[orpheus]

Hi Jim-
    I saw the picture and mention of your living room system on your blog and I was surprised to see that you use Cymbals with Vandersteens.  The 3A's and 2CE's are 87 and 86db sensitive respectively, with a 6 and 7ohm load respectively.  How do they work with the 8 watts from the Cymbals?  Vandersteen recommends 100 to 200 watts into 8ohms.  I'm just curious how that works.  My friend has some older 2CI's, and I really like their sound. 

-Aaron.

[mgalusha]

Aaron,

I've owned 2Ci's and 3A sigs and IMO they like more power than the Cymbal can produce. I had a 15W OTL amp at one time and while the sound with the 3A's was magical it just didn't have enough power unless you only listened to chamber music at low levels.

I've heard Jim's Cymbal and thought it very nice but I'd be surprised if it's a good match with the Vandies.

Mike

[robertwstephens]

I was wondering the same thing!  I wish Jim would design some higher wattage tube mono blocks for most real world speakers.   I would buy that kit in a heartbeat!  I will keep throwing the idea out there hoping he will bite some day.  Peace.  Robert

[hagtech]

I'm running the 1Cs at the moment, quite a bit easier to drive than the 2s or bigger.  Even so, they can suck the Cymbals down if you push too hard.  They start to compress on transients.  At reasonable listening levels it works out suprisingly ok.  I got them mainly because of their good phase and temporal response for test purposes.  For me, I really like the neutral and uncolored tone of the Vandersteens.  I can use them as a benchmark against more colored and lively speakers.  It helps to provide a balanced reference.  Still, I don't get the punch and slam I prefer.

I have also tried the Cymbals on some really big power hungry 4 ohm speakers, and it was sort of embarassing.  So yeah, when they say to put 100W or more into something, then the Cymbal will not work for you. 

On the other hand, if you have drivers that work fine with SETs or other low powered amps, then the Cymbals can do their magic.  At RMAF I am going to try out the big Azzolina Audio horns.  Unheard, but I trust the recommendations.  So it will be interesting.  At a gazillion dB efficiency, we'll be able to knock some walls down.

jh

[bluesky]

Hi

I just had to mention a couple of speaker projects I have waiting to be built.  I have somehow acquired a goodly number of Coral drivers from some unusual sources.

The first is a pair of NOS, frequency matched Coral Beta 8's, as I understand it the story is that an old chap in Sydney, Australia had bought several cases of these and had built some speakers and stored the last pair under his house.  They were unearthed when he passed away and a pair were subsequently sold.........to me.  I hope to build some Hedlund Horns with the help of a carpenter friend.

The second is no less than 16 Coral Flat 6's, these were unearthed from an old warehouse somewhere in Malaysia.  I hope to build a set of line arrays with these.

It will make for a couple of interesting projects I think and there will certainly not be a problem with sensitivity!

Best regards to all,

Bluesky

Oh, I almost forgot, a pair of Stephens F80R's came with the Beta 8's!