AI-1 Dreadnought ?

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Toolfan66
Toolfan66 Posts: 16,895
edited March 2013 in Vintage Speakers
Why is it called a Dreadnought? And who came up with calling it a Dreadnought?

Just curious...:redface:
Post edited by Toolfan66 on

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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,794
    edited March 2013
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    Ray named it.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


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  • DarqueKnight
    DarqueKnight Posts: 6,764
    edited March 2013
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    I called it the "Dreadnought" because the user would not have to be afraid of using any high powered non-common ground amplifier with their SDA's.
    Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country!
  • Moose68Bash
    Moose68Bash Posts: 3,842
    edited March 2013
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    I called it the "Dreadnought" because the user would not have to be afraid of using any high powered non-common ground amplifier with their SDA's.

    And I would say that Ray chose a great word with a rich, appropriate etymology! :smile:

    In addition to its naval history roots, if I remember my Middle English at all, it would translate to "afraid of nothing" -- even my Prisma 750 monoblocks!
    Family Room, Innuos Statement streamer (Roon Core) with Morrow Audio USB cable to McIntosh MC 2700 pre with DC2 Digital Audio Module; AQ Sky XLRs to CAT 600.2 dualmono amp, Morrow Elite Speaker Cables to NOLA Baby Grand Reference Gold 3 speakers. Power source for all components: Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One with dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel.

    Exercise Room, Innuos Streamer via Cat 6 cable connection to PS Audio PerfectWave MkII DAC w/Bridge II, AQ King Cobra RCAs to Perreaux PMF3150 amp (fully restored and upgraded by Jeffrey Jackson, Precision Audio Labs), Supra Rondo 4x2.5 Speaker Cables to SDA 1Cs (Vr3 Mods Xovers and other mods.), Dreadnaught with Supra Rondo 4x2.5 interconnect cables by Vr3 Mods. Power for each component from dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel, except Innuos Statement powered from Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One.

  • GlennDog
    GlennDog Posts: 3,085
    edited March 2013
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    ^^^^^^^^ +1

    Here, here!

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  • Toolfan66
    Toolfan66 Posts: 16,895
    edited March 2013
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    I called it the "Dreadnought" because the user would not have to be afraid of using any high powered non-common ground amplifier with their SDA's.

    I had a feeling you named it..:cheesygrin: ah now I get the rest of it..

    Thanks!!
  • Schurkey
    Schurkey Posts: 2,100
    edited March 2013
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    Lasareath wrote: »
    What is cold soldering?, Is that something i can do at home?
    The way I understand it, a "cold" solder joint is one that was not properly heated, the solder got hot enough to melt, but the components--the wire or the circuit board did not get heated properly. Solder flowed over the junction, but did not appropriately "seal" to the various components. The result is high resistance through the joint--an incomplete connection.

    An appropriately-large soldering iron, along with proper flux and solder and some amount of experience will prevent these incomplete electrical connections.

    DO NOT use acid-core solder on electronics. Acid-core solder is for copper plumbing, not copper wires. Rosin-core is fine--the rosin is a flux built-into the solder.

    As with EVERYTHING else in the Audio-Video world, there is outrageously-expensive, Boutique-brand name solder; and there's stuff that works as well at the hardware store. Your choice. Solder with some amount of silver in it (silver solder) would be my first choice.

    Soldering is easy--a junior-high school student can do it with some mentoring. Don't be scared of this.
  • quadzilla
    quadzilla Posts: 1,543
    edited March 2013
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    What Schurkey said is essentially correct, though his terminology makes me cringe. :biggrin:

    The upshot is that you absolutely don't want cold solder joints. One way to judge a correct solder joint is that the solder should be shiny after it cools below melting. If the solder looks dull or grainy after cooling, then that's likely a cold solder joint.

    And those "boutique" solders? There's a reason for them, and the stuff from the hardware store works, but not as well. I'm speaking specifically about the various eutectic solders, which are formulated so that the different components of the solder all melt and cool in sync with each other. "Regular" solder does not do that, and the connection formed is not of the same quality.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,794
    edited March 2013
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    quadzilla wrote: »
    And those "boutique" solders? There's a reason for them, and the stuff from the hardware store works, but not as well. I'm speaking specifically about the various eutectic solders, which are formulated so that the different components of the solder all melt and cool in sync with each other. "Regular" solder does not do that, and the connection formed is not of the same quality.

    Agreed! Once you use an eutectic solder, you'll never use anything else.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


    President of Club Polk

  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,794
    edited March 2013
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    The cold weld PS Audio refers to is done under extreme pressure. It is not soldering at all.

    That Cardas solder is one of the best there is, go with it.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


    President of Club Polk

  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited March 2013
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    F1nut wrote: »
    That Cardas solder is one of the best there is, go with it.

    +1. What he said.
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
  • Moose68Bash
    Moose68Bash Posts: 3,842
    edited March 2013
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    F1nut wrote: »
    The cold weld PS Audio refers to is done under extreme pressure. It is not soldering at all.

    That Cardas solder is one of the best there is, go with it.

    Unlike F1 and others on this Forum, I am no expert or even an accomplished practitioner when it comes to soldering.

    But recently, because of work "incited" by this Forum, I have begun to dabble with some simple solder joints -- e.g., leads from toroidal transformers to binding posts in Dreadnought enclosures.

    I bought Cardas Quad Eutectic solder and found that it was far easier to use than the Radio Shack and Home Depot varieties of flux-core, silver content solder that I bought to practice with before doing the real deal. I will say that it goes pretty fast when you start soldering.

    I will also add that I don't want F1, Trey, Toolfan66 or DarqueKnight inspecting my solder joints! :smile: I've still got a lot to learn.
    Family Room, Innuos Statement streamer (Roon Core) with Morrow Audio USB cable to McIntosh MC 2700 pre with DC2 Digital Audio Module; AQ Sky XLRs to CAT 600.2 dualmono amp, Morrow Elite Speaker Cables to NOLA Baby Grand Reference Gold 3 speakers. Power source for all components: Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One with dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel.

    Exercise Room, Innuos Streamer via Cat 6 cable connection to PS Audio PerfectWave MkII DAC w/Bridge II, AQ King Cobra RCAs to Perreaux PMF3150 amp (fully restored and upgraded by Jeffrey Jackson, Precision Audio Labs), Supra Rondo 4x2.5 Speaker Cables to SDA 1Cs (Vr3 Mods Xovers and other mods.), Dreadnaught with Supra Rondo 4x2.5 interconnect cables by Vr3 Mods. Power for each component from dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel, except Innuos Statement powered from Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One.

  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,556
    edited March 2013
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    F1nut wrote: »
    The cold weld PS Audio refers to is done under extreme pressure. It is not soldering at all.

    That Cardas solder is one of the best there is, go with it.

    As F1 said under extreme pressure no heat at all Cardas,Audioquest and others use it to make connections on interconnects and speaker cables. Cardas had a video out that showed what happens when you take say 50 strands of copper and under 10,000psi it melds down to just one piece of wire at the end with the spade pressure connected to the wire.
  • Toolfan66
    Toolfan66 Posts: 16,895
    edited March 2013
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    Echo!!! That Cardas solder is one of the best there is, go with it.
  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited March 2013
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    I'm not the expert, but I think for building a Dread the higher the heat the better. You're not soldering anything that's sensitive to heat, there's no heat sinking necessary. You're just soldering the ends of coils of wire to the binding posts. Remember what you're trying to do - heat the joint, not the solder. You don't want the iron to melt the solder, you want it to heat the binding post and wire enough that the solder melts without the solder touching the iron. That's what gives you a good solder joint. If you melt the solder with the iron and the binding post isn't hot enough, you won't get a good connection and it will probably come loose, that's what a cold solder joint means. It takes a lot of power to get those binding posts good and hot, so I'd say crank up the heat.
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
  • Moose68Bash
    Moose68Bash Posts: 3,842
    edited March 2013
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    nspindel wrote: »
    I'm not the expert, but I think for building a Dread the higher the heat the better. You're not soldering anything that's sensitive to heat, there's no heat sinking necessary. You're just soldering the ends of coils of wire to the binding posts. Remember what you're trying to do - heat the joint, not the solder. You don't want the iron to melt the solder, you want it to heat the binding post and wire enough that the solder melts without the solder touching the iron. That's what gives you a good solder joint. If you melt the solder with the iron and the binding post isn't hot enough, you won't get a good connection and it will probably come loose, that's what a cold solder joint means. It takes a lot of power to get those binding posts good and hot, so I'd say crank up the heat.

    Very good, clear instructions about what works!
    Family Room, Innuos Statement streamer (Roon Core) with Morrow Audio USB cable to McIntosh MC 2700 pre with DC2 Digital Audio Module; AQ Sky XLRs to CAT 600.2 dualmono amp, Morrow Elite Speaker Cables to NOLA Baby Grand Reference Gold 3 speakers. Power source for all components: Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One with dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel.

    Exercise Room, Innuos Streamer via Cat 6 cable connection to PS Audio PerfectWave MkII DAC w/Bridge II, AQ King Cobra RCAs to Perreaux PMF3150 amp (fully restored and upgraded by Jeffrey Jackson, Precision Audio Labs), Supra Rondo 4x2.5 Speaker Cables to SDA 1Cs (Vr3 Mods Xovers and other mods.), Dreadnaught with Supra Rondo 4x2.5 interconnect cables by Vr3 Mods. Power for each component from dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel, except Innuos Statement powered from Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One.

  • drumminman
    drumminman Posts: 3,396
    edited March 2013
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    FYI, I used a Weller 40 watt iron to build my 1000VA A-L Dreadnought. It worked :cool:, but it took a while to get the BP and wire hot enough for the solder to flow.

    Higher wattage would have made it easier.
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  • Moose68Bash
    Moose68Bash Posts: 3,842
    edited March 2013
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    drumminman wrote: »
    FYI, I used a Weller 40 watt iron to build my 1000VA A-L Dreadnought. It worked :cool:, but it took a while to get the BP and wire hot enough for the solder to flow.

    Higher wattage would have made it easier.

    I had to turn my Weller WES51 soldering station up to 700 degrees to get enough heat to raise the temperature of the binding post enough to melt the solder and draw it into the joint, and it still took a bit of time to get the heat up -- enough time that it made this newbie nervous. And I had to put a pretty hefty tip on the iron. The stock pointed tip could not carry enough heat to get the temperature of the binding post up.
    Family Room, Innuos Statement streamer (Roon Core) with Morrow Audio USB cable to McIntosh MC 2700 pre with DC2 Digital Audio Module; AQ Sky XLRs to CAT 600.2 dualmono amp, Morrow Elite Speaker Cables to NOLA Baby Grand Reference Gold 3 speakers. Power source for all components: Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One with dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel.

    Exercise Room, Innuos Streamer via Cat 6 cable connection to PS Audio PerfectWave MkII DAC w/Bridge II, AQ King Cobra RCAs to Perreaux PMF3150 amp (fully restored and upgraded by Jeffrey Jackson, Precision Audio Labs), Supra Rondo 4x2.5 Speaker Cables to SDA 1Cs (Vr3 Mods Xovers and other mods.), Dreadnaught with Supra Rondo 4x2.5 interconnect cables by Vr3 Mods. Power for each component from dedicated 20 amp circuit to main panel, except Innuos Statement powered from Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One.