UB151’s with Dipole15’s and AH300’s – Alain Ciarraighe’s pursuit of Audio Perfection

UB151’s loaded with Dipole15’s combine with some of the best components in the world in this system looking to approach audio perfection.

Some months ago the first email was received by a man to be known here as Alain Ciarraighe.  He had assembled quite the system with extremely high end components and was looking for a bass solution that could fit in well with the rest of the components.  Having been impressed by the sound heard from the Lotus Group Granada previously at the California Audio Show in San Francisco, he was interested in looking at using open baffles to achieve the accuracy he desired.  After some reading about Kyron Audio and the Vapor Audio Nimbus, he came to the realization that Acoustic Elegance was supplying woofers for all of these great systems.

The goal now was to replace two Edgarhorn 80hz bass horns with open baffle bass sections and provide enough extension so the system would not require additional subwoofers.  At the time, the first UB151 U-baffles were being developed.  After some discussion it was determined that a total of 4 of these, two per side, would work very well to provide the low end needs of the system.  The U-baffles help to produce more low end output than a flat open baffle alone can. He determined that a natural black walnut veneer would work well with the current look of the Acoustic Horn Company AH300’s.  The four UB151’s were built and veneered from a continuous walnut sheet.  When all four cabinets are stacked, the veneer is continually matched from cabinet to cabinet.

This system is a four way active system.  Power is provided by Nuforce REF9seV3.01 and MCH3se amplifiers modified by Bob Smith.  Processing is handled by DEQX HDP-4 and HDP-3 units that were modified by DEQXPERT Larry Owens of Knowledge Resources Corporation.  Once the UB151’s were delivered, Alain created rear stands to properly support and aim the AH300 horns.  Mounted to these horns are a pair of B&C DCM50 compression drivers.  These are essentially modern day versions of the 30’s vintage field coil-powered RCA 1428. The DCM50’s are not standard drivers, using 5” paper diaphragms in front of the magnet structure. These were modified for field coil operation by Wolf Von Langa in Germany.  A Hi-Vi ribbon tweeter functions as a super tweeter to handle the upper most octaves.   While attending the California Audio Show, Larry Owens personally stopped by to do the initial calibration of the system.  After a few further modifications were made to the electronics in the system, Larry remotely completed the system calibration via Skype. In the subsequent email exchanges, Alain has had many good things to say about the Dipole15’s and UB151’s, some of which you can see below.  Acoustic Elegance is very happy to be able to assist in the development of this great system.