The 1.2TL, Project Monolith

You can tell when the dad is left with the kids at home and mom is out for the evening.

"The!" best pair I've ever heard.@lightman1 This is a very generous comment considering they only had around 100 hours of burn-in.

xschop:....."Shorty 1.2TL's on the horizon?"

@xschop."Not yet. I have left it in the hands of a good friend and his fabricator. It will be a while away, but it will be worth it. To me, anyway! "

It’s confirmed. I’m on the


Lumin u2x and lhyas8 pro +
Wife: what’s the little box ? That’s the x to the Lumin 2 i answered 😜

Just for now , I am using sorbothane as my ocd won’t let me install an unlevelled pair (Lumin and its power supply), I only have 4 Oreo isoacoustic feet. I’m happy I don’t suffer ocd from writing , I find that’s more cbf for me.

The three shelf glass television rack has 3 layers of extreme dynomat topped with dynaliner.

I know the Sunfire theatre sig is supporting the Lumin but it’s not used or on in stereo mode.

When I buy the dac in the near future,the theatre setup will be phased out and the stereo begins..

It’s done 40 hours burn-in and the difference between the u2 and u2x is to say that ,they are nowhere near the same ball park❤️

The Lhy and Lumin are heavily mechanically dampening and are also sfp connected so won’t suffer from vibes between them . I do believe they also don’t need a clock cable, correct me if I’m wrong.

Kiss theory

On another note, Audio Sensibilities makes a great umbilcal cable for inbetween the PS and the Lumin. It costs less than the Westminster and offers an estimated 95% of what the Westminster offers. It was a good uptick in sound quality for me.

Just food for thought as you transition from HT to 2 channel audio.

Tom

Actually, I stand corrected. (Sorry, I am not familiar with your switch) It appears as if your AS8 Pro switch has both an external clock input AND output. So, you could connect the switch to the Lumin. You would want to weigh in on which clock is better and which one has a lower noise factor. This is usually measured three ways, but most manufacturers unfortunately only list one at that certain frequency.

You always want to use the better clock, and just getting an external clock just to have one may not be an improvement, It could actually make it worse. My Mutec REF 10 SE 120 has the lowest of all the internal clocks in my rig, so I use it. It has a -120 dBc at a 1 Hz offset from the 10 MHz carrier, but again, that's just one parameter that needs to be paid attention too.

At your reported rating of -112 dBc/Hz at a 1Hz offset, the internal clock appears to be pretty good - BUT you would need to compare that to the performance of the internal clock in the Lumin to figure out which one is better. If the Lumin's internal clock is better than the switch, I wouldn't even bother with hooking up the cable.

Tom

treitz3 wrote: »

On another note, Audio Sensibilities makes a great umbilcal cable for inbetween the PS and the Lumin. It costs less than the Westminster and offers an estimated 95% of what the Westminster offers. It was a good uptick in sound quality for me.

Just food for thought as you transition from HT to 2 channel audio.

Tom

Where do we stop .lol. The noise floor in the room is so black ,non-exinstent.

I have 20 amp transparent mm2x power cables for everything already for the future.,these are fed from a shunyata venom 8 power board which is straight out of a Thor ps10 power conditioner which has its own dedicated 20 amp line and faraday shield, this is for the 4 digital devices.

I had the electrical coy (synergy )out here at one stage a few years back as I was getting 269 v into my home,(led's weren't lasting long). This was apparently due to allot of solar systems in the area and needed tweaking at the transformer.

They ignored me until I said my taps are tingling, bang, here within 20 minutes! tested it over a 2 week period.

Cool deal. Sounds to me like LHY has been paying attention to John Swenson. I have the same thing in my switch, albeit a different type of "moat" that does not convert to fiber, and then convert back. That can add noise (not much, but still measurable). The second moat in my system is using Wi-fi to get the packets of information back to the listening room. The third moat is that everything on the streaming portion of the rig is plugged into a power conditioner that also offers galvanic isolation from the incoming A/C. The end result is a VERY clean signal and ultra low noise. My noise floor is very close to yours as well. That is awesome!

It appears as if we are doing the same thing, albeit in different ways to go about it. What you have done let's me know what level you are playing on, and the types of sounds you are experiencing. Very nice.

ptrooper wrote: »

Where do we stop

I don't think guys like you and I ever do. LOL. I like to keep pushing the envelope. Sounds to me like you are in the same boat. Nothing wrong with that at all! Heck, to me, that's half the fun.

Tom

treitz3 wrote: »

Actually, I stand corrected. (Sorry, I am not familiar with your switch) It appears as if your AS8 Pro switch has both an external clock input AND output. So, you could connect the switch to the Lumin. You would want to weigh in on which clock is better and which one has a lower noise factor. This is usually measured three ways, but most manufacturers unfortunately only list one at that certain frequency.

You always want to use the better clock, and just getting an external clock just to have one may not be an improvement, It could actually make it worse. My Mutec REF 10 SE 120 has the lowest of all the internal clocks in my rig, so I use it. It has a -120 dBc at a 1 Hz offset from the 10 MHz carrier, but again, that's just one parameter that needs to be paid attention too.

At your reported rating of -112 dBc/Hz at a 1Hz offset, the internal clock appears to be pretty good - BUT you would need to compare that to the performance of the internal clock in the Lumin to figure out which one is better. If the Lumin's internal clock is better than the switch, I wouldn't even bother with hooking up the cable.

Tom

I could slave the lhy clock to the lumin clock if I wanted to ,this is what I would do If I wasn't using fibre.

SDA SRS 1.2 TL Monolith: Front and Rear Baffle Brace Upgrade.

Now that I'm finally moving towards some serious gear, the Monoliths have started absolutely hammering it out down under.

They are running much faster and deeper now, but I reckon they will benefit immensely from some extra bracing.

This is an area we should fair dinkum concentrate on for one of the next updates. I want to focus right between the MW drivers and ensure it has some form of asymmetrical bracing.

My plan is to make sure these big boys are completely sorted by the time the final pieces of the puzzle—the power amps—are incorporated.

I'd appreciate any top ideas, internal photos, or past experiences to support this next no-limits build.

From here on, as per usual, all metal fabrication will be handed over to Xschops' department to keep production in the USA.

I'd love to go full Magico on an enclosure , but I don't think xschops CNC machine is big enough.

Cheers!

ptrooper wrote: »

Very Very nice ,I likem allot.
The more I think of the MW’s bracing running parralell with the new tweeter bezels and with the side of the cabinet I beleive the main vibes will be kept vertically and ctr of the MW’s!
Really can’t wait to get my ears on them!
How’s the wiring coming along Trey?

G'day @xschop, cheers for your time mate.

Those steel semi-rings are glued in dead tight, so I’m not sure how much of a headache they'll be to rip out and reinstall. Reckon it's a bit of a win that they’re parallel with the tweeter bezels, though.

If I leave 'em as is and add a cupping brace for the dowels to slot into—thinking a bit asymmetrically here—we could make the cups different sizes in each spot. That way, the baffle won't go vibrating entirely to one bloody frequency.

Regarding internal volume, does anyone know the absolute minimum you can get away with before the signature sound goes completely cactus? I bet Darqueknight has documented it somewhere on this forum.

I can picture some bow ties (completing the rings) cupping the dowels between the midwoofers. Has anyone actually measured the internal space between the MWs?

Just a few things to ponder before I go hacking into it!

xschop wrote: »

10 or 11 1" dowels wouldn't even take up half a cu. ft.

Who needs AI with xschop around. Its a plan.

I gather cups won't take up much internal volume ?,not forgetting the BH5 has convinced the system its physically larger ,I guess.

I was thinking ,front baffle cup as one solid cup.

For the rear dowel cups ,I was thinking segregated ,This would make working between to fixed points easier and won't add any sort of accidental positive mechanical pressure to baffles.

All cups would also have some sort of spike/locks.

I would check / use a straight edge on the front baffle before locking them in.

Kiln dried dowels I believe would be a must!

Let me know if I'm over thinking it,I just want the Duelund monoliths at their absolute best!

The speed, debth, and dynamics in the imaging has increased immensely since adding the lumin and switch .It blows me away.

I'm getting a dowel

Fair dinkum, I’ve had these speakers for donkey's years and thought I knew 'em inside out, but ever since I threw the streamer and that switch into the mix, it’s a whole new ball game. They’ve barely done 90 hours between them and still need another 200 to 300 more hours to fully cook, but holy dooley, the difference already is choice!

The background is now pitch black—dead silent, mate, with absolutely zero jitter—so the tunes just leap right out at you. The soundstage is vast as the outback, and the imaging is absolutely spot on. You can pinpoint every single instrument like they're standing right in front of you. The bottom end has so much detail it’s unreal. The bass isn't just a generic thump, you can hear every single layer and texture of the notes. Acca Dacca’s notes on Back in Black and Highway to Hell have never sounded so bloody real, and the whole presentation is so organic and natural, like Angus and the boys are jammin' right there in the room. All these tiny micro-details are floating around, completely filling the space like a swarm of mozzies at a bush barbie.

It’s absolutely pumping, but the best bit is how bloody smooth it is. There's no harsh digital glare at all, so it’s completely non-fatiguing. I'm also really looking forward to bracing the baffles with dowels soon to see what kind of difference that makes—honestly, the thought of it gives me a proper woody. Knowing I've also got an upgraded DAC and mono blocks coming in the near future just gets me stoked. You can crack a tinny, sit back, and blast it for hours on end without it ever hurting your earholes. Honestly, it’s a proper ripper of a listening experience that completely blows my thongs off.

It always amazes me when it comes to audio that you don't know what you're missing until you know it.

BH5 isn't supposed to effect the enclosure volume because of the floating vinyl layer with the closed cell underneath. That floating layer tends to help with preventing sound transmission prevention. The No-Rez stuff does away with that layer.

There have been a few ways people have done the braces, joebass3 made them out of square stock with v-blocks on the front and back so that the braces could be screwed into them. I think xschop and tool just power grabbed them into place with a slight clearance I guess, and SCompracer used a pocket hole jig and screwed and glued them into the front and back. I think another way might be with one end cut short (I'd use square stock with the corners rounded off at the router table) and at a slight angle and you could have a wedge that jams it and you could (maybe?) even listen to the configuration before gluing everything in place or maybe just tack glue with a few dabs of super glue that could be cut through (or just run a JB Weld fillet around everything) for the permanent glue. I'd use epoxy but I know that is overkill. I like overkill.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YTGGRGbOGNs