My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!
So I have been in a long journey looking to find the best amplifiers for my martin logan montis. As you know, the match between an amplifier and speakers has to be a good "marriage" and needs to be blend exquisitely. Right now, I think I might have found the best sounding amplifier for martin logan. I have gone through approximately 34-36 amplifiers in the past 12 months. Some of these are:
Bryston ST, SST, SST2 series NAD M25 PARASOUND HALO PARASOUND CLASSIC KRELL TAS KRELL KAV 500 KRELL CHORUS ROTEL RMB 1095 CLASSE CT 5300 CLASSE CA 2200 CLASSE CA 5200 MCINTOSH MC 205 CARY AUDIO CINEMA 7 OUTLAW AUDIO 755 LEXICON RX7 PASS LABS XA 30.8 BUTLER AUDIO 5150 ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005
With all that said, the amplifiers I mentioned above are the ones that in my opinion are worth mentioning. To make a long story short, there is NO 5 CHANNEL POWER AMP that sounds as good as a 3ch and 2ch amplifier combination. i have done both experiments and the truth is that YOU DO lose details and more channel separation,etc when you select a 5 channel power amplifier of any manufacturer. My recollection of what each amp sounded like is as follows:
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005 (great power and amazing soundstage. Very low noise floor, BUT this amplifiers NEEDS TO BE cranked up in order to fully enjoy it. If you like listening at low volume levels or somewhat moderate, you are wasting your time here. This amp won’t sound any different than many other brands out there at this volume. The bass is great, good highs although they are a bit bright for my taste)
NAD M25 (very smooth, powerful, but somewhat thin sounding as far as bass goes) Bryston sst2(detailed, good soundstage, good power, but can be a little forward with certain speakers which could make them ear fatiguing at loud volumes)
Krell (fast sounding, nice bass attack, nice highs, but some detail does get lost with certain speakers)
rotel (good amp for the money, but too bright in my opinion)
cary audio (good sound overall, very musical, but it didn’t have enough oomph)
parasound halo (good detail, great bass, but it still holds back some background detail that i can hear in others)
lexicon (very laid back and smooth. huge power, but if you like more detail or crisper highs, this amp will disappoint you)
McIntosh mc205 (probably the worst multichannel amp given its price point. it was too thin sounding, had detail but lacked bass.
butler audio (good amplifier. very warm and smooth sweet sounding. i think for the money, this is a better amp than the parasound a51)
pass labs (very VERY musical with excellent bass control. You can listen to this for hours and hours without getting ear fatigue. however, it DOES NOT do well in home theater applications if all you have is a 2 channel set up for movies. The midrange gets somewhat "muddy" or very weak sounding that you find yourself trying to turn it up.
classe audio (best amplifier for multi channel applications. i simply COULDNT FIND a better multi channel amplifier PERIOD. IT has amazing smoothness, amazing power and good bass control although i would say krell has much better bass control)
Update: The reviews above were done in January 2015. Below is my newest update as of October 2016:
PS AUDIO BHK 300 MONOBLOCKS: Amazing amps. Tons of detail and really amazing midrange. the bass is amazing too, but the one thing i will say is that those of you with speakers efficiency of 87db and below you will not have all the "loudness" that you may want from time to time. These amps go into protection mode when using a speaker such as the Salon, but only at very loud levels. Maybe 97db and above. If you don’t listen to extreme crazy levels, these amps will please you in every way.
Plinius Odeon 7 channel amp: This is THE BEST multichannel amp i have ever owned. Far , but FAR SUPERIOR to any other multichannel amp i have owned. In my opinion it destroyed all of the multichannel amps i mentioned above and below. The Odeon is an amp that is in a different tier group and it is in a league of its own. Amazing bass, treble and it made my center channel sound more articulate than ever before. The voices where never scrambled with the action scenes. It just separated everything very nicely.
Theta Dreadnaught D: Good detailed amp. Looks very elegant, has a pleasant sound, but i found it a tad too bright for my taste. I thought it was also somewhat "thin" sounding lacking body to the music. could be that it is because it is class d?
Krell Duo 300: Good amp. Nice and detailed with enough power to handle most speakers out there. I found that it does have a very nice "3d" sound through my electrostatics. Nothing to fault here on this amp. Mark Levinson 532H: Great 2 channel amp. Lots of detail, amazing midrange which is what Mark Levinson is known for. It sounds very holographic and will please those of you looking for more detail and a better midrange. As far as bass, it is there, but it is not going to give you the slam of a pass labs 350.5 or JC1s for example. It is great for those that appreciate classical music, instrumental, etc, but not those of you who love tons of deep bass.
It is articulate sounding too Krell 7200: Plenty of detail and enough power for most people. i found that my rear speakers contained more information after installed this amp. One thing that i hated is that you must use xlr cables with this amp or else you lose most of its sound performance when using RCA’s.
Krell 402e: Great amp. Very powerful and will handle any speaker you wish. Power is incredible and with great detail. That said, i didn’t get all the bass that most reviewers mentioned. I thought it was "ok" in regards to bass. It was there, but it didn’t slam me to my listening chair.
Bryston 4B3: Good amp with a complete sound. I think this amp is more laid back than the SST2 version. I think those of you who found the SST2 version of this amp a little too forward with your speakers will definitely benefit from this amp’s warmth. Bryston has gone towards the "warm" side in my opinion with their new SST3 series. As always, they are built like tanks. I wouldn’t call this amp tube-like, but rather closer to what the classe audio delta 2 series sound like which is on the warm side of things.
Parasound JC1s: Good powerful amps. Amazing low end punch (far superior bass than the 402e). This amp is the amp that i consider complete from top to bottom in regards to sound. Nothing is lacking other than perhaps a nicer chassis. Parasound needs to rework their external appearance when they introduce new amps. This amp would sell much more if it had a revised external appearance because the sound is a great bang for the money. It made my 800 Nautilus scream and slam. Again, amazing low end punch.
Simaudio W7: Good detailed amp. This amp reminds me a lot of the Mark Levinson 532h. Great detail and very articulate. I think this amp will go well with bookshelves that are ported in order to compensate for what it lacks when it comes to the bass. That doesn’t mean it has no bass, but when it is no Parasound JC1 either. Pass labs 350.5: Wow, where do i begin? maybe my first time around with the xa30.8 wasn’t as special as it was with this monster 350.5. It is just SPECTACULAR sounding with my electrostatics. The bass was THE BEST BASS i have ever heard from ANY amp period. The only amp that comes close would be the jC1s. It made me check my settings to make sure the bass was not boosted and kept making my jaw drop each time i heard it. It totally destroyed the krell 402e in every regard. The krell sounded too "flat" when compared to this amp. This amp had amazing mirange with great detail up top. In my opinion, this amp is the best bang for the money. i loved this amp so much that i ended up buying the amp that follows below.
Pass labs 250.8: What can i say here. This is THE BEST STEREO AMP i have ever heard. This amp destroys all the amps i have listed above today to include the pass labs 350.5. It is a refined 350.5 amp. It has more 3d sound which is something the 350.5 lacked. It has a level of detail that i really have never experienced before and the bass was amazing as well. I really thought it was the most complete power amplifier i have ever heard HANDS DOWN. To me, this is a benchmark of an amplifier. This is the amp that others should be judged by. NOTHING is lacking and right now it is the #1 amplifier that i have ever owned.
My current amps are Mcintosh MC601s: i decided to give these 601s a try and they don’t disappoint. They have great detail, HUGE soundstage, MASSIVE power and great midrange/highs. The bass is great, but it is no pass labs 250.8 or 350.5. As far as looks, these are the best looking amps i have ever owned. No contest there. i gotta be honest with you all, i never bought mcintosh monos before because i wasn’t really "wowed" by the mc452, but it could have been also because at that time i was using a processor as a preamp which i no longer do. Today, i own the Mcintosh C1100 2 chassis tube preamp which sounds unbelievable. All the amps i just described above have been amps that i auditioned with the C1100 as a preamp. The MC601s sound great without a doubt, but i will say that if you are looking for THE BEST sound for the money, these would not be it. However, Mcintosh remains UNMATCHED when it comes to looks and also resale value. Every other amp above depreciates much faster than Mcintosh.
That said, my future purchase (when i can find a steal of a deal) will be the Pass labs 350.8. I am tempted to make a preliminary statement which is that i feel this amp could be THE BEST stereo amp under 30k dollars. Again, i will be able to say more and confirm once i own it. I hope this update can help you all in your buying decisions!
Thank you for your comments. It is my experience that in many systems the trade-off is between warmth and detail but this is one of the areas where the very best equipment/systems manage to capture both without an expense to the other. The Holy Grail is for a home system to reproduce all aspects of the live performance perfectly; except for the uncomfortable seats, neighbor sniffing and coughing and the depressing lack of a pause button--which becomes even more important as I age! lol
Problem with Salk's isnt the sound. Its the 50% Beating your going to take if you ever try to re-sell them. (Provided you purchased them Brand New with ZERO discount buying them direct). Do yourself a favor and buy a Used pair then your downside is limited when/if you flip them.
I just sold my Soundscape "8"s this weekend. Couldnt believe I had 4 inquiries in the first 36 hours of listing them.
Here are my comments regarding Axpona. I can’t believe no one has mentioned the Borresen speakers yet. They had their new reference 05 speakers there, the first pair in the country, and they were simply awesome. Yes, $120k for the pair is not for mere mortals, but compared to all the other 6 figure speakers, it blew them away. Focal Utopia’s being the exception. They were also showing 3 lower end models that all sounded great but all comparatively pricey. Their new ribbon, incorporated in all models, was the best sounding transducer I have ever heard in my 40 years of being in this industry. Recently retired. You will be hearing a lot about these speakers.
Never been a big fan of horn speakers. AvantGarde makes everything sound like its being played by a marching band. Klipsh, no idea why anyone thinks they sound good. That being said, I came across a speaker new to me called Ocean Way Audio Monterey. It looked like a horn type of speaker although they call it a hybrid waveguide system. I didn’t have time to get the skinny but was greatly impressed by the smoothness of the midrange and high frequencies. Of course it had the strengths of a horn speaker with none of the drawbacks. Very impressive but $32k for the pair.
Magico speakers - they play all the notes very well but they just don’t sound musical to me. Extremely over rated as far as I’m concerned.
Marten Logan speakers never impressed me for many years. I never thought they got the woofer to play well with the panels. I stopped paying attention to them for years. I heard the new 13 and 15 speakers at the show and let me tell you, they sure sound great now. Woofers keep up with the panels and way better dynamics than I ever thought possible. Very impressive. I just hope you don’t have to send the panels back every few years to get fixed like the older models.
Friday wasn’t bad but it was very crowded Saturday in the little rooms. Lots of cool products but unfortunately many of those companies won’t be around in a year or two. I have seen many promising companies come and go over the years leaving owners of their products up the creek.
I agree with the previous comments regarding the Wilson Alex speakers. Bad room, bad music, bad sound. Lots of millionaires in there though. Across the way they had the Alexia’s playing with a Rogers tube integrated that sounded way better than the previous room.
Sanders, Muraudio, Eminent Technology, and many others sounded okay but the music being played in many rooms would make a Bose table radio sound good. I know the manufacturer’s want to make their products sound their best but if that’s the only kind of music that doesn’t embarrass them, I move on. At least Focal and Dynaudio aren’t afraid of rocking out.
I listened to many great products but I kept returning to the though on what I would have to do to afford the Borresen 05 speakers. They spoke to me like no other speaker ever has although the wife seemed pretty firm on the big “NO” she gave me. I wonder if she’ll fit in one of the Borresen crates? Lol.
Omg That was so funny lol. I’ve thought about the crate thing in the past too!
briano: thank you for following this “saga” as you call it. I look forward to your comments from the show. Please share them here. I encourage EVERYONE who was at the show to give their thoughts on what they liked and what was disappointing. it would be interesting to see what everyone’s perception is from all the different systems. I forgot to mention that there was one speaker that caught my attention: T+A solitaire (40th anniversary). It had an electrostatic panel for the highs, four 8 inch drivers for the lows and 8 midrange drivers. Did anyone hear this? I think it did a lot right for me.
One additional thought: so far 3 of us have agreed that the focal grande utopia Evo was insane and just incredible. I loved how it just played everything with so much “enthusiasm” and never got fatiguing to me. It sounded enormous and FAST PACED.
Riaa: I concur with your previous statement in regards to Salk speakers.
WCSS, I hope you were able to hear the GTAW room on Sunday, they replaced the 845 amp with a Zanden using 2 pairs of KT120s and the propulsion, dynamics and emotional involvement were substantially improved, synergy is very important.
WC and klh007, At Steve's home, I heard the GT with a Pass amp, I think XA 60.8. Usually Pass is sweet sounding, but the system sounded tonally neutral and accurate, a tribute to the GT speaker. A big advantage of the GT is its fairly high efficiency, which enables use of smaller amps of highest quality.
psynder149, Very true about the Holy Grail of hifi being able to combine clarity and natural warmth without any sacrifice of either, like live music. After all my experiences, I am still amazed that live music may sound warm at times, but cold and even sterile at other times. In a hall with lots of wood and reverberation, at a distance, the sound is too warm and muddy with poor detail. In contrast, in open air without acoustical coloring, it is more ruthless and neutral, without the warm aspects. A close seat in the hall, approximately where microphones are placed, the sound is closer to the neutrality of open air. But the important common finding is that no matter what the distance and environment, live music is always smooth. In open air at fairly close range, it is smooth and dry; in the reverberant hall at a distance, it is smooth and warm. Smooth dry wine vs smooth full bodied, with many gradations in-between.
Ocean Way Audio is some serious equipment. Great for Open Floor Plan Homes. Sound is great at all angles.
Hidden gem of a recording studio company that does home audio Micheal Jackson used this company for home sound. Similar to my JBL Professional System for great stereo separation way off-axis.
psnyder149, I noticed that when I use the pause button on my CD player, there is soft mechanical noise as if there are still moving parts. This may cause wear, so now I just press stop. When I come back to listen, I start the track again.
"13a with constellation amps and preamp smokes the other 2"( GT Audio and Persona 3F) posted here earlier; I just can't agree with this comment. I visited Irv's room and yes the 13A along with other MLs with active bass and DSP have continued to improve the integration from stat panel to cone box sub, but none get the seamless blend that the SI OB woofer arrays give to the GTA 3.1R panels, or the tight, powerful, low bass extension, with impact, free of muddy/boomy/one-note bass many box subs produce. In terms of ultimate clarity, I didn't hear the same music in both rooms, but the music I'm familiar with in the GTAW room had staggering amounts of detail without getting into a clinical/lean/thin/needs more body type of sound, having plenty of body and "meat on the bones" while delivering stunning levels of inner details and transparency. I don't have any real experience with the Persona line other than shows where they have sounded just a little bright to me, but I have plenty of electrostatic hours under my belt including years of ML ownership, and current MLs are very transparent with plenty of detail, I'll call the GTAW and ML speakers a close draw in the clarity department without a real side by side comparison.
Also agree with the comment the Focal Grande Utopias with the Naim Statements setup was mind blowing.
Never liked the new Utopias, this new setup was absolutely amazing, a few years ago heard the same setup in Brooklyn at the New York audio show and it wasn't impressive.
At another show they had the Grande Utopias EM with big Vac same thing not impressive.
This setup was just remarkable, the system combined musicality, sense of scale, tremendous transparency, notes just floated in the air.
audiotroy quote "
Viber heard the GT audio at both Cap and at Axpona they were not that good at all heard them at CAP big room heard at Axpona smaller room, image size too big, lack of focus, bass response didn't seem to sound right."
Mr Troy....Wow !! Being connected to Audio Doctor, this post seems a bit too biased for me to take seriously. More than likely, insecurity in your own dealership leads to such comments.
I have an idea....Lets put our money where our mouths are.
Why not exhibit at Capital AudioFest in November and please bring your big guns. This way people can hear both systems and make their own determinations. I will be in the Frederick room..be sure to stop by and say hi. Greg GT Audio Works
Thank you everyone for going to the show and seeing some of the latest equipment. It really helps.
Warmth and body is still something I find could be improved in my ML Montis system with 2 REL S3 subs. When I added the RELs, the body improved dramatically. The finished system is jaw dropping.
But can it sound better? I bet the Naim Statements would beat my Krell KSA-200S for warmth and body. Wish they were affordable. But the fact that they can be made is a feat in itself.
Then I think of the Revel Salon 2 with my RELs. WCSS really liked them and they are reasonably priced used. I have not know of another dynamic speaker other than Revel or Legacy that would be priced well enough for us mere mortals. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Revel Salon 2 speaker is a great speaker. When you match things properly, that speaker is amazing. I honestly can’t think of anyone who can say that this speaker is not a good speaker. If I were to downsize and was looking for a speaker under 10k, the revel salon 2 would be in the running. It just really gives you so much for the money. Only criticism is you need a good power amp for them. I can also tell you that you won’t need subs with the salon if your front end is up to par. Yes, having owned the montis and salons 2, I can say with certainty that the salon is a better speaker than the montis but not better than the 15a renaissance.
Nobody has mentioned whether they heard the GT fully toed in the way I tried them at Steve's home. Fully toed in to maximize the clarity, I agree with klh007 that the clarity of the GT and several smaller ML is comparable, from my listening to the same music of mine although at different times.
The speakers are intended to be utilized with a laser. Specially, the laser is pointed at the inside edge of the planar by the tweeter. The laser is then pointed to the exact spot in the middle of where your listening chair is placed- which obviously should be exactly between the speakers.
klh007, Some confusion. By full toe-in, I mean the speaker pointed at you, in the approximate manner faxer just described with the laser. At his home, I eyeballed the toe-in so that the midpoint of the panel faced me. This is slightly different than what he described. The narrow 0.5 inch inside tweeter has excellent HF dispersion, so it is fine for the tweeter to be a little off-axis. But a panel that is 10 inches wide will exhibit off-axis rolloff especially for HF but a little in the upper midrange as well. Wider panels exhibit even more rolloff, which is why the larger curved ML panels are more compromised than the smaller ones. The Kingsound stats use a flat relatively narrow 3 inch tweeter panel, used down to 1200-1600 Hz depending on the model, which I found has very good HF dispersion, so full toe-in is not as critical. The Sanders 10e panel is fairly wide at about 15 inches, so toe-in the way I described is absolutely essential. Unfortunately, with even this toe-in, the inner and outer parts of the panel are 7.5 inches off axis, so they lose the benefits of the toe-in, since the summation of the full HF of the midpoint with progressively less HF as you get away from the midpoint creates time smearing. He used to have a narrower model 11 which was 11 inches wide, a better design for clarity. The best planar/ribbon design is the Alsyvox, whose supertweeter+midrange/tweeter ribbons together are only 5+15=20mm wide. Covering the range of 850 Hz-40 kHz, this should give the best focus/clarity, and toe-in is much less critical, if at all. It is worth a visit to the Laurel, Md dealer to hear them. Is the Tintoretto worth $65K for clarity, or is the GT almost or as good, for much less money? I believe that anyone who heard the GT at the show could obtain even greater clarity with my slightly different positioning of it, even if it was already very impressive. If the Tintoretto is still the best, it is worth putting the money toward that speaker, rather than super costly cables, etc. The ultra-rich can then add the accessories which certainly make a difference, but less so than the speaker.
thezaks, Exactly. Each listener to any speaker has his own preferred location, whether it is the theoretically perfect sweet spot or his own taste. At public shows, it is not possible to give more than a few listeners the ideal seat, so speakers are usually placed where more than 1 person can hear approximately the same sound, even if that sound is not as perfect as the 1 person in the sweet spot. From the GT Audio website pictures, it appears that the speaker was not fully toed in the way I prefer. The good news is that this speaker has even better clarity than what people heard at the show, using my preferred toe-in. Sometimes manufacturers and even composers do not know how to get the very best out of their products. Designers and manufacturers are certainly adept at developing their products with technical knowhow, but they may not be as creative as an experienced listener like me. On the other hand, I have some great ideas for a perfect speaker, but I have zero knowledge of manufacturing techniques. In classical music, Igor Stravinsky conducted modern recordings of his compositions, but other conductors have been acknowledged to have better conducting skills and have made better recordings of Stravinsky's works, as mentioned by guidocorona a few months ago.
We would welcome a head to head shoot out against either the Tintoretto or the Botteceli. We would even give Alsyvox a handicap and use our least expensive system (panels and 2 Servo subs per side) 29k vs. 69k and 99k. Buy a yacht or condo with the savings.
I had a brain fart this morning trying to post and get to work on time, of course they were toed-in aiming right at me. Yes I was in the sweet spot, and I tried all the seats in the room and I don't recall being aware of any noticeable decrease in detail/information moving from the front to rear center positions. Sorry for the confusion, I hadn't had but one sip of coffee and apparently I needed at least a cup before hastily posting.
klh007, your user name reminded me of the KLH model twenty four combination amp/radio/turntable I had a lifetime ago. Turning that tuning dial was just so silky smooth. Just so enjoyable to own back then, and to guy with my funds was like owning a Cadillac.
jetter, I was thinking that klh007 admires the KLH Nine electrostatic speaker, which was famous in the day. Or maybe as 007, James Bond, he is super KLH.
I saw your 3/24/19 post on the Merrill Element forum. It seems we both like class D and await the Merrill Element amps. What is your reference amp now?
faxer, I would love a friendly shootout between GT and Alsyvox. Even if the Alsyvox is more detailed, the GT is the best value out there. If GT is better, then you win the gold medal. I would really like to see the press give coverage to the excellence of both of these speakers, rather than the huge upright funeral caskets of dinosaur dynamic speakers. John Atkinson of Stereophile is basically a bass-head. His reviews emphasize the bass and give superficial analysis to accuracy of midrange/HF. He won't allow reviews of Alsyvox or GT because they don't have much retail store distribution. GT beats the heck out of all Stereophile's class A rated monsters.
Since Viber6’s visit to hear the GT system, I should point out that the GT’s have been updated to the 3.1’s - this update substantially increases the clarity and be ability for the speakers to sound like they are Cut from the same cloth. We demonstrated this at Axpona too many attendees by having them put their ear to the tweeter and then to the main panel going back-and-forth you do not hear a discontinuity between the sound of the tweeter and the sound of the main panel like you do on many conventional speakers and other planar magnetic designs. I believe white Camaro SS was there when I demonstrated this. I did notice that you can hear the difference between the tweeter and the main panel on the Alsyvox as I listened to the speaker on two occasions.
Two of my buddies who went to AXPONA, commented to me that although some rooms were " nice ", the Ocean Way speakers and the $60 K Avantgarde speakers created the most lifelike portrayal of real, live music, at the show. I am not surprised, and one of them does not own horns. Once again, to each his own. WC, glad you had a nice time, and my takeaway is the ML 13a was the best to your ears, for the money, based on my readings.
I am generally not a horn guy, but I have to admit I was impressed by the Ocean Way speakers and floored by the Large Avantgarde system playing Pink Floyd. The large room and $100 grand of supporting Esoteric Grandioso electronics didn’t hurt either
I will say I did like those blue horns as well. It is just a different type of sound. Horns, panels and tweeter/woofer speakers couldn’t be more different. It is too difficult to compare. That said, I don’t know why but I have heard MBL on two occasions and I haven’t been floored. I don’t know if it is the sound or the way things are presented but they don’t seem to grab me.
WC, MBL speakers, at least the flagship, is an omnidirectional one. Most omni's have less clarity even if they create spatial effects. Another illustration of the supreme importance of clarity above everything else.
faxer, What are the changes in the 3.1 version compared to what I heard over a year ago that account for the increased clarity? As for the Alsyvox, the disadvantage of it is the electronic crossover which may detract from clarity, compared to the GT which has no crossover. Still, I don't understand how both the tweeter ribbon and the planar magnetic drivers in the GT are driven DIRECTLY by the amplifier, without a crossover. But the advantage of the Alsyvox is that from 850 to 6000 Hz the more nimble 15 mm narrow ribbon is used, which may be better than the planar driver of the GT in this freq range. The net result for clarity will be whether the advantage of the possibly better drivers plus more robust speaker weight and construction outweigh the disadvantage of the crossover in the Alsyvox. Only comparative listening will tell.
Viber 6 these are very good questions. 1. According to Greg the designer of the speakers he told me that it is not a good idea to have any type of high frequency transducer especially a ribbon tweeter to reproduce frequencies As low as 850 Hz. This type of lower frequency reeks havoc on the tweeter as it is a stressor. According to Greg a ribbon tweeter should not be playing at this level of frequency as it will audibly cause more distortion and decrease clarity. Essentially it is playing down to low in frequency for this type of driver.
2. The new ribbon tweeter In the GT Speakers has been upgraded which is part of the 3.1 upgrade this essentially creates a ribbon Tweeter that is Lower in mass and as a result will produce frequencies that are more extended detailed and relaxed as they are crossed over at around 2.5 kHz. Greg is now using a second order network utilizing only a 1 ohm Path Audio resistor, the new 12uf OMID Vcap and .68 mh copper foil inductor. This new configuration has resulted in a seamless blend between the ribbon tweeter and the crossoverless main planar driver. We demonstrated this phenomenon with white Camaro SS in the room by by having one’s head shift between the main panel and the tweeter and not hearing the dissimilarity or discontinuity between the drivers. 3. The main panel or main planar driver that is now Used on the speaker has been reconfigured and is now rated at 5.3 ohms. By doing so this now becomes a much more friendly impedance or load for a vacuum tube amplifier as Demonstrated at Axpona. This new driver has been reconfigured to Better integrate with the servo sub woofers that are used in the system. In sum it is a much more refined and better sounding speaker than what you had heard many months ago. Unlike Alysavox this speaker does not have a crossover on the main panel and does not use cheap refrigerator magnets but very expensive neodymium magnets it also utilizes a special membrane that is unlike what is typically used in speakers like Alysavox - which would be either Kapton or mylar. The research and development of the speaker has unequivocally shown that by using either kapton or mylar results in audible resonances. The GT Speakers also utilize a constrained layer frame within frame technology to further eliminate resonance.
Soooo what did I tell everyone in here about the Logan set up? Do I have good ears or what ? i TOLD YOU ALL that this room was KILLER and it was not a ton of money either. It was OUTSTANDING and it made me want to revisit my set up. It was just incredible how good it was for the money and to be a top 3 room is a testament to system synergy. I have been doing this constant grind for years now so hopefully some of you who don't believe in what i know SHOULD begin to believe.
viber6, The Alsyvox speakers use passive crossovers, the Tintorettos you heard in Laurel at Dr. Vinyl's place need only a stereo amp, He's currently using Mike McGary's SA-1 30 watt tube amp delivering superb results.
Faxer, thank for your detailed explanation on the GT Audioworks speaker design. The information on their website is somewhat confusing when they mention ‘that the driver uses no crossover’. From your explanation they are using a high pass filter crossed over at 2.5 kHz for their high frequency ribbon.
They can call it like they like it, but IMHO, GT Audioworks is using a crossover (or high pass filter), to limit bass frequency going into their high frequency ribbon. There are few speakers with no crossovers and they all have frequency limitations, since physics rules apply to all transducers.
Well you got the ML gear right! The ML 15A/13 A are personal favorites of mine. Heard them at the Montreal Audio Show on a few occasions. Just curious, are you going to try some of the Constellation gear soon?
WC, the article you referenced above did give kudos to the ML system, but further down, he was stating he was giving serious consideration for purchase, the best system he heard at the show, the Avantgarde, at 60 K. Horns, baby, horns, every time ! LOL
The main panel does go out to 6khz And plays down to. 50 H z Again this is the area where a crossover causes time delay and phase shift anomalies. Take a look at the miles of wire and capacitors in a ML or any other speaker which is non existent on GT.
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