In attendance was Akhilesh Bajaj, Jim Denton, Phil Wilson, Mark Margiotta and me, and we discussed plans for the upcoming Great Plains Audiofest.


Phil Wilson and Jim Denton


Wayne Parham, Mark Margiotta and Akhilesh Bajaj

Ooops. Turn around, Mark


Wayne Parham, Mark Margiotta and Akhilesh Bajaj


We listened to Akhilesh's latest configuration of his DIY Stephens TruSonic speakers, which now use a Vifa soft dome tweeter and a sub, with each driver on a separate amp with active crossover in a triamp configuration. It is a very nice sounding setup.

Stephens Trusonic with Vifa soft dome tweeter
Sometimes, we'd connect those Klipschorns in he background too. They are in great condition, and look nice and sound nice too.



Electronics driving the Stephens/Vifa system


The most important thing to get right is the position of the towel underneath the Vifa. Single driver guys are familiar with the 98¢ tweak, but this is a high-end version - the $2.98 tweak, aptly named for the cost of the towel. It was inspired by the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and provides much better imaging. Besides, it gives you something to clean up spills with.

Jim Denton carefully adjusting the $2.98 tweak


All jokes aside, it's easy enough to build a nice stand for the tweeters, and to position them in line with the Stephens drivers. For now, they are just sitting on top until a stand can be made. I helped Akhilesh measure the T/S parameters of the Stephens, and determine box size and tuning. They sound great from 40Hz up to the midrange, but they start to breakup pretty severely in the vocal overtone range. At first, these were connected as single drivers, and they don't do it for me in that configuration. But Akhilesh quickly converted them to a two-way system, with the Vifa crossed over about 3500Hz. That makes a very smooth system. Later he added a sub, and give some more oomph below 50Hz. It really sounds nice.


We also listened to the Nelson Audio Image SE8 and compared it with the Zen Select on a pair of tower two π speakers.

Two π towers, Zen Select and Nelson Audio Image SE8


Zen Select and Nelson Audio Image SE8

The Zen Select doesn't provide as much power as the Image SE8, specifically, the difference is 2 watts compared with 10. But we set the volume the same and did not change volume settings throughout the evaluation period. Volume was set so that the Zen was nowhere near clipping.

Also, as you can see from the photo above, the room was large and extremely reflective, with no carpeting or anything else to absorb sounds. Clap once in the room and you could hear the slap decay for over a second, so the room was extremely live. But even though this tends to over-emphasize midrange and treble, the Zen still produced adequate bass. In fact, the Zen sounded really good.

But the Nelson Audio amp sounded better according to everyone there. It sounded more controlled, particularly in the bass, and surprisingly sounded better in the midrange too. Most people consider the midrange of the Zen to be its biggest strength, and it does sound nice there. But everyone just seemed to fall in love with the SE8, its good looks and its great sound. Both Akhilesh and Phil are Zen owners, so this is pretty strong praise.

I was impressed too. I needed to take this opportunity to hear the amp connected properly, driven directly from the source. I hadn't taken the time to do that, and had hastily connected it to a preamp with the SE8's volume knob turned all the way up, which tends to make it more noisy. So I was eager to hear it connected as intended, and found it to be very nice sounding and pleasantly free of hum that way.

I'd give it a thumbs up for sure. I'll be sure to bring it to the Great Plains Audiofest so you can listen to it and decide for yourself.