Ultimate Aragon 18K Rebuild

[mondialfan]

The audio room? Yes, I can thank Michael, aka. TOMLINMGT for all of the acoustics work in my audio room. We bartered that one out, I utilized his skills in acoustics and he utilized mine in electronics. It was a very good deal for me for sure. He built all of the bass and wall panels and brought his electronics over and performed pre and post measurements of the room for me. It definitely made a believer out of me on the need for acoustics in your sound room. The difference was night and day, hell it might have been better than night and day!

You should check out some of the acoustic treatments and baffle/diffuser projects he has built. I've told him he needs to go into business building that stuff, but I guess the powder coating business is doing too well...

 

[Dr K]

Since we're on the subject of room treatment, here are some photos of my room setup. These aren't current but gives a good representation.

 

[tomlinmgt]

Very nice, Dr. K! That seating position surely provides a nice little bump to the first few octaves. And your portable absorption panels look almost exactly like the ones I made for myself...right down to the triangular-ish feet! How did the gridfusors work out for you?

 

[Dr K]

Very nice, Dr. K! That seating position surely provides a nice little bump to the first few octaves. And your portable absorption panels look almost exactly like the ones I made for myself...right down to the triangular-ish feet! How did the gridfusors work out for you?

Hi. Thanks! The diffusors improved the soundstage and helped reduce the very bad slap echo in the room along with the absorbers. I now have more diffusors covering the length of both sides of the walls near the ceiling.

I recently hung a panel bass absorber on the entrance door behind my listening chair (technically the bass absorbers are effective into the upper frequencies). This along with the panel absorber that stands at the front wall between the wall of diffusors deepened the soundstage, improved image focus, surprisingly increased bass clarity and extension, and helped to reduce a bass mode around 50-80 Hz. I now have no major bass modes that excite the room. Bass response is satisfyingly even, although not perfect.

I got rid of the absorbers for the 2nd reflection points on the side walls, as I found them dampening the sound too much and killing some of the liveliness my Raidho D2s are known for. Every speaker needs adjustment in the acoustic treatment because they all interact differently in the room.

Btw, I also use the panel absorber flat on the floor in front of the speakers to absorb the floor bounce. I was surprised to find the improvement in the overall clarity of the sound from lower midrange on down.

With my current setup, I get a wall of sound from floor to ceiling, beyond the sides of the speakers, and extending well beyond the front wall. There's excellent image focus within the soundstage. Of course, all this is dependent on the quality of recording. It took me 3 years of experimenting and educating myself on room acoustics to get to this point.

I consider acoustic room treatment the most important component of your audio system. Without it, your $10k+ speakers and expensive electronics are a waste of money. It's like buying a Fararri and only having a small parking lot to drive it in. And proper room treatment can make your $1k speaker sound like a $6k speaker.

The $3k I invested in room treatment is the best money I've ever spent in audio. Sometimes I'm befuddled by audiophiles who invests $5k+ on speaker wire or a power cord but none on room treatment.

 

[mondialfan]

That's an incredible audio room you've got there Dr. K. I have heard you talk about it, but the pictures are worth much more than a thousand words. Its nice to see the acoustic treatments of others dedicated audio rooms as you always get an idea or two for improvements to implement on your own. In the past I have thought about adding an absorber front and center behind the curtains in my audio room. So you've got me thinking about this again. Michael has a large wood diffuser that he custom built located on the front wall of his audio room. The stained wood its made out of creates a look that seems more like some sort of super high end wood paneling system than an audio diffuser. I know Michael has a thread about it out there, if he sees this post maybe he can link us to the thread with pictures.

 

[Dr K]

That's an incredible audio room you've got there Dr. K. I have heard you talk about it, but the pictures are worth much more than a thousand words. Its nice to see the acoustic treatments of others dedicated audio rooms as you always get an idea or two for improvements to implement on your own. In the past I have thought about adding an absorber front and center behind the curtains in my audio room. So you've got me thinking about this again. Michael has a large wood diffuser that he custom built located on the front wall of his audio room. The stained wood its made out of creates a look that seems more like some sort of super high end wood paneling system than an audio diffuser. I know Michael has a thread about it out there, if he sees this post maybe he can link us to the thread with pictures.

Hi Kevin, I'm glad you like what I've done. With your dipole electrostat, I would be careful of adding more absorption in your room, which can suck the life out of music. IMHO, diffusors are more effective in creating a more livelier and engrossing sound with dipoles. But with your Vandersteen, it may work well. I think it's important to have a mix of absorption and diffusion as they complement each other. Experiment has been key in my setup because I've found theory and practice can be very different.

I would love to see Michael's custom diffusor!

 

[tomlinmgt]

Here it is mocked up on the floor before finishing and mounting to the wall...and just to be clear it's not my design. This a 7-module fractal array based on the leanfuser from Argen acoustics. It's easiest to see it in its entirety behind the LS50's, but I think its effects were best realized with tall/line source dipole designs like the Spectra 22's (now in Kevin's rig) in the second picture. Behind the diffuser array is almost 6" of rock wool and OC703.

 

[Dr K]

View attachment 781106 Here it is mocked up on the floor before finishing and mounting to the wall...and just to be clear it's not my design. This a 7-module fractal array based on the leanfuser from Argen acoustics. It's easiest to see it in its entirety behind the LS50's, but I think its effects were best realized with tall/line source dipole designs like the Spectra 22's (now in Kevin's rig) in the second picture. Behind the diffuser array is almost 6" of rock wool and OC703.
View attachment 781101 View attachment 781102

That is a beautiful diffusor! Awesome job. What is the overall dimension? It must be heavy as hell with all that wood. Can it be constructed from a lighter wood like balsa or other synthetic material?

 

[Mark B]

Wonderful listening room Dr K.

 

[Dr K]

Wonderful listening room Dr K.

Thank you. Btw, which Yamah amp are you using? Have you heard the A-S3000?

 

[Mark B]

My main amp is the MX-10000 pictured in my avatar. However, I've been using my B-1 since AKer Vint Age refurbished it, and it is superb. I haven't had the pleasure of listening to an A-S3000.

 

[Dr K]

My main amp is the MX-10000 pictured in my avatar. However, I've been using my B-1 since AKer Vint Age refurbished it, and it is superb. I haven't had the pleasure of listening to an A-S3000.

The MX-10000 is the centennial anniversary amp and B1 is the VFET amp, correct? Are they similar technology? How do they compare in sound? I've always wanted a VFET amp.

 

[tomlinmgt]

That is a beautiful diffusor! Awesome job. What is the overall dimension? It must be heavy as hell with all that wood. Can it be constructed from a lighter wood like balsa or other synthetic material?

Thank you. Since each of the seven modules is its own separate piece it wasn't too bad to mount up. The modules that have the deepest wells were a maybe little tricky since they're the heaviest and a bit more cumbersome...I would guess the heaviest modules to be around 25-30 lbs (that's 1/2" birch plywood I used). I think the entire span of the array is something like 12'.
You can build them from anything that has an acoustically reflective surface.
One thing is for sure, they were orders of magnitude easier to build than the 11-well QRD diffusers I built. Here's a pic of one of the portable QRD arrays being experimented with at sidewall first reflection.

 

[Mark B]

The MX-10000 is the centennial anniversary amp and B1 is the VFET amp, correct? Are they similar technology? How do they compare in sound? I've always wanted a VFET amp.

That's correct. They're both SS amps, and both use FET gain stages. The output stage is BJT for the MX-10000 and VFET for the B-1. They're my favorite amps, but I've never A/B'ed them.

 

[Dr K]

Thank you. Since each of the seven modules is its own separate piece it wasn't too bad to mount up. The modules that have the deepest wells were a maybe little tricky since they're the heaviest and a bit more cumbersome...I would guess the heaviest modules to be around 25-30 lbs (that's 1/2" birch plywood I used). I think the entire span of the array is something like 12'.
You can build them from anything that has an acoustically reflective surface.
One thing is for sure, they were orders of magnitude easier to build than the 11-well QRD diffusers I built. Here's a pic of one of the portable QRD arrays being experimented with at sidewall first reflection. View attachment 781278

Those QRD are nice too. They look very professionally done. I've always wanted something like the diffusors you made but they're too heavy.

 

[Dr K]

That's correct. They're both SS amps, and both use FET gain stages. The output stage is BJT for the MX-10000 and VFET for the B-1. They're my favorite amps, but I've never A/B'ed them.

I would love to hear back from you if you ever do A/B them.

 

[Dr K]

Another update. Mondialfan has almost everything completed, only a few more Zfoils need to replace some of the selected stock resistors.

Here is his first impression:
"I just finished listening to half of the Clapton unplugged CD and a few songs from a couple of other CD's and it sounds great. It seems much less laid back, more extended on top but not to the point of being tizzy and irritating. Soundstage seems wider, I don't feel its any deeper, but width has definitely improved. I need to listen some more, but for now I'm impressed...."
"I spent a couple more hours tonight listening to your new pre and it really does smack down my modded 28k. It has a sense of immediacy that now leaves me wanting to modify my 28K."


Here are some photos:

 

[Mark B]

 

[Bostown]

Another update. Mondialfan has almost everything completed, only a few more Zfoils need to replace some of the selected stock resistors.

Here is his first impression:
"I just finished listening to half of the Clapton unplugged CD and a few songs from a couple of other CD's and it sounds great. It seems much less laid back, more extended on top but not to the point of being tizzy and irritating. Soundstage seems wider, I don't feel its any deeper, but width has definitely improved. I need to listen some more, but for now I'm impressed...."
"I spent a couple more hours tonight listening to your new pre and it really does smack down my modded 28k. It has a sense of immediacy that now leaves me wanting to modify my 28K."


Here are some photos:

View attachment 781628 View attachment 781629

Im closing my eyes and not reading this ...la la la la la la. ( you know how little kids do when they want that thing the other kid is getting. Hahaha ?).
Sounds like it truly is the Ultimate Aragon Preamp. Well beyond what most aragon fans could dream up, yet we are all witnessing it happen. Awesome for sure.

 

[theophile]

Frankenaragon. Formerly Aragon. Aragon no longer. Not Ultimate Aragon.