Sort of. It is an amp made for them, which they will market and distribute for use with their loudspeakers. The amp has been discussed on the Planar Speaker Asylum site, info provided by amongst others a great fella and contributor named Josh, Wendell Diller's middleman to audiophiles. |
Okay thanks I'll try to find it over there, I find that forum difficult to navigate sometimes. |
Yeah, that Forum can be viewed two different ways. One is pretty straightforward (choose "Classic" view), the other (something to the effect of "Show all info') a real mess. |
Not a good idea for a speaker manufacturer to put out their own amp. Other electronics manufacturers will stop recommending their speakers and may even bad mouth them. Acoustat made that mistake and look where it got them. |
Acoustat made that mistake and look where it got them.
I don't think that had anything to do with Acoustat going under. If so, it was a very small part. I was an Acoustat dealer from almost the beginning to the very end. Once Rockford Fosgate bought them, they just didn't put the time, effort and money into the line. Look at Sanders Sound Systems. Roger makes electronics and does quite well. |
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I can speak somewhat to the two models of Vandersteen amplifiers, both of which I have heard and own the M7. They afford some design goals and objectives not available to a Swiss Army knife full range amplifier designer. The circuit itself is quite unique with just 5 parts in the signal path and no emitter resistors. The amp bias and fault, etc are 100% analog, there is 128 volt DBS built in for the provided speaker cables, HRS isolation, liquid cooling for rock solid bias, the list goes on.... but every Vandersteen dealer I know of carry other amps like: Ayre, Aesthetix, VTL, ARC, Quicksilver, MAC, .... this list goes on, so go listen and decide...
I will say my recent listen to the Kento w Vandersteen 5 high pass amps Was the absolute best Mac front end I have heard anywhere :-) |
The Acoustat preamps and power amps provided excellent Sonics and value. I still have a RP2 w phono design by VanAlstine
lovely |
Back in the day, when Wendell was at Audio Research, they marketed together for a few years. We sold a lot of Mag/AR systems as they were great together--still are, by the way.
Trivia for those who do not know:
Audio Research EC-3 electronic crossover was made to work specifically with the Tympani I-C speakers and the EC-21 active and PC3 passive crossovers were made specifically for the Tympani I-D speakers.
SO, speakers as revealing as a Magnepan need the best stuff driving them. Since AR and Magnepan have been "broken up" since about 1975 or so, not surprising that they might want their own amp.
By the way, since I still listen to two pair of Tympani I-C speakers, if anyone has an EC-3 lying about gathering dust...
Cheers,
Richard |
Richard, unless you absolutely MUST have a tube x/o, the little First Watt B4 is perfect for use with Tympanis (I bought one for use with my T-IVa's). It is no longer available factory built, but only as a DIY kit. Completely discrete (no opamps or IC's), high-pass and low pass filters in 25Hz increments from 25Hz to 6375Hz, a level control for either the high or low pass (user selectable). |
@bdp24 Thanks so much for that information. I will look into it. EC-21's seem to be priced pretty high when they show up, which is not often. I wonder if all the buyers understand that they were made for the I-C speakers? I am sure they work OK on other speakers, but not really designed for general use, I guess.
Of course, I would have to copy the specs from the EC-21 to make sure it fit the speakers, but evidently both slope and values are set by the owner.
Cheers!
Richard |
You might also contact Tony at Music Reference, Roger ( RIP ) had a few Beveridge xovers available with some semi custom boards |
Richard, I forgot to include the info that the B4 filters can be set to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th-order, which is of course 6, 12, 18, or 24dB/octave. Much more flexible than the Bryston x/o, which is regularly recommended and used with Maggies. The there are the x/o's from Marchand, who make custom boards to provide any x/o frequency and slope you desire. And, some of the Marchands are tubed! |
I have used the Bryston 10b and 10b Sub for years and had great success with them. Two years ago I switched to a pair of the Pass Labs XVR-1 electronic crossovers, which are in another league all together.The Pass Labs offer extreme setup flexibility in setup and better sound. I still have the Bryston 10b/10b Sub crossovers if anyone is interested.
Cheers!
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Not a good idea for a speaker manufacturer to put out their own amp.
Other electronics manufacturers will stop recommending their speakers
and may even bad mouth them. Acoustat made that mistake and look where
it got them.
Do you know how long Magnepan has been around for and the value that their speakers give? They have nothing to worry about even if every amplifier company in the world badmouthed them. Any amp company to talk crap on Magnepan would be doing themselves a disservice and everyone knows that except you. Come on, man. |
The bigger "issue" from my recliner chair is that Magnepan undercuts their dealers by selling the LRS for a low price, shipping it directly, and giving a money back guarantee. Next step up is the .7i which is 2x and the 1.7i which is 3x. Frankly having bought the LRS and they sound good and by adding the two REL T5i subs it's a hella system at the 1.7i price so I can't imagine buying those speakers for that price. It is possible I would move up to a 3.7i or maybe those new 30.7 minis so I give Wendell some credit for his appetizer theory.
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yzfr1mike,
Is you 10b sub for sale? |
