The picture I posted with Bruce Edgar was in my home and is for real. He flew into Omaha in 2005 to meet a client here and stayed the weekend and on the way to my place we visited a friend who had Avantgarde Trios. This was a Priceless moment and we visited a lot about the design of horns and got a lot of tips about set-up along with listening to a lot of music.
The Titan System has been modified with ASC Zinc/Oil capacitors in the crossover, Fostex T500 Mkll bullet tweeters, replacement reconed Electro Voice EV 18 inch lite-weight cone driver in the subwoofer, Truextent Beryllium diaphrams replaced in the JBL 2441 Compression Midrange Drivers. These drivers play seemless from 500HZ to 20,000 KHz.
Horn System has been re-wired with Elrod Copper low guage wire. Sonically tuned to my liking with Border Patrol 300B power amp. with Innerstage Transformers, VAC Signature Mklla tube preamp., Lindemann 825 DAC/Transport and Marchand MB42 Electronics.
HiFi Tuning Supreme fuses used in the electronics throughout.
Stage lll Concepts Cabling with Elrod Power Cords and Harmonic Resolution Systems SXR stand with MX3 Isolation Bases, Nimbus footers and damping plates.
HB Cable Designs Marble used for Power Conditioning.
15 X 20 room has been extensivly treated with Hiend Novum PMR Supreme MKll and ASC tube traps and panels throughout.
Someday I will re-introduce a turntable and experiment with computer audio but for now I am in heaven with this dynamic horn system.
107 db efficient 80 HZ Horn system using Vintage Drivers and made of Russion ApplePly. Vintage Drivers in my system consist of JBL 2441 Compression midrange driver modified with Truextent Beryllium Diaphrams, JBL K-120 12 inch driver reconed and re-magnitized in the folded mid-bass horn, Fostex T500 MKll for the horn super tweeter, Electro Voice EV 18 inch driver in the bass horn modifed with lite-weight cone and voice coil to keep pace with the horns. This was perfromed by gentleman from Australia but the name escapes me.
ASC and Dueland Capacitors for midrange and tweeter
I had these special made for my application. They are made of Zinc/with oil. This company is in NE. and is Japanese owned and makes specialty products sold the world over. I have Dueland Cast PIO on the tweeter crossover.
Audio Aero LaFontaine
The AA Lafontaine is the best I have heard in digital with Esoteric transport and 6021W tubes in the adjustable output stage. This player can be used as a server and the sound is similar to Zanden digital as a comparison.
Border Patrol 300B S-10
300B magic from Gary Dews. Purity at its best from top-to bottom.
Border Patrol EXS Power Supplies
These are brand new designed from Gary Dews and my 300B amplifier now sounds as if it is in musical control of anything you can throw at it. Weighing in at 80lbs. each with chassis and covers made of copper. 8w of SET magic with speed, dynamics, and extension.
Valve Amplification Company Signature Mklla
Pure tube magic preamp. using NOS Siemens 6922 Gold Pins. Now upgraded to SE status. Seems to be more resolution and extension upon break-in.
Stage lll Concepts Gryphon/Magnus Prime
Get out the way cabling made with Palladium/Silver Ribbons. These are best made and the most musically correct and forgettable cables I have ever encountered.
Stage lll Concepts Mantikor
Stunning speaker cables that are musical beyond belief with timbre and soundstage that make the speakers disappear.
Harmonic Resolution Systems SXR
SXR with M3X Isolation Bases with Nimbus Footers and Damping Plates. Electronics have a much blacker background with this stand.
Marchand Electronics MB42 Subwoofer Power Amplifier
The best of the best. Modified to have less gain for the 100DB efficient Subwoofer.
HB Cable Design Marble
Passive Power Slave with Elrod Gold Statements, Elrod X-2, and Stage 3 Kraken Power cables. The Marble is reviewed in Dagogo and my last purchase in Power conditioning.
Highend Novum Premium Mkll
I call it the Brass Gong but oh my do these things work. Focus, larger soundstage with depth, much better tone with Harmonic completeness.
ASC Tubetraps and Wall Panels Tubetraps
My room corners contain double stacked 16" Tubetraps and the walls extensivley treated with 8X48" ASC wall panels spaced 24 inches apart.
Jeff Korneff 45 SE
I also own a Jeff Korneff 45 tube amp. with V-Cap. Copper/Teflon Coupling Capacitors. used for amood change. Jeff made one of the best 45's of all time.
Living Voice OBX-RW
I took a side step and added a complement to my main system. One speaker that has always impressed me for it accuracy of musical production is the Living Voice OBX-RW. Outstanding tonality and coherence with great ability to draw you into the music. Like anything of high resolution they require great front end components to show there stuff so to complement my Border Patrol 300B I have added the Jadis JA30 classic monoblocks. These are instruments of musical greatness quite simple in design with large hand wound transformers and provide 30 WPC that works as a perfect match to the Living Voice 94 DB efficiency.
Gwalt, What a great system you built! I am now studying about the Novus, the Stage III, etc. Thank you for the food for thought :) Unusual cables and not much info on them.
I seriously can't understand why BP is still so unique in what it does to the control of tubes.
System edited: System edited. I recently upgraded to the top of the line Stage 111 Mantikor Speaker Cable and although expensive it was worth it to me. The background is quieter still and even more relaxed with soundstage expansion, air and depth. It is hard to describe but special to listen to. Until then the Stage lll Magnus Prime was the best I had heard and I have tried a lot over time before settling here.
I always thought Bruce was a good designer but needed some help finalizing and finishing through with sales. I worked pretty hard at getting mine built and delivered but it was worth it. Bruce was a much better fit describing his design and had a genuine passion about horn design with vintage drivers. His love of the design made him fun to visit with.
I know the integration of the bass spectrum can be tricky. It sounds like you are enjoying the integration as is and that is what counts. My bass was touchy until owning the Marchand with an adjustment to the gain which did the trick. Good Luck and enjoy your system as I bet it sounds sweet.
I always thought that the Titans combined the best attributes of horns and cones. From your description, I think I am right about this. When I was considering speaker systems, I thought hard about the Titans, but they were hard to find. I sent messages to Bruce Edgar (this was in about 2006), but I never received a reply. Had I heard from him, I might have purchased the Titans! What could have been... With your amplification, the seismic sub, and the Marchand amp/crossover, I think you have the best of the best!
Regarding my own integration of subwoofers:
I am not doing it "properly" in that I have the speaker outputs of the amps going through the speaker inputs of the plate amps and then directly to the binding posts of the Bens. This means that the Bens are running full range and the plate amps are receiving the signal from the amp and driving the sub enclosures. The plate amps are effectively low pass filters in this configuration and the drivers in the Bens are always running full range. No crossover this way, but it definitely makes the subs "bass augmenters," rather than actual subwoofers. It means that the 300B amp and the full range drivers in the Bens are running hard all the time. One of the benefits of doing it this way is that integration is a cinch. Just dial in the bass levels as you like. Change the Hz of the filter up and down and the gain up and down. No fussiness b/c the full rangers are running full range and there are no "hollows" to fill, just extra bottom. My tweeters are running in the same configuration, with just a high pass filter.
Yes I would describe the Edgarhorns a bit laid back with wonderful imaging and tonal saturation coming from the JBL 2441 and JBL K-120's but most of all Bruce's design knowledge and materials. They lean slightly to the warm side of neutral and are not in your face like a lot of horn designs. However with that said, they still have speed and dynamics with life that bests most any dynamic speaker especially when rooted down by Border Patrol and VAC electronics with Stage 3 cabling. It appears you have a wonderful musical system also and glad you have discovered the benefits of SET/efficient speaker combination. Do you have any trouble getting your bass to integrate with the remainder of your system?
Beautiful system, Gwalt! I would very much love to hear the Edgarhorns one day. Do they have a "typical" horn sound? I have read reports that the Edgarhorns have a more laid back presentation than typical front horn systems.
I bet they are a match made in sonic heaven with those fantastic top end Border Patrol amps.
Thank you all for your kind words. This hobby has many choices to have fun with while enjoying the music. For one of the first times in about 40 years I feel my journey is "done for now" so I posted the system under that heading. Seriously as we get older we are bound to loose some hearing so my journey does appear to be over and I tried to focus my purchases on that goal. For all of us in this crazy hobby that own horns please share your experiences as that is the best way to learn. Any non-horn owner thinking of going there just remember that these high efficiency speakers carry good and bad since they express everything as amplified. Example would be this weekend when I turned on the 300B amplifier and could hear the 300B tube plates ringing as they warmed up through the horns at 12 feet!
Hi Gwalt, I have to join the chorus, you have developed a genuinely fantastic system that is the result of much thought, effort and experience, excellent job. I agree with you on the importance of a high quality power supply and your's appear to be superb. The 300b is a terrific tube as you've discovered , just give them a good output transformer and power supply and then just sit back and listen. I can only assume that your music in that room is sublime. Congratulations! Charles,
Very nice system and room !!!!! I was able to hear a set of Edgar Horns at System Designs in Torrance Ca. I can't remember all the details of the system but the sound was wonderful !!!!!!!
Hi Isochronism: When Bruce was here he kept me and my wife up half the night with his many stories and he has many to tell. What a nice gentleman he is and fun to listen to. Not bad hearing either back then. I know the power supplies look to be over kill on an 8w amp. however I wished all 300B tube lovers could have witnessed the after hour demo I did at RMAF in 2012. We had a 18W SET Border Patrol amp. (4 300B's) on a set of 95db speakers and we traded power supplies back and forth. The big ones I now have gave the amp. a new set of musical rules. Speed, depth of soundstage, and extension while running the tubes on easy street. It is crazy what that tube can do with a great stiff power supply. I used to think 300B amps. were mushy and rolled off and it appears with a weak power supply most can be! So just remember when you go to horns they like some controlled power also but it has be of the quiet nature ha. Thanks for the kind words and Best of Luck if you go the horn route as it will be an adventure. Regards, Gwalt
Gwalt, What a great experience that must have been with Bruce and now with his speakers! Your Amplifier's power supplies must be more than adequate, to say the least:) You have assembled a very well thought out system! I am an SET fan (300B & 45) and Horns are in my future, as well.
Gwalt, Thanks for you kind comments. I've been into stereo for over 42 years but the last 20 years at a much higher level. I love to see what other audiophiles do with their systems. I sure wish I could hear them all! Best regards,
I noticed your system also. Gosh how long has this all been in the works? This is serious stuff and bet these rooms are second homes. I would guess some real musical singing goes on?
