Well guys, I have been doing homework on the (new) Thiel, LLC bankruptcy as well as making slow progress on classic hot-rods. First project will be beetlemania's CS2.4s - pretty full-blown in scope.
What has been getting clearer is that the low-impedance problem rests at the root of much of the system limit. We can't change the low impedance load. I also want to avoid dodging the issue by requiring heavy iron amplifiers, which are few and expensive and, of course, can work very well, but the matching problem persists. I am exploring a different way to address the issues while avoiding the pitfalls of bi-amping with different amps and different cables. Here goes.
Most amps behave better into low impedance (heavy) loads in their normal 8-ohm / stereo (or 4 ohm if tubes) configuration rather than strapped to mono. I will be testing amps in a vertical bi-amp configuration, where one channel drives the woofer and the other the uppers, however that breaks out depending on model. We sequester various load and performance problems into the respective ranges. We can also internally hard-jumper for single input operation. We specify short runs of specialty cables - same lengths, same configuration, preferably 4 runs in same loom for even-handed capacitance and inductive cable reactances. I have ordered Morrow SP-4 bi-amp in this configuration. We will need special splitter interconnects with single source and double load (at power amp end) terminations. We add potential solutions without limiting our operating options.
I will be using my workhorse Classé DR-6 pre and DR-9 poweramps. Old, but decent and well known to me. I also hope to gain use of an older Ayre amp of suitable capability. Again, not the giant super studs, but something more affordable which many users could obtain. I have ruled out many amps as very good, but . . . somehow not neutral or transparent. For my learning and proving the designs, I need neutral, uncolored signal. I have about decided on the Benchmark AHB-2. It is a new hybrid configuration and loved in pro circles as a very great truth-teller (that I can afford). Two of them will allow trials in single amp stereo, strapped mono and vertical bi-amp as described above. John Siau (its designer) has endorsed its ability to support our heavy loads.
I am accustomed to working in mono with one speaker. So I will keep an original reference for comparison as I iterate the mate. Things are coming together to actually get to work. I am both excited and apprehensive. The apprehension centers on the nature of proposed improvements. Resolution / detail / articulation is the strong suit of Thiel designs. Most of our projected improvements will be in that same arena. We will be lavishing costs on an area of performance which is already first-rate and therefore not functionally a system limit. But, I for one and possibly some of you might find meaningful improvement in what we are undertaking. May it be so. That's the exciting part.
