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No apologies required IMO.

I've heard lots. I'm an Electronics Tech by trade, in it for 33 years so far professionally. I'm also a Musician. I also love listening to music (shock horror). At hobby level I also like attempting to 'design', build and listening and buying equipment that facilitates that.

I still love a good 'wanky wire' debate though!

And electricity sounds different from, erm, other electricity.

It does, it does! :)

Y'all need to stop now

...but...but... we haven't even covered cable directionality yet you brute!

On the previous page, the link to 'bad' banana plugs is the exact type I've had the intermittency issues with too.

Cheap 'nana plugs. I've had some that look well made but the 'lantern' only connects intermittently with the body! Odd but true.

Buyer beware.

Reviews say that if they're still in good condition they sound great but they're about 20 years old now.

Thats OK, no probs. I think the 1st DL8 series date back further than that, mine were from 1980/1 the original owner reckoned.

Does anyone have any experience of Celestion DL8 or DL6 speakers?

Puts hand up! Yeah, me. I've got a pair of Series 1 DL8's. They're OK, I use them on the end of a Rasp Pi/HiFiberry streamer in the Conservatory where they perform better than bass reflex speakers as DL8's are totally sealed closed box cabs.

Both mine were faulty when I was given/dumped them. Before laying out too much cash I'd check both tweeters work, one of mine didn't and it was a very trixy repair which involved removing the voice coil to repair a wire break. Also, both of the rubber surrounds had came unbonded on my pair resulting in woofy bass as the sealed cab design no longer was!

Oooooff from dah woof...

Mine were stored for years in a loft apparently, the humidity didn't do the alloy tweeter surrounds much good but the white fur cleaned off OK in the end.

There were dry joints on the appallingly built crossover too. I don't think they were ever very 'high-end' speakers but they're not bad if you can get them working as Celestion intended.

Wicked! G'end in full effectas I beieve dem mad yoots say. Mega boardslide down that crete planter at the multistorey. I used to get the train down to that car park in the late 70's to blast down the ramps. Ruff as a ruff thing back then. Still is?

In addition to the pre-amp chat above, some pre's also contain an output buffer stage that is very low output impedance, they're used sometimes to 'drive' longer lengths of cable say for example if your (typcially mono-block) poweramps were set up next to your speakers but your TT/Streamer/CD player etc are on the other side of the room in your stately home sized living room.

What sort of Tannoys? Some are excellent.

Thats true, those ones they used at Pontin's and Butlins you could hear from miles away when they announced the knobbly knees competition.... :)

Agreed.

If it was a 12" variant I'd be willing to dedicate a 50 y/o testicle for it.

A 90 degree side entry IEC mains cable saves on shelf depth if size is critical. Like this,

Agreed, well-lish!

Top Charriddee shop find BTW.

Yey! I like 'em, you can tell can't you. For about 34years actually and counting.

I could not live with the chaos. *itches

Heheheheh! Ta Apone, I'm very lucky, I live with a Textile Artist (thread/paints/waxes/fabric stuff everywhere!) and the kids are grown and moved out so happily the 2 of us can live in our luvvly state of 'chaos', we prefer to think of it as 'homely' :)

Arnie "do it now" clip!

Seeing my SL1210 makes me want to get my finger out and get my other TT back up and running again on the other system.

When its in full swing it looks like this....

Currently listening to a 1977 recording by an OG Hipster :) Its like punk never happened round here sometmes y'know!

I'll play.

Me too, here's my main system, its not pretty but I like the way it sounds and I've made or tweaked everything myself to get it to do what I want. (Insert Boy Scout Tweaker Badge).

In Julie Andrews styleee, starting at the beginning ("..a very good place to start...") with Sources, I only use 2, Vinyl and Squeezebox.

Cartridge = Denon 103r MC fitted into a DIY'd mass loaded headshell as the 103r is a Low Compliance cart which needs a good mass to work against properly.

TT = Good ol SL1210, no mods except the pitchfader bypassed and disabled.

103r feeds into a pair of Cinemag SUT's...

Which are wired for switchable gain and loading scenarios...

...they feed a cloned World Designs Phono 3 which is an all-valve pre-amp with passive RIAA feedback and no global feedback...

...which in turn is fed by a fully valve regulated HT supply...

Digital source is a Logitech Squeezebox Touch that runs a 3rd party app called 'EDO', Enhanced Digital Output, which allows the Touch to run 24Bit 192Khz without down sampling to its native 24/96 limit.

Running EDO precludes running the in-built DAC so I built (into an old Hearing Loop amp case I found in a junk shop cos I thought it was funny) an external DAC fed coaxially form the Touch. Main DACchip is a AK4396, basically an eBay jobbie, this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-DAC-24BIT-192KHZ-CS8416-AK4396-NE5532P-BOARD-KIT-FOR-DIY-/321023942010?hash=item4abe849d7a:g:K8QAAMXQhuVRT~SM

...which now looks like this...

This 2 sources feed a simple switcher which routes to either a Valve power amp or a valve headphone amp.

Obligatory pot-in-a-box 'big knob' (sniggers) Volume control which is a shunt wired 50K Alps pot...

...feeding a 3 stage all valve bread-boarded amp I've been tweaking/refining for a few years. In short its a DC coupled 5687 2stage voltage amp 1:1 inter-stage coupled to a cathode biased 2A3 running in SE. Output transformers are very saucy AE 2K5 silver wound seconadaries with Amorphous cores. I sold lots of stuff years ago to be able to by this pair 2nd hand when they became available. The HT voltage to the amp is supplied via 4 seperate Voltage regulated power supplies, each output valve has its own dedicated filament supply which was made simpler by a very clever designer chum to keep hum and noise to a minimum, a big problem with Directly heated Triode valves like 2A3 and 300B.

Amp feeds these DIY'd LS3/5a's pictured previously in this thread...

EDIT.

Forgot Headphone amp, its a repaired and lightly modded Little Dot Chinese Directly heated Pentode design that feeds a pair of Sennheiser HD650's. They feed schweet tunes into my ears which my brain converts into smiles.

The end!

oops, double clicky post.

Phwooooaaaaaarrrr! Top tip.... turn the speakers inwards to one another and turn up loud to blow all that dust off the amp! :) Nice BTW

pioneer SA8100

I'd be careful, if its the same as this 'un it doesn't look like you can set the line voltage to the UK's 230V (ish).
http://product-images.highwire.com/3921165/5726-6.jpg
Dunno about the Thorens TT, which model?

You could still use the amp in the UK but you'd need a step down autoformer or such like.

You are prob a chap who knows, if anything needs replacing on mine what would it likely to be?

Wrong chap here I reckon, I've barely had mine running for 30 hours yet let alone 30 years so nothings fallen off yet!

Yes. Please.

Here y'go, clicky looky.

http://s195.photobucket.com/user/davethebass1/slideshow/LS35a%20DIY%20Build?sort=3

It runs from 'finished' backwards to pile of bits and drive units in boxes.

hum chasing

=earthing unless I'm mistaken?

IME, not always. Consider....
1) Power supply ripple
2) Heater - Cathode insulation breakdown
3) Parasitic Oscillation demodulating down into audio bandwidth
4) Earth loop/s.
5) Heater supply cable routing
6) Others I can't think of right now.
7) Sonia!

Very neat and tidy, well done. Good luck with the hum chasing.

Hope you've got some pics of the whole process to share....

Natch :) Wanna see?