[bagwell359]

Hi there... I'm introducing myself to this thread because I've read the 1st dozen pages of it, as well as the last half dozen or so. Still catching up!
Okay the real reason is because I'm currently tracking my fully-loaded black Ragnarok 2 through the interwebs, and I'm super-excited
It says on schedule, but with USPS on my end you never know. I can't wait until tomorrow, fingers crossed...

I've had PA speaker amps, some decent receivers, and an old Rotel integrated way back in the day, but never anything like this before. All my high-end gear has been for headphones. Although it's been a bit of a saga getting to here, I feel like I made the right choice in the end. For starters it'll be driving a pair ~70 year-old Lansing furniture grade floor standers. They're still fully functional, and they did scale up nicely with my first attempt at a better amp than my old Alesis pro audio unit. But they've definitely seen better days, I'm sure the crossovers need to be recapped at the very least. They're super efficient, but I'm feeding the Rag 2 through a preamp so I can attenuate that input. For now. I'm already formulating a future speaker migration/Ragnarok relocation strategy so I can open up these old Lansings at some point. I plan on getting a bluetooth receiver for the RCA input, and have a pro audio FM tuner that will work with the 2nd balanced input. The USB input will be from my laptop. The phono input has me thinking about a second turntable at some point. This hobby never quits!

My long-range target speakers are JBL's recently-updated L100 Classics, anybody heard those with a Ragnarok? While I'm slightly more interested in romance than accuracy, these seem to offer both. In that same vein I like some of Klipsh's Heritage line, primarily the Forte III and new Cornwall IV but the latter are especially huge, and the former have passive 15" rear-firing bass transducers that my neighbors might not appreciate. For these reasons I am also considering the Heresy III, but I think the JBLs may be a better match with the Ragnarok anyways. The JBLs are too large to be considered real bookshelf speakers, but they would sit nicely on top of my old Lansings if need be for a while, and then possibly transition to their angled floor stands in the future. I could also look at real bookshelf speakers and then transition to stands, but I don't want a subwoofer.

Besides the speakers, I anticipate hearing my beloved HE-6's at their very best

I was always a panel or dynamic (w/ ribbons better) guy. The only horns I really liked was the K-Horn playing something dynamic - Stanley Clarke for instance. Never heard the Cornwall. Knew the L100 well in original form. I'm seriously impressed with someone that loves the HE-6 and the L-100, maybe I should try them again, cause the HE-6 is the cats pajamas.

On the Rag 1 I've heard the Maggie .7i, Triangle Celius 202 (w/ ribbon), and several ProAc mini's - it handled them all well. Couldn't hack the 1.7i, 3.7i, or most ML speakers.

 

[grokit]

I was always a panel or dynamic (w/ ribbons better) guy. The only horns I really liked was the K-Horn playing something dynamic - Stanley Clarke for instance. Never heard the Cornwall. Knew the L100 well in original form. I'm seriously impressed with someone that loves the HE-6 and the L-100, maybe I should try them again, cause the HE-6 is the cats pajamas.

On the Rag 1 I've heard the Maggie .7i, Triangle Celius 202 (w/ ribbon), and several ProAc mini's - it handled them all well. Couldn't hack the 1.7i, 3.7i, or most ML speakers.

I haven't actually heard any version of the L100 personally. My roommate in college brought Klipschorns into the place, which he decided was ideal dimensionally. So he moved them and himself into my living room. He was using a 'nice' early 1980's Yamaha receiver so I never heard them to their full potential, but I was sold anyways. They were so outrageous that I became attracted to hi-fidelity sound much like a planet is to a star, the gravitational force of those massive Khorns was so compelling.

Then he was short on rent one month, and gave me his previous system in exchange: a Rotel integrated amp with matching tuner, and some floor-standing Avid speakers. This was my first personal foray into higher-fidelity sound; I added a Luxman turntable and a Nakamichi cassette deck, and was set for a while.

That was my main horn experience, and the reason I want Cornwalls. Version IV has a brand new midrange horn in it that seems quite impressive when compared to the previous versions. But honestly they're just substitutes for the Khorns. I would love to hear either one out of a WA-5, decked out with premium tubes of course.

I have finalized my speaker plans; I'm going vintage. I've sent out the crossovers to my early 60's JBL furniture-grade floor cabinet speakers for new caps & aircoils. The pots on the crossovers are in perfect shape like the caps are (physically, of course they measure way off). The drivers are coaxial, and the setup isn't the most sought after by JBL aficionados. But after hearing them scale up with class A, and tubes, in the amp chain, I decided to go all out with them, without going completely nuts. The knock against them is a sucked-out midrange, from trying to do too much with a single (coaxial) driver. In the stock configuration the woofer gets full range power, and the tweeter gets crossed over, with a pot for attenuation. I found some nice Minuets from about a decade later, and got a deal on them; they have a 8" full-range drivers with matching passive transducers, and they match the cabinet speakers cosmetically so they will sit on top. They should fill out the midrange nicely. I can drive them both separately, but we're also discussing another putting another crossover on the back (to be used optionally), so they can be driven together from the same amp channel. This will give me the option to use the speakers together, or separately. Or together but driven separately. Or whatever else I can think up, as I will have options.

Then since the old coaxials will certainly need some sub-bass reinforcement, I'm adding an SVS PC-2000 subwoofer. It seems to offer what I want, which is to get that reinforcement without totally alienating my neighbors, while also supposedly being able to express some musical nuance when called upon, not just boomboomboom. The cylinder style of the PC-2000 with its rear-facing port should provide enough strategic placement options to accomplish both my sonic, and social goals.

 

[crazychile]

inder
My roommate in college brought Klipschorns into the place....

That was my main horn experience, and the reason I want Cornwalls....

While I haven't heard the latest series of the Klipsch Heritage line, I sold Klipsch for many years as the V1 transitioned into the V2 series. Assuming they haven't messed up the voicing too far from previous iterations, the Cornwall is the sweet spot of the line. It has the deepest, most defined bass of the line, and almost reaches the midrange and tweeter clarity of the LaScala, (which would be perfect if it didn't roll off the bass too quickly). BTW, I never really liked the Klipschorn. The design only works in very specific rooms, and the freedom to toe in the speakers correctly isn't there. I'd take Cornwalls or LaScalas over Klipschorns any day.

Among other speakers, I have an original pair of Heresys that occasionally get paired with an Aegir. The Aegir works extremely well on these and doesn't suffer the harshness and shouty nature found with most mid-fi amplifiers. I've had a lot of experience with Klipsch on tube amplification, and I'd take the Aegir over many tube amps that cost several times as much.

 

[bagwell359]

inder
I haven't actually heard any version of the L100 personally. My roommate in college brought Klipschorns into the place, which he decided was ideal dimensionally. So he moved them and himself into my living room. He was using a 'nice' early 1980's Yamaha receiver so I never heard them to their full potential, but I was sold anyways. They were so outrageous that I became attracted to hi-fidelity sound much like a planet is to a star, the gravitational force of those massive Khorns was so compelling.

Then he was short on rent one month, and gave me his previous system in exchange: a Rotel integrated amp with matching tuner, and some floor-standing Avid speakers. This was my first personal foray into higher-fidelity sound; I added a Luxman turntable and a Nakamichi cassette deck, and was set for a while.

That was my main horn experience, and the reason I want Cornwalls. Version IV has a brand new midrange horn in it that seems quite impressive when compared to the previous versions. But honestly they're just substitutes for the Khorns. I would love to hear either one out of a WA-5, decked out with premium tubes of course.

I have finalized my speaker plans; I'm going vintage. I've sent out the crossovers to my early 60's JBL furniture-grade floor cabinet speakers for new caps & aircoils. The pots on the crossovers are in perfect shape like the caps are (physically, of course they measure way off). The drivers are coaxial, and the setup isn't the most sought after by JBL aficionados. But after hearing them scale up with class A, and tubes, in the amp chain, I decided to go all out with them, without going completely nuts. The knock against them is a sucked-out midrange, from trying to do too much with a single (coaxial) driver. In the stock configuration the woofer gets full range power, and the tweeter gets crossed over, with a pot for attenuation. I found some nice Minuets from about a decade later, and got a deal on them; they have a 8" full-range drivers with matching passive transducers, and they match the cabinet speakers cosmetically so they will sit on top. They should fill out the midrange nicely. I can drive them both separately, but we're also discussing another putting another crossover on the back (to be used optionally), so they can be driven together from the same amp channel. This will give me the option to use the speakers together, or separately. Or together but driven separately. Or whatever else I can think up, as I will have options.

Then since the old coaxials will certainly need some sub-bass reinforcement, I'm adding an SVS PC-2000 subwoofer. It seems to offer what I want, which is to get that reinforcement without totally alienating my neighbors, while also supposedly being able to express some musical nuance when called upon, not just boomboomboom. The cylinder style of the PC-2000 with its rear-facing port should provide enough strategic placement options to accomplish both my sonic, and social goals.

Nice to hear details from other folks who were around before 1985. Avid? 102's not bad at all for the time.

Good luck with your plans!

I was enthralled by the K-Horns until I heard a 23 foot wide solo violin come out of them. The guy who had it drove it off of a Mark Levinson I pre-amp, then put on a ML amp, and I'm telling you I was nailed to the chair by the sheer physical force.

 

[terminatetrails]

Update on my evolving quest for a cheap as Schiit 2 channel system that sounds like a bazillion bucks:
Switched out the OG Saga for a Freya + (with Tung Sol tubes) today. This is running a Yggy 2 to a single Aegir. Speakers are the very revealing bookshelf Focal 1008's in a smallish room (my office). Moving up the line to the Freya + is just like people have stated elsewhere. Saga is a wonderful pre (esp for the money!), Freya is far more precise, has a fuller soundstage and does layering in a way that Saga can't touch. If you have the money to go up a few hundred but don't want to go all in on a fancy pants 4 figure pre, Freya + is $$$.

 

[tricolor]

Hey. @terminatetrails , folks! hope all is well!
Nice! I might look into something in those lines down the road.... in the meantime, I’m enjoying my bifrost feeding the valhalla 2, it rocks with the headphones... but as it’s feeding an hercules power amp, i can enjoy 2 channels as well...

 

[unsane69]

Installment 2: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...bable-start-up.701900/page-3540#post-15290954

Odyssey ends here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...bable-start-up.701900/page-3545#post-15294931

Zu's on order. I can't really wait, but I have to :O

 

[bagwell359]

Update on my evolving quest for a cheap as Schiit 2 channel system that sounds like a bazillion bucks:
Switched out the OG Saga for a Freya + (with Tung Sol tubes) today. This is running a Yggy 2 to a single Aegir. Speakers are the very revealing bookshelf Focal 1008's in a smallish room (my office). Moving up the line to the Freya + is just like people have stated elsewhere. Saga is a wonderful pre (esp for the money!), Freya is far more precise, has a fuller soundstage and does layering in a way that Saga can't touch. If you have the money to go up a few hundred but don't want to go all in on a fancy pants 4 figure pre, Freya + is $$$.

Freya is a keeper. It's precise with that sweet tube kiss. The only signature I've heard that's better to me is the Pass kilobuck line stages and pre-amps. The Freya kicks the old Conrad-Johnsons, ARC SP-3, ARC SP-9, ARC SP-14. The ARC SP-15 was better - but at $6k list 35 years ago it had better be. That had the best on board step up I've heard. I wish the Freya had a polarity switch on it, and I understand some have had QA issues. Still it's very nice.

 

[grokit]

Nice to hear details from other folks who were around before 1985. Avid? 102's not bad at all for the time.

Good luck with your plans!

I was enthralled by the K-Horns until I heard a 23 foot wide solo violin come out of them. The guy who had it drove it off of a Mark Levinson I pre-amp, then put on a ML amp, and I'm telling you I was nailed to the chair by the sheer physical force.

Thanks!
I just had the LX2-1 crossovers rebuilt, they're like different speakers now

They're as restored as they're going to get now, maybe ever. I now have functional tweeters (yea!), plus they ramped up in musicality, accuracy, tone, etc. They're still using the LE-14C coaxials, so we decided to add a matching midrange: JBL's LE8T full-range driver to keep the vintage vibe. We were going to build some small boxes for a restored set of them, then I found out about their Minuet speakers from about a decade later. They use the LE8T drivers, with matching passive radiators (no crossover) so they're perfect for this. Plus they look similar enough to 'match' the furniture cabinets I have for the LE-14C's. I was lucky to find a set of Minuets in really good condition on eBay, from a great seller (we made an 'offer' kind of deal). He packed them professionally, I was impressed. I am a bit out of the way, and these are heavy for bookshelf speakers. I'm driving the big cabinets directly from my new Ragnarok 2. The Minuets are temporarily driven in parallel out of my old Alesis RA150, with a signal from the Rag 2's XLR pre-outs. I say temporarily because the guy that rebuilt the stock JBL 2-ways is going to make me custom 3-way crossovers, complete with the optional trim pot for the tweeters so the LX2-1 rebuild was mostly just for restoration. The PC-2000 gets the Rag 2's SE pre-outs.

Here's the big cabinets with the Minuets, and the Alesis temporarily on top of the PC-2000, which is a lot bigger in real life than I thought it would be.
I was driving the Minuets solo for a couple of days with the Rag 2 while I was waiting for the LX2-1's, they sounded great. I can't wait to integrate them properly.
edit: better pic

My Avids were 101's, kinda weird with two of the three the tweeters going sideways. They're nice and musical, very precise. Easy placement, just lacking in low end.
They're still alive, in my buddy's welding shop I think.

 

[wout31]

@grokit Beautiful vintage material

 

[bagwell359]

Thanks!
I just had the LX2-1 crossovers rebuilt, they're like different speakers now

They're as restored as they're going to get now, maybe ever. I now have functional tweeters (yea!), plus they ramped up in musicality, accuracy, tone, etc. They're still using the LE-14C coaxials, so we decided to add a matching midrange: JBL's LE8T full-range driver to keep the vintage vibe. We were going to build some small boxes for a restored set of them, then I found out about their Minuet speakers from about a decade later. They use the LE8T drivers, with matching passive radiators (no crossover) so they're perfect for this. Plus they look similar enough to 'match' the furniture cabinets I have for the LE-14C's. I was lucky to find a set of Minuets in really good condition on eBay, from a great seller (we made an 'offer' kind of deal). He packed them professionally, I was impressed. I am a bit out of the way, and these are heavy for bookshelf speakers. I'm driving the big cabinets directly from my new Ragnarok 2. The Minuets are temporarily driven in parallel out of my old Alesis RA150, with a signal from the Rag 2's XLR pre-outs. I say temporarily because the guy that rebuilt the stock JBL 2-ways is going to make me custom 3-way crossovers, complete with the optional trim pot for the tweeters so the LX2-1 rebuild was mostly just for restoration. The PC-2000 gets the Rag 2's SE pre-outs.

Here's the big cabinets with the Minuets, and the Alesis temporarily on top of the PC-2000, which is a lot bigger in real life than I thought it would be.
I was driving the Minuets solo for a couple of days with the Rag 2 while I was waiting for the LX2-1's, they sounded great. I can't wait to integrate them properly.
Whoops I need to clean that other subwoofer, about to move it to the other side. It's for the TV.

My Avids were 101's, kinda weird with two of the three the tweeters going sideways. They're nice and musical, very precise. Easy placement, just lacking in low end.
They're still alive, in my buddy's welding shop I think.

I

 

[mykeldg]

Well, after some discussions with the wife I'm sorry to say, but for the foreseeable future I won't be getting these speakers! There is no way to audition them, and ordering them from UK or US without auditioning is... a bit too risky, especially since returning will incur big transportation costs.

We've been listening to several speakers in the meantime now: DALI Rubicon 2, KEF R3, Sonus Faber Sonetto 2, Monitor Audio Gold 100 5g, DynAudio Evoke 10 & 20.

And the winner: DynAudio Special 40.

Sounds best of all speakers, with 2 different amplifiers (Ragnarok 2, NAIM Atom Unity). 2nd best: Monitor Audio Gold 100.

KEF R3 had rave reviews so I had high expectations of them but they really disappointed. They sounded better with the Ragnarok 2 than with the NAIM Atom Unity, at least they were listenable, but nothing to make them stand out. Nothing "wow" about them.

How would you rank the Rubicon 2 against the R3 and Special 40? I'm also looking at these 3 speakers in the near future. Although R3 is low in my list---my past speakers are Kef q350 and they sound a tad closed/compressed to my now Dali opticon 2s. Would appreciate any impressions of your demo of them. TIA

 

[Tim van der Leeuw]

How would you rank the Rubicon 2 against the R3 and Special 40? I'm also looking at these 3 speakers in the near future. Although R3 is low in my list---my past speakers are Kef q350 and they sound a tad closed/compressed to my now Dali opticon 2s. Would appreciate any impressions of your demo of them. TIA

It's been a while now since I've listened to them, and I wasn't able to directly compare the DALI's to the others, but I would say that:

Special 40 > DALI Rubicon 2 > Kef R3.

I had high expectations of the Kef's but I found them very disappointing, even just on their own, without comparing to anything else. Bass was very bloomy, for lack of a better word. Not at all enjoyable to listen to. I came back to them several times just because I couldn't believe the sound was really that disappointing, after all glowing reviews I've heard.

The DALI Rubicon 2 was quite pleasant to listen to, but it was in the category of "yeah, sounds fine", not in the category of "wow listen to this, I can't stop listening!".

Of course a lot depends on the music. The music we listened to for auditioning was a mix of various things Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, The Nits, and various blues / blues-rock songs, along with some Dire Straits, Alan Parsons Project, a bit of opera, and various other things thrown in that were suggested by the guy working in the shop.

Definately given give it a listen with your own preferred music.

 

[mykeldg]

^^ Thanks, I agree with your observations with the Kef sound. I guess it takes a while for your brain to get used to the 'coherent' sound from UniQ drivers, it will seem to sound a bit too warm / closed beside traditional speakers and tend to sound too refined / less dynamic. The bass was the most prominent sound as well, to the point of needing foam plugs for it to sound 'right' on my room . The 1st thing I got back after switching to Dali was the energy and expressiveness in the mids that was not there on the Kefs.

But thanks for your tips, I'll be giving the Special 40 a demo.

 

[Mr Rick]

Hi folks,

Haven't been around in quite a while because basically nothing has changed, until now.

Yesterday I received a pair of Tannoy XS8-Fs. They are gorgeous floor standers, and have a sound to match. To my 70 year old ears they have better bass and a brighter top end then my LS50s. Also, they are 91db efficient so should be a good match to the Aegir. ( No, I do not have one yet. )

Other news is that I have a very special pair of bookshelves on the way. More on those when they arrive.

I'll be 70 in mid February, so I'm celebrating early.