Hi Nick,
Thank you for the kind words; that was a great listening session. I frankly was kind of surprised because the tang band speakers were new to me, on loan from a friend just to test the feasibility of single full range drivers. This got me started on doing a lot of research about single driver full range systems. And I have learned a lot in a short time. My previous system used hemp cone alnico magnet custom made electro voice mid woofers with Great Heil tweeters and a Marchand XM66 dynamic active crossover, meaning that I can change the crossover point on the fly. An extremely flexible system.
The liquid metal cables are made from thin vinyl tubing with liquid metal (Galinstan - gallium, indium and tin) injected inside, with special terminating wire that liquid metal will not eat (liquid metal loves copper, and eat it like Pac-Man). I got 250 g of the stuff from a company in Germany off of eBay. Oh one thing, it is literally a hazmat, heavy metal that is toxic, not nearly as bad as mercury, but still you have to be careful. So you do have to dress the part when working with it - goggles, vinyl gloves, etc. I got the idea from a company that sells their own liquid metal wires and since I don’t sell them but just using for my own personal use I can make whatever I want.
However… I may have fell prey to the “if it is exotic and sounds cool it must be better“ syndrome. While they do sound excellent, literally the most “liquid“ sound, what I and another audio friend discovered when we were doing listening at my house, purely by accident, is that my previous design of interconnects that I built are actually a little better! More detailed and a fuller sound, even with the digital interconnect swapped in. These wires are the same type of wires that Nick has, and they are made with a very thin solid core wire with a very thin insulation. I am talking up to 43 gauge thin. So thin you can hardly see it. Thinner than any Litz wire you have seen. So thin it isn’t even on US AWG wire chart. Why so thin? Because I tried thinner wire and it sounded better. And it just kept going. And what is crazy is that the thinner with the wire, the better the detail and the better the bass. Crazy stuff. I brought some of this interconnect wire over to Nick’s house, but a prototype that didn’t have a protective covering over it and it was so thin his cat thought it was great fun and chewed through it. So caveat emptor if you have pets. The current wire has a non-plastic sheathing around it. My DIY power cords and my interconnects and my speaker wire have absolutely no shielding whatsoever. I think that shielding, and especially plastic coating kills the sound. And for example, my power cords have absolutely crushed $2000 “game changer“ power cords. So much of what you read in audio magazines is hype and you can do much better yourself if you feel adventurous and a little crazy.
I do a lot of unique things that nobody has done and that every audiophile thinks my stuff is crazy, but if it works, it works.
Also I have been using my Primaluna dialogue four tube amplifier with KT77 tubes, which puts out 21 watts in triode mode and 42 watts in ultralinear mode. A really sweet amplifier.
Long story short, since Nick was here I have come up with a better sounding power cord, more flexible and more dynamic, replaced my liquid metal wires with my previous architecture wires, and with that have tried not only the tang band speakers, but a pair of Audio Nirvana 12 inch ferrite full range speakers I had tucked away somewhere that sound great, especially in open baffle, which are not supposed to sound so great that way since they having so very small 1 mm Xmax. But then the bumblebee isn’t supposed to be able to fly either.
But my latest driver discovery is Mark Audio A10P speakers, 6 1/2 inch full range drivers, modified by Dave from planet10–hifi.com with what they call the “enable” process. If you read what Bud says, the inventor of this patented process, the little bumps they put on the speaker cone and on the frame help to get rid of standing waves at the speaker; Possibly similar to what the military used on highly classified sonar so that they can get the detail that they have; not sure about that but somebody was talking about it online. It sounded a little hokey to me but I ordered a pair anyway, and they’re absolutely the best sounding speakers I have ever heard. With the “enable” process, the speakers just kind of disappear. More presence and detail, great soundstage with a kind of magical presence, and excellent highs, mids and bass. I can’t find a damn thing wrong with how they sound. In open baffle they do have shortcomings, but in my larger, actually quite cheap vented cabinets, they are terrific and the bass is sometimes too much. They have a 7 mm X max so excursion is very good.
But the most convincing thing I have heard from them is that I can hear plenty of detail and everything I want to hear at lower volumes, kind of like somebody in another post talked about listening to their system in an anechoic chamber, where no sound waves bouncing off the walls can interfere. That is the kind of thing that the “enable” process is supposed to do, getting rid of standing waves at the speaker, and I guess it does it very well. The speakers cost me $340 for the pair plus shipping, plus I had to wait a few weeks to get them, but well worth the wait. And planet10-HiFi.com Dave is a really a great guy and extremely helpful. One of these gems that you hope to find in the Audio world.
Also I am going to be experimenting with cabinets. Possibly with building ported large golden ratio rectangular cabinets, or back horn cabinets, which Dave of planet10 hi-fi highly recommends and they have plans for that. Oh what fun.
Also I’m probably going to open a thread about the crazy tweaking things I do in my DIY and tweaks that make a huge difference in the sound of my system.
Gary