Newbee to Sound Labs and Majestic 745s…

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  • This topic has 26 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 5 months ago by jeffreybehr.
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    • #1960
      lwr
      Participant

        Ernestov – Thanks for the clarification and the pictures

        Jeffreybehr – Thanks for the info on the “Teflon-alloy-film-and-tinfoil SoniCap Platinum caps.” They must sound pretty amazing! Can you tell us a bit about how they sound different from the standard Sound Lab ones?

      • #1958
        jeffreybehr
        Participant

          The top plate.. The rubberbands keep the speakercable away from power and IC cables.

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        • #1957
          jeffreybehr
          Participant

            lwr: “Are the “Teflon-alloy-film-and-tinfoil SoniCap Platinum caps” a factory- installed option, and if so, how much extra are they?

            They were installed by SL; I bought them from Sonic Craft–the RR is $640 each, and 12 are required.. Sonic Craft shipped them to SL for installation.. I got a small volume discount from SC, and SL reduced their selling price by their cost of the original caps they didn’t install.. They were still very expensive.

          • #1956
            jeffreybehr
            Participant

              lwr: “Are the “Teflon-alloy-film-and-tinfoil SoniCap Platinum caps” a factory- installed option, and if so, how much extra are they?

              They were installed by SL; I bought them from Sonic Craft–the RR is $640 each, and 12 are required.. Sonic Craft shipped them to SL for installation.. I got a small volume discount from SC, and SL reduced their selling price by their cost of the caps they didn’t install.. They were still very expensive.

            • #1946
              ernestov
              Participant

                My mistake, my 745s do have both treble and bass controls. The brown square in the picture connects to the bass control and the round silver lpad, which is hard to see under the caps, is for the treble control. I am also including a pic of the caps. As you can see Dr West uses premium components throughout. It’s hard to imagine how any parts in his backplates can be swapped to upgrade them?

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              • #1944
                lwr
                Participant

                  Are the “Teflon-alloy-film-and-tinfoil SoniCap platinum caps” a factory installed option, and if so, how much extra are they?

                  Thanks

                • #1943
                  lwr
                  Participant

                    I was aware that the middle control has been replaced with a fixed 4mH coil, but I hadn’t heard that the high control has now been replaced by a fixed value. Could you post a picture of the top of the backplate, showing the placement of the bass control?

                    Thanks

                  • #1941
                    ernestov
                    Participant

                      Your new 745s still came with both a treble and bass controls? Mine only have bass control?

                    • #1939
                      jeffreybehr
                      Participant

                        ernestov: “Congrats on your new M745s. Did they require a break-in period?”

                        Well, yes and no.. I’m not a quick-hearing golden-eared audiofile, but the speakers sounded wonderful to me brand new, and so did the Pass X26o.8s.. The SLs now have about 850 hours on them, and the amps about 650, and I THINK they sound a bit less edgy (=not edgy at all!). The Sound Lab electronics include a 24uF hi-pass-filter capacitor as part of the treble-adjustment circuitry, and my pair has Teflon-alloy-film-and-tinfoil SoniCap platinum caps there, which also ‘require’ hundreds of hour to sound their best, but I can’t imagine them sounding any better than they do now.. Maybe I just got lucky.

                        So…many people said something like ‘hundreds of hours’, but mine sounded great initially.. May you be so blessed.

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                      • #1938
                        ernestov
                        Participant

                          Congrats on your new M745s. Did they require a break-in period?

                        • #1936
                          jeffreybehr
                          Participant

                            I did receive the M745s 4 weeks ago tomorrow and LOVE their sounds.. Am driving them with a pair of new Pass X260.8 monoamps. I Love the naturalness of the sounds.

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                          • #1771
                            Massimo Stefanizzi
                            Participant

                              @ Loudspeaker7

                              Sandy,
                              your speakers look rather Ultimate 745 to me from the photo, not Ultimate 845.
                              Am I wrong? Are they really 8 feet tall?
                              If yes: how tall is the director’s chair?
                              Best regards!
                              Massimo 🤗

                            • #1770
                              Massimo Stefanizzi
                              Participant

                                @ Loudspaker7

                                Sandy,
                                your speakers look rather Ultimate 745 to me from the photo, not Ultimate 845.
                                Am I wrong? Are they really 8 feet tall?
                                If yes: how tall is the director’s chair?
                                Best regards!
                                Massimo 🤗

                              • #1768
                                jeffreybehr
                                Participant

                                  This ultrawide pic shows much of what I explained below.

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                                • #1766
                                  WillB
                                  Participant

                                    Hi Jefferey, I saw the 7XX models were your first consideration and then the 6XX due to visuals. If you are going to a dealer and can hear them both you’ll hear the semi-significant difference in the low frequencies and that might help overcome the skyscraper visual.

                                  • #1765
                                    jeffreybehr
                                    Participant

                                      To all respondents–room is 21′ wide and 19′ deep.. Ceiling height starts at 6.5′ at front wall, rises to c. 12′ above listening position, and then descends fairly quickly to 8′-high backwall.. The main, 16″-high, left-right beam near the front of the room is centered about 4′ from the front wall, and most speakers have been placed, over the almost-43 years I’ve had this room, with their faces 5 to 5-1/2′ from the front wall.. Listening position is c. 3′ from rear wall.. The room has a relatively low proportion of its flat surfaces parallel with other flat surfaces, and all walls are rather diffuse from all the cabinets, etc. around the room.

                                      I’ve added two LARGE basstraps on the left and the rear wall, both being about 1.5×2.5′ rectangals maybe 10′ long and containing NO reflective plastic; these plus two 3’x 6’x 6″ panels on the front room absorb lots of broadband acoustic energy.. Due to its almost-square nature, the room has a bass node at c. 30Hz that’s VERY strong and peaky and substantially reduced by the basstraps.

                                      I sit about 10′ away from the faces of the speakers, and the faces of my current speakers, the very excellent Vandersteen 7.2s, are centered about 9.5 feet apart.

                                      I plan to get to SanDiego this Saturday to hear a pair of SLs.

                                    • #1764
                                      WillB
                                      Participant

                                        In addition to what I said below about the panel divisions that are different depending on the version of the panel, the other variable is the curve of the speaker panel. I have a pair with 90 degree curve and a pair with 45 degree curve.
                                        I’ve found that the 90 degree version allows excellent imaging when sitting closer to the speaker than the 45 degree version. They (the 45s) seem to me to require a somewhat greater distance to the listener to image similarly. I do not tow-in to where the intersect line between the speakers are directly pointed at the center of my head/ears. That intersect line between L and R is usually slightly behind my head.

                                      • #1762
                                        Loudspeaker7
                                        Participant

                                          My experience is that even though the speakers are supposed to be a “line source” with the same sound no matter where your ears are vertically in relation to the panels, I have never actually encountered this with any “line source” including my Ultimate 845s. My experience is that your ears should be located in the vertical center of the panel. I sit in a high director’s chair in order to facilitate this.In terms of toe in: if the speaker were flat I would toe them in so that the horizontal center of the panel was pointed directly at my ears. But since the panels are curved this takes a little more experimentation.I sit very close (8 feet). I am posting a picture of my set up.

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                                          • #1767
                                            Dizzie
                                            Participant

                                              Loudspeaker 7, Are the side rails brown? I like the look with the grill cloth.

                                          • #1761
                                            WillB
                                            Participant

                                              Along with Dizzie’s comment:
                                              I would add that the divisions of the panel vary depending on the version, ie. The older panel is divided (from bottom to top) with the largest division at the bottom and progressively gets smaller all the way to the top.
                                              The later Bass Focus version of the panel has the narrowest segment in the center of the panel and progressively gets larger divisions towards the bottom and towards the top of the panel.
                                              This affects the imaging and tonal balance relative to the distance from the speaker.

                                            • #1759
                                              Dizzie
                                              Participant

                                                Be aware of the high frequency and midrange portion of the panel height in relationship to the height of your ears and listening distance. I heard some SLs where seating was too close for the size of the speakers. Another listener who had heard them on a different occasion agreed with me about seating distance.There was no solid center image. Maybe more toe in would have helped.

                                                I have 545PX in a 12×15 room with one wall almost completely open. Imaging is amazing. Sound stage is spacious but there is still a solid center. IMO bigger is not automatically better.

                                              • #1758
                                                Anonymous

                                                  Beam is five feet from front wall. What is room depth?

                                                  Mine are eight feet out in 26′ room. That was determined empirically by delivering the smoothest measured response in the bottom octaves.

                                                  My long term friend and mentor HP died almost ten years ago.

                                                • #1757
                                                  Anonymous

                                                    dupe

                                                  • #1747
                                                    jeffreybehr
                                                    Participant

                                                      lotus123, no, not yet.. After measuring my musicroom, if I order any SL, they’ll be Maj. 645s, as the 7-footers look like narrow buildings in front of me.. I’m still trying to arrange driving help for the audition trip.

                                                      The beam–holding the roof up–five feet off the front wall somewhat complicates choosing the maximum height available.. The pic is from June, 2008 but shows the beam fairly clearly.. All my speakers since I rebuilt the room in 1982 have fit under the beam.

                                                      • This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by jeffreybehr.
                                                      • This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by jeffreybehr.
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                                                    • #1742
                                                      lotus123
                                                      Participant

                                                        So did you get the 745s?

                                                      • #1731
                                                        jeffreybehr
                                                        Participant

                                                          …but not to e-stats, having owned Quad 57s, stacked 57s, some
                                                          Audiostatics, Quad 2905s, and maybe more I can’t remember–I’m almost 80YO, and the memory is the 2nd to go (I can’t remember the 1st).

                                                          I currently have Vandersteen Model 7 Mk.IIs and LOVE their sounds–they’re highly resolving, very cohesive, very full-range, very musical…but they’re short…that is, the soundstage is low top-to-bottom.. Therefore I’m looking for speakers that are as sonically excellent as the 7.2s but ‘taller’.

                                                          I’ve chosen, initially, the Majestic 745s as they’re ‘affordable’ and the tallest I can get in my largish room.. I have 400WPC-into-8 Moon/Simaudio monoamps(1) and Aesthetix Atlas Eclipse hybrid monoamps(3) to drive them as my summer amps and substantially improved Atma-Sphere(2) 140-Watt MA-1 Mk.3.0s to heat my house in Phoenix’s nonsummers.

                                                          Will be hearing some largish SoundLabs next Monday.

                                                          (1) I HATE the term ‘monoblock’, coined, I think, by Harry Pearson.. Harry, wherever U are, if a single-channel poweramp is a monoblock, than a stereo poweramp is a ‘stereoblock’.. YUCK!!!!

                                                          (2) I’m suprised so many peope here don’t know how to spell that name. 🙂

                                                          (3) which use a 6SN7 in each frontend.

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