Dan's System in Evolution

I just purchased the AVP2 +6 from a Audiogon member and planned them for the RF-7 surround system. I saw the ST-1's on Craigs List in Lake City FL. With "18 inch" subs, I had to check them out. Initially, it was a long shot and I bought them.

The "18's" were really 15's and the mid's are 6's. I took a handful of recordings and demo'd the speakers for about 2 hours. I thought they'd make great surrounds and possibly new fronts.

After I listened at home, I feel they may be better fronts. The RF-7's are filling-in as surrounds with a RC-7 up front. I have matching Klipsch RF series in-ceiling 8's w/tweeters, and may program them in the AVP2 as part of the RF-7 surrounds.

I'm working on the SVS Ultra 13 and MBM-12's location. It's a 30 x 30 room. The best corner is directly up front, behind the TV stand, where the SVS ports will clear the shelfs openings. Someone recommended behind the couch. A spot is also available right next to the couch with the ports facing the seating area. Moving them back may help create better front clarity and staging.

I'm enjoying the sound so much that the set-up is taking more time than planned. The Ultra and ST-1's are fairly heavy, too. I'm reading the AVP2 manual and others for set up tips. I'll post pictures when the stews ready... may be a bit.

Thanks!

Dan

so they are fairly recent acquisitions then? they really have me intrigued, do you happen to know any history behind them? i cant find anything via a web search.

Thanks for the Q. The ST-1's were a unplanned purchase two weeks ago from CraigsList. From the information that I have located, they were made in limited numbers around 1983 to reproduce all possible musical effects from the FX-1.

The market was entering a recession and production was probably discontinued early. According to the article, 6 FX-1's remain in existance. I read that a train accident reportedly happened with new units onboard for delivery in the states, and most were destroyed. Another was damaged by a lightening power surge and that probably happened to others. One is in Vegas and another in the U.K. according to the article.

In addition to 1/4 inch plugs, the ST-1's have special 13-prong connections to use up to 6 ST-1's on one organ. The multi-plugs provide automatic left to right panning through the ST-1's by the FX-1 keyboardest. They additionally connected Leslie rotational speakers to the organs.

I may have posted this PX before: http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Ewkoopman/electone/details/fx-1.htm

My amp plates say 380 watts. The full bottom cabinet is sealed with a single 15 I can't explian otherwise and and crossovers. The top sections are also sealed by an internal compartment design. The top has three 6 inch mids, six tweeters and crossover boards.

The amp is located on metal sliders in the top of the rear cabinets. Cooling fins project slightly outward. It runs slightly warm to touch. Except for the recently cleaned 8 fuses and 4 slide on amp connectors, every connection is soldered including speaker driver leads. The owner installed new black acoustic fabric on the grills. The internals look like new and sound like it.

The sound quality is total analog and the headroom is beyond my 30 x 30 room. These were made for moderate sized cathedrals. They have the best vocals that I have ever heard. There is no processed or any artificially reproduced sounds at all. It sounds analog - warm, inolving and very real to me. They sound beautiful on difficult to reproduce classical passages. I can actually count the number of individual instruments, for example, 4 violens. Long post but that's what you get !

QUOTE (soundsbeyondspecs @ March 01, 2009 12:35 pm)

... They have the best vocals that I have ever heard. There is no processed or any artificially reproduced sounds at all. It sounds analog - warm, involving and very real to me. They sound beautiful on difficult to reproduce classical passages ...

that describes a very fine speaker and one i would love to hear. it must be quite amazing to have one of the few pairs in existence.

that sucker IS cool. wish i had the room for such a thing...

The ST1's are only 34 inches tall and 32 inches wide. Shorter than the RF-7's, they're about the same overall volume.

With the Proceed AVP2 +6 and ST-1's arriving about the same time, it's been a slower set-up than usual. To be frank, it sounds so good I haven't completed the set-up.

Long before now, I thought I'd be tweeking everything as usual.

I did set up the ST-1's as fronts and RF-7's as rears with a RC-7 up front. The SVS Ultra-13 is between a couch and loveseat in the middle of the listening area, and feed the signals to the MBM-12's flanking the main couch. That leaves a cleaner L/R front stage and fills the seating position up with "near-field" type bass reproduction. Great balance and separation. The modded RF-7's with horns tamed w/resistors and two VIVA soft-dome tweeters each (3rd order crossed over at 3K) really sound nice (sweet in a way that you miss - sort of like a ...well, I'm not getting into that here) as surrounds.

Again, the arrival of the AVP and ST-1's together has sent me off on listening experience missions rather than a full set up.

I'm currently at a level where listening is so good and so much fun, the art and science of a full set-up can wait. This is a really unusual situation for me. I generally like tweeking a system for days....I never owned or heard anything quite like this.

The ST-1's sealed 15's, 3 mids and 6 tweeters in each cabinet is such a perfect match musically to my ears, I could listen to everything I own over and over. Everything - especially voices, sound true, clean, full, intimately revealing. and beautiful.

Ordered some new music off Amazon. Nothing high tech - had listened to some "Acid Jazz" - they can cook on all four burners with the oven broiling.

Went with some 60/70/80's classic country - JAX dumped a RAP station for a classic (not hybrid) Nashville/outlaw/western station. In the shadows of 60/70/80 POP music, Nashville was making great quality recordings with some very fine artists. Cline, Don Williams, Ronny Milsap, Waylon, Willie...

I like many types of music. Chicago's newest Guitarfest (organized by and with Clapton) on DVD-A sounds unbeleiveably real.

This is why i don't write ad copy.