Audio Note UK Ongaku Kensei 211 valve Single Ended Triode balanced amplifier now up & running!

I am a believer in using the very best capacitors and resistors after hearing a pair of Tannoy Westminster Royal SE speakers with the crossovers modified to be external and use the best Dueland capacitors. It was a fabulous experience.

I would love to try that on my AN E SPE HEs, it when my technician told me the starting price that he previous owner is working with for the new crossovers, I decided that these ones were good enough for me!

 

I would suggest caution before replacing any parts in an Audio Note crossover, or indeed any speaker where the designer chose components based on how they sound. I am sure Peter Q selected the caps in your crossovers with care in order to achieve the sound he wanted within a given cost constraint. Duelund caps will sound different, no question, but will that sound be an improvement? And will it be consistent with the sound priorities Peter had in mind? Maybe, maybe not. Based on my experience with Duelund CAST caps, resistors and wire, I doubt it.

A while back I was trying to get the very best sound possible out of my high-efficiency Jensen/Altec horn speakers, and I tried lots of different crossover components including Duelund CAST capacitors, resistors and wire. Over $3000 in Duelund parts alone. None of the Duelund parts made the cut, even after many hundreds of hours of break in. Now your experience may be different; there are certainly many people who like them. All I am saying is don’t assume they will be the best for your particular speakers just because some people say Duelund caps are the “best” or because they are expensive.

 

you make a good point ... I know AN ensures each of the 16 versions of the E's sound best based on type, price, etc ... but it is interesting to think about. but your point is taken.

 

Yowza.

 

Thanks Fred. I think that you are right, these will quite a good improvement. Any upgrade beyond that would be quite expensive and probably beyond my budget.

 

Thank You! I will pass along the compliment to him as I am sure that he will be pleased. He puts a lot of time and thought into his work. He created these at the request of a customer and I think that he hit it out of the park.

 

I definitely understand where you are coming from, but I am not too concerned as he owns the Signature version of my speakers and put these together with great care. He and I have had long talks over the past few years about any upgrades to my system that would be due to upgrading components inside. He has already replaced some older caps and resistors in my DAC 4.1/X BalSig and in my Kassai amps, with the latest Keisei versions. Although I would probably prefer the very best Black Gates, they simply can’t be purchased any more (I don’t feel comfortable buying any that I see for sale on eBay), so these are the next best.

Lastly, he swapped out his external crossovers and tried my new crossovers over a long weekend and passed along his thoughts about the differences. His enthusiasm is what helped me decide to purchase these.

I had planned on sending my speakers back to Hove, England one day down the road to upgrade to the Signature version, but this will be quite similar in performance and much more affordable for someone on the west coast of Canada.

By the way, this isn’t some big sideline business for the tech that I know. He was simply putting together these crossovers at a customers request. Now the new Dueland crossovers are being built by the customer himself.

 

The person that I know who upgraded his crossovers in his Tannoy Westminster Royal SE speakers spent FAR more than that on his crossovers! I was a bit shocked when I heard how much those cost. However, the speakers were absolutely amazing. Definitely money well spent.

The crossovers that bought have more than $3k in parts in them as well. This is an expensive hobby at times!

 

Are you referring to the fairly well know audio writer Jeff Day?

 

Sal makes a very good point about expensive parts being not necessarily good; it really is a matter of voicing. A dealer once asked me to listen to an amplifier and give my opinion. It was one of his amps, the sound of which I am quite familiar with, but, this one sounded particularly bad. It turned out that someone had sent the amp to one of those outfits that "upgrade" components. In this case, certain capacitors were "upgraded" using Blackgates. The dealer said that, in voicing this amp, he tried Blackgates and rejected them in this particular application. In other designs, he liked, and used Blackgates.

This sort of right-parts-for-the-right-application decision can actually be quite complicated. This same dealer recommended using Blackgates for an upgrade to a particular amp. The customer took the amp home and did not like the sound. When the dealer got back the amp and tried it out, it sounded good. After a couple of back and forth with this customer, the dealer figured out that there was a difference in the way the customer used the amp and the way the dealer used the amp. The dealer left the amp on for very long stretches of time, while the customer listened in short intervals. It turned out that the Blackgates did not sound good unless the amp was on for quite a long time.

 

Yes I am. I visited Jeff for a weekend with Rafe Arnott. Lots of fun!

 

I agree. The MC-30 mono amps that I had listened to at Jeff Day’s house had vintage components throughout. He had experimented with different components and really preferred the vintage parts. He felt that the good folks at Mac had found the right parts the first time around. However, Jeff experimented with the crossovers for his Tannoys and found that the Dueland caps were a terrific upgrade.

 

The builder of my amp and linestage uses mostly vintage parts and wire. It takes a long time to build because a lot of parts have to be collected to first find those that are working within specification and then to actually place them in the circuit and listen to the result. I have seen him going through the process of auditioning resistors and capacitors; it takes a lot of patience and commitment to trying to achieve perfection to build this way.

 

Does anyone remember the old "Audio" magazine article by Marsh and Jung testing the audio qualities of capacitors? 1980

Those guys were ahead of the curve.

 

Me too. I was super bummed when they vanished from the scene. That was the only mainstream American magazine which, while largely based-around performing objective measurements, still acknowledge that subjective evaluations had some value, rather than simply ridiculing them as Stereo Review often did.

 

Can I like that post twice?

 

With a very similar system to Steve's and the same amp, I would absolutely have to concur. And then when the 4242e tubes were put in, it took it to a whole new level....

The only thing I don't like about AN is that I ->KNOW<- if I spent more money it would get even better Now if I can figure out how to get the M9 Silver sig (or better yet, the Ultra), the Ultra amps and some AN-E Sootto speakers, with all Sootto cabling.... Peter, I hate you!

 

Only Betty could make that shot work.

 

I don't think you should try and explain it. I don't think anyone has a shovel that big to fill the potential hole.