Elekit 8600/8900 - What speakers do you use?

Old pic but shows three diy speaker builds whilst testing the small speakers.

Large ones at the back are a Frankenstein build of the Bastanis Mandala in a open baffle configuration it uses two 12" Bastanis Crystal drivers running full range, augmented by a Eminence 15" bass woofer and a 1" tweeter with crossovers. I can drive these direct from my Chord Dave dac (2.5W) to good effect.

Approximately 100dB the 15" drivers have separate plugs which allows them to be configured three ways 1/ disconnected 2/ connected to the 12" and 1" circuit or 3 bi amped from a separate amplifier. There is no getting away from the fact they are two big for my room but they sound fantastic.

Medium size speakers in front are DFonken enclosures with Fostex FX120 free range drivers @ 89dB

The small speakers are home brew desk top build the enclosures made from Ikea Bamboo chopping boards in the pic they are being driven direct by a Chord Mojo crazy good for what they cost.

All sound superb with my TU-8900.








full
 
Last edited:
Lii audio F-18 in circular baffles. I use a pizza screen as metal grills and have attached a ribbon tweeter in the middle of the grill with a capacitor crossover (at ~20Khz - but the first order rolloff of the tweeter, the whizzer cone rolloff, and some DSP make the response flat to 16 KHZ with 3db drop at 20khz). This setup beams like hell, so has a couple of inches of sweet-spot. Also I use all the reflections I can get to add some air and ambience to the sound. In the sweet spot it beats a magnepan 1.7i in soundstage and dynamics and is, IMHO, category defining in imaging. I use a DSP to eq it flat to 25hz on the bottom end. The best bass I've ever heard by miles.
 
For my TU-8600S, I’m working on building a custom JBL 3 way with 2405 High frequency compression driver, 2410 Mid range compression driver and a 2235 or 2226 15” low frequency driver. Before I start building a crossover, should I replace the 16 ohm compression driver diaphragms with 8 ohm versions and go with a 8 ohm woofer or just use a 16 ohm woofer with the 16 ohm compression driver diaphragms I already have?

Trying to figure out if I should go all 16 ohm or 8 ohm.

Thanks in advance.
 
Yes, don't let the wattage fool you. I fell for that when I started and bought the Aragon 4004 MKII and now it is sitting there collecting dust.

With both the TU-8200 and the TU-8600S, the volume control is not even half way, and any louder my ears would start to hurt after an hour of listening. I don't listen to Rock and heavy metal either, and this tells you how loud it gets.


I was at the Toronto Audio fest this weekend and listen to the Martin Logan in wall speakers. They were driven them with a tube amp and the watt meter barely passed 4 watts and it was already way too loud for me.
 
Last edited:
I actually asked Victor whether the TU-8200DX can drive the MG 2.5/R before I bought it couple of years ago. He told me he was driving his ProAC back then so this how I ends up with the TU-8200DX, and now the TU-8600S. For vocals music, I still prefer the TU-8200DX with the more refine point source like voice as comparing to the TU-8600S.
 
At what crossover frequency/slope are you crossing the AER driver to Rel powered sub? Rel can keep up the speed and transparency at such high frequency?

There are no markings on the crossover of REL but I think I adjusted to around 80 Hz. Yes. It can keep up. The low frequency is very natural. I'm using the high level input of REL connected to speaker out of TU8600S.
 
/Users/miles/Downloads/IMG_2515 copy.jpg

apparently I didn't have an easy time posting a pic but I'm using either B&W 603 s3's or FrugalHorn mk3 with alpair drivers.

they both have a great soundstage, but the frugals really place things cleanly and show a lot of revealing detail and nuance. the 603's are lovely speakers, but in my space theres WAY too much bass with them.

I'm using a grace dac thorugh a raspberry pi with volumio, and with the 8600s turned all the way up I leave volumio at 25% so that the house doesn't shake as much.
it also sets a safe listening level for all, and the baby won't blow the speakers when it wants to play with the volume knob.

the key word with this setup is resolution (also "detail") on well recorded and mixed high bitrate material.