EDINGDALE speaker build

Dedicated to those large boxes at one end of the room
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Mike H
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#331

Post by Mike H »

Fantastic :thumbleft:
 
"No matter how fast light travels it finds that the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
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Scottmoose
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#332

Post by Scottmoose »

Finally had chance to hear a pair of these over the weekend. I have to say I'm very impressed. There doesn't seem much point in posting a load of subjective waffle, & I hate audio buzz-words that don't really mean anything, but on the understanding that it's based on a relatively short time with my fallible ears in an unfamilar room & amplifiers, I can say a few general things.

Unlike a lot of monkey coffins, they have genuine LF extension down to 30Hz & very good dynamic range since efficiency is high and there is plenty of travel available in the drivers. They don't move a whole lot, even at high levels. There appears to be little group delay from the box since the alignment is quite damped / broadly tuned; that's also helping them avoid the on/off sound a more narrowly tuned box can suffer from. The multiple midbass units evidently work well both for shifting considerable quantities of air, and what seems to be relatively low distortion right up through the midband. I liked the latter, seems very clean to me. The HF is nice too; I'm inherently suspicious of planar & ribbon tweeters, but there isn't much to object to here. There might be a little harmonic distortion at the bottom end of its BW, but if there is, it's not doing anything annoying.

Since the midbass units are covering most of the critical hearing BW, I found the optimal listening height to be with the upper midbass unit rather than the tweeter. Not a big deal, it's already at roughly that position for most people anyway, just something to be aware of, or at least experiment with.

I like them. All design is a compromise, but they do most things you'd want from a big[ish] floorstander, IMO they appear to give little away to a lot of well regarded commercial designs including some extremely expensive ones, and beat most hollow at the bottom end.
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Ali Tait
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#333

Post by Ali Tait »

Yep, both Nick and I commented on the very clean midband they give. This is one box speaker I could happily live with.
davidismynaim
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#334 possible re-veneering of Yamaha NS1000

Post by davidismynaim »

Hi there,
I have just joined this forum, and have been told by a fellow pfm forum member that his Yamaha's were re veneered by Toppsy. I too am considering this as a possible route hence this post. Mind you on reading about your speaker design, I am wondering if a change of plan is in order.
Do you mind me asking Toppsy, do you have the time/inclination for a re-veneer project?

Kind regards
David
gazjam
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#335

Post by gazjam »

Is Colin still making the 'dales?
I'd heard there was an issue with driver supply or something?

Its maybe time to upgrade the RS3's to something a bit better, heard Colins speakers at Owsten and knew they were the next step.

Don't have a lot of details on them, cost, options etc so thought I'd ask when I saw this thread.

Happy to PM for info Colin.


thanks

Gary.
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Toppsy
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#336

Post by Toppsy »

Gary,
Glad to hear you liked the Edingdales at the one before last Owston. That was their first outing with the new upgraded XO that has now been rolled out to existing Edingdale owners.

There is no issue with drivers. I have more than enough in stock for a few builds yet plus some as spares should they ever be needed.

Spec-wise the speakers are 94dB efficient and were designed with low powered valve amps in mind of the likes of 300B SET's. At Owston they were driven by my LongDog Audio (mine host Nick Gorham) designed 300b SET monoblocs.

The speakers are built to order in the veneer of your choice, though some the exotic burr veneers are out as I don't have the proper facilities to cover speakers in these. Veneers are book matched in pairs. External aesthetics can be changed to suit within limits as are fittings should you have a favourite make and type. They can have internal or external XO, wired for single amp or bi-amp operation and/or bi-wired if you choose external XO.

Best send me an email (c dot topps at talk21 dot com) and I'll email you my phone number so we can either chat or correspond about options, price and deliver times etc.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards
Colin
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#337

Post by gazjam »

Hi Colin,
thanks for that, I've picked up your PM this morning.


Gary.
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#338

Post by gazjam »

Really nice chat with Toppsy on the phone this evening, Edingdales on their way! :)
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Toppsy
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#339

Post by Toppsy »

Monacor have recently bought out a new range of true ribbon tweeters, namely the RBT-10, RBT-35SR and the top of the range RBT-20. All these are sold as matched pairs.

I recently took delivery of 2 pair the RBT-20 for experimental purposes with a view to a brand new design in the pipeline using these with some SB Acoustics Satori mid-woofer drivers in a curved cabinet when I'm fully fit and recovered from my recent Spinal surgery.

However, this morning I decided to lash them up to my Edingdale speakers just for fun.

Image

Image

WOW :shock: I wasn't expecting a such a leap in performance over the very good RBT-95SQ / SR pseudo ribbon tweeters. They certainly up the performance of these speakers a notch or two. I like these a lot. Can't wait to get started on the new curved cabinets but then I have to wait until around mid June for my Satori drivers to arrive in the UK. No mind I have plenty other builds to keep me busy until then.

Anyway, as I say I like these ribbons a lot they sparkle and I can hear extra subtle high frequency detail in the music I am very familiar with a big thumbs up. :lol: Pity the mounting flange is too large for them to be retro fitted to existing Edingdale cabinets. :cry:

EDIT
Upon further examination of these new ribbons I reckon they are FOUNTEK units made under licence to Monacor.
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ed
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#340

Post by ed »

I can vouch for that, the fountek units really are a cut above. I've also been drafting out a curved cabinet, something like Tony Gee's, both a floor stander and a monitor, there must be something in the air...
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Toppsy
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#341

Post by Toppsy »

I've also been drafting out a curved cabinet, something like Tony Gee's, both a floor stander and a monitor, there must be something in the air...
More akin to like minded fellow speaker builders, Ed. I look forward to seeing and hearing your efforts with the curved speakers. The only issue with curved speakers is one really needs a CNC router to make it viable. Though I have easy access to a flat bed CNC router that can take 8' x 4' sheets the machining costs have to be taken into account. Then one has to decide keel and frame with wrapped around flexi-ply with a veneer finish or stacked formers. The latter is very wasteful on material though but assembly time and construction is vastly reduced and if you use quality ply then the end grain varnished up to a high gloss does look the business, but the materials cost is very high. I must explore the costs of buying a CNC router.
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ed
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#342

Post by ed »

I'll be laying up plywood from scratch, in a press. It's what I did with the pipi model and it worked a treat. I hate waste, although I have access to a local commercial CNC router, I've never been forced or inclined to go that route.

I'm not really sure if I can legitimately call my stuff 'hand made' if I use a CNC machine.....trixy one that :)
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Andrew of Cleeve
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#343

Post by Andrew of Cleeve »

Hi Colin,

I'm very interested in the Edingdale and I'm wondering what the current state of play is with your builds. I've tried pm'ing you on AoS but your inbox is full, so I joined here. I'd be very interested to talk to you about the speakers if possible. I've been on a difficult speaker quest, after some time with ESL63s (and now Gradient subs) in a room that is much too small to do them justice. I'm interested in making a paradigm shift to high efficiency dynamic speakers that work with low powered valves. Yours are fascinating.

cheers,
Andrew
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Toppsy
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#344

Post by Toppsy »

Hi Andrew,
I wondered why I was sent an email from AoS telling me my inbox was full. I have now cleared most the old PM's to free up space for new messages.

Regards the Edingdale speakers I have a couple builds left. One in Cherry Veneer with full face grilles that are ready to go and another set of cabinets built but just waiting finish to customer preference. You're welcome to come over to Topps' Towers to audition the speakers or I could come to yours.

You may need to make 3 postings on this forum before you can recieve and send PM's, however you can email me at c dot topps at talk21 dot com and I'll email you some details and my telephone number so we can have a chat.

Alternatively send me a new PM from AoS now I've cleared some my old messages and I'll reply from there.

Regards
Colin
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Toppsy
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#345 Re: EDINGDALE speaker build

Post by Toppsy »

OK so it's been a long time since this thread was last posted on.
There have been quite some development work and new speaker builds since last I posted.
Scott and I now have the all new Edingdale MKII speakers and the Upgraded SR version of the MKII's.
We have kept the same pseudo ribbon tweeter (though this is now the RBT-95SR) and replaced the original MarkAudio #6 (CCS EL166) mid-woofer drivers with some Monacor SPH-176. The Monacors were chosen after an exhaustive search and listening tests for a replacement. I have to say these are a big improvement on the MA drivers. My stock of the original MA drivers was exhausted a long time ago and I have left just 1pr of drivers for anyone who requires a replacement should damage a driver in their original build speakers get damaged.
Following a request for a hybrib version of the Edingdales we developed the 'SR' version. This version keeps the same array of mid-woofer drivers as the MKII but the tweeter is replaced with the SB acoustics neo Satori TW29RN tweeter. The results of this speaker arrangement is quite a big upgrade over the MKII and no doubt is all down to the excellent Satori tweeter that is quite beguiling.

Last month Nigel (Vinylspinner) and a friend of his came over my place to pick up a pair the 'SR' Edingdales and compare these to the MKII's and Nigel's original MkI's. This is the first and only time that all 3 versions of the Edingdales have been together in the same room. Nigel took a couple photos for me of the Edingdale ensemble besides my OB 3-way speakers:

Image

Nigel's original pair finished in maple veneer are on the left. The MII's finished in Tamo Ash veneer are in the middle, with the new 'SR' version finished in Oak veneer on the right. The photo below has the 'SR' speakers with the grilles fitted in place.

Image

Scott and I are presently developing the 'Ultimate' Edingdale speaker. This will have an all 'Satori' driver array incuding the new beryllium dome tweeter. This promises to be even better than the 'SR'. :shock:
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