Michael could have chosen the system in the other room, which has a pair of ten π horns on a huge power amp. But my seventeen-year-old son is listening to the system with the SET amp with increasing regularity. And I've noticed that his friends are doing it too.

Just last year, he wanted the boom-boom subwoofer for the car. Now it seems that he's growing more fond of SET's on horns. And I haven't really influenced him, other than to have the system available and setup. I wouldn't have expected Michael or his friends to use the system. In fact, I was under this impression so strongly that the times I've noticed them using tube amps, I've assumed it was just a matter of convenience - being in the same room - or maybe it was a curiosity or a novelty. But that doesn't explain their repeated choice of triodes.

There really can be only one explaination. This is a group of high-school kids that are diggin' their favorite music on tubes and horns. Go figure.

Smart kids there! Took me into my very early twenties before I followed the path of horns and tubes. Looking back I feel like I've been afflicted with an incurable illness. I just can't seem to shake the horn bug! Take care, Jerrod

btw....the Pi Speakers page facelift looks great!

That said, what are the SET amplifiers of choice, perferably
something low noise as high sensitivity HF drivers tend to
magnifiy the faults of electronic gear /hehe/ ///// hisssss ////

Come to think of it, in my house growing up in late 50s early 60s, my Dad built tube (mono, then stereo) electronics and bass reflex speakers, good equipment, and we listened to music all the time. Then, after he succumbed to progress- transistors & AR speakers, we gradually stopped listening as much. Too bad he's not around now to enjoy the comeback!

The 18 year old who asked me to help him with his car stereo project listens to rap, hiphop, stuff I don't ever expect to "get", but he about fell out of his chair listening to Santana on tubes and my audiophile ed Pi 4's. His 22 year old sister digs Ella and swing jazz, and wants to make her way to the tubes/horn sound, too. (Tough in a dorm room, but she'll get there.) My 13 year old daughter likes to come to the shop and sing along with Simon and Garfunkel, and Lyle Lovett's "Penguin Song" is one of my ten year old son's favorites.

Keep the tubes bright, keep the joint jumpin', and keep musical hope alive!
Keep your ears and your mind open.

Biggest downfall except for the HF rolloff, is the 4 and 8 ohm taps. If there are new tube amps being manufactured currently, they should take into account the fact that many of us prefer 16 ohm vintage speakers. If you buy a tube amp for lower impedance speakers, that is fine, but have you ever heard a well tuned 16 ohms speaker system on tubes???? Speaker wire can be thinner, and I may be wrong, but I like the soundstage better. So I will be forced to put a 8 ohm system together since I am tired of running the 20 ohm resistor(in parallel) with my 16 ohm speakers system, the SE-9 does not like impedance mismatch "AT ALL"!

Just took the Edgar horns off the system and put the Martinelli horns back up(have swapped several times just for the different sound of each of them). I will have to try my old Altec 811's back on for comparison.

Later all, Ron

We ended up having a discussion about "sweet spots". He proceeded to rearrange his room and the speakers aren't facing at 90 degrees any more.

I've been looking at comments on High Efficiency forum about where audio is at. There is an education process required before the younger gang knows what to look for. It sounds like your family has been getting it as well Wayne.

BTW Nice new look to the site.

Grant.

http://home.pacbell.net/lordpk/speaker/photo.html

$600 ea., buy direct from the distributor.

The enclosures I had custom made, work in progress.

Next month, if all goes well, I should have eight of
these bad boys for a small line source of four per channel
which by the way is pure madness. I did some tests recently
and one tweeter is more than enough for the home, but lunic
inside me wants to run the monster system with eight total...

Just like Wayne says.. top fuel dragster of tweeters... the
potential for extreme clean SPL is there if your hand
turns the volume knob, but if you discipline, no need to
drive them to those levels.

There is a waveguide option for 107db sensitivity, but
you lose the nice flat response and it's not really
needed for home use.

These are my favorite tweeters, non-horn - which to me,
has a better sonic character than compression drivers mated
with horns. I've abused the SA tweeter with 600w of bridged
power and it still hold up.. Not that the tweeter dissipates
600w, it's only rated for 60w rms, 2kw peak (short term bursts),
but the headroom gained by bridging (raising the clipping levels)
is pretty impressive...

This tweeter is used by Stage Accompany in thier prosound and cinema
systems, where in some designs they may or may not use the waveguide.

Another tweeter similar to this is the sls loudspeaker PRD ribbons,
which I was told is not available for DIY'ers..