[jgwtriode]

My OTL has the power switch right and HP jack left.

Would love to see photos of the Jota. Loved the sound of their PX-25, which I got to play with years ago. Had a number of customers using Jotas on the Talon Khorus back in the day when I used to work for them. Wonderful Amps!

jgwtriode

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

I'm curious what DAC chips Lampizator uses, my understanding is they used to use R2R but switch to delta-sigma.

Yeup. But I have heard tons of lampizator dacs, and I have never been all that impressed with them. I would fully expect your dac to sound better.

 

[Smallpie]

That is how it was explained to me, although, at least on the TRP, you could request a R2R version. Im not sure if they are still doing that.

Your TRP is not R2R? I wonder why they switched? I’ll definitely have to read into it. I thought my Atlantic was R2R but I never looked inside to see what chip was used.

I just looked at their website and it’s very vague. Just says d/a chip in the technology info. Is all the version 2’s the new chip?

 

[Monsterzero]

Your TRP is not R2R?

If im not mistaken, Lampizator abandoned R2R design across all of their DACs about 3-4 years ago. As I said before, they were offering to still do a R2R implementation upon request, but default is now d/s. So no, my TRP is not R2R.

Interesting story:

Fred dropped off a loaner TRP at my old place, as he lived close by. I had it for a week, and it blew my mind. Only after giving it back to Fred did I learn that it was a d/s DAC. As a devout R2R guy, I told Fred that if I had known prior that it wasnt a R2R DAC I wouldnt have been interested in hearing it.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

If im not mistaken, Lampizator abandoned R2R design across all of their DACs about 3-4 years ago. As I said before, they were offering to still do a R2R implementation upon request, but default is now d/s. So no, my TRP is not R2R.

Interesting story:

Fred dropped off a loaner TRP at my old place, as he lived close by. I had it for a week, and it blew my mind. Only after giving it back to Fred did I learn that it was a d/s DAC. As a devout R2R guy, I told Fred that if I had known prior that it wasnt a R2R DAC I wouldnt have been interested in hearing it.

I put a lot of stock in what is happening in the DIY world, I might be crazy but I think some of the best gear is being made by DIYers / engineers in that arena, and quite a few people over on diyAudio are designing D/S DACs to much acclaim, so I'm sure it can be done well.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I've returned from COVID hell, back to DIY. I've pretty much exhausted my options for these metal grills covers for the Klipsch Forte IV. I reached out to Speakerworks for custom grills but wasn't really impressed with what they had to say, so of course I am going to DIY it.

There is an advantage to making them myself - I can make them look cool. Right now my vague plan is to order the speakers along with a pair of spare grills from Klipsch. Once I get the dimensions, I am going to order some cut-to-size perforated metal sheets (lots of dealers online). I'll remove the original plastic grill cloth, likely apply a cloth grill material (potentially a colored type, for additional swag). I'll then paint / coat the cut perforated sheets (probably black), then apply them in front of the grill cloth, probably screwed down to the grill substrate.

What I like about this idea is having control of how they look. Just as an example, I could do a maroon grill cloth with this type of perforated metal sheet over top of it, primed and painted black.



Other patterns are available, this one just jumped out to me, could give the speakers that vintage Altec Valencia type of look, which I think would be nice.



Anyway, going to try and finalize these plans today. Will be replacing the second Snell driver surround and working on the bronze Airmid today.

 

[Mr Trev]

I've returned from COVID hell, back to DIY. I've pretty much exhausted my options for these metal grills covers for the Klipsch Forte IV. I reached out to Speakerworks for custom grills but wasn't really impressed with what they had to say, so of course I am going to DIY it.

There is an advantage to making them myself - I can make them look cool. Right now my vague plan is to order the speakers along with a pair of spare grills from Klipsch. Once I get the dimensions, I am going to order some cut-to-size perforated metal sheets (lots of dealers online). I'll remove the original plastic grill cloth, likely apply a cloth grill material (potentially a colored type, for additional swag). I'll then paint / coat the cut perforated sheets (probably black), then apply them in front of the grill cloth, probably screwed down to the grill substrate.

What I like about this idea is having control of how they look. Just as an example, I could do a maroon grill cloth with this type of perforated metal sheet over top of it, primed and painted black.



Other patterns are available, this one just jumped out to me, could give the speakers that vintage Altec Valencia type of look, which I think would be nice.



Anyway, going to try and finalize these plans today. Will be replacing the second Snell driver surround and working on the bronze Airmid today.

I vote for the bottom picture - that's a damn good looking loudspeaker!

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I vote for the bottom picture - that's a damn good looking loudspeaker!

That's the inspiration, what I'm going to do most likely is the pattern above painted matte black and will mount it in front of a colored grill cloth.

So this gothic pattern in matte black.



Mounted in front of this burgundy grill cloth.



On this speaker.



Might change my mind on the color, could do a green or black on black, we'll see, going to call to order the speakers today!

 

[Xcalibur255]

The gothic pattern is very sharp looking.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

The gothic pattern is very sharp looking.

Thanks, I think so too! It's a 58% open pattern so it will work well, the diamonds are probably a little less than 1" across from side to side. There is enough space on the "X" areas to drill holes, that is how I will mount it to the magnetic grill substrate. I am thinking I will do black on black actually. Depending on what the cuts cost, might order one extra to experiment with different coats / colors.

 

[miketlse]

I saw that on their website as well. I was confused at first but then I went to the Baltic 3 whatsbestforum and had seen someone else get that option.

I'll take a look at them Focals! I'll have to pitch the living room for big listening to the wife.

I tried the Focal Aria 936 driven by a Chord Hugo 2, at approx half power.
They turned out to be amongst my best experiences for listening to quietish jazz, but with low powered amps.
Overall - there is no need to use mega-powered amps, so plenty of opportunity for those happy to explore lower powered amps.

 

[Mr Trev]

That's the inspiration, what I'm going to do most likely is the pattern above painted matte black and will mount it in front of a colored grill cloth.

So this gothic pattern in matte black.



Mounted in front of this burgundy grill cloth.



On this speaker.



Might change my mind on the color, could do a green or black on black, we'll see, going to call to order the speakers today!

I do like the pattern on the Altec better, but they're your speakers
What material is the grille made of? Something that could be blued? Don't know why, but I'm a sucker for bluing

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I do like the pattern on the Altec better, but they're your speakers
What material is the grille made of? Something that could be blued? Don't know why, but I'm a sucker for bluing

Yeah the Altec pattern isn't going to be available commercially since those speakers are 55-years-old, there is another gothic pattern that is interesting, could consider it, but the size of the holes is larger, nearly 1.5" across, so have to weigh that against the cat protection they will offer since that is the primary purpose of the project. The material is cold rolled steel.

Here is the other gothic pattern.

 

[jgwtriode]

Sweet deal! Just out of curiosity how good are the stock crossovers, wiring and connectors at this level of Klipsch. So I trust you will be redoing the crossover and wiring. How do their drivers compare with other high end audio speaker manufacturers. When I was in college I thought Klipsch corner horns were the ultimate. Then I had a friend get Infinity RS 4.5s and the high end game started for me at the age of 21. Some 40 years later still at it!

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Sweet deal! Just out of curiosity how good are the stock crossovers, wiring and connectors at this level of Klipsch. So I trust you will be redoing the crossover and wiring. How do their drivers compare with other high end audio speaker manufacturers. When I was in college I thought Klipsch corner horns were the ultimate. Then I had a friend get Infinity RS 4.5s and the high end game started for me at the age of 21. Some 40 years later still at it!

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

The stock crossovers will need some work, they use sandcast resistors (ew), film caps, iron core inductors. Will most definitely be swapping out the resistors, likely the inductors, and MAYBE the caps if I can find equivalent values at better quality (the crossovers use some very oddball cap values). All of the Klipsch drivers are proprietary, can't say how they compare to other designers specifically, but I will say the most recent iteration of their Heritage line (version IV) has been very well received. I've seen members on Audiokarma say they would take the new Heritage line over vintage Altecs like the model 19 and many old JBLs. Pretty hard to find a bad review of these speakers, specifically the Forte IV and Cornwall IV, most everyone seems to say they are a knockout. The horn speaker / high-sensitivity speaker market is pretty small, I've signed onto living in that niche given I am running single-ended class A tube amps. My 801A amp is a beastly 7-watter the 99dB in room sensitivity of the Forte IV is a good match, loved what I heard from them when demo'd. Other players in the high-sensitivity market that aren't ultra expensive are Volti Audio, Zu Audio, Omega, Fern & Roby...open baffle is another option but again, not great having exposed wires / drivers with cats. Klipsch is a nice choice since they are a mainstream brand that isn't bonkers expensive, I don't have to cry if something breaks, I can just get it replaced without too much stress.