From jjmcs49@yahoo.com Thu Mar 31 10:37:39 2005
Subject:Re: XK3 tweaks


I have suggested in the past that it may be more "practical" to first
buy the lower unit not necessarily "better". At least that was my
intention. Others may have made the opposite suggestion. My point was
that if one needed to amplify more than one type of keyboard for
example, the lower unit was the more practical decision to start with
if only one item could be purchased. In my opinion the Digital Leslie
is very good and that in fact it really is more a Mic'd Leslie Sim,
based on the adjustments provided. Once all amplification
requirements are met, then the 2101 can be added and then a second
lower unit and so on. Two lower units side by side beneath a 2101
really enhance the sense of bass rotor motion.

From my experience, the adjustments made to improve the lower/mid
frequencies and enhance the upper frequencies while making them less
shrill (particularly when overdrive is turned up somewhat) are really
efforts to correct for "weaknesses" in current production tubes. I
know I sound like a broken record on this, so I'll let it drop after
this post, but new tubes, which are the only thing a manufacturer can
get today, don't have the full frequency range of older tubes. Here
is a forum on tubes used primarily by audiophiles that has a lot of
good info.
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tubes/bbs.html

My XK-3 came with Ei tubes which are made with the equipment
previously used to make Telefunken tubes according to theis website:
http://www.vacuumtubes.com/12ax7.html
and are thought to sound much like those tubes. They sounded very
good in my XK-3, but didn't have as deep and clean a low end as the
GE tubes I have in it now provide. I have tried other tubes as well
and the newer ones (various Sovtek's) all rolled off the low and high
frequencies particularly as overdrive was increased. More recent XK-
3's seem to have Chinese (Shuquang) made tubes that apparently have
characteristics similar to the Sovtek tubes. The older Raytheons,
RCA's and GE's I have tried all sound slightly different from each
other but don't lose the low and high frequencies.
I'll step down off the soapbox now. ;)

--- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com, "Thomas Adamson"