Quote:
Originally Posted by
DiGiCiDAL 
LOL, I would certainly say those are not particularly valve-friendly speakers. I've got a couple of flea-watt amps (one triode one pentode) that I keep around with a pair of (no longer available) Tekton speakers based on the (also no longer available) Fostex FE207's. I certainly wouldn't call them balanced (i.e. pretty much nothing below 60Hz and noisy above ~10kHz) but everything in the middle is just INSANE! What it does with good female vocals is amazing - despite costing less than $275/pr when I got them.
Like you however - I go solid state for 95% of my listening... but there is some magic in the distortion of valves... no matter what the more 'objective' side of me believes.
Nothing like a ridiculously sensitive speaker to show that dynamics are often much more important to perceived sound quality than frequency range. (IMHO at least!)
Like all of your amazing projects I'm definitely subbed for this one too... can't wait to see the pwm controlled results. Either that or a combination with your mini status-monitor to be a full cooling management system. wink wink
Thanks, would love to see a few pics of your setup.
Nah, the PSBs are power hungry beasts, but with good solid state amp they are hard to beat no matter what the budget is. (of course totally subjective, everything hifi really is
)
I have tried running them off the 300B SET amps, not bad at all, just can't control the bass very well, but that is understandable when looking at the impedance for the PSBs:
Like you, I have tried a few single driver high efficiency builds, including a pair of Fostex drivers, while certainly the midrange is excellent, I just kind of find them unsatisfying in the end. But I agree with you there is something magic about tube amps with the right speakers and they are just kind of fascinating, so I'm not giving up on them, although it might be an impossible quest.
Most recent experiments have been with a newish driver from Dayton (got it from Parts Express):
(stock pic, mine are packed away at the moment)
It's a very efficient (real 94-96 dB at 1W, huge neodymium magnet) but it's got problems too, so it will not work full range. I have molested it a bit to make a better driver out of it, I cut the whizzer cones off and I changed the surrounds. Now it's good, well behaved and pretty linear within usable range, but needs a bass and a tweeter. I have some plans.
This thread is going a bit off topic
but I don't mind as long as it's interesting.
Posts related to the actual fan controller are of course very welcome
As I have some experience with your circuits I would feel more comfortable trying them out.
