DCAudioDIY.com

GREAT TIME wirh incredibly friendly and kind people.

Ron's Sound Shed is the best sounding room I've ever heard!

Cool!

Tell Danny Hey for me!

Best,
Rich

Sorry Rich! I can't believe that I forgot. I knew that you two were friends, he mentioned you in a video.

Stuart

Now that Stuart is an Industry Insider, I guess I better be nice to him

Stuart,
Please post a link to the video when it is up. Will be interesting to see what you all were doing.

Rich

Me too!

I wish I could tell you that there was a video coming. We had such a great time that making a video didn't even occur to me. In fact, it may have been disruptive.

My wife and I are visiting friends near Tyler, TX. My wife agreed to let me take a day and drive to the area of Witicha Falls to visit GR.

I'd made arrangements with Hobbs, so it wasn't a surprise drop in. My main purpose was to hear the best of their creations. Specifically, how much difference is there between the NX-oticas and NX-tremes. Guy wanted me to hear the XLS-encores. Bruce wanted to know about the LGK 2.4s. I wanted to hear everything, but hey, I knew that wasn't happening.

Danny met me at the car. While walking to his house a familiar face crossed the lawn to our side. I asked, "aren't you...."? The guy finished "Ron from New Record Day". I thought he was in Arizona. Now he lives a few miles from Danny.

We went onto Danny's listening room. It looks just like it does in the videos. With lots of speakers all around. Unfortunately, only the NX-tremes were connected. Well, if it had to be only one, that was THE one. Danny had some custom chip amps connected. They are in 19" rack boxes, so no idea what's inside. Sadly the 300b amp was dark. The front end is a modified Mac-mini with 60,000 lines of code deleted and a battery power supply. Gary Dodd custom DAC and preamp. Everything except the triple OB servo sub amps and chip amps was on 12v car batteries.

The speakers were very impressive. Soundstage is huge. Ease of reproduction at loud levels, clarity of reproduction, great imaging, seamless sound top to bottom, etc. They tick all the boxes. But they are 7' tall, if only about 10" wide at the rear.

That said, I think 1) the front end is not retrieving all the tiniest details, but I'm not sure, since I wasn't impressed with the chip amps. 2) It seemed they might be a bit hard sounding. We listened to a lot of music that I brought, probably an hour's worth. So, I'm familiar with the music in Charlie's and David M's systems, as well as my own.

I really wish that I could have listened with a different amplifier.

We touched on several topics: drag racing, street racing, medical issues, etc. Danny's dad is 82 and has two Corvettes that he races at the track and drives on the street. Were talking 650 and 1200 hp cars! Then Danny asks if I want to hear the LGK 2.4s. They are in Ron's Sound Shed. He calls Ron and says "this is the call you were expecting ".

We drove over there and the moment the door to the shed was closed, you could tell the room sounded great. The sound of spoken voices in the room was just right. Just a little echo in the room.

Ron, like Danny was unbelievably friendly and accommodating. Not sure about most of his rig, but he is using a Holo May DAC and commercial SS amplifier.

I expected the 2.4s to be swallowed by that BIG room. They were intended for a small space, perfect for Bruce's cozy living room.

We listened first without subs, then added the subs, but not perfectly adjusted. Bottom line: the 2.4s are truly what they claim to be: Little Giant Killers. Pinpoint imaging, huge soundstage, with the right source material they completely disappear. They play LOUD. But the bottom end is rolled off. Much better with the subs, but the low pass on the subs needed to be adjusted to a higher frequency; there was a lack of impact in the upper bass. The sound was never strained, edgy or less than refined in any way.

These speakers blew me away. But, they are best on a much smaller room.

Ron's Sound Shed is beautiful inside, sounds even better, and is worthy of watching his build videos of how he did it.

I'd really like to own both sets of speakers.

While I never heard the XLS-encores. Danny and Ron both assured that what may have sounded like a cabinet resonance was not. The encores just have more low frequency energy. Ron told me that he knows what Bruce was hearing in the video and why it may have seemed like a resonance, but that it wasn't.

The 2+ hours I spent there weren't nearly enough, but I'm thankful for that opportunity. It was a great time and learning experience.

I may have bragged on you guys more than I should have, and I invited Ron to check us out the next time he is in the DC area for the CAF.

Sorry there isn't more to report. But I'm a happy camper.

Stuart

Stuart,
Great write-up of the day!

Would have been interesting if Danny had the Line Force speakers with the 3x12 servo subs setup like when I was there. Those are probably my favorite Danny has built.

Was fun catching up with Danny and his wife at LSAF2023 in June. Been a long time since I had been there.

Rich

Good post, Stu.

Saw a few videos of the mod kits. He is flattening the FR curves of the speakers like BMW and Totem. Those speakers are supposed to be on the bright side, and I suspect these humps in the tweeter range are deliberately put in there by the manufacturer to create a specific sonic signature.

I think he is not "correcting" the design faults (in the above two speakers) but re-voicing them.

Hey Shashi,

The subject of manufacturers purposely creating speakers with jagged responses, rolled off or peaked responses has been addressed several times in other videos. While Danny insists that no one would purposely do those things ( at least not in the extreme), the point is moot because the only speakers he redesigns crossovers for are those that customers send to him. Customers send the speakers since they are either dissatisfied wirh their sound, or wanting to see if the sound can be improved.

We didn't delve into that discussion while I was there.

Stuart