinus.Siva's sounded more musical,involving and also less grainy than the Pilinus .

I then went over to Vinny's place but coud not spend much time there as it was getting late.Vinny has Siva's pre and loudspeakers,with the Odyssey Stratos power amp,with Arcam and Marantz cd players. The sound from Vinny's system was very good.Vinny has put together a system most people would give their right arm to own.

I spent a very enjoyable day in B'lore in the company of three great people listening to three very good music systems.

Steven,Siva and Vinny thank you for having me over.

Regards
Rajiv

hi rajiv,

was a pleasure having you over. really good to meet a kindred soul who appreciates what a good SET amp and well matched speakers can do. nice taste in music too. was a good listening session for me too. especially eva cassidy. was doing a google on the quad II. looks like when i can make it a listen at your place is in order!

regards

Rajiv schrieb:

Hi All I went to B'lore last Sunday to audition Virens 2A3 amp at Steven's home.While I was in B'lore I was also able to to visit with Siva and Vinny(square_wave) I spent nearly three hours listening to the SET amp.Viren has built one of the most musically satisfying combinations .In A/B comparisions with Viren's EL84 amp the SET amp walked all over the EL84 amp. The midrange clarity and naturalness of the vocals was amazing.The Fostex based loudspeakers surprised me with the quality and quantity of bass they were able to produce.This combination of Virens is far better and more musically satisfying than several high priced systems. Steven took me over to Siva's home and there I had the pleasure of listening to a system completly designed, built and put together by Siva. I was hoping to hear the 845 based amp,but that amp had been taken away by his friend.Siva had a PILINUS reference amp connected to the system,which had his own DIY transport, DAC,pre-amp and loudspeakers. The sound was fantastic but a totally different presentation from the 2A3/Fostex system. The power control and ease with which the music was presented was amazing.The soundstage was huge . After a while Siva disconnected the PILINUS amp and put his DIY amp into the system.Siva's amp in my opinion was better than the Pilinus.Siva's sounded more musical,involving and also less grainy than the Pilinus . I then went over to Vinny's place but coud not spend much time there as it was getting late.Vinny has Siva's pre and loudspeakers,with the Odyssey Stratos power amp,with Arcam and Marantz cd players. The sound from Vinny's system was very good.Vinny has put together a system most people would give their right arm to own. I spent a very enjoyable day in B'lore in the company of three great people listening to three very good music systems. Steven,Siva and Vinny thank you for having me over. Regards Rajiv

It was a pleasure to have you over Rajiv..
I agree with you that Siva's diy SS amp sound better than the plinius. We once did a comparison against the valve monoblocks and the SS Diy was very close. That amp has four transformers in that..
Looking forward the visiting stevie to hear viren's creations soon...

still waiting for you to pop in square wave!

stevieboy schrieb:

still waiting for you to pop in square wave! :)

Will drop in soon stevie..

And there is a phenomenon known as The Emperors New clothes...
Wonder why I recalled it.
Any clue, guys?

Kamal schrieb:

Emperors New clothes...

??

Hey B69!
You've substituted your lines of wisdom with the rolling of eyes face.
Naughty,naughty!

n-line's The Horn uses a 12-layer cabinet construction to load its 6.5" banana-fiber widebander into a rear-horn line for a claimed F3 of 42Hz while a soft-dome tweeter adds 30kHz extension. Biwire terminals are standard.

http://www.n-line-lautsprechersysteme.de/

Nice to read about siva's amp, albeit a little late.
I assume this is a diy power amp we are talking about?

Always knew our boys could do well with a little bit of encouragement.

Manek

Viren,

Set's are supposed to be the holy grail of tube amps. Nice to read your amps are capturing the hearts of audiophiles.

Now how about an OTL amp -:)

Manek

Hi Manek,

Funny you should ask that now! I was all gung-ho on OTL amps when I first started designing valve amps, believing all the BS on the ills of transformers.

Since then, I've discovered that transformers are more benign on influencing the audio signal than capacitors and resistors. Obviously, well designed ones.

So, it's going to be a transformer-coupled world from now on!

Viren

viren

hmmmm.....i believe thats the reason you use the interstage transformer as well in your amps ?

in your oinion what do caps+resistors add to the sound that x-formers dont ?

manek

I use Sonus Fabor Extrema speakers.

The one of this speaker's Unique design characteristic is that NO Capacitor is used in the simple Crossover.

SF prefered to use an Inductor....

bhagwan69 schrieb:

n-line's The Horn uses a 12-layer cabinet construction to load its 6.5" banana-fiber widebander into a rear-horn line for a claimed F3 of 42Hz while a soft-dome tweeter adds 30kHz extension. Biwire terminals are standard. http://www.n-line-lautsprechersysteme.de/ :.

Great looking loudspeakers. I am sure they sound great too.

Here are some manufacturers of hi-end loudspeakers who do not use multiple layerd or “x-materials” to achieve great sound. They have embraced traditional and simple but thoughtful designs to achieve fantastic sound.
http://www.harbeth.co.uk/uk/index.php
http://www.audionote.co.uk/products/speakers/az-1_01.shtml

There a lot more of such designers out there.
One designer who really thinks out of the box is this one here. Some great musicians are among the people who own these speakers.
http://www.tetraspeakers.com/pages/listeningInstruments.html

Great sound can be achieved by inspired thinking and careful design also.

These are lot more such worthy examples out there.

square_wave schrieb:

bhagwan69 schrieb: [/url] http://www.harbeth.co.uk/uk/index.php http://www.audionote.co.uk/products/speakers/az-1_01.shtml These are lot more such worthy examples out there.

Sir,
1 thing is for sure - we definately listen to music very very differently;
I have heard the Harbeth & Audionote speakers on several occassions & have never liked them.
You seem to like their sound.

Tetra I have not auditioned - so cannot comment on it !

Wonder how a top ported tetra would sound ?

Top ported speakers I have yet to hear.....


Manek

Hi

I received my SET 2A3 amp from Viren yesterday.First of the quality of packing is first class. It is packed to withstand an explosion. I have seen high end equipment costing lakhs with inferior packing.

I spent the better part of last night listening to the amp.Seven hours of straight listening,and never got the urge(not even an inkling) to shut the system of.

One word to describe the sound FANTASTIC.

This is the best I have heard the Altecs. This amp walks all over the Quads,Leaks, Dynacos and Mcintosh.The other amps are good and I held the Quads in high regard when paired with the Altecs ,but this is in another class.

The detail retrieval,imaging and soundstage is terrific.Low level information and background information shows up clearly.

The sound is also three dimensional. Ambient clues of the recording venue which I did not hear with any other amp make recordings spooky real.The bass is tight and full.

I tried different GZ34 valves,but found that the BEL is the perfect match. The Mullard,RCA and Brimar sound very good and a little softer.I prefer the bass with the BEL,which is contrary to my experience with the Leaks and Dynaco amps where the Mullard,and RCA were better than the BEL.

I plan to spend the weekend at home listening to the amp,with the Altecs and Tannoy Golds.I am wondering how much better the sound will get as the amp breaks in.

I would like to mention that it is a pleasure to deal with Viren.He is not worried about the money he truly cares about what he does and his products. I hope his level of service is emulated by other Hi-Fi dealers.(No offence to members who are dealers but some dealers are pretty tardy)


Regards
Rajiv

Good Report;

Superb !

All the Best !

Great going Rajiv. Enjoy

hi rajiv,

thanks for that info on the GZ34s.was thinking of rolling but now i'll just keep mine.

regards break in i've not found so much of a difference over time. there's more of a difference when the amp hasnt been played for a few days and when its warmed up. big difference compared to when the amp has been played the day before and you're listening the next day. half an hour makes a good difference. one hour or more ideal.

i truly second the opinion of viren caring more bout your experience than the money.

regarding the packing when i received his speakers the delivery guy was looking at the boxes admiringly and saying he's never seeing such thoroughly good packing in his history of delivering packages.

do let us know how it goes after a week or so!

regards

Viren

Bravo sir

Bravo



Siva
Is your diy amp now in production ?

Manek

Amp-nut

Could you please explain what you meant by SF not using a cap in its crossover ?

I remember reading somewhere they have first order filters but....I am now a bit confused.

That inductor would be for the woofer but the tweeter ????

Manek

Nice to read yet another endorsement of one's opinion!
Viren is currently working on a SET Amp using the 845's.
Those babies are all of 10 inches long & glow in the dark , to boot .Don't you wish.....?? !!

Those 845 tubes are something....

All the best viren. Hope you come up with another winner
How much do you reckon they should pump out ?

Manek

Manek Said :

Amp-nut Could you please explain what you meant by SF not using a cap in its crossover ? I remember reading somewhere they have first order filters but....I am now a bit confused. That inductor would be for the woofer but the tweeter ????

Hi Maneck,

The Sonus faber (SF) Extrema speakers are 2 way speakers
(1 Tweeter + 1 Woofer) separated by a 6 dB per octave Xover Filter.

The simplest implementation of this would be the Woofer Directly connected to the amplifier, with the Tweeter + Series Capacitor also directly connected accross the amplifier.

For the Extremas, the Woofer IS connected directly accross the amplifier.

However, the tweeter uses a series Resistor + Inductor. The Tweeter is connected in parallel accross the inductor.

Stereophile had a very detailed ( tech & audition ) review. Check out this page for Figure B which is how the Tweeter is connected.

http://stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/915

( A picture is often better than a Hundred words )

At low freq, the Inductor is practically a Short ( low Impedance ) and nothing goes to the tweeter. As freq increases, the Inductor impedance rises, and current flows thru the tweeter...

Hi

Here are a couple of pictures of the SET2A3 amp.

The amp is on the floor,I have been too busy listening to it to reorganise the rack.






The black rectifier is a RCA metal GZ34,the other is a Mullard GZ34.

Regards
Rajiv

Kamal schrieb:

Nice to read yet another endorsement of one's opinion! Viren is currently working on a SET Amp using the 845's. Those babies are all of 10 inches long & glow in the dark , to boot .Don't you wish.....?? !!

i can see you do kamal! quit drooling!

thank you amp_nut

do you know of any other speaker who have this arrangement ?

hi viren,

what progress on the 845s and 6c33cs? been reading up, the 6c33c seems a good promising tube! despite its looks.

regards