DIY audiophile

by Kristofer Lacarrere
(New York)

Have been building my own stuff for years and have been using active crossovers for 15 years--

In my search for perfect sound I have bought many, many crossovers anything from infinity IRS, pioneer sf-850, Mirage, Audio Research and last but certainly not least TDM's which are pro audio and fantastic. I finally decided to go all digital using Pure Vinyl Channel D which has an incorporated electronic crossover, built in computer preamp and fumbled on your website. you should try it as I think it actually makes itunes sound way better even without the digital crossover!

The holy grail in my opinion for speakers at least for everything above 200cycles is no box at all--I only use old drivers believe it or not--for some reason paper sounds better than everything else and currently my reference system is a 5way--yeah sounds lile overkill but take a look at what I am using--sub35Hz - 1 sunfire with a stone sculpture on top of it that weighs about 100punds; use only built in crossover--makes a big difference otherwise it moves too much, from 35Hz to 200 Hz I have vented cabinets using Hi Vi F8's in 1.5 cubic feet each, 3" ports 5 inches deep (they sound really good! with a naturall rolloff around 35 cycles) from 200Hz to 1000Hz I use neodymium 10" JBL 125a's and an audio research EC-2 tubed crossover at 6db/12db for the 20Hz crossover--they sound fantastic and yes they are bigger than the drivers in the bass cabinet and operating on a narrow baffle 12" wide and 34" tall! You need a large driver to get real midbass (these are on a 15 degree 1.5" inch double reiforced baltic birch baffle, from 1000Hz to 8000Hz I then crossover using a very old but very good sounding pioneer sf-850 at 18db/18db-this is electable between 6/12 and 18db! (one of the low channels does not work and I still have not found anything that sounds better than my modded audio research! The pioneer input is hooked into the audio research's output for the highs)

As for upper midrange drivers I use old realistic 1.5" midrange dome back to back hooked in parallel but out of phase for 4ohm impedance with a 3ohm resistor to the back one in order to lower it's output and a .3mh inductor in series for a first order gentle slope around 8khz---this is an amazing sounding driver for the money and images better than anything else--the front upper midrange is also time aligned with the JBL lower midbass.


Last but not least and keeping with vintage drivers, I use old infinity Emit driver's with very high quality caps hooked in parallel (about 5 of them for about a 2Ufd value) for them to pick up the air (again these are time aligned and both the mdi and tweeter are glued using silicone on an oak 2 by 1 piece attached to the angled baffle-as such they have no baffle!)--this combo sounds fantastic with incredible authority and refinement--using my own custom built eight channel amplifier with very simple 50w/channel amps--I have noticed that passive still sound's better than active at high frequencies and for ribbons (all my designs basically now incorporate ribbons but they come in at higher fequencies--I have also had success with piezzo horn tweeters; they sound great if you cross them over high!)

The high frequency also means that the tweeter does not need to operate in a bipolar/dipolar mode (I use to incorporate switch so you could chose between the two)-It actually seems to sound better this way?

Extremely important -I use a separate cable for each driver that is soldered onto the driver terminals---this makes a huge difference and all my speakers are now directly soldered unto the cables--I also use very small gauge cables (24gauge solid copper/ double wound on each conductor for effective 21 gauge) -sounds great for the top three frequencies/(four drivers) and have special cables for bass drivers, don't remember the name but they sound good for every thing with very high purity copper stranded around a center core

I will send you pictures separately--

I am trying to get my ESI 8 channel d/a to work as we speak will definitely upgrade to an echo 12 by 12 very shortly but will let you know my impressions as soon as I can--Thanks--K