Digital Amps and synergistic speaker combos

mcgsxr · « **on:** 3 Nov 2004, 03:32 pm »

I have read just about all the threads around here that relate to digital amps, being a recent convert, and it is interesting to read about the experiences of others, when they try a digital amp in their system.

So, to assist others in the pursuit of sound, would people be willing to list the combos of digital amps, and speakers that they have tried, that worked for them? Might save some people trying to sift through the lengthy JVC, Teac, Panny threads...

Listing the combo, speaker sensitivity, and load might be worthwhile, plus whatever other comments you find useful.

To kick this off, I have only had the Teac Tripath amp, and have thoroughly enjoyed it with my Totem Rokk speakers. They are 86Db efficient, and a 4ohm load.

I am presently experimenting with a set of the CSS WR125S full range 4.5 inch drivers, that are 8ohm, and around 86Db efficient, according to their specs. Looks to be a good mix also.

I will report back on how the JVC 5.1 receiver sounds with both these speakers, and also how the Bolder modded Teac plays.

Have a great day,

Mark in Canada

BrunoB · « **Reply #1 on:** 3 Nov 2004, 05:19 pm »

Amp : Sharp SM-SX1, 2x 50W, 8 ohms
Speakers: modified VMPS 626R, 86 db sensitivity, 8 ohms

I like this combo for nearfield listening at 85-90 db. Sound is very dynamic (both micro and macro) and extended.

Bruno

AphileEarlyAdopter · « **Reply #2 on:** 3 Nov 2004, 08:08 pm »

I have a Silverline Sonatina driven by the Panny XR50.
It is 93db and 8ohms. See http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/silverline_sonatina.htm
I initially thought I will get a tube amp to drive them (in place of a Audio Refinement Complete). But with a mischievous little guy in the house. I gave that up. Now my 3 yr old son can mess as much as he wants with the XR50. Big deal. Just $250.
And I am not missing out on the sound.

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #3 on:** 3 Nov 2004, 09:20 pm »

Dennis Murphy MBOW1 with JVC RX-ES1SL
~87db sens.
8ohm nominal, 6 ohm minimum, I believe.

Works and sounds just fine IMO.

Dmason · « **Reply #4 on:** 3 Nov 2004, 10:19 pm »

Radian 502/B 8" coaxial in 42" mass loaded transmission line. 96db/8Ohm
Fostex F200A 8" single in 25L B/R 91db/8ohm
Jordan JX92S 4.5" single in 31" MLTL 88db/8Ohm
Soliloquy 5.0 5" two way monitor. 90db/8Ohm
Axiom M40Ti 6.5" two way floor 91db/8Ohm

All of these speakers respond nicely to digital amps. All have benign impedance moduli and present an easy load. All except the Soliloquy use metal transducers to reproduce treble F's. The Radian transmission line is in my opinion the best of the bunch, and is unique. Immensely musical, warm, yet highly detailed, can be run to headbanger levels with a Sonic Impact.

KCHANG · « **Reply #5 on:** 3 Nov 2004, 11:23 pm »

I always have several speaker systems set up at any given time. My basement, which is of a fairly good size, is now filled up (and about to overflow) with all the speakers, drivers, horns, baffles, amps, crossovers, DAC's, transformers, capacitors, coils, etc. that I've accumulated in the last 8 years after we moved into our house.

For several years, I have been driving my main system that uses the B&G RD75 line drivers (180Hz-20KHz) with a DIY 200W/ch Tripath amp. I need the high power of the Tripath amp because the RD75 drivers are not too efficient (about the same as the Jordan JX92S driver). This system is still perhaps the best stereo speaker system I have, and its bass (eight 18" sub drivers on OB, drivern by a separate amp) is just head and shoulders above any regular speaker system.

At one time I tried a Blaupunkt car amp that usesa Tripath chip with my Fostex FX200-on-open-baffle project, but decided that it did not sound better than the Gainclones I built.

I then got a Panasonic SA-45 receiver and used it to drive a multi-channel system based on three Fostex FX200's on open baffles. I got the best soundstage and realism I've heard in my basement (and perhaps anywhere) from this combination. One problem with the Panasonic receiver, however, is that its frequency response appears to be tilted toward the bright side, as compared to the Gainclones. This impression was confirmed again when I compared the Pana receiver to the JVC F10 receiver this morning. Nevertheless, the Pana receiver gives a sense of transparency and realism that is quite satisfying. Recently I was using the Pana receiver to bi-amp a pair of 3-way speakers that use the Audax PR170M0 drivers on open baffles to cover 250Hz-7KHz. The bass of the system is provided by a pair of JBL bass boxes each having two 15" 2226 woofers. The high is provided by Fostex FT17H horn tweeters. The sound of this system driven by the Pana receiver was quite clean, big, and dynamic. I was a little bothered, however, by a bit sharpness of the sound. Interestingly, that sharpness was gone when I switched to the JVC receiver. I've also used the Pana receiver briefly to bi-amp a pair of JBL horn speakers, and the result was also quite good.

Several weeks ago, I got three Sonic Impact amps just for fun. I modified two by putting the amp circuit board in a wooden block, and used one to drive Jordan JX92S drivers in sealed boxes (with a cap for 1st order HP around 180Hz) and two bass boxes that cover the bass below 180Hz.. The SI amp actually sounded quite good with the Jordans at a reasonable volume. I fired up the Blaupunkt car amp again to compare it to the modified Sonic Impact amps, and I felt that the little SI amps actually sounded better with the Jordans than the much more powerful car amp.

I got the JVC receiver only 10 days ago, and I am still getting used to its sound. Since I have not spent a lot of time listening to it yet, I'll reserve my opinion on its sound. Nevertheless, I can say that it seems to give a frequency response that is "flatter" than that of the Panasonic receiver. As I mentioned earlier, the sharpness of the sound of the Audax system disappeared when it was driven by the JVC.

Well, that's all for now folks.

Kurt

mcgsxr · « **Reply #6 on:** 4 Nov 2004, 12:55 am »

Ahem, can someone please help me jack my jaw up off the floor

- KCHANG's 8x18 inch sub reference has stunned me.

Again I have sub envy!

Nice list of all that people have tried, and hopefully some people will see a combo here that seems familiar to what they have, or are willing to try, to chase the happiness that some of us have found, on a budget my whole family can live with (for once...).

Mark in Canada

JLM · « **Reply #7 on:** 4 Nov 2004, 01:08 am »

I've had the chance (thanks Mark) to audition a JVC RXES1SL at home with my Bob Brines FTA-2000 (floorstanding mass loaded transmission lines with single Fostex F200A 8 inch driver) and it does sound good.

The FTA-2000 should be a relatively easy 90 dB/w/m load with flat impedance curve provided by the transmission line and no crossover that allows for a direct amp to driver (active) interaction.

So far I've had a chance to hear these speakers on 4 different amps (my 6 year old $700 100 wpc Rotel receiver, a $1500 Decware 7 wpc integrated tube amp, a $1500 Decware 12 wpc integrated tube amp, and the JVC). The 12 wpc Decware sounded the best and the Rotel the worst. But on worble sweeps between 20 and 50 Hz the Decware did the worst and the Rotel did the best. (?) Based on quality of construction the JVC is at the bottom, but based on sound quality value the JVC wins easily.

I'd like the try the FTA-2000 with a Channel Islands or Scott Nixon chip amp as I've read that they are a great match with single driver speakers.

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #8 on:** 4 Nov 2004, 01:40 am »

The JVC RX-ES1sl and the Vandy 1c (90 db, easy load..don't know what, tho) fit like a glove.

With the Lineaum Towers (87 db, 6.3 ohm) a little less good...but that could be a function of the speaker (even lightly modded), not the combo.

With the 85db/4 ohm Maggie MMG's...poof..thermal shutdown at '30' playing Downpressor Man (Peter Tosh). But, before that, increasing levels of dissatisfaction as volume rose.

I loved that little JVC...and now I am really smitten with the Maggies, but alas, the two cannot pair. -Richard- has his RX-F10 paired with an even larger Maggie..with success. So, I am left to wonder - did the 2nd generation of JVC's have some power supply tweaking done (in addition to the 6th amplification channel)? They are now $249 shipped from JVC....and I may just try it.

The other digi receiver options (except the Panny, but I want analog ins) are far more expensive...and I WAS so satisfied with the signature of the JVC's sound.

Sigh.....

dave_c · « **Reply #9 on:** 4 Nov 2004, 01:47 am »

Running my EA modded Panny with Triangle Titus 202's. Its a very "live" sound. What I mean is that its not laid back at all. Sounds really good with electronic music (with a sub anyway). Midrange is really nice too although the Titus don't go very low anyway.

I'm jealous of AEA's Silverline setup. That must sound incredible!

lcrim · « **Reply #10 on:** 4 Nov 2004, 04:37 am »

I have the Teac w/ an AES AE-3 preamp and Sonus Faber Concertino Homes plus an Adire Rava sub. I use a single twisted pair of CAT5 for speaker wire. Yesterday I rolled the 6SN7's that were delivered w/ the pre by Cary (AES) for EH6SN7, huge improvement. I should change out the pc on the Teac but that will cost nearly as much as the amp.
Until a few weeks ago, I used to have a Sony STR DA3000ES digital receiver with a 5.1 HT setup. The Sony was rated @ 150 watts per 7 channels. I was having noise issues with a neighbor (townhouse living at its worst.) I decided to sell the HT stuff and go 2.1 w/ SET and hi/eff speaks like the Cain & Cain Abbeys sort of like the system in my bedroom. I bought the Teac as a stop gap until I could afford a Wright WPA3.5 and then pulled the AES from the bedroom (the Decware Select there could function on its own gain control.) I couldn't complete a trade for the Abbeys, so the Concertinos stayed. I'm still trying to get the smile off my face. This combination sounds so good, its almost embarassing. The Teac is rated @ 30 watts per but it drives the little Sonus Fabers far more cleanly than all the much higher powered receivers ever did.
I bought a used Technics 1200 MKII for the bedroom and tried to sell the older Rega ,SME, Goldring player I had there but after several potential buyers backed out at the last second, I just kept it and along with the ASL phono section, added it to the system. Read a thread here about an Audio-Technica 440ML cart and tried it out. Another nice match. Analog with the Teac is the crowning touch.
Two things I should mention about the Teac, are the really expansive soundstage it creates and how instruments just sound correct. The illusion is very strong. The Decware/Parker combo in the bedroom has similar strengths but the Teac was an unexpected thing. Highly recommended.
EDIT:Impedance: 6 ohms, nominal
Sensitivity: 88dB 1W/1m for the SF Concertino Homes

geofstro · « **Reply #11 on:** 4 Nov 2004, 12:08 pm »

I've tried both the little Teac Tripath amp and the JVC ES1L with Ed Schillings' Horn shoppe horns and ProAc super tower. Ed claims 98-100db peaks with a 3 watt amp or greater into an easy 8 ohm load. I've not tested the sensitivity of the ProAc; but it is also a fairly efficient speaker.

Officially the ProAc's minimum requirement is 40 watts into an 8 Ohm load; but I've got away with less. The Teac drove it to high enough levels in a largish room, although I did note some dynamic compression.

Both speakers being quite effecient worked well on the whole with both of these amps.

The Teac can take standard banana plugs as I (finally) found out, thanks to Mark.

The JVC has those horrible spring clips and I needed to use Monster Flex pins to get my Nordost Blue Heaven bananas in there.

I also had to be careful the flex pins themselves weren't touching, otherwise the JVC automatically shuts down due to detecting speaker shorts.

This puzzled me a bit, because the only part of the flex pins that could have touched were the outer ring used to screw cable in. I would have thought this would be insulated from the inner connection and not cause a short if they did touch. I needed to use a plastic shim to keep them apart. The JVC then, is very sensiitive to speaker wire shorting and will immediately shut down if it suspects this. That must be a good thing, since it's protecting your speakers. Perhaps there's a fault in the design of the felx pin?

Anyway all that aside, I would say the Teac and Horn Shoppe horns and the JVC and ProAcs are the best matches out of these combinations.

geoff