The Bigblog!

The peak's at 20Khz you're not going to hear that. 'Shoutiness' in a speaker is caused by intermodulation distortion in the mid band, won't show up on an FR trace.

Wharfedale Coleridge used a ceramic tweeter, had a very good top end on them.

Everything is made in China so it stands to reason that they would knock them out on the cheap. Your link doesn't work for me BTW.

EDIT: works now? bonkers.

My wife is an expert in that. Never there when I need her for a bit of soldering though.

The festive period is usually when i spend the least amount of time in front of the system. The plethora of visits, gift giving and family commitments are where i (and probably most of us) spend most of my time at Christmas.

This year, more than any other in memory, i have been "free" to just enjoy uninterrupted time with the family. Although i know others that have not been so lucky.

On a positive note, the purchases of many PS4 games, Nintendo Switches and online memberships has kept the little fellas happy, busy and pretty much quiet. This has given the gaffer and i a bit of time to do the things we enjoy. For me, that's meant i have actually been able to have a proper sit down listen to the implements of music reproduction i have acquired recently, and having a serious think as to where i go next....if anywhere.

I shut Bigbottle manufacturing (lol) down for the festive period and took a much-needed break and just played music.

The Yams were the real reason i wanted to really sit down and listen. I have looked for other speakers for a few weeks now, and in all truth....i don't know why. The yams have been a little unfortunate that i didn't buy them because i wanted them. I bought them because i couldn't think of anything else to buy. this immediately set them back in the "for the love of it" category.

Hours spent looking at speakers have yielded only one speaker i am probably interested in trying, and thats the HECO Celan GT502. It's typical then that the only worthwhile pair i found were sold to a local guy in Germany AFTER a deal had been agreed with me. no money had exchanged hands, and i understand that the guy collected them. Thats a lot less aggro so i can't fault the guy to much.

After this I decided to really give the Yams a chance to show what they can do. And they've delivered in the main. There are still things i am unconvinced about. There is a slight veil to these speakers. They are not as pin point sharp as others i have heard and the bass is a little soft, BUT they are superbly neutral and i find their ability to add very little colouration to anything to be quite addictive. In fact, for the first time i think this system may just be about as neutral as anyone could want. If it had the Pin point precision and almost scalpel-esque insight ive heard on other speakers, coupled with the neutrality of the Yams, i may have been in Nirvana.

What matters here is that i find myself forgiving them, almost accepting them as they are, for what they are.

I know the abundance of audiophiles that have modded these speakers have pretty much concluded that taking the L-Pads out, re capping the crossovers and putting decent copper wire inside will bring about an improvement. Whether they can be ushered into the kind of territory i am looking for remains to be seen, but whereas before i was was unwilling to spend on them....now i am.

Now i understand what they do, but it's certainly not been an instant love affair.

The Yams will be remaining with me permanantly. Sorry macca

The Soekris:

Sound wise, it's absolutely the best DAC i have had in my system. 100%. No doubt. But that SPDIF GLITCHING IS KILLING ME

The new cable arrived from the Greek fella. It's really well made and oozes quality. I know it's not a fancy pants cable, but there was definitly an improvement when it went in. The HF opened out a little, became a bit cleaner. A more defined leading edge and decay lingered a little longer. Echo/reverb from John Van Der Veer's guitars are now crossing the soundstage..like they travel from one speaker to the other. the sound appearing from outside of the outside edges of the speakers. Mids are more solid. Imaging is more stable and focused, and separation within the image has improved. Double guitars? absolutely. Different players? Absolutely. Now i can hear them clearly and their individual playing techniques are coming across. LF detail has improved too, with a bit more pace and attack.

It's a great cable and if i could only fix that glitching, i'd be a happy camper.

USB and TOS do not suffer it and the DAC on the N15D doesnt do it either, so it must be the Soekris. I emailed Soren @soekris on 19/12/20 & 10/12/20 as well as PM him at DIY Audio and have still not had a reply. I have messaged him at "Super Audio Best Friends" and he replied "forward enquiries to info@soekris.com"......exactly where i have already emailed him twice.

His DAC is superb....his communication is fucking Sh#t.

Had i bought this directly from Soren/Soekris, i would be absolutley raging about his lack of interest in communicating and would be taking my anger to every forum he operates on, and the ones he doesnt. Customer service is what manufacturers live and die by. In fact, regardless of how good i think this DAC is, i couldn't recommend one to anyone because i have ZERO confidence that if they had an issue, they would be able to get it sorted out!

I am not asking him to fix it or look at it for free. I know i havent got a warranty etc, but not even being bothered to reply is a cardinal sin IMO.

I know i am the minority in wanting to use SPDiF but it's an advertised input, so it should work. It's also FAR better than TOS or USB.

Knowing that we have a bonafide expert on the forum (misterc) means i may conult him and see if he will take a look....may even get him to make a proper PSU for it too. Not sure yet...but i am considering it.

Quibbles aside, This DAC has the potential to be here for the long term. I just can't fault the SQ. I havent listened to any vinyl for a few weeks now, mainly because i havent got a phonostage at the minute. But i havent missed it one bit. I always hankered to go back to vinyl asap but the Soekris has seemingly done enough to keep me interested and stave off vinyls grip on my listening habits.

Cable:

I have also been trialing a new unbalanced RCA cable i built. Interestingly, it sports an OCC inner core & OFC outer braid in a coaxial configuration.

It's been in for about 3 weeks now and i finally switched back to the Spotfire yesterday. The Spotfire have a greater sense of dimension, depth, height and width, and immersion into the soundtsage. The Spotfire delivered a more organic midrange. The experimental cable sounding a little more flat and 2D in this particular area.

The new cable is about 40pf per meter and the Spotfire is about 150pfpm and that has been the same result when i have used low cap cable. This is the first really low cap OCC cable i have found. I really liked it's neutrality and it's got some serious detail retrieval but i find the Spotfire to still be my cable of preference at the minute, but i have another candidate on the way. All cables are the same length and have the same solder and RCA plugs. Just for those who may wonder.

For those interested in trying it out, see here:

eden-audio.com/index.php?id_product=473&controller=product

I am thinking of asking the Greek guy if he fancies making me another 75ohm cable out of this stuff. I think that may be pretty good?

I'd do it myself but i don't have the crimping tool and i like that there is a Greek fella on a little island supplementing his income with Audio cables.

Upcoming:

The next phase for the system will be about fine tuning what i have here now.

I will be looking for some proper stands for the Yams, caps for the upgrades to the crossovers...maybe a spare set of XO's too for when i make a mess of it. Binding posts, wiring and then play with the positioning of them in the room.

I have bene given the green light to remove the Piano from the listening room but i have to think of where i can keep it so it doesn't get ruined. This Piano is older than any human on the planet today....yup...it's not an easy task.

I am also building a BB3 on steroids for myself. More info on that when it's done, but it will be known as the BBU - The Bigbottle Ultimate. This will be my last personal build and it will be in my system FOREVER lol. Seriously, i am sick of having to rebuild ones for myself so this one will be the reference point. As an indication of what i am up to, i have just sourced some epic B9A sockets. Teflon, Copper and gold. I am just trying to buy them off a guy who only does email enquiries. Another in the mould of Soren in terms of response time lol

My Bigbottle AWM Buffer preamp build should also soon be underway as the AVALON phonostage that Angus designed, and i have been waiting for is finally about the be transferred from Circuit design to Gerber files! Craigtone USA has been hard at work and the files should be with Angus soon. Then it's only a matter of time to get the boards made. 18 months in the making. I can't wait.

Finally, i am hoping 2021 brings some relief from the enforced isolation of Covid-19. It would be great to get out and about and do some bakeoffs again!

Yeh, covid has delivered some Xmas freedom here too. If you're going to do the xos on the yams Oli I'd build a new set from scratch and keep the originals as reference. I might even get round to doing mine at some point.

ah him,i check him out from time to time as he always pops up if you search regularly for Mogami 2803,i just cant bring myself to press the buy it now button,he seems to be the only one selling it without rca's that i can see.

very wise.

Haha, won't be free....got to pay for insulation lol

Have a look on Ebay right now, I see a pair.

Quote by Bigman: "There is an idea that digital is somehow more affordable than Vinyl, but it wasnt cheaper to get the digital up to the same levels, or even close really to the levels my vinyl setup delivers."

You're having a laugh surely, how much have you spent on cartridges alone?  

Can't see them?

Well, ok....that's a good point, but it was said to me some time back that digital should cost about £250-500 to get replay that lives at analogue levels, and that just wasnt true.

Mister C you are correct regarding vibrational interfaces being the biggest killer of SQ. I have recently found this was absolutely true with regards to my TT but having made some changes has bought about a huge uplift in SQ and I thought I had previously nailed vibration interference.

Just shows you can never go far enough!

Haha, the mad scientist is about to get busy!!!

I like your ideas T.......very interesting