savoy014

I am quite familiar with the original Usher BE-718 which uses a Beryllium alloy tweeter. The BE-718 and the X-718 that preceded it stirred up quite a lot of controversy, from its close resemblance to a certain other renowned manufacturer, to the Beryllium content (or lack thereof) of its tweeter dome. Controversy notwithstanding, the BE-718 sounded great and I would have walked home with a pair if my amplifier had the power to drive it. Audio Basic had no issues driving it with their solid state amplifiers, but a quick hook up to a 30 watt per channel EL-34 push pull amplifier proved that these speakers really thrive on power. Fast forwarding to the BE-718 DMD, I believe that the speaker is internally identical to the BE-718, with identical crossover points etc. Worldwide, dealers are offering the DMD tweeters to BE-718 owners as a drop-in upgrade. Local users should be aware that the domestic version is not the same as the U.S. version which sports a tweaked crossover with upgraded ca

Shuguang's Black Treasure KT-88 tubes are being run-in on my Cary amp at the moment. Visually striking, these tubes are classy. Launched to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Shuguang, the Black Treasure tubes are said to have 60 differences compared to their normal line. The most obvious is the black high polymer compound carbon coating inside. Initial testing upon power up resulted in a loud crackling distortion that lasted about 2 seconds before disappearing one one channel. It never happened again, so I would not put too much into that. Trawling the internet revealed user accounts of long tedious burn in (200-600 hours), with an accompanying roller coaster ride in quality in the process. It kinds of reminds me of my Mundorf Silver-in-oil burn-in experience. Thankfully, the Black Treasure sounded quite good from the outset. With about 10 hours under their belt,  initial impressions are that of exquisite refinement and quietness. Compared to the Genalex re-issues that preceded t

No money for fancy power distributors ? Why not make your own ? I saw a very nice solid aluminum power distributor casing in one of our local electronics surplus stores. It certainly could not be considered as refined, but was made from solid 5 mm thick sheets and had nice cut out holes for US sockets and an IEC inlet. Choose your favourite sockets and your internal cabling of choice, and you are ready to go. In my case, I used the following :- 1 x Oyaide SWO-XXX AC outlet 1 x Hubbell 8300 Hospital Grade AC outlet 1 x Hubbell 5362i AC outlet 1 x IEGO gold plated IEC inlet Neotech 12 AWG PC-OCC teflon insulated solid core copper wire Raw materials before assembly.  Fit and finish is a bit rough Close-up of the Iego IEC gold plated inlet. Silver plated o-ring terminals are provided. You can also put in your choice of damping material, e.g. Fo.q, bitumen sheets. Feel free to put in other stuff like AC line filters (X-rated capacitors only please and make sure that your leads are well insu