Flea Watt

Fleawatt iHorn

2012-01-27T13:19:00.000-08:00

DIY iHorn

2012-01-24T18:21:00.000-08:00

Well, it isn't beautiful, or Hi-Fi, but it sure increases the gain of

my iPhone output. It's also a great conversation piece.

I used a scrap piece of 2x4 and a dust collector reducer.

Tang Band 1808 MLTL Speakers

2012-01-23T20:04:00.000-08:00

18 Ply Baltic Birch with solid walnut driver decoupler.

18ga. plenum grade Cat 5e internal wiring.

Gold plated 5 way binding posts & gold isolation spikes.

Patiently waiting for the orbital sander....

2012-01-22T15:12:00.001-08:00

Mother of Tone

2012-01-21T03:42:00.001-08:00

Great Reading! Great Website.

Tang Band Progress

2012-01-19T19:40:00.000-08:00

Since I use biscuits to join the panels, this is the

best way I've found to quickly lay out the biscuit cut marks.

I label every panel on the inside to assist in quick assembly during glue up.

Can never have too many clamps!

The perspective makes the driver hole look low to the ground, but the center is 30"

from the floor. An inch or twos for spikes on the bottom will put the drivers

just where I like them, approximately 32 inches from the floor.

Speaker build in the works.

2012-01-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

A floor standing, mass loaded transmission line speaker project is underway.

This speaker system will use the Tang Band 1808 drivers (93db), 18ply Baltic Birch cabinets, #20 biscuit joints & glue construction, 1/2 inch solid walnut cabinet/driver decoupling panels, 3" precision ports and audiophile grade binding posts. Internal wiring will be plenum grade Cat 5e.

Here are some photos. I'll try to update the photos as the project progresses.

Victor Victrola Logo

2012-01-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

I took this photo of the logo on the underside of a Victor Victrola.

New arrivals in the Fleawatt Factory!

2012-01-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

Local Antique Radio Repair Shop

2012-01-16T18:57:00.000-08:00

Located just a few miles from my home.

Well said by one of the masters.....

2012-01-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

"The art in speaker design is choosing a set of compromises that work (speakers by their very nature are VERY compromised devices). There are so many different speakers because the same solution does not work for everyone since people value different strengths, listen to different music, have different rooms, and different amps. Using a horn to get high bass efficiency and extend the range downward of a nominal FR driver is just one family of compromises."

Dave Dlugos of Planet 10

Foster Tweeter Enclosures

2012-01-16T18:27:00.001-08:00

Russian Paper in Oil Capacitors

2012-01-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

Vintage Russian Surplus Paper in Oil Caps.

Getting ready for installation. I'll comment on their sonics after I get a bit of time on them.

They have been installed in an amplifier and are breaking in.

Madisound BK16 II

2012-01-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

I built this Madisound BK16 kit speaker around 2005 or 2006 for the Luckster.

I was always fond of them as at that time, they were paired with a Decware Zen EX and Rega Apollo. I never forgot that particular flavor of sound.

A nice, simple system, just as I like them. Well, they recently made the trip back up US23 to I75 and into my audio room once again. The BK16 uses the Fostex FE165K driver and I've paired it with a Foster, horn loaded tweeter from Parts Express. A Dayton Audio 1% precision polypro .47uf cap does the roll off duty. They have a very unique, appealing sound, but aren't for everybody I suppose. They are now being driven by a Fleawatt chip amp and my HRT Musicstreamer+ NOS DAC.

Canary Wood Amplifier

2012-01-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

This is my most recent amplifier. A more detailed description can be found on the amplifiers page on the bar to the right of the blog page. The Canary wood is gorgeous. Only God could make something so pretty.

Wenge Wood Amplifier

2011-12-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Wenge Wood, Vintage General Electric Panel meter, Jantzen Superior Z input caps, filtered IEC receptacle, Alps volume pot and all carbon film resistors. 10 watts per channel into 8 ohms.

Wood for three more amps!

2011-12-19T13:07:00.000-08:00

I made a trip to Kencraft Specialty Wood in Toledo, Ohio this morning. I purchased enough wood to build three amplifiers.
Wenge, Canary wood and a beautiful piece of figured cherry. Here is a photo of the cherry board and Canary wood. Boards now, amplifiers soon.

Fleawatt Gen 2 Maple Amp

2011-12-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

This amplifier was sold recently. Unique features include custom machined aluminum isolation spikes, all point to point wiring, nickel plated binding posts, carbon film resistors, 16ga. steel top/bottom plate with a hammered finish and Dayton Audio 1% tolerance input capacitors.

Audio Road Trip

2011-12-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

Time&Tubes Visit- November 2011

2011-11-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

A great time was had during Gerrit's visit & audiofest! Music listening and field trips galore. The weekend included a visit to the Maumee Antique Mall, St. Mark's and organ demonstration by M. Gartz, Rosary Cathedral and tour of the famous Skinner organ, lunch at Tony Packo's, Allied Music used LP store, M. Gartz audio rig and T. Sanderson's system demo. On Sunday, Gerrit gave me a lesson on power supplies and the proper way to point to point wire a gainclone chip! Looking forward to the next Swiss Audiofest!

Serial #5 finished!

2011-11-20T18:39:00.000-08:00

10 watts per channel into 8 ohms. Audiophile quality parts. WBT silver solder. Cat 5e wire. 18ga. solid core copper ground wire. Quality Avel Toroid transformer. Mahogany veneer and bronze colored aluminum bottom and top plate. This chassis is equipped with Black Diamond Racing #3 isolation cones. Neutrik RCA connectors. 3amp slow blow fuse. A fully functional 1943 (dated on back) Western Electric Kilovolt meter. It is wired to the power supply, so it functions when the amp is powered up. A reading of "3" is actually equivalent to 18 volts on the power supply. I was told this particular panel meter came from a de-commissioned United States WWII submarine. It was sold to me with another meter that is stamped USN and also dated 1943.

Serial #4 Finished

2011-11-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

10 watts into 8 ohms. This amp is as powerful as a 300B amplifier and sounds very smooth and warm for a solid state amplifier, but with plenty of detail.
Maple wood and maple veneer. Fully functional, dated 1940's vintage DC panel meter. Connected to the power supply and reads 18volts when powered up. Aluminum isolation spikes. Nichicon Audio grade 4700uf power supply capacitors. Brushed aluminum top and bottom plate. IEC power cord connector. 3amp slow blow fuse. WBT silver solder. Cat 5e wire. Neutrik RCA connectors and audiophile quality gold binding posts.
Here is a quick video of the amplifier conducting some Frugal Horn Sachiko speakers with Fostex 206ESR drivers.

Time & Tubes No Baffle Speakers

2010-10-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Gerrit's new "no baffle" speakers as featured on www.timeandtubes.blogspot.com
These were so well done, I had to share them. Gerrit reports they sound wonderful, which I can imagine. They use a Fostex 103 and FW305. Gerrit tells me that he will sell them to desiring audioheads. Click the title of this post to be taken to his site.

DIY Wood Multicellular Conical Horn

2010-10-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

30Hz Tapped Horn Build

2010-10-19T18:02:00.000-07:00

One of the systems I admire most and would love to hear is Erik's at Volvotreter. It is a complete diy horn rig of the highest quality. Erik uses a EV15L in his horn system as I do. He uses both a 20hz tapped horn and 38hz tapped horns to fill in the bottom end. When he waxed poetically about tapped horns, I was inspired to build a stereo pair for myself.
I decided to go with his 30hz plans. If I find I want to go deeper, I may build the 20hz someday. The 30hz and 38hz plans on Erik's site both use a fairly inexpensive TangBand 6.5 inch subwoofer driver. This photo was taken during dry fitting.

New Fostex dipole conical front horns

2010-10-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Today I installed the midrange horns on top of the Altec cabinets. I'm still experimenting with crossovers, but using my line level 2,500hz crossovers and bi-amping, the "Smith" horn is a success. I plan to paint or stain it and mount spikes under the horn to both provide tilt and a bit of isolation.

Fostex "Smith" Conical Front Horn

2010-10-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Making progress....still not done... Here is my diy conical midrange horn loosely based on the Smith horn and JBL 2397. I decided against making the curved vanes which would create an exponential flare. Instead, I made removable vanes which create a conical flare. I may make exponential vanes if I decide I like the sound enough to experiment further.

Altec Lansing Multicellular Horns

2010-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Multicellular JBL2397 inspired horn

2010-10-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

I've always been intrigued by multicellular horns. I was looking for a diy friendly version and stumbled on the 1951 Audio Engineering Article featuring the Distributed-Source Horn by Bob Smith. JBL manufactured a similar horn, JBL Model 2397. I've designed a larger midrange horn based loosely on this design. Mine is larger in every dimension and will use a high efficiency cone driver as opposed to a compression driver. I sized mine to fit perfectly on top of my Altec A7 cabinet.

Western Electric Horns

2010-09-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

These would be fun to build!

Altec A7

2010-03-09T19:17:00.001-08:00

A7 cabinets before refinishing/re-wiring. Cabinets came equipped with EV15L SRO drivers.

Dipole Front Horn Walkaround Video

2010-02-17T13:24:00.000-08:00

Dipole Front Horn Video

2010-02-17T13:23:00.001-08:00

Frequency Spectrum

2010-02-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

Giant Fostex Front Horns

2010-02-05T18:53:00.000-08:00

Front Horn Progress Pix 2-3-10

2010-02-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

Getting closer....

Toledo Symphony at The Rosary Cathedral

2010-02-03T05:17:00.000-08:00

This January, I took my nine year old daughter to see the Toledo Symphony Orchestra at the Rosary Cathedral on Collingwood Ave. Here are a few photos of the cathedral before the performance.

Room Integrated bass horns.

2010-02-03T05:15:00.000-08:00

Talk about pressurizing a room!

DIY Fostex Front Horns

2010-01-29T17:41:00.000-08:00

This is the second pair of front horns I built. The first pair were designed by my friend Gerrit. They were a great design, but I made them from scrap wood and was less than careful when I built them.
I wanted to build another pair that was a bit more refined and something that I designed myself.

After about two months of research into various horn designs and horn theory, I decided on a 2:1 ratio rectangular conical horn with a cut off frequency of 200hz. Many reasons pushed me to this horn curve and size, but one of the big factors was ease of the build, both technically and financially. My plans make good use of a 4x8sheet of plywood with little waste. The size is also about as large as I could go and still get them from the shop to my listening room fully assembled.

I'll try to post pix here as the project progresses.

Inspiration

2010-01-29T17:38:00.000-08:00

More Horn Pix

2010-01-28T17:32:00.000-08:00

More cool horn pix!!

Active Crossover

2010-01-28T00:41:00.001-08:00

I recently purchased an inexpensive active crossover to use with a front horn system I'm building. In the meantime, I experimented with pointing the double horn Sachiko speakers into the concrete corners of my basement listening room and using them as the bass only units. I'm using the Saburo's as the mains. I'm biamping, using a high powered solid state integrated amp for 250hz down and my spud tube amp for 250hz and up.
The bass is understandably huge and powerful. Fun.

Horn Porn

2010-01-25T19:06:00.000-08:00

2010-01-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

Plenum Cat5e

2010-01-02T13:02:00.001-08:00

Plenty has been written about Cat 5e for interconnects and speaker wire. It seems to work especially well with the Fostex drivers. A friend of mine bought some Belkin plenum cat 5e. We made a few pairs of interconnects using Switchcraft connectors & WBT silver solder. (same RCA's that Shindo uses) They sound stunning and were well worth the minimal cost to make.

Horn trio

2009-12-09T16:00:00.000-08:00

They all have their unique flavor of sound. Black Sachiko puts out huge amounts of deep, powerful bass and are 96db. Dynamics can be startling. The only downside is that the 206e driver can get peaky with some poorly recorded music, but the Planet 10 phase plugs really cure the typical gripes surrounding this driver. The 126e is just amazing sounding and is MY favorite Fostex of all that I've heard. The highs are more natural sounding to me than the 206e and the mids are to die for. The 126e is also very quick and lively sounding. They really get your toes tapping and image like crazy. The ones in the Saburo are Planet 10 enabled (126en) and in the Mikasa are stock Fostex.

2009-12-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is a closer shot of the Hawthorne Spud and Quickie preamp together. I use Minwax Antique Oil finish on all my wood projects now. It goes on super easy and produces a nice warm, rich finish.

Bottlehead Quickie battery powered tube preamp

2009-12-09T15:55:00.001-08:00

I built this over the weekend. It took me about five hours to wire and another couple of hours in the woodshop to build the base. The base is made from Maple ply and Maple veneer with isolation sorbothane on the bottom of the base. I incorporated the Hammond chokes in place of the plate resistors. Never compared to stock as the comments on the Bottlehead forum were very positive regarding the choke vs. resistor. I'm using cryo'ed batteries. (just kidding) I'll try to remember to take a photo of the guts.

Listening room December 2009

2009-12-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

On the rack is my Hawthorne Audio Spud v.2, Bottlehead Quickie tube preamp with Hammond choke modification, HRT (High Resolution Technologies) Musicstreamer+ USB DAC and three different flavors of double horns. Sachiko, Saburo and Mikasa.
I'm using Cat5e data cable for speaker wire and DIY 18ga. solid core copper twisted interconnects along with one pair of Signal Cable interconnects.

Mikasa

2009-11-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

This is my Mikasa build. For this cabinet, I used Baltic Birch and Cherry ply. The removable cherry ply baffle was inspired by Gychang from DIY Audio. My intention was to make several different baffles from different types of wood to see if they altered the sound. I never got around to that experiment. With the small amount of wood involved in only the baffle, my guess is it would be that any change would not be perceived by the ear.

First Saburo build in Maple

2009-11-21T18:43:00.000-08:00

Maple Saburo's being driven by a Jolida 300B and Rega Apollo.
This was the first pair of Saburo speakers built in the world according to Dave and Scott of Frugal-Horn.

Jolida 300B & Naked Sachiko's

2009-11-21T18:38:00.000-08:00

The Sachiko's were positioned like this for the photo. NEVER set up a pair of Frugal-Horns like this! This was the first Frugal-Horn design I built. They later were painted black and the 206ESR driver was replaced by a 206E with Planet-10 phase plug. After vacationing at two different audio buddie's houses, they are back in my man cave.

Madisound BK-16 Horn Kits

2009-11-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

Madisound BK-16 kit horns. Really nice, lively sound and was the first backloaded horn I heard. These with my little Decware EX EL84 amp and Apollo CDP made for a nice, simple system.

Nagaoka Tetsuo D90

2009-11-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

This was the first pair of speakers I built from scratch. They are a Nagaoka Tetsuo design and were designed for the Fostex 108Sigma. I used a Fostex 126E in them with great results. Poor choice of wood though. They are perfect for a small room where the speakers need to placed against a wall.

The Swiss 6EM7 amp

2009-11-21T18:04:00.000-08:00

Gerrit's 6EM7 Class A, Zero Feedback, nothing in the signal path, custom wound studio grade German transformers, dual triode integrated tube amp built in Switzerland by my good friend Gerrit. www.timeandtubes.blogspot.com

My Grandfather

2009-11-21T17:31:00.000-08:00

My Grandpa "Red" worked at Lawndale Radio Repair in Toledo, Ohio in the 1940's. This is a photo of him and the owner. My Grandfather is on the left. The large disc on the wall in the background is a large loop antenna. My Dad remembers going to this shop when he was a boy.
Oh how I would love to go back in time and hang out in this shop with my Grandpa and watch him work. He died before I ever met him. Click on the photo to enlarge it and check out all the cool tubes and other neat techie stuff current at that time.

Gerrit's Front Dipole Horns

2009-11-21T17:29:00.000-08:00

Simply Gorgeous.

My listening room with the Swiss Front Horns

2009-11-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

This design is a very large conical midrange horn designed by my friend Gerrit of Time and Tubes fame. The Fostex 126E, with NO CROSSOVER was used in this particular build. The back is open. Subs must be used and I cross them in around 160HZ. I run seperate cables from the preamp to the sub input. The Horn is run full range. I didn't spend a lot of time building these and used scrap wood. I had to fudge the dimensions a bit and the next pair I build will be much more refined. I'm a fan of front horns also.

My open baffle project

2009-11-21T17:20:00.000-08:00

This was a good learning experience. Active crossover, compression drivers, multiple amps, big woofers. I didn't like them. Sold all the drivers and that was that. My ears just don't seem to like compression drivers. Many swear by them.

Original Sachiko with Fostex 206E

2009-11-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

Same speakers as previous post. Painted black and 206E/Planet 10 phase plug drivers installed.

My spud amp and custom birch base

2009-11-21T17:17:00.000-08:00

I built this kit in November 2008. There is nothing but the pentiometer in the signal path and one tube for each channel provides all the amplification. Circuits don't get much simpler and thus the extremely pure sound. This amp throws the most three dimensional soundstage of any flea watt amp I've owned. It sounds very powerful and has a great grip on the drivers for only 2-3 watts per channel. It uses two 6CL6 pentode tubes and solid state rectification. You can read more about the Spud amp on the Hawthorne Audio site and forum. www.hawthorneaudio.com

My Hawthorne Audio Spud Amp Kit Amp

2009-11-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

This is the underside and guts of my spud amp. I implemented a few of the upgrades listed in the spud amp forum including high speed diodes and shielded microphone cable on the inputs. I might play around with different signal wire this winter.
At full volume, with no musical input, this amp is dead silent with 96db speakers. It is extremely quiet for a low powered tube amp.
Jerry, who sells the spud amp is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Same with the Hawthorne Audio bunch. Nice, down to earth people and I really enjoy visiting their forums.

My first Frugal Horn build...The Sachiko

2009-11-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

Nagaoka Tetsuo 126E Horn

2009-11-21T17:12:00.000-08:00

This is the D90 design, but with the driver on the "side" and the mouth on the back. I used double thickness baltic birch (1.5 inches on each side) for this build. They weighed a lot!! Sounded good and very detailed. These are playing music in an Indianapolis, Indiana home now.

Swiss Dipole Front horns

2009-11-21T17:11:00.000-08:00

My front horn build. Notice the black Planet 10 Fostex 126E drivers. My favorite Fostex flavor.

Maple Saburo

2009-11-21T17:10:00.000-08:00

I built this pair of Saburo's, designed by the master of the Frugal Horn, Scott Lindgren, using Canadian Maple Ply, Maple veneer and Walnut veneer on the front baffle. This was my latest Saburo build. The first pair of Saburo's were all Maple, the second pair were Cherry and this is the third pair. This pair was an expensive build as the Maple ply is expensive, the veneer is expensive and Planet 10 Enabled drivers were utilized, which are double the cost of stock drivers. (But well worth the expense!)
The suburo speaker is a single driver dream come true if you have the room for them. The footprint is actually not any bigger than a standard floorstander, but visually they are commanding. The Saburo is my favorite speaker out of all that I've built. The Fostex 126E driver is special.

Cherry Saburo

2009-11-21T17:08:00.000-08:00

These are making music in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Maple & Mahogany Sachiko

2009-11-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

You'll notice this set of Sachiko's does not reside in my listening room. They live in a very good friend of mine's audio dungeon. I built these for him after he heard my Sachiko's. He has the Fostex 206ESR driver in his and drives them with Gerrit Gerritson's Swiss Tube amp. 2 watts!
They sound splendid.