[flipper]

I'VE BEEN LURKING AROUND PICKNG UP IDEAS & NOW I AM READY TO START MY SYSTEM UP AGAIN. I'M GETTING MY OLD RIBBON HYBRIDS WORKING AGAIN. THEY USE TWO STRATHERN RIBBONS PER SIDE RUN DIPOLE WITH 10" REFLEX WOOFERS CROSSED BETWEEN 200 - 300HZ. I HAD TO CHANGE WOOFERS SO NOW I HAVE TO GO ACTIVE BIAMP.  I HAVE A LIMITED BUDGET SO I'VE NARROWED TO THESE TWO OPTIONS BUT I'M OPEN TO OTHER SUGGESTIONS.  THE QUESTIONS /PROBLEMS.

1. THE RIBBONS PRESENT A 2 OHM LOAD. WILL THESES AMPS BE OK WITH THAT OPERATING OVER 200HZ.

2. THE NEW WOOFERS ARE APPRX 93DB  BUT THE RIBBONS ARE ONLY MID 80'S. DO THE TEACS HAVE VOLUME CONTROLS? CAN THE JVC COMPENSATE FOR THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE?

3. I WILL USE HARRISON LABS INLINE XOVER WITH THE TEACS. WHAT CUT OFF POINTS FOR THE  HI PASS(SMALL SPEAKER ) DOES THE JVC OFFER? I WILL USE A PASSIVE XOVER FOR WOOFER ROLL OFF IN THIS MODE

ANY OTHER PROBLEMS WITH THIS OR SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE APPRECIATED. PLEASE BE GENTLE. I'M A VIRGIN TO THIS FORUM STUFF! I'VE ONLY WATCHED IN THE PAST

[mcgsxr]

Flipper, welcome to the party!

I have owned one kind of JVC (the older ES-1) and presently own a pair of Teacs - both are now modded, but when I first bought them, I ran them in a passive biamp setup.

The Teacs do have volume (gain) controls, one for each of the 3 channels, but I found that turning the gain pots too far down robbed the music of the bass - that might be OK since you intend to run the mids/highs off these, but I should warn you.  I also found that modding them to remove said pots from the signal path was an improvement.

All that aside, I am more concerned about the 2 ohm load.  I ran my Teacs with a 4 ohm load, so I know they can handle more than the spec'd 6 ohms, but 2 ohms is a whole other ballpark.

I did not ever try that, and am uncertain if they could do it - reading the Tripath chipset pdf leads me to believe that they would be running significant distortion, even if they could handle it...

Not sure I have helped, but if you have more questions, fire away!

[Dmason]

Hi Flipper,

First thought is that 2 Ohms opens a whole can of worms. My belief is that the Teac and JVC and similar type items have neither the power supplies nor capacitance, nor overall design WRT 2 Ohms loads, and would likely burn up pretty quickly.

 If the Tripath sound is what you are after, the Carver Tripath pro audio amps are pretty much load invariant down to 1 Ohm loads, having been designed for use with chained monitors, sidefill, and backline rigs, where they are called on to sink required current into whatever is plugged into them without complaining, and are therefore being commonly used with great success with the Apogee ribbons, Magnepans et al. Haven't heard mention of the Strathearns for a looooong time.

 If bi-amping is your thing, the Ashly Powerflex series are wonderfully well designed Tripath 4 and 6 channel muscle amps for not a whole lot of dough.

You may also want to have a look at the lower priced wannabe pro audio amps like Samson Servo and A.R.T. has a nice one as well. Here is a start. These units also sound really good and give a run to much higher priced sand amp stuff.

www.fullcompass.com
www.musiciansfriend.com
www.sweetwater.com

These outfits have well organized sites, with good information and pricing, and access to well versed product specialists. I would go straight for the Ashly stuff if I wanted good sounding Tripath 4X, done right.

[mcgsxr]

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=16977 sounds like you might be in luck - see if you can bag this, for the price of sending this guy a new Clari-T.

As I recall, the mods alone on this amp are well more than $500... and this bad boy will run down to 1 ohm, perfect for your application.

Just a note, not me or anything etc...