It's been a nice couple of weeks here at Jeff's Place, first with the solid walnut "cutting board" plinths arriving for the Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers, and my buddy David helping me getting them ready to mount the Duelund CAST tinned-copper components on them, but the real treat this last week was a visit from my old high school buddy Mark Newcomb with his wife Anong!

When we were high school students in the early to mid-1970's Mark was into building Heathkit tube electronics, and was the person responsible for getting me interested in hifi.

I was too broke as a kid to be able to afford any hifi gear, so it was a decade or so later before I could start to engage with the hifi hobby. It's kind of amazing how an experience like mine with Mark and his hifi gear can influence you for a lifetime. Fate.

While Mark, Anong, and I were listening to music and chatting, I pointed to the "Stokowski" Altec's and all the hifi gear around the room, and I told Mark and Anong, "This is all because of you Mark!"

Mark and I haven't seen each other since high school, as life took us in different directions, so we've got some serious catching up to do! I suspect you will reading more about Mark's and Jeff's new hifi adventures in due time!

Many thanks to Mark and Anong for stopping by to visit! It was great to see you!

Breadboard to Phase 1 Duelund CAST Tinned-Copper Crossovers

I spent a lot of time debating how I wanted to do the crossover plinths for the "Stokowski" Altec's as part of the Duelund-Altec Project (overview HERE).

The "Stokowski" Altec's were custom made for conductor Leopold Stokowski somewhere in the period of 1961 to 1964 when their Altec components were manufactured, and were installed into massive veneered cabinets. 

These are very special vintage loudspeakers, so I wanted the crossovers appearance to be consonant with the more than five decades old vintage nature of the "Stokowski" Altec's, and I also wanted to make sure these historically important loudspeakers were not modified in any way while installing their custom Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers.

I ruled out CNC'd plinths for example, as nice looking as they are for custom crossovers for contemporary loudspeakers, as being too modern in appearance for the "Stokowski" Altec's.

I finally settled on solid walnut plinths that would fit inside the cabinet enclosures for the high-frequency horns, or alternatively, that could be placed next to - or behind - the cabinets. 

In the photo above you can see solid walnut "cutting board" plinths that were made for me by the Hardwood Lumber Company. I provided them the dimensions I wanted, and the Hardwood Lumber Company has Amish woodworkers that build the cutting boards for them.

I ordered the larger bases and smaller blocks you see attached at the ends as separate cutting boards. The smaller blocks you see are to allow for mounting the L1 Duelund CAST Sn-Cu inductors in a vertical orientation.

My buddy Dave Biancosino is an expert woodworker, and David is the person who built the custom plinths for the Duelund-Westminster Project.

David drilled the main plinth platforms and the upright mounts for the inductors, and then screwed them together for me. Thank you, David!

My next task was to take one of the breadboard Duelund CAST Sn-Cu crossovers and translate the components to one of the crossover plinths.

To connect the components together I'm using the bespoke terminal strips made by Santos Oropel. These beautifully made terminal strips with their gold-plated connections allow you to clamp wires directly together and avoid solder joints for the best sound quality.

In a dumbo moment I only ordered the terminal strips for the high-frequency circuit of the crossover, but Santos is making up the terminal strips needed for the low-frequency circuits as I write this, and they'll be ready sometime next week if all goes as planned. Many thanks to Santos for providing these beautifully crafted and great sounding terminal strips for the Duelund-Altec Project!

I had been planning on using Stillpoints isolation feet for the crossover plinths like I do on my turntable plinths, but after a friend told me he liked the Herbie's Audio Lab "Tenderfoot" isolation footers even better than the Stillpoints, I decided to give Herbie's "Tenderfoot" isolation footers a try. The bonus is that they are only a fraction of the cost of the Stillpoints.

One by one I moved over the Duelund CAST Sn-Cu components to the walnut plinth to get a general idea of how I would lay them out.

Everything looks a little haphazard at the moment with the components just sitting willy-nilly upon the walnut plinths, with the extra-long Duelund DCA16GA wires connected variously by either wire nuts or Santos' terminal strips.

As soon as I get the low-frequency terminal strips from Santos I'll add those in, get all the components placed symmetrically for a nice appearance, get rid of the wire nuts and trim the wires to the minimum needed length, install the footers, and then install the completed Phase II crossover in the "Stokowski" Altec's high-frequency horn cabinet.

Components will be fixed to the surface either via screws (the terminal strips), or by industrial grade Velcro (that's what's holding the L1 Duelund CAST Sn-Cu inductor in place in the photo above). The Velcro makes for an interesting way to mount the Duelund CAST Sn-Cu components in that it provides an extra layer of decoupling for the Duelund CAST Sn-Cu components from the plinths, and also allows the components to be removed easily.

Soon as I get the remaining terminal strips, get everything installed and prettified, installed into the loudspeaker cabinet, and build up the second Phase II crossover, I'll fill you in on all the details of how everything turned out.

Stay tuned - there's much more to come on the Duelund-Altec Project!

First Watt and Pass Labs

Just as a little teaser I thought I'd throw in a photo of the First Watt SIT-3 stereo amplifier in the system, which you can see directly behind the Duelund CAST Sn-Cu crossover for the "Stokowski" Altec.

I've been listening steadily to the Pass Labs XA25 stereo amplifier while its been getting some run-in time, and it is sounding impressive, as you would expect from an amplifier designed by Nelson Pass.

The Pass Labs XA25 is an extraordinarily powerful 25 watt amplifier (12.5 watts into the 16 Ohm Altec's), much more so than its modest power rating would imply, and when cranked up to crazy SPLs there were times that I was in fear for the survival of my Altec 803B low-frequency drivers, as the XA25 was driving them with such incredible authority and intensity. The XA25 is an amazing single-ended Class A amplifier that can drive any load you throw at it, and the easy to drive Altec's made for quite a spine-tingling experience!

After listening to the XA25 in the system, I decided I wanted to put the First Watt SIT-3 into the system, as I hadn't yet heard it with the "Stokowski" Altec's.

The SIT-3 is an 18 watt stereo amplifier (9 watts into the the 16 Ohm Altec's), and like the XA25 sounds amazing on the highly sensitive "Stokowski" Altec's with their exotic Duelund CAST Sn-Cu crossovers.

The SIT-3 is all about nuance, tonal beauty, and a suave, refined, and sophisticated sound. The SIT-3 is really something special, and Nelson really outdid himself on this amp.

To get the best out of the SIT-3 you have to have sensitive loudspeakers, like the vintage Altec's, for example, whereas with the XA25 stereo amp you could use it to drive a difficult 2 Ohm load without it breaking a sweat.

I'll have much more to say about these two amplifiers with the "Stokowski" Altec's in the not too distant future, so stay tuned!

As always, thanks for stopping by to visit me here at Jeff's Place, and may the tone be with you!