System
25 November 1999
Re-Visit:
11 September 2001
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System |
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25 November 1999 Re-Visit: |
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Jean-Michel Le Cleac'h
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I saw my first WE300B around 1977 in a famous electronics shop of that time : Radio MJ, rue Claude Bernard here in Paris (now closed). I was impressed that such an heavy amplifier with those huge transformers (manufactured by Millerioux), chokes and large capacitors could only deliver 4 watts. There, I used to talk to a young seller, the name of which was William Walther (now manager of La Maison de l'Audiophile) and I met a Franco Japanese guy the name of which was Jean Hiraga. Some times latter La Maison de l'Audiophile opened and I was one of the very first client. As most French audionut I accompanied through time the evolution of La Maison de l'Audiophile and was a fan of the famous review " l'Audiophile " which inspired me to build the Hiraga 20 watts class A amplifier, the Kaneda RIAA preamplifier and the Hiraga MC preamplifier. Nearly 20 years later, I still use them, a bit modified, in my system. I was also one of the very first in Paris to use the compression driver TAD TD2001, at the time I was finishing my thesis and took a 2 years credit to pay them. I consider myself as a typical DIYer, building most parts of my system and only purchasing the components I cannot build by myself. That's why recently I bought a digital crossover that allows me also to time align the loudspeakers, but in the same time I build a passive preamplifier. (Please click the pictures to enlarge and to read the detailed legend for each one)
For each excerpt information is given about : tested characteristics ; artist name ; " excerpt title "
Jean-Michel's comments about his System: AA: "Jean-Michel, how would you describe your system's sound?" JM: "The first quality of that system is that it respects music as it has been recorded, well or not. One characteristic, non often found on most systems, is the huge dynamics which one is very well distributed inside a very extended frequency range. Sound is very much involving , with a realistic presence of the singers and musical instruments. Micro details, note attacks and decays are not masked. When you close your eyes you forget the presence of the loudspeakers. The frequency range covered by the bass-reflex possess a very rare mix of qualities : speed, tightness, dynamics and depth. While the bass-reflex dynamics fits very well with the one of the TAD compression driver + horn used in the medium, the low mid range seems a bit hollow in comparison as it lacks some presence and natural compared to the other frequency ranges. Medium is very good but the home build horn is not so well designed and built. This can explain why on violin and choirs I prefer other horns to load the TAD TD2001. High mid and treble are just excellent, never harsh. High frequencies are not rolled off and upper harmonics are perfectly reproduced by the Onken tweeter ." AA: "Do you think there is room for improvement?" JM: "I began to work on that system 20 years ago and it has been in constant evolution and improved through that time interval so I cannot imagine that this could stop now. IMHO, the difficult thing when setting up a complex system is to avoid compensation between components. If a carefully considered modification that should lead logically to some amelioration in the sound doesn't bring positive results, most probably there is some kind of compensation there. To progress, toward an excellent sound you must convince yourself that you have to locate the source of the compensation and cure it in place of refusing the modification. That's my philosophy and this is a difficult way, but I am very patient. Also because, with time, every listener becomes accustomed to his system's sound I try to attend as often as possible to listen to other systems and I take written notes of my feelings during those listening sessions. This helps me a lot to identify the existing weaknesses in my system and to consider modifications. At the moment, some tiny weaknesses in the low mid and in the medium, exist in my system." AA: "Have you got plans for upgrading?" JM: "After having developed a new method to calculate horns, which one use several millions discrete elements, I am currently designing new horns, calculated by that new method, to be used with the TAD TD2001. I am also considering to add a horn loaded 4th way to reproduce the low mid range in which are most of the fundamentals and first harmonics of the human voice. In a more distant future I'll probably also consider some bass horns that could be inserted in my small listening room." This is NOT a virtual
Re-Visit! I was in Paris for a few days
before flying to London for the Hi-Fi 2001 Show. It
was of course an excellent opportunity for meeting
my virtual friend and auditioning his system. A
real visit to a virtual friend is a great
experience, it's not the first time that I do it:
see also Bert
Doppenberg, Jeremy
Epstein pages. Jean-Michel lives in one of the most historic
streets of Paris (or more precisely: of the
Quartier Latin). The street's name is Mouffetard
and is partly pedestrian. It is said that Romans
have used the same street as a passage way. All the
buildings date from the 17th century. Jean-Michel
told me that his apartment dated from 1680. His
flat is on the top floor of this antique apartment.
The botom picture shows part of the famous
Mouffetard street as seen from Jean-Michel's
window. We spent the whole afternoon listening to a
variety of music ranging from Brel, Barbara, Elvis
to jazz and classical. I also listened to my own
evaluation CD's. Since the last visit notes, Jean-Michel had made
some changes to his system. I asked Jean-Michel to
describe the changes with his own words. MC cartridge: At the moment I use an Ortofon MC reference SPU
Royal GM. This MC cartridge delivers an astounding
presence on voices. The sound is very dynamical and
well balanced with a very natural sounding medium
and an excellent bass register, tight and extended
down very low frequency. The response curve is
slightly decreasing as I like it (this can be
somewhat controlled by the settings of the SME
tonearm and specially the VTA angle, this one being
more easy to set than with my Denon 103). Cable
between MC cartridge and set-up transformer is done
by Gotham GAC3 cable directly soldered to the SME
threads and to the set-up transformer pins. Set-up transformer: Between the MC cartridge and the RIAA
preamplifier I am currently using a pair of UTC A11
transformers. The reflected impedance on the MC
cartridge is 100 ohms, while Ortofon recommended
more than 100 ohms to load the Royal GM. Those
transformers were found in old movie projectors,
they were used there to adapt the impedance of the
photoelectronic cell reading the optic track on
which the sound was recorded to the input of the
amplifier. May be some further optimization of the
settings could be done in order to enlarge the
bandwith that seems lacking a bit the highest
frequencies (over 12 kHz). Cable between set-up
transformer and RIAA preamplifier is Gotham GAC3.
The secondary of the set-up transformer is directly
soldered to the cable, the end on the preamplifier
side use a WBT RCA connector. RIAA preamplifier: I had the chance recently to found an excellent
Audio Research SP14 preamplifier on the used
market. This preamplifier and specially its RIAA
preamplifier which is hybrid (Fets + Mosfets +
Triodes) and similar to the one of the SP15 is
since long time one of my favorite commercial
preamplifiers. I will use it also to perform
comparisons with the "RL only" RIAA preamplifiers I
am currently designing. I am using only the RIAA
stage of the SP14 (+46dB at 1000Hz). Output is
taken on the fixed gain "record output". No
controls are in the signal path. The volume control
is set with my DIY passive preamplifier
(transformer + absolute phase invertor + 20
positions fixed output impedance attenuator).
Cabled between SP14 output and the passive
preamplifier is Gotham GAC3. Neutrik RCA connectors
are used on the SP14 output and XLR connectors on
the passive preamplifier input. Horns: In June 2001, Marco Henry a friend of mine,
build for me a nice pair of horns made of some
special concrete having a nice light brick color.
They are designed with my 16.000.000 discrete
elements method, for which I developed a special
calculation spreadsheet. expansion law is hypex (T
= 0.707) and cut-off frequency 380Hz. They are used
between 800Hz and 8000Hz. They improve deeply the
ability of the system to deliver a 3D image. They
don't exaggerate sibilance on voices, which ones
sound very natural. My impressions: Unfortunately the same afternoon the well known
tragic event had happened in the US. Was it a
coincidence or something else, I don't know but my
wife called me to inform about the attack while we
were listening to Helen Merill and Ron Carter's
"Duets" album (that one has a picture of the twin
towers of the WTC on the cover). Then we turned the
TV on and stayed there transfixed and speechless.
Obviously the rest of the afternoon was spoiled but
we both had a lot to be thankful for. All in all an unforgettable visit in every
respect! |
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