It's been quite a while since I posted here, but I haven't been satisfied with the sound of my home system for a long time.
3 years ago, I moved and my bedroom/main listening space was severely downsized from a 11x16 bedroom with a walk-in closet to a 10x12 bedroom with a regular closet.
Last year, a good friend of mine bought a converted school building to live in, and I was promised the ability to rent a classroom or two for my own purposes. That fell through, but for almost all of last year, I had acquired large things and made plans to build a legendary-class home theater/audiophile listening setup.
Now that that's definitely no longer an option, though a series of circumstances beyond his control, I have a lot of interesting things in storage.
These speakers are one of them. I have a total of 3, for a future LCR array. A friend of mine buys truckloads of ex-theater speakers and venue de-installs, and blows them out at incredible prices. Trouble is, there's not a huge market for that here in StL.
They're called the ElectroVoice VariplexB, a near 7-foot-tall monster designed to fill large movie theaters with THX-approved sound. Mid/High Packs are 8Ω. Bass bins are 4Ω.
Just for fun, I decided to stuff them into my 10x12 bedroom, along with a rack of amplification and processing suitable to drive them. Stock, they require biamping with an active crossover. The crossover network also includes compensation for high frequency losses incurred for firing through a screen, so the top end is pretty hot. I'm knocking it back 6db at 4.5khz. When I get some more speaker wire, I will bypass the crossover entirely and triamp them.
Amplification consists of a Yamaha PC-5002M (750wpc rated into 4Ω, 900w measured), Yamaha P-2100 (100wpc into 8Ω), and as soon as I get the rest of my speaker wire, Yamaha P-2075 (50w into 8Ω), and processing is performed by the Yamaha D-2040, a stereo digital active 4 way crossover and speaker processor. Very handy device.
I don't have good pictures, since I got this up and running all of 2 days ago, and they necessitated a large amount of re-arranging, so it's a bit of a mess. Not everything is set up right now, I'm driving the system off my MacBook Pro plugged straight in to the active crossover. When I get some more time this weekend I'll wire up the rest of it again.
Full Equipment List (not all seen in the pictures)
Lenco L75
Audio Research SP-3 Highly Modified Preamp
Technics RS-1500 R2R
MacBook Pro (Late 2011)
Teac X-3
Technics RS-M85
Various video decks (mainly used for transfers)
Yamaha D-2040
Yamaha P2075
Yamaha P-2100
Yamaha PC-5002M
Now, for the sound...
Good god. Once you get over the fact that the speakers are so tall it sounds like many things are coming from different heights, I have never heard a faster, detailed without fatigue, surprisingly refined, and open-sounding speaker in my home. The bass needs to be worked on, but I attribute that to the right one sitting directly in corner, and it doesn't sound bad, there's just too much of it. The bass is incredibly powerful, effortlessly shakes the room, and they get loud without sounding loud. They can come close to the power and realism and scale that I hear in live concerts, especially with massed choral works. Something not easily done.
My friend in the school also has 3 of these, and, while testing, we discovered the top boxes play REALLY well with tube amps (and at 107db/w, they should!). I'll be hooking up a PPEL84 Stromberg Carlson amp I've been enjoying lately after everything is set up and see how it sounds.
I don't think they'll be here for very long, but it will be fun. Given the size of the room and the fact that I have neighbors, I will probably go to a minimonitor/sub setup shortly.
3 years ago, I moved and my bedroom/main listening space was severely downsized from a 11x16 bedroom with a walk-in closet to a 10x12 bedroom with a regular closet.
Last year, a good friend of mine bought a converted school building to live in, and I was promised the ability to rent a classroom or two for my own purposes. That fell through, but for almost all of last year, I had acquired large things and made plans to build a legendary-class home theater/audiophile listening setup.
Now that that's definitely no longer an option, though a series of circumstances beyond his control, I have a lot of interesting things in storage.
These speakers are one of them. I have a total of 3, for a future LCR array. A friend of mine buys truckloads of ex-theater speakers and venue de-installs, and blows them out at incredible prices. Trouble is, there's not a huge market for that here in StL.
They're called the ElectroVoice VariplexB, a near 7-foot-tall monster designed to fill large movie theaters with THX-approved sound. Mid/High Packs are 8Ω. Bass bins are 4Ω.
Just for fun, I decided to stuff them into my 10x12 bedroom, along with a rack of amplification and processing suitable to drive them. Stock, they require biamping with an active crossover. The crossover network also includes compensation for high frequency losses incurred for firing through a screen, so the top end is pretty hot. I'm knocking it back 6db at 4.5khz. When I get some more speaker wire, I will bypass the crossover entirely and triamp them.
Amplification consists of a Yamaha PC-5002M (750wpc rated into 4Ω, 900w measured), Yamaha P-2100 (100wpc into 8Ω), and as soon as I get the rest of my speaker wire, Yamaha P-2075 (50w into 8Ω), and processing is performed by the Yamaha D-2040, a stereo digital active 4 way crossover and speaker processor. Very handy device.
I don't have good pictures, since I got this up and running all of 2 days ago, and they necessitated a large amount of re-arranging, so it's a bit of a mess. Not everything is set up right now, I'm driving the system off my MacBook Pro plugged straight in to the active crossover. When I get some more time this weekend I'll wire up the rest of it again.
Full Equipment List (not all seen in the pictures)
Lenco L75
Audio Research SP-3 Highly Modified Preamp
Technics RS-1500 R2R
MacBook Pro (Late 2011)
Teac X-3
Technics RS-M85
Various video decks (mainly used for transfers)
Yamaha D-2040
Yamaha P2075
Yamaha P-2100
Yamaha PC-5002M
Now, for the sound...
Good god. Once you get over the fact that the speakers are so tall it sounds like many things are coming from different heights, I have never heard a faster, detailed without fatigue, surprisingly refined, and open-sounding speaker in my home. The bass needs to be worked on, but I attribute that to the right one sitting directly in corner, and it doesn't sound bad, there's just too much of it. The bass is incredibly powerful, effortlessly shakes the room, and they get loud without sounding loud. They can come close to the power and realism and scale that I hear in live concerts, especially with massed choral works. Something not easily done.
My friend in the school also has 3 of these, and, while testing, we discovered the top boxes play REALLY well with tube amps (and at 107db/w, they should!). I'll be hooking up a PPEL84 Stromberg Carlson amp I've been enjoying lately after everything is set up and see how it sounds.
I don't think they'll be here for very long, but it will be fun. Given the size of the room and the fact that I have neighbors, I will probably go to a minimonitor/sub setup shortly.
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