I return to this genre every now and again. I don’t climb much any more but I watched a YouTube video of someone doing the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe recently and I cannot convince myself that I did the same thing twice at the ages of 16 and 22. . Actually the books are stacked there for a good reason, they formed an important part of replacing the speaker drivers alongside a stack of Haynes manuals and a IKEA Lack table. Indispensable items for this type of work. .
7 years in Tibet is a good read if you enjoyed the White spider. Different but by the same guy.
I bought T Micro 5s to replace SBLs which we found inconvenient. I was happy with them but they’re not safe on carpet so I gave them to my daughter who has a wood floor. They sound beautiful in her Rega Planar3/Brio system. The TS5’s have a safe base & more bass. Like you’d I’d love to try a pair from up the range with a ribbon. But I’m content.
I’m also a fan of Piega. I used to have a pair of TP5’s which had the ribbon tweeter. They were a super speaker, but house move meant the hifi was in a smaller room so I moved them on. Fond memories of them though.
For movies and background music for our two cats when we’re not home, they are fantastic. A far simpler and cheaper proposition, but a really good match for the UQ2.
Frustrated at not finding a UK stockist to demo I contacted Piega in Switzerland. Via HiFi Lounge they delivered a pair to my home near Manchester and left them with me for over a month. I really liked them but wanted black rather than silver so they left the demos for a further month or so and delivered blck ones from Germany!
One thing nobody spotted was that the mono button was “ON”! ,which explains why I thought the new drivers were taking such a long time to run in. . They sound flippin amazing in stereo. Well we all get to be a complete prat at least once a year.
I have toyed with the idea of replacing my Tannoy Rev’ Signatures with T-micro 5s to match the rest of the AV system but your comment about the carpet is worth knowing. The Micro 60s are OK on carpet (in no traffic areas!) but they are bigger speakers than the Micro 5s. I assume you have found the TS5 to be a more capable speakers overall?
I was perfectly happy with the T Micros but they were knocked over twice, one time putting a hole in the plaster. They just don’t stand perpendicular on carpet especially near the wall where the gripper rods create real problems.
The TS5s expand on the T Micro sound - fuller in a word. More bass & heft. If you like the micro I’m pretty sure you’ll like the TS5 but we’re all different of course. The TS5s also look better - slightly shorter & a bit stockier than the micros. And they sit solid as a rock on carpet.
Purely a modification. My Keilidhs are mk1s so had the original tweeter and bass/mids plus they are 32yrs old. Linn upgraded Keilidhs over the years with 2 tweeter changes (015/1, 015/2, 015/3) and 1 bass/mid change (013/2, 013/4). I was toying with the idea of new speakers but the ones I was interested I were around £6-7000 and couldn’t justify the cost so for a few hundred quid I’ve now done to my speakers what I’ve done to my LP12. Classic looks with all new internals. I did the tweeters and recapped the crossovers a couple of months back. I think it’s been very worthwhile from I ham hearing now. Definitely smoother with a little bit more of everything.
Interesting information thank you. Which drivers did you use? I have noticed that Ninkas are often advertised with upgraded tweeters using models from Hiqupohn from Denmark. They also use the SPKR 040/2 drivers - are these similar to those used in your speakers?