Audio Spec Perseus revisited

I have revisited my Audio Spec Perseus with the Myriad T-40 amplifier, these speaker have blown me away when placed near field, sure the bass is limited but the mid range and high end are phenomenal. They work well with the Myryad as the Myryad is a little more mid range forward.

These are truly a beautiful little speaker.

Rotel RP-830

A little tribute to my Rotel RP-830 turntable. I have had this turntable since new when I upgraded from a Pioneer PL2 turntable shortly after buying my Rotel RA 840BX amplifier.

This turntable has always been outfitted with either a Mission 773 Cartridge or a Mission Solitaire cartridge.

Heathkit AR-1214

The Heathkit AR-1214 found a new home today and I was really impressed by the natural sound stage this little 15 watt per channel amp gave off. In the end it matched really well with the Paradigm Control Monitors.

I actually think I will miss this little receiver.

EPI 100 Plus T/E Series

A pair of EPI 100 Plus T/E Series speakers arrived today.

These are the last incarnation of the famous EPI 100 series. These units have a polypropylene woofer and a regular dome tweeter. As per EPI build, the tweeter is crossed in a first order with a 10uf cap around 1800hz. The 8 inch woofer has a long throw and is acoustically suspended in the cabinet.

This is the 3rd pair of  EPI 100's I have had and this set was made in 1986. The woofer has already been re foamed. 4th pair if I include the Genesis 22 speakers.

I have always liked the sound of EPI speakers and these are no exception to that rule. Minor improvements include a bigger front baffle for a larger sound stage.

I have already added more fill into the box to help with the dampening and a new 10uf cap might be in order as these speakers are greatly improved with that minor upgrade.

I never say no to a pair of EPI 100's, these are very musical speakers that are a joy to listen to. Somewhere along the line you owe yourself an audition of these speakers.

Acoustic Research AR 15 project

A labor of love is going to go into this pair of Acoustic Research AR 15's.

These speakers are a bit of a basket case at present but they have a beautiful walnut veneer cabinet and the original woofers have been re foamed already.

The cabinets will need work along with a new tweeter to replace the blown one, I might opt for a pair of Dayton Silk Domes for these and sell the one good tweeter on Ebay to offset the cost.

Someone along the way tried to glue some funky tweeter into place and did some damage to the front baffle, I will fill these spots in with a sawdust/glue mixture and repaint the front baffles, perhaps a piano gloss.

While I have these apart the crossovers will probably get new caps.

I will be in no real hurry to get these ones going until the weather get nicer to work on the cabinets outside.

JBL CF150

A regular reader and friend of Speakerholic dropped off a massive pair of JBL speakers a few weeks ago the JBL CF150.

These giants stand 36" tall and are 18" wide and 16" deep, it takes two people to move them. These JBL's  sport a massive 15" woofer, a 6.5" midbass driver acting as a mid range and a dome tweeter. The efficiency of these speakers are 98db at 1 watt which makes them pretty loud.

These are not your typical "Wife Friendly" speakers and nor do they work in a 700 square foot condo, these speakers overpower everything but the biggest home theatre or man cave. I have these in my room that measures 14'x18' and there is no way this space can do these speakers justice.

The CF150 was circa mid 1990's and retailed for about $1000 a pair. I don't really know where these fit into JBL's line up or what the marketing was behind these speakers.

When I got these giants and listened to them for the first time a distinct resonance was coming from one of the speakers, the woofers are so big and powerful that they rattled the poorly braced and dampened cabinet apart.

When I pulled these speakers apart I found them to be an odd mix of really well made components yet a poorly made cabinet. The 15" woofer is a typical high end JBL cast basket woofer, the crossover used poly film capacitors yet the cabinets had virtually no bracing and zero dampening material internally, it was almost like they started to cut corners to reach a price point.

The game plan was to reinforce the cabinet and add internal dampening material to beef up the cabinets. A drop by a friends upholstery shop and I cut the wood to size and got the poly fill material, lots of it.

The first thing I had to do was apply a bead of glue on every corner in the cabinet, after that dried I glued in bracing material on the side of the cabinets and on the front to rear baffles.

Next was the sound dampening material and lots of it.

Extra material also went into the midbass enclosure as well as a seal around the woofer.

These speakers are re assembled and I have had the pleasure of listening to them but before I get to the sound here a few pictures to see the scale of the size. First the JBL versus a Pioneer HPM-60.

The JBL in the room versus all my other speaker along a wall as there is no where else to put them.

 

The sound, typically JBL with very full bass, I am running them off the Myryad T-40 amp which is mid range forward and these speakers have a surprisingly good sound stage. I find them to be very open and airy not unlike the Dual CL390's. One can hear all the different positions of the instruments with a convincing three dimensional sound stage.When switching between speakers I had to adjust the volume for the JBL's efficiency. The 15' woofers really added a nice full bottom end that speakers with an 8" to 10" woofers can not do. 

I tried the JBL's out with the Sherwood S-8250 CP receiver which has a heavier bass and laid back mid range and the speakers did not sound nearly as nice. I also believe the higher dampening factor in the Myryad has better control over the speaker.

When listening to Pink Floyd the wall at 40% volume you felt the music like in a concert hall. I bumped the volume up to 50% but my listening space is not optimal for those volumes and I am sure the neighbors were annoyed. These speakers need a large space to let them run. One other note is spikes in the corners of the base would help isolate the speaker from the floor and tighten up the bass, an extra 4 inches of elevation would help out.

These speakers would shine in the right large room along with the right 100-200 watt amp, they certainly shined in my small space with a mid powered amp up to about 40% volume after that it just got to loud for the space.

Sherwood S-8250 CP Receiver re-post

 

 

I picked up an early 80's Sherwood receiver today that was advertised for a really low price due to the unit's not firing up. The ad said it would turn off and on. I figured it could be traced to a cold solder joint.

When I got the receiver home and opened it up I could hear a sizzling sound coming from the on switch box. I pulled the little grey box off and opened it up to find the contact point dirty and not connection properly. Some contact cleaner and sand paper got this switch working perfectly.

I also cleaned out all the pots and switches while the unit was apart.

To my aesthetics, the face plate of the Sherwood is perfectly balanced with the big knobs and buttons and with a beautiful brushed aluminum face plate that is so common from this era. The bass and treble knobs have perfect 5 clicks when turned either way. The volume knob has forty clicks as you pass through the control. There is classy faux walnut vinyl veneer on the side panels. The S8250CP is well built and weighs in around 25 pounds due to the massive transformer.

 The Sherwood S-8250 CP (CP stands for certified performance) is nice mid-fi offering from Sherwood and looks like it was designed to compete against Pioneer in the day. Sherwood is a brand that "also ran" during the golden age of audio and I think this receiver was one of their better offerings. Sherwood was a brand that flew under the radar.

From what I gather this unit runs 35 watts per channel although I have also seen a post that says it is 50 watts per channel, my bet is that it is 35 watts per channel.

Right now it is powering the Audio Spec Perseus speakers in my office and it will run through he gauntlet of all my speakers in the coming days. Very sweet sound with a convincing bottom end, very, very warm.