of a Lifetime
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Preserving
the Sounds of a Lifetime |
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Our House System begins with the Broadcast Standard Audiophile Edition turntable. It has
a Stanton CS100 cartridge riding in it. Alas, this
cartridge is no longer available. But if you can find a CS100 cartridge body, a
D81S MKII stylus will perform comparably. It is
the cartridge body and it's minimal amount of wire that is mostly responsible
for the great soundstaging and detail.
The preamplification comes courtesy of the KAB Souvenir EQS MK12. Perhaps the finest , most flexible phono stage on the market today. Completely adjustable including loading, gain, mono mixing and EQ curves for every record ever made. When we need to do vintage restoration work we turn to the Souvenir VSP MK2.
The Souvenir VSP MK2 is the only fully integrated vintage signal processor on the market today. Full featured phono and line input processor can deal with any groove style -vertical or lateral cut- mono mix the two groove walls, re equalize it and de noise it all in real time without a computer.
We follow into a Nureality SRS stereo ambience processor. This, alas, is no longer available, yet it takes the ambience found in a stereo record and presents it in such a way that you hear the ambience from all around the room. If you can find one of these, it is indispensable when used subtly. In normal stereo, ambience and depth information are presented in the same plane. With the SRS the depth stays put while the ambience is presented at the outside walls. A wonderful sound that doesn't require additional speakers or amplifiers.
This is followed by the Aphex 204 Aural Exciter with Big Bottom processor. There really is nothing like this unit. Aphex systems own the patents! The Aural Exciter enhances the upper harmonics and the Big Bottom circuit firms the bottom end. It is the most musical enhancer I have heard and find it indespensible in adding vibrance and life to the music I play. It is especially useful in improving older LP's from the 60's.
Amplification is provided by a noname amplifier on the bass and mid bass and the KAB Souvenir TCA amplifier for Mid and Treble. The use of bi amping allows us to use a very hi quality amp where it counts. The TCA is only 20 Watts, but that is true un wavering class A operation and the sound is clear, smooth, and extended with excellent midrange weight and solidity.
The speakers are our own design and were
built over a 5 year period. from top to bottom you see the standard
EV diffraction tweeter, to get the best from this
tweeter always remember to mount it vertically and with no baffle.
This is followed by our multicell midrange. This is driven with
the EV1824 horn driver. Multi cells are very
difficult to build but what they do is impressive. These mid horns radiate into
a perfect 30° angle, both vertically and laterally, over the entire
operational range. The center image is so solid and palpable, it sounds like a
true third source!
This is followed by the multi cell mid bass
horn This is driven with a Morel 6" cone driver.
By using the 3 cell design, the center cell integrates well with the midrange
directly above it. Note that one Mid Bass cell is the same size as the entire
midrange horn.
Last is the bass horn. It is a folded design and
is driven by a single 10" dual voice coil Vifa
driver. The interesting thing to note about the bass horn is that while
it is nearly 7 feet wide, it is only 1 foot tall and 4 feet deep. This design
is actually quite happy in any room and only projects 4 feet from the back
wall. And remember, the best thing about horns is that they radiate complete
waves and therefore do not energize the rear of the room. In fact, the room
plays a very small role in the sound of horns. This is unique only to horn
speakers.
You might think that the purpose of horns is to play
loud, but that's not it. Horns radiate full waves. The wave is projected fully
at the listener. Compare this with any other speaker where much of the energy
is wasted wrapping around the enclosure and energizing the rear of the room.
And even some designs that do that on purpose even! Horns excel in production
of detail. The room is a necessary evil, but it is not part of the reproduction
chain in a horn system. It IS part of the chain with every other speaker
technology.
Wire for interconnecting the loudspeakers is mostly 50 conductor telephone cable split and paired. This is some of the most musical sounding wire I have yet to listen to. It is inexpensive and if you work in an ever changing office building, you can usually find reams of this wire being thrown out every time an area is reworked! For equipment interconnects we use the Monster StudioLink cables.
We appreciate your interest in KAB Electro Acoustics
KAB ELECTRO ACOUSTICS
P.O.BOX
2922
PLAINFIELD, NJ 07062, USA
PHONE 908-754-1479
FAX
908-222-3442
EMAIL TO INF0@KABUSA.COM