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What makes you build a system around an amplifier?

Serious question. I almost always care about the room and speakers first, then build around that. However, this is not the only way to do things.

If you have ever insisted on keeping your amplifier, but were willing to change everything else around it, please let us know why. What made an amp so outstanding in your mind that it was worth making it your center piece. Imaging? slam?

Be specific about the amp and speakers or other gear that you shuffled through.

Thanks!

E
erik_squires

Showing 4 responses by bdp24

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bdp24
10,196 posts
 
ejr1953---Are you sure the speakers weren't merely reproducing the grainy sound of the amplifier driving them? I have found "grain" to be more a product of electronics than speakers.
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bdp24
10,196 posts
 

Me too Erik. If I still lived in the Bay Area (Cupertino for twenty years), I would go to Modjeski's new operation in Berkeley/Oakland (after being in Santa Barbara for decades), where Roger demoes the speakers.

maplegrovemusic---Modjeski is one of those guys who doesn't put a lot of effort into his company's website, and the speakers aren't mentioned or listed there. If you do a Google search for Music Reference, however, the first listing will be for Music Reference / Ram Labs. Click on the sub-listing of "Complete Price List", and you will see the speakers at the bottom of the list. $12,000/pr, including the integral 8" dynamic subs. I don't know whether or not that includes the direct-drive amps, but I suspect not.

While the regular Music Reference site lists only the RM-10 and RM-200 amps, the complete list has all kinds of other amps---2.5w, 5w, and 10w triodes, a couple of OTL's, 45 based amps, and some passive pre's. Roger is a very interesting, creative designer with a vast knowledge of tubes. Very over-looked by the rather cliquish high end, for some reason. Maybe for the same reason the Eminent Technology LFT-8b speaker is---not expensive enough!

Speaking of the ET's, VPI's Harry Weisfeld is of the opinion that the LFT-8b has the best midrange of any speaker he has ever heard. I don't know about that---the original Quad is hard to beat. But it plays louder, goes lower, and is easier to drive than the Quad. It's a nominal 8 ohm load, but if you bi-amp them the magnetic-planar panel (similar to that of the Maggies, but push-pull, not single-ended, a huge advantage) is an 11 ohm load, and mostly resistive. A great speaker for the Atma-Sphere M60! 

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,196 posts
 
There are a fair number of people who find the Atma-Sphere OTL's so much better than transformer-coupled amps (more transparent, better bass, more extended high end, "faster") that they are willing to find a speaker that will work well with them, in spite of the limitations OTL's impose. Maggie owners use the Anti Cable Autoformer to raise the impedance of their 4 ohm load to help match them with A-S amps . I complete understand and agree with that approach, at least in the case of Atma-Sphere.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,196 posts
 

An amp and a speaker make a "system", no matter what two they are. They are intrinsically, interdependently-related to each other. A particular speaker prefers (or even requires) a certain "kind" of amp, a particular amp performs better with certain "kinds" of speakers. An actively-driven speaker, a speaker with a dedicated power amp, is a really good idea.

Roger Modjeski of Music Reference is now offering an ESL of his own design and build, with a dedicated direct-drive tube amp---the amp has no output transformer, the ESL no input transformer, the ESL panels driven directly by the output tubes! THAT is the ultimate, perfectionist way to do it.

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