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3-Way Crossover's and Amp selection?

I am having my Modified NEAR M50's with an Outboard Active Crossover Network being setup now and am wondering what I might use for Amps.I will be getting used amps.

First I have a Question pertaining to using Tubes.
Why are Tubes normally used to drive the Tweeter's when all the things I have read associate tubes for magnificent Midrange ,but that they Cutoff the extension of both Bass and High Frequency extreme's? It would sound to me that they would be better used to for the Midrange driver's and use SS for the Tweeter's and Bass Driver's.

The Amps I have gotten feedback to use for the NEARs which are Metal Driver's are.

White Audio\Llano
Atma-Sphere's
Aragon
Krell
Mark Lev's
Monarchy's

I have a Modified B&K ST-202 that I will use either on the tweeter's or Midrange driver's.

What amps that are economical would you think would be good matches to use in a Vertical Amp configuration.It was only recently that I decided on using a 3-Way Active for my setup.

Any thought's or experiences would be helpful.

TIA,ABEX
abex

Showing 2 responses by sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
Boy, the amps in your list sure do cover the full range in terms of pricing on the used market. From Monarchy's that can be had for a very reasonable price up to Krell's and Atma's, you've got quite a selection there. Whatever you choose, you have to remember that the amps should be gain matched or you have to find some way to vary the drive level to them. Many active crossovers have this feature but some don't. As such, you'll need to do one or the other if you want this to work out at all.

If you like your B&K amp, then stick with the older B&K series and go from there. These are all VERY simple circuits with a minimal parts count. This means a short signal path, which in most cases, is a good thing. As such, they are good candidates for upgrading via modifications as there isn't a lot of actual parts to change and most everything is easy to get to.

As a case in point, my brother is using an ST-140 to power his tweeters, an ST-202+ to power his mids, a 442 to power his woofers and another 442 to power the subs. All of the amps have been pretty heavily modified and he's quite happy with the performance. There's no reason that you couldn't be happy with a similar three way set-up if you are already happy with the performance of your modified ST-202 now. Sean
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sean
6,231 posts
 
I don't know of any public source on suggested mods for the older B&K amps.

As far as amps go, you are asking for a LOT of headaches if you start mixing and matching amps. That is, unless you can have them all gain matched.

As far as mixing brands and / or different series of amps from the same manufacturer, you can run into various problems using that approach. You are best off sticking with one brand of amp or even identical amps unless you are technically knowledgable and / or know someone that is. Getting various amps to "blend" correctly can be a fine art and that is probably why some people have had problems when trying to mix / match tubes & SS amps.

Bare in mind that the ST-120 is a VERY different series from your ST-202. You should also find out what transistors are in your 202 as there were two different brands of output devices used in that amp. This is not to mention that there are different sized transformers that B&K used along the way. Sean
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