Benefits of a forum like HFV: Make friends, listen and experience varied audio/video gear

Lovely looking and a very tidy setup. I like the tastefully done room treatment too. Primary reflections seem to have been well taken care of. Bet it sounded great 😁👍
Thank you. Kannan from Tirupur helped me to print the sound panel covers and many friends from HFV like @sriram_shol,@ajuvignesh has helped me.
 
It was a pleasure to be hosted by Vimal and family on a Sunday Evening. I met Mr. Kannan there and we as a trio started discussing briefly about the diy hobby and tube amps in general. The agenda was simple. Vimal wanted to experience tube audio and he has been well accustomed to Solid state amps so far.. For me, i wanted to see how my tube amplifier performs on various speaker loads, and boy ,I was surprised! My Vintage technics that I got from Linuxguru is damn good in low bass and mids but a little lag in highs. Since the Output transformer was wound by me, I was not very sure of its high frequency performance although scope says clean wave output upto 15khz.. Vimal's Infinity ( modded by Mr. Kannan) speakers outperformed my 3 way technics .It had great tonal accuracy , thumping bass and lush, life like vocals!! The difference was like day and night! Overall We all felt that Tube amplifier does sound lot more lifelike and with much more emotion to the music being played... I usually believe that once a listen to tubes,it's difficult to goback to solid state..and it appears true.The session was closed with Eric clapton " would you know my name" a soul wrenching melody that knocked me down! Thanked Vimal for that Experience... Special thanks To Vimal's family, we were treated with nice aromatic Cashew Biscuits and Crispy Potato wafers...and steaming Masala Chai.. Vimal's better half and his daughter took great care of us.Music, friendship and like minded talks, across age .. what more does one want in life??
Thanks for the lovely write up. The sense of joy and happiness you all shared on Sunday, was very palpable in your post. And the DIY contributions that went into the speakers and your effort in building the amp, make it all the more special 😍👍
 
I would like to start a thread to post our listening sessions with the Hifi Vision members. I am starting off with my recent session with members @Kannan and @tnvijay.

Sources: Bluetooth receiver/Allo USBridge
Amp : Tube amp (PL504, SE, driver tube is 12Ax7) made by @tnvijay
Speakers: 2 way Infinity Vintage - Mod by @Kannan

We three, thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Amp matched very well with the speakers. Played Illayaraja, ARR, Harris Jeyaraj and few English tracks. Just to check the difference between Tube and SS, we connected the same source and speakers with Salas DCG3 Pre & ACA but went back to Tube within just 2 or 3 songs. View attachment 76115View attachment 76116subwoofer details please kannan sir
Subwoofer details please kannan sir
 

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Sorry for the late post.

I also noticed that this thread is not getting updated when a new post is made in the main page. @captrajesh @arj

First of all, a big shout to @VSTEREO and @tnvijay for making this get-together possible and a special thanks to Vimal's wife and daughter for being such great hosts and leaving the three musketeers alone after satiating their hunger.

The Infinity speakers are now owned by Vimal and I am very happy that he has fully warmed up to them and they have found a home in this music lovers place and heart.

Vimal's has built a dedicated room for music that opens into his garden, a truly tranquil atmosphere. Though there is not much acoustic treatment, he has four rockwool panels on each wall. The room is relatively dead.
Two of these panels as you see in the pic above have beautiful posters of AR Rehman and Illayaraja, his tribute to India's two maestros. That made everything more divine as well.

I was not sure how the Infinity and the fully single ended DIY tube amp designed with great passion from ground-up by @tnvijay Dr. Vijay would mate.......but I was also confident that they would be able to drive as the low power AmpCamp or even the TPA3318D2 could do so.

If an ENT specialist and a music lover is an ideal combo, then that is what Dr. Vijay is, now throw in another aspect of great understanding of the design and build of amplifiers including tube amps, now we are talking about something really serious. He does his own transformer winding which in my opinion is the heart of any amp, especially tubes, and can give idea of his seriousness to the passion.

His tube amp sang beautifully in combination with the Infinities. Full bandwidth playback, typical tube mids and thick bass, surprise of surprise for @tnvijay were the highs, but there i will trump the iconic Polycell tweeters designed by the late Arnie Nudell (though his Emit series are considered one of the best tweeters).
Most tracks we chose restricting to the drive capability of the amp with regard to the speakers, but it delivered with good dynamics as-well except for one or two tracks
Overall a great effort by Dr. Vijay who is now embarking onto build a push-pull amp and I wish him a great journey.

I have more or less resigned from this DIY hobby after flirting around for 30-odd years, so it is always a great feeling to meet enthusiasts like Vimal and Dr. Vijay.

Overall a Sunday evening spent well.
 
Sorry for the late post.

I also noticed that this thread is not getting updated when a new post is made in the main page. @captrajesh @arj

First of all, a big shout to @VSTEREO and @tnvijay for making this get-together possible and a special thanks to Vimal's wife and daughter for being such great hosts and leaving the three musketeers alone after satiating their hunger.

The Infinity speakers are now owned by Vimal and I am very happy that he has fully warmed up to them and they have found a home in this music lovers place and heart.

Vimal's has built a dedicated room for music that opens into his garden, a truly tranquil atmosphere. Though there is not much acoustic treatment, he has four rockwool panels on each wall. The room is relatively dead.
Two of these panels as you see in the pic above have beautiful posters of AR Rehman and Illayaraja, his tribute to India's two maestros. That made everything more divine as well.

I was not sure how the Infinity and the fully single ended DIY tube amp designed with great passion from ground-up by @tnvijay Dr. Vijay would mate.......but I was also confident that they would be able to drive as the low power AmpCamp or even the TPA3318D2 could do so.

If an ENT specialist and a music lover is an ideal combo, then that is what Dr. Vijay is, now throw in another aspect of great understanding of the design and build of amplifiers including tube amps, now we are talking about something really serious. He does his own transformer winding which in my opinion is the heart of any amp, especially tubes, and can give idea of his seriousness to the passion.

His tube amp sang beautifully in combination with the Infinities. Full bandwidth playback, typical tube mids and thick bass, surprise of surprise for @tnvijay were the highs, but there i will trump the iconic Polycell tweeters designed by the late Arnie Nudell (though his Emit series are considered one of the best tweeters).
Most tracks we chose restricting to the drive capability of the amp with regard to the speakers, but it delivered with good dynamics as-well except for one or two tracks
Overall a great effort by Dr. Vijay who is now embarking onto build a push-pull amp and I wish him a great journey.

I have more or less resigned from this DIY hobby after flirting around for 30-odd years, so it is always a great feeling to meet enthusiasts like Vimal and Dr. Vijay.

Overall a Sunday evening spent well.
Thankyou Sir, your words of praise motivates me a lot.. at the heart of the effort is the passion to create an amplifier that is going to feed the soul and ears of the Listener.. It was a pleasure meeting you at Vimal's home,and I am awestruck by the knowledge you have on Illayaraja Compositions..Would love to meet up again..
 
It was a pleasure to be hosted by Vimal and family on a Sunday Evening. I met Mr. Kannan there and we as a trio started discussing briefly about the diy hobby and tube amps in general. The agenda was simple. Vimal wanted to experience tube audio and he has been well accustomed to Solid state amps so far.. For me, i wanted to see how my tube amplifier performs on various speaker loads, and boy ,I was surprised! My Vintage technics that I got from Linuxguru is damn good in low bass and mids but a little lag in highs. Since the Output transformer was wound by me, I was not very sure of its high frequency performance although scope says clean wave output upto 15khz.. Vimal's Infinity ( modded by Mr. Kannan) speakers outperformed my 3 way technics .It had great tonal accuracy , thumping bass and lush, life like vocals!! The difference was like day and night! Overall We all felt that Tube amplifier does sound lot more lifelike and with much more emotion to the music being played... I usually believe that once a listen to tubes,it's difficult to goback to solid state..and it appears true.The session was closed with Eric clapton " would you know my name" a soul wrenching melody that knocked me down! Thanked Vimal for that Experience... Special thanks To Vimal's family, we were treated with nice aromatic Cashew Biscuits and Crispy Potato wafers...and steaming Masala Chai.. Vimal's better half and his daughter took great care of us.Music, friendship and like minded talks, across age .. what more does one want in life??
Lovely narration and great to know we have another diy Forum member and winding transformers as a bonus. Would be great if you could post a thread on what winding a transformer entails and how it can impact the sound
 
Pack your bags, folks, because I've got a tale to tell that'll make you want to hop on the next plane to Bangalore! When I got word that I'd be heading to the city of audio dreams, I practically leapt out of my seat with excitement. And let me tell you, the audio scene in Bangalore did not disappoint.

I knew I had to hit up some local audio enthusiasts to get the inside scoop, so I messaged my FALs (that's audio lingo for "fellow audio lovers," by the way) faster than you can say "high fidelity." Lucky for me, @Analogous , @arj and @Vineethkumar01 were kind enough to show me around.

I had the pleasure of listening to Analogous' Harbeths last time around, which plastered a smile on my face from ear to ear, and I still love them for their vocal richness and emotion-inducing qualities. This time around, it was the Zu Omens, the kind of speaker you read about, but rarely see in the wild. The Zus are yet to be optimally set up, but it was a beast that looked promising.

Prepare to be transported to audio nirvana! @arj , the ultimate audiophile, gave me a VIP tour of his meticulously curated component collection, and let me tell you, it was a sight to behold. But the pièce de résistance was undoubtedly the Tannoy Prestige.

As Arj expertly cued up a variety of tracks from Diana Krell, Eric Clapton, Joe Satriani, The Carpenters, and more, I felt a thrill of excitement run through me. And when the music began to flow through those Tannoys, I was completely enraptured. I couldn't help but tap my feet and sway to the beat as the music filled the room. Whether he was playing CDs or LPs, Arj had an uncanny ability to bring out the best in every track, highlighting the nuances and subtleties that make music such a powerful force. It was a truly enthralling experience, and one that I will cherish.

As an admirer of DIY audio, I was thrilled to catch up with @Vineethkumar01 , who I knew had cooked up something magical. And let me tell you, he did not disappoint! The towers he had executed were a thing of beauty, with a couple of Satoris and a Horn tweeter set-up that was as unique as it was impressive.

After a quick introduction to the components and a tour of the audio chain, Vineeth turned on the system, and I was blown away. My jaw dropped to the floor as I was transported to a world of floating images, cohesive sound, and smooth, refined tones that were emotionally engaging.
Vineeth's creations were a work of art, a controlled directivity 2-way beast with dual Satori WO24P-8 playing mids and bass, coupled with a BMS 4550 compression driver in Advanced Transition Horns by Marcel Batík, an ST260 waveguide, crossed at 1.2KHz. The waveguide was 3d printed by Vineeth himself!

IMG_2889.jpeg

I had never before heard a tweeter crossed so low, but the way it blended cohesively with the Satoris was nothing short of remarkable. The highs were smooth and fluid, with zero fatigue, and the Satoris played mids and bass with a heft that was rich and textured, accentuating each bass note with a quick decay. Dynamics and smoothness that you do not tire of, and can keep listening to for hours at a stretch.

And the rest of the chain? Well, the towers were tuned with fully active crossovers, EQd with APO, amplified with Aniket's O&B, fed by Tidal from a laptop, and held together with Amazon Basics speaker cables.
Forget fancy "audiophile" cables and exotic amps - Vineeth had shown me that a well-designed speaker, properly placed in a room and driven by an amp with enough power, was what mattered most. But Vineeth's generosity didn't stop there - he patiently answered all of my questions in great detail.

Analogous, Arj, and Vineeth, it was an absolute delight to meet with you all and share in the warm camaraderie and craziness that our hobby is! Thank you for having me over, and cheers to new friendships!
 
It was a wonderful several hours with you @aeroash , and all the talk around Music was immersing. Hope you had a wonderful drive back and really interested on your progress with room acoustic taming .

My system is still a work in progress and the journey is slow but fun :) BTW Snarky Puppy is on the playlist !
 
Here is an another wonderful day with lot of music and joy!

Date : Sunday, 14-05-2023
Location : Chennai
Members: @linuxguru ,@tnvijay ,@Kannan ,@VSTEREO

Gears:
Amps : PP Tube amp (8 watts) & SE Tube amp (4 watts) made by @tnvijay
Speakers : 1) Infinity BS (modified by @Kannan) 2) Denon BS (small) 3) Lyrita Audio
Sources : Marantz CD 4000, Fiio BT Pro and a simple Bluetooth dongle

@linuxguru wanted to listen to the amps recently built by @tnvijay and we all 4 met at @linuxguru residence. Needless to mention, Chennai summer is at 'best' so we couldn't invite more members. We started off at 10:30 am with PP amp (8 watts) connected to Infinity BS and ended up the day with SE. It was a superb work by @tnvijay and both of his amps performed really well. PP had a wider stage and enough headroom for a 15x25 room. We all thoroughly enjoyed the day with lot of music and joy of sharing the experiences. Many thanks to @linuxguru for hosting us and special thanks to @tnvijay and @Kannan for making it in shorter notice. WhatsApp Image 2023-05-14 at 7.43.52 PM.jpegWhatsApp Image 2023-05-14 at 2.02.36 PM.jpegWhatsApp Image 2023-05-14 at 1.53.47 PM.jpegWhatsApp Image 2023-05-14 at 1.53.46 PM.jpegWhatsApp Image 2023-05-14 at 1.53.45 PM.jpeg
 
Wow looks like you guys had a great meet-up. Wondering what mods are done on the lyrita speakers? I notice it doesn’t have the wooden horns.
 
Thanks to @linuxguru for hosting the meet in his beautiful and newly acquired flat.

we had met sometime back to listen to single ended tube amp that @tnvijay had built. The experience was shared in a previous post.
This time he had built a push pull for a friend of his and it will soon be on its way to Pune.

The previous single ended build had some cosmetic rough edges as that was still in prototype stage.
This push pull, also fully hand built, deploys point to point wiring and a great finish.
I will request @tnvijay to provide the full details of the build.

@linuxguru (Siva sir) has still not moved-in fully, so the room was relatively bland and had some amount of resonance.
As soon as I walked-in, I was taken by the Lyrita speakers, but they did not have the original drivers and the build was not still not fully complete.
So the audition started with the Push Pull amp and the Infinity speakers.
When compared to the single-ended this one had much more drive and got really loud. The amp is dead silent, no hiss or hum.
Initially there was some static which was actually induced by my LPS (Linear Power Supply) that I had used to power up the FiiO DAC.

The advantage of tube in my opinion is the amount of control it has over the speaker cone as it is essentially current driven.
Initially the amp showed some rough edges and I played a mix of around 15/20 songs of different genres for around 40 odd minutes for the tubes to warm up and settle.
Slowly but steadily, the sound balanced out and we got into some serious listening.
Discounting the room response, the sound was quite balanced, good detail retrieval and pretty good stage width.
@tnvijay has provided an option to induce feedback, but we listening mostly without it. I will let him explain that part aswell.

In the past few months, my listening has more or less relegated to my Hifiman planar headphones so this opportunity to listen to some regular stereo setup along with like-minded music lovers was not to be missed and enjoyed it as much.

Thanks for the time guys. A big shout to @linuxguru @tnvijay and @VSTEREO (Vimal).
 
It was a enjoyable day for all of us, with music and lots of general discussion. Thankyou Siva sir,( Linuxguru), Kannan sir, &Vimal, for making the day memorable.I had posted a thread involving this Amplifier in a separate thread in diy section
 
Goodness me! Sounds like lots of fun in B'lore..no surprise! If anyone wants to brag and show-off their gear, I am happy to listen and be amazed as a newbie :p

Here is mine, a bit long list:

Give my playlist a listen: Testers
Is this in lossless?
 
The Marantz PM7000N offers big, spacious and insightful sound, class-leading clarity and a solid streaming platform in a award winning package.
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