electrocompaniet aw 100 sound quality?

not lush like a tube amp, but definitely not a typical solid-state sound. warm, w/the typical solid-state wirtues of detail & dynamics & frequency extension. i tink yule be quite happy... ;~)

good luck, doug s.

ps - my aw100 & aw75 (used in a biamp configuration) really came alive w/a tube preamp, currently a melos music-director.

ears, well mebbe the p.o. was going a bit overboard, but i'm not interested in switching to any other solid-state amps. mebbe if i could afford a mondo set of melos tubed mono-blocs... ;~)

doug s.

ears, i've learned this lesson the hard way - if there's any way ewe can swing it, get the 180 mono's now, & then worry about selling the aw100. if ya lose the deal, yule be bummed. the aw100 will sell; until it does, yule be eatin' macaroni & cheese... ;~)

regards, doug s.

when i 1st got my 1st electro amp - the aw75, it was driving thiel 3.5's full-range, w/no problems in the bass output. the thiels are also notoriously hard to drive, especially in the bass, as they employed an active equalizer to obtain flat response down to 20hz. currently, my aw100, which drives the woofer of my monitor, is cut-off at 60hz, as i have a subwoofer system w/a pair of bridged adcom gfa555's driving the subs, so i can't really make an accurate assessment - at least below 60hz. i *do* know that acoustic upright bass sounds like it's *there*, in the room w/ya! ;~)

re: melos, at least according to them, my pre is *not* a hybrid, but all-toob. yes, it *does* have a wery low output impedence - 15 ohms single-ended, 30 ohms balanced. there's a www that's no longer valid re: contact info, but the info on their most recent product is still up-to-date, for those who may be innerested:

http://www.bitstorm.net/sedrick/mindex.htm

regards, doug

ears, the electro amps should have no problems w/wirtually *any* speaker loads, as the mfr claims they're stable down to 0.5 ohms.

re: i/c's, i haven't experimented w/any of the spendy stuff, i'm happy w/the tara labs quantum iv, which i use between pre-n-crossover, & from crossover-to-amps. these seem to me to be wery neutral, which is what i like. at some point, i may try something like alpha-core silver or silver-plated copper - perhaps i may gain even *more* resolution, but i don't wanna lose the neutral tonal balance...

to run xlr's, in a true balanced configuration, i'd have to send my marchand x-over back to have it set-up for xlr's. phil marchand sez the conwersion makes the x-over a true differential balanced unit instead of yust allowing the xlr cabling to be used in a single-ended circuit. but, he also sez that there will be no sonic benefits, even tho my pre is a true balanced design, & so are the latest electro amps. he sez the only reason ewe may get an improvement is if ya have an enwironment that creates too much noise w/single-ended cabling. i have also heard others who feel this way regarding balanced i/c's. i was interested in trying it, as the i/c between my pre & x-over is ~18', but it's wirtually silent - no noise issues in my enwironment.

re: running mono, this is something i *have* wanted to try, unfortunately my aw100 is a bit older, & doesn't allow for bridging, even tho it's supposedly the same in all other respects - this according to heinz preiss, electro's n-american service technician. this is why i had it adwertised for sale - i was trying to locate a used aw75, which *is* bridgeable, to match up w/the aw75 i have. well, unable to find one after looking for over a year, i've found a good deal on two brand-gnu aw60's, which will get tried as bridged mono-blocs (good for 220wpc), *and* they will also be tried in a vertical-biamped configuration. ironically, yust as i thought i had the aw100 sold, & after i sent the funds for the aw60's, i got a response from someone w/an aw75 that wants to trade straight-across for my aw100! he's not interested in bridging, he likes the electro sound & yust wants a bit more yuice. if this pans out, i may ackshully be able to run all four amps as monoblocs - one for each driver of my monitors! ;~) should be fun! :>)

good luck w/yer gnu amp, doug s.

danny, which electro pre do ya have? i have an older ec-1a, & while it's certainly a respectable performer, it doesn't hold a candle to my melos in terms of soundstage depth, dynamics & warmth. electrocompaniet has a discussion-line on their www; i asked about their latest pre's in comparison to mine - i got one answer, which seemed to indicate that the latest wersions are perhaps, even a bit more *toob-like*.

re: cords/cables, i have good results w/tara labs quantum iv from the pre-to-crossover/crosover-to-amps. alpha-core has recently started invading the source-to-pre connections. speaker wires are a pair of tara-labs rsc prime 1000 to my bi-amped speakers, & a pair of 'em to my subs. no fancy power-cords. i feel that i really need to get the equipment to where i like it, before going over the deep-end, budget-wise, w/cabling. i tink cabling should be used to further tweek the system's sound that ya like - not to correct things ya don't like. if ya don't like the sound, change the component. if ya like the basic sound, but feel some minor improvements could be effected, then start playing w/cabling. i'm saving for what i hope will be my *last* speakers. (?!?) then, i will start seriously comparing speaker-wire/i-c's/power-cords.

regards, doug s.

ps - i bought a couple of those vansevers unlimiters that steve bruzonsky had f/s on a-gon - more for protection, than for any hoped-for sonic improvements, but mike v/e sez isle be surprised by the sonic improvements, so who knows! :>)

http://www.electrocompaniet.no/