300B SET Amp driving Wilson Sabrinas


Interesting experience to share.

In my home system I have a pair of Wilson Sabrina speakers normally driven by a Modwright KWA 150SE (Special Edition). On a lark, I replaced the Modwright with an Elekit 8600S 300B amp (Lundahl output transformers and Mundorf Supreme output capacitors) I had in another system.

The surprise, not only did the Elekit drive the Sabrinas very well (improved clarity and tonality), but at the same volume with the same input level as the Modwright! Using a passive preamp, when I set the volume knob on the preamp to the same point for both the Modwright and the Elekit it results in essentially the same volume from the speakers.

Admittedly I listen at moderate levels (SPL rarely exceeds 70dBA), but the sensitivity of the Sabrinas is only 88 dB. Who would have thought!!

 

gareents

@ghdprentice The CDC is a totally lost cause. All of these silly studies are assumptions taken by people who hate loud music. Think about it. How do you do a study like that. Are you going to subject people to 95 dB for years to see what happens? How do you know what a person was exposed to, take a history? Do you carry a sound pressure level meter around with you all the time? These are the same people that told us pot makes you sterile and shoved a dangerous and ineffective vaccine down our throats. For 40 years I did comprehensive hearing tests on individuals from every walk of life as a family physician (Not a modern primary car provider) I followed them through decades. Not one of my musicians, who played electric music on stage had hearing loss beyond normal presbycusis. The ones that wound up with hearing aids either had a family history of hearing loss or were subject to a lot of impulse noise from machines and guns. My 72 year old dead head friend still hears fine and I still hear to 16 kHz at last check. I have been listening at 95 dB (when the music calls for it) as long as I can remember. My 95 dB is as measured, dBSPL , not dBFS. Remember dB is a relative scale.

@carlsbad2 I can understand your position. Most systems at 95 dB sound like sh-t. They hurt my ears. But, not because they are inherently bad systems. They are not tuned for louder levels. Mine is tuned for louder levels with the high end being rolled off. Our ears are much more sensitive to high frequencies as volume increases. If your system is balanced at 85 dB it will hurt at 95 dB  Even my wife was vacuuming along to Poco at 95 dB yesterday. 95 dB is not that loud. Many concerts hit 105 dB, twice as loud. Now that makes my ears ring, in go the plugs. At the range I wear 30 dB attenuators made by Etymotic. We saw Mark Lettieri two weeks ago in a theater setting. I would estimate it was around 95 dB most of the time and the sound was wonderful. I did not see anyone wearing hearing protection. What 95 dB does is it gets people up and dancing. 85 dB does not. 

Wow something made of good parts

sounded better than a more powerful amp made with not as good parts! Shocking 

@ghdprentice 

 

Actually OSHA specifies a 4 hour limit for 95 db SPL. I would rather trust them than the lying CDC.

 

The CDC is a totally lost cause.

To this day I listen to music wearing a mask and staying six foot from others.  The issue here is separating the agenda from the objective.