Good to see you continuing to experiment. The Olsher Basszillas have been provoking me for quite some time. I'm also running PM2A/Medallions as you well know. For small ensemble music (jazz, bluegrass, string quartet, etc.), they can't be beat, but I find myself not listening to the 25% of my record collection that comprises large orchestral works.
So ... Oris horns have been intriguing me for quite some time now, but I am loathe to add more gear by bi-amping . This is primarily a space thing with me, because I have cornered myself into having two turntables up and running. As I am grow less enthused about swapping out a Quattro for a Testa Rossa in a demo session, it dawns on me (sound of hand slapping forehead) that I wouldn't have to strain my back if I set two turntables up. Between a crossover and at least one more amp, bi-amping would put me into a third equipment rack.
This is where the beauty of the open baffle comes in (apart from the driver not being influenced by a back wave). On an open baffle, the PM2A's are in the 98-99 dB range which is relatively easy to match up with a 15" woofer. There are quite a few audiomaniacs in Western Europe playing with open baffles on Lowthers, Fertins (field coil full rangers), etc. Of course, Bert is completing an open baffle design with bass support too.
So ... on to ultrapath. You inspired me to give this a try this morning. I'm not sure what I'm hearing, and I'll have to un-do it to understand it and describe it. I tend to leave a change in my system for a few days (unless it's gawd-awful of course), in order to assimilate it. Initially, I thought there was less bass, but this was not the case. The top end seems to be more extended and I think this is due to the circuit quieting down.
I recently experienced this with a phono stage I'm auditioning for the upcoming Midwest Audiofest in April - The Hagerman Trumpet. The noise floor is somewhere down around China with this unit, and it's running 8 tubes !! While it was breaking in, it had the normal etched sonic signature. With about 30 hours on it, I was still not certain that it would stay chez Mackris. It now has about 60 hours on it and it's smoothing out. My current phono stage now sounds grungy when I return to it.
I suspect that this will be my observation when I reverse the Ultrapath connection.
Next stop, battery bias in the input tube.
Cheers,
Thom
