|
PI; I think you're right as SMC uses an expensive HQ Jensen transformer in the conversion process, and they also match the amps as closely as possible. According to Steve M. the matching is important (but not essential). Craig |
Craig. If you decide to have them converted I would like to know how it works out for you. I have always questioned what you are loosing when an amp can be bridged by throwing a switch. I would think that a mono block and a bridged amp would be two different designs. I would think that having them converted like you are would be a much better option. |
Perfectimage; Thanks for answering the one amp versus two amp question. Steve McCormack suggested that I could do it the way you are, but I'm seriously considering sending them to SMC for mono-bloc conversion and matching as well as upgrading work. Happy Listening. Craig |
Perfectimage: This is just a guess, but I'd say Rosebud was pulling your leg. (Btw, so are the cable manufacturers!) |
Your monster cables will work fine unless they have been physically damaged. Sound quality might suffer compared to to other cables, but you should experience no damage to your equipment whatsoever. While the amplifier will respond to the difference in impedance that it sees when it tries to load into the cable / speaker interface compared to the originals that you were using, that would happen regardless of make, model, brand or cost of the cables being used. The only way that a cable could damage your amplifier is if it was a highly reactive design (Goertz, Polk, CAT 5, etc..) that was not dealt with accordingly (Zobel Network) or if the insulation was damaged in some way as to allow a short circuit to occur. Even at high power levels, the breakdown voltage of the dielectric insulator in most commercial cables is WAY above that of what most amplifiers are capable of putting out. While it is true that a speaker cable CAN limit power transfer, that would be due to its lack of CURRENT capacity and NOT its ability to pass voltage under any normal or reasonable circumstances. Unless you have a VERY long run or extremely skinny wires, i see no problems whatsoever. Hook them up and have at it. Sean > |
Hello Craig. I apologize in advance to what I know is going to be a long reply. To answer your question correctly there a lot of varibles to consider. My last pair of speakers were B&W 630's and my current pair are Sonus Faber Extremas. I have a Marantz multi disk (500 retail) and a Classe CDT 1 and Dac 1 (6500 retail). When I would a/b the cd players through the B&W's there was no difference in sound quality. Not they didnt sound great but they maxed out pretty quickly. This applied to all upgrades and never went beyond a certain point.
The Extrema's are incredibly sensitive, power hungry, have no ceiling, and are only limited by the level of equipment. No matter how small of an upgrade I do to my system I notice a huge difference.
Hooking up the second amp articulated the characteristics of the first amp. Classe is very fast and punchy yet smooth. They create an incredibly open and detailed sound stage with top notch imaging. The second amp reinforced these details especially the transparentcy.
I want to be honest and admit that I never compared these two to one amp that cost as much as the two combined. I started off with one and liked it so much that I just added a second one.
I love MIT wires and I was going to audtion two sets. A "normal set" and their push pull cables. The push pull use a biwired interconnect with one side wired out of phase and one wire connects into both sides of a two channel amp. (Im guessing there wired out of phase) The speaker cables are put on both positives of a two channel amp.(again I think thats how they hook up) It uses one two channel amplifier to run one speaker. Each amp controls a direction of the speaker. In or out so the amp doesnt have to change directions. I am intrigued by this idea and think it will create unsurpassed accuracy and you wouldnt need to have your amps bridged yet using both amps to their full potential. I havent auditioned them yet so I cant comment on their sound.
There is one unexpected draw back to running the two amps and Im not sure if its the sensitivity of the speaker or the amps. I think the amps need at least a day to heat up and preferably a month to make them really sing. That just means I leave my amps on all the time. The draw back is the heat they put out. Last summer I had to go out and buy an air conditioner for the room because the heat was unbearable. It was so bad that I replaced my thermastat before I releized it was the amps. I hope I answerd your questions and dont hesitate to ask about anything I missed. |
Thanks for the advice everyone. I truly appreciate it. Rosebud I am interested in what you said. Is this a characteristic of Monster Cable or gauge of wire? |
I agree with the Radio Shack suggestion with one caveat...terminate with something other than twisting the wire. Spades, bananas, or pins. Using heat shrink is a good idea also. Protecting the binding posts from eachother is a bigger concern than the speaker cable you select. Happy listening, Jeff |
Perfectimage; I know that it's safe to run cheap speaker cables, eg even though you have very powerful amps, it's likely that you're only using a few watts at any given time. I would like to ask you about your experience with your super high powered Classe' amps because I am planning on doing the same thing with 300 wpc McCormack DNA-2DX amps, ie bridge the channels and have them turned into monos. The DNA2s will then put out 1200 wpc. What kind of changes did you notice in your music with the increased power, and do you feel it was worth it? Any downsides? I'd sure like your opinions/observations. BTW, Dave Reich was a designer for Classe' for awhile and was later with McCormack while the DNA-2s were being designed and produced, and I think he may have had some influence on the DNA2s design, but the basics were done by Steve McCormack. Cheers. Craig. |
K525: r u a pimp 4 fatwyre? |
No brainer: go down to Radio Shadk and buy the 16 or 18 gauge wire and enjoy it. There are exceptions (e.g. Spectral threatens you with fire and brimstone if you run anything except MIT cable) but I am currently using good old Radio Shack wire as my stopgap speaker cable, and between my VTL monoblocks and Virgo speakers, it ain't half bad. Certainly there's no damage! Wire that costs $18 for 50 feet can do for the moment as I audition the high price spread wires that cost $1,000 for 10 feet. By the way, have you discoverd The CAble Company? www.fatwyre.com. They will lend you wires to audition. |
sorry to disagree with bulldogger but this ain't a good idea, perfectimage. you should think of cables as plumbing. instead of supplying or draining fluids, tho, the wires supply "happy" and "powerful" electrons and dissipate "used" and "flaccid" ones. the monsters have been known to "backup," sorta like a sewer. if that happens your classes' caps may get filled with all them impotent electrons and never sound the same! |
Sure, it is safe. You won't have any problems and you will have a chance to re-evalute how good the cables you sold were. I did the same thing, and could not wait to get rid of the cheap cable I was using though the Lat stuff I use now could hardly be expensive but is an excellent value. |
