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#1 Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:02 pm
by IslandPink
I should have posted this a while back but it got busy before Christmas.
We had a small get-together at my place late November. I'm not sure what to call it, but of the options, 'Pink-meet' sounds the funniest.
Anyhow, amongst other things Ali demonstrated his current set-up with Bastanis 'OB' speakers and the amps he's using. I say 'OB' because there isn't much of a baffle.
The amp set-up as far as i can remember uses a Behringer digital crossover & amp combo for the bass, and a Unison SS/Valve hybrid amp with EL34's on the output for the 10" mids and tweeters.
Interestingly the mid drivers are of a fairly low Qts which gives them a rise through the mids with a high-pass effect around 200Hz - this allows the Unison to run without going through the digital filtering.

Ali said he wasn't sure about the crossover yet, and I think he had tried the bass in the other polarity. Given the differences between the valve amp path and the Behringer crossover & SS amp, it was not obvious. We tried both options, on two or three tracks, and it was not 100% clear but we slightly favoured the reverse connection to what Ali had been using.
With REW and my Behringer UMC interface, here is the result for the set up as Ali had been using it - baseline.
ALI_Nov23_start.jpg
Here is the mid only :
ALI_Nov23_Mid.jpg
Here is the bass only :
ALI_Nov23_bass.jpg
Oh, next post ... too many pics ...

#2 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:08 pm
by Ali Tait
Cheers for posting Mark, just to point out the S6 isn’t a hybrid, it’s ECC83 front end into PSE EL34, three valves per channel. About 35w I think.

#3 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:10 pm
by IslandPink
Ah, thanks for clarification. Very good.

Here is the full system again but with the bass polarity swapped. This is a much clearer result than we had from listening.
ALI_Nov23_ii.jpg
The compression tweeter comes in just with a 1uF cap. I thought this was too high and it does look like it's wrong as the FR trace shows a big dip from 5 to 10k. The mid driver does rather fall off a cliff above 5kHz. - maybe due to the Bastanis 'treatments'.
I had a few caps to hand ( what a surprise ! ) and added another 1.5uF so we had 2.5uF to bring the compression tweeter in earlier . We got this result :
ALI_Nov23_Final_2p5u_cap.jpg
I think we also did a small number of measurements to average room modes, and got this additional trace :
ALI_Nov23_Average.jpg
The sound was much improved with the tweeter coming in lower. There didn't seem to be any harshness associated with it being lower, it's still a fairly high high-pass even for a 3/4" or 1" driver, to my mind.

I'll try to load up the original files from the laptop next ( tomorrow ) and see if I can provide some extra resolution.

#4 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:17 pm
by Ali Tait
Yes indeed, a very good improvement, thanks again Mark for taking the time to do the measurements. I did enjoy the speakers but always felt they weren’t quite right, most likely due to the phase inversion on the bass- phase seems to be something I’m particularly sensitive to. Adding the caps to the tweeter was also a big plus, I now have no niggles and they sound great to me at home.

#5 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 11:26 pm
by IslandPink
One interesting thing was, we kept finding a noticeable peak and dip around 60-70Hz. It was odd as it appeared in almost the same amplitude on the mid driver traces - was many dB lower - as the bass driver trace. SimonC explained to us that his computer analysis of my room shape & dimensions had indicated a major mode around 60 or 70Hz, so that was quite educational.

#6 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2020 12:44 pm
by Ali Tait
Meant to post this a while ago, thought it may be of interest to see what Vic's been up to-

https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index ... ic=31371.0

#7 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2020 7:11 pm
by IslandPink
He's certainly keeping busy, never one to sit back ! I dunno how you get any bass out of those drivers with no baffle like that, but there you go. My gripe would be the type of drivers altogether, but there you go.

Ps. Sorry, I wasn't able to get much more info from any files I saved from that test session Ali - was it Chris who wanted unsmoothed data ?
The REW files I saved seemed to be already smoothed.

#8 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2020 10:51 pm
by simon
An interesting take on OB. I'd really like to hear them to understand just how they sound.

#9 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 7:51 am
by Ali Tait
Might give him a shout, he's not that far from where I'm working currently. Others that have been have been positive on what they heard.

#10 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 8:02 am
by IslandPink
That would be great - he's a really interesting bloke to talk to. I phoned him a couple of times when I was helping him evaluate new mods on the early air-bearing tone arm.

#11 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 9:24 am
by Ali Tait
I've sent him an email.

#12 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 9:30 am
by Scottmoose
Vic's a good bloke; I think I last saw him when I was at a mutual friend's place. He & Clive introduced me to the Bug Head player. One of the few absolute night & day moments I've ever had with digital audio. If it had a better interface & my PC was manly enough to run it, I'd probably use it all the time.

#13 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 9:35 am
by Ali Tait
Off to see him tomorrow. :D

#14 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 12:14 pm
by pre65
Scottmoose wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2020 9:30 am Vic's a good bloke; I think I last saw him when I was at a mutual friend's place. He & Clive introduced me to the Bug Head player. One of the few absolute night & day moments I've ever had with digital audio. If it had a better interface & my PC was manly enough to run it, I'd probably use it all the time.
Anyone here use Bug Head ? I've heard it's very good.

#15 Re: Ali Bastanis OB testing & results

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 12:51 pm
by simon
Excellent Ali, good man. Looking forward to your views for context. I'm hoping you're not that impressed. But only cos I can't justify £1600 for the drivers plus the DSP...