[Dmason]

Vinnie is pretty low-key and modest about his R&D, but I can say on his behalf he has come up with methodology that works best in this situation, and his all-out-assault-cost-no-object Reali-T amp/source, ordered by me, with all of the best, and none of the bad arrived today and is playing now, and I can say that even bare green, this thing already takes the sonic well in advance of where I had even hoped for. Gawd only knows what it will morph into over time. More to come on optimized SLA-fed TA2024 chips later. Suffice it to say my conviction also got jacked up today.

None of my current speaker collection sport SPL under 95db.

[tex-amp]

It would be wonderful if some brave soul within our audio
community would be willing to give this second generation
of the Sonic Impact a spin...the new prices should demand
a much more robust performance...perhaps even close to
state of the art considering the high level of the JVC F10
for example...they are not cheap...but perhaps there is magic
under the hood...

Warm regards -Richard-

I owned the JVC F10 and preferred the stock Sonic Impact with AA batteries to the JVC.

[-Richard-]

The Sonic Impact has many owners feeling that this
deceptively simple and apparently straight forward
application of the latest tri-path chip set has more than
a little magic about it...and I cannot think of another
amp that has appeared on the audio scene that has
caused so much dramatic interest...of course the original
at less than $30 was an incredible deal...and many highly
sophisticated DIY's on these threads have used their
considerable talents to modify the original to higher levels
of performance...
 
I have never had the opportunity to compare them...

However synergy is still a fact of life that comes into play
here...as it always does when matching any components
in audio...

I used my F10 to drive my Maggie 1.6 QR's...and they drove
them beautifully...more than beautifully...there was real magic
there and the F10 seemed to "understand" what the Maggie's
needed to sound their best...I have heard many top rated amps
on the Maggie's and none of them sounded as magical as the
F10...

However, please do not think I am questioning your astute
observations here Tex-Amp...

I assume that when you compared both amps that the speakers
were compatible with the 6 watts of the Sonic Impact...and were
not particularly over-excited by the100 watts of the F10...
so that a side by side comparison could be said to be "relatively" similar...
save the sonic quality that both amps brought to the reproduction of the music...
speed, texture, dimension, detail, richness of instrumental color and all the
other considerations that effect our sense of musical pleasure...

I imagine that the Sonic Impact is more refined...

If anyone else has had experience with both amps I would love
to know what your thinking is.

My F10 failed...because I was careless with the
way I used the crimped banana plugs in the tiny
plastic speaker cable inputs in the back...over time,
I managed to push the thin metal plates in the back so
that they eventually shorted the amp rendering it unusable...
and JVC will not honor the warrantee according to the man
that JVC uses to fix their products for them here in Ventura,
California.

I am looking with considerable interest to the new crop of
JVC amps that use the supposed "hybrid" technology...

Just as I am looking with keen interest to this next generation
of Sonic Impact amps...

I now have a very sensitive full range stand mounted speaker...
the Omega Grand 8 R's that are 95db sensitive...and no cross-overs...
so the modest watts of the SI should have a good synergy with them...

Warm regards -Richard-

[jswallac]

I currently own the prior generation JVC, the ES1SL, along with a stock Sonic Impact T amp.  My speakers are just average sensitivity at 89, although they are a pretty easy load with a 1st order crossover.  Actually the speakers have been the subject (or at least their manufacturer has) for some press here lately.  They are Meadowlark Audio Kestrel2s.  

I am not sure what all the buzz is about needing super high efficiency single driver (with corresponding limited range, although they are often mislabeled as full range) for the sonic impact.  The Kestrel2s sing quite nicely (and loud) with those 6 watts.  The JVC has been moved the the HT system, a demotion plain and simple.  Not that I don't think highly of the JVC, it is a great bargain.  It did not, however, make me forget about tubes.  The SI just may do that.

[Rocket]

Hi miklorsmith,

Please don't take offence but i am amazed the stock ps audio hca - 2 received a stereophile class a rating.  I bought the amp on this rating and reading reviews from audiophiles on the web.  Not once did i read that the bass was not extended or that the amp sounded lightweight.

Once i replaced the 4 caps in the signal path with blackgates i was amazed at the improvement it wrought in my system.

I think battery power is useful using these digital chips as they are so efficient.  I have an n.e.w. dc -66 battery powered amplifier but the amp is so inefficient it takes 4 panasonic 12 volt 33 amp hour batteries to run it.  If i replace them they will cost me $80us per battery   .

Regards

Rocket

[-Richard-]

Hi jswallac,

"...I am not sure what all the buzz is about needing super high
efficiency single driver (with corresponding limited range,
although they are often mislabeled as full range)..." for the SI...

Full range drivers have something of a cult following among
audio enthusiasts who have spent years buying into the next
great adventure in speaker design only to find that the reproduced
sound...with its frequency extension pushing the borders of what
is possible...leaves them thinking that something is missing...

That something is the incredible sense of music appearing with
a startling immediacy, palpableness, incredible detail that always
serves the music, dimensional, richly colorful, and in-your-room
sense of urgency that single-driver-full-range speakers do so well...
when they are designed well...

Extension? Well...for me...and I am a real music lover...not a
technology lover in absolute terms...I do not measure my musical
experiences with meters...if I am stirred into complete "contact" with
the musical event...if I am swept out of my daily ruminations into the
heart and soul of what the composer and singer and instrumentalist
is revealing...then my musical needs have been served...and I have
experienced a transcendent moment...

Are single driver full range speakers for everyone?...I don't know.

They are there when one has spent years with all the other
speaker designs...when one is finally ready to "listen" with
a depth and a connectedness that these speakers do so well...

Am I a snob? Nothing could be further from the truth...
But I have listened to many speakers and owned a few...
and I am deeply grateful that audio designers....collectively...
daily pursue their vision for an ever-closer-to-real ethos with
passion and conviction...

However...do have yourself a listen someday...I think you might be
pleasantly surprised how much magic single crossoverless full range
drivers create...

Omega's new hemp drivers...soon to be in production and available...
do push the "extension" envelope quite a bit...something I await with
fascination and real excitement...

Warm regards -Richard-

[jswallac]

Richard

Thanks for your take on things.  A great read as always.  I certainly would love to hear a well implented single driver speaker such as the Omegas or the Cain and Cain speakers.  Unfortunately they do not seem to be sold through many brick and mortar shops.  I have trouble ordering something like this on faith since I have not yet converted to that religion.  I am not a complete atheist, perhaps more of an agnostic. It is just hard for me to believe that a single driver can produce both highs and lows with any degree of quality.  Perhaps I am use to Bose designs of single driver paper cones.  

I may be worth saving, however.  I have sold all my tube amps and currently have only a JVC ES1SL and a Sonic Impact.  Never thought that would happen.

[Brad]

Most of the web-only manufacturers provide at least a 30 day trial period for their speakers.  If it doesn't work out for you, you are just out the cost of shipping.

[mcgsxr]

There are a couple of brick and mortar stores for Omega - there is a store in Toronto that stocks them - not sure about the West Coast where you are...

[miklorsmith]

I built some Fostex 206E Bass Reflex boxes and will never look back.

These will run you about $300 to build and you'll keep them even if you decide to "move up" in the paradigm.

It is a Worthy visit and you might just decide to stay.

[Dmason]

jswallac,

"Full range" driver is a total misnomer. Think, wide-range. The idea is to provide a high sensitivity driver that requires no crossovers in the critical bandwidth. Once your ears become used to this way, all multidriver set ups in the 200-8KHz band just sound plain broken. Sometimes it is best to use a supertweeter for more "air" or presence, for real bass reach and to provide fundamentals, bass designs are used. If your ears have a chance to become accustomed to well-implemented wide range speakers and similarly well thought out small calibre T amps, with proper bass fundamentals, I guarantee you will be astounded.

There are a few drivers that come incredibly close to being true full range drivers, but their performance is compromised when called upon to do everything, courtesy of the Laws of Physics. The best example is the Hartley 220MSG, Fs=28Hz Qts=.7 and a useable bandwidth to about 18KHz. I know someone who loves their Hartleys, and nothing has replaced them in the 40 years he has been listening to them. Such is the nature of good wide range drivers.

[-Richard-]

There is another consideration as well.

We are a society that believes that more is better...
underlying every society is a series of myths that
act as architectural supports that amplify our notions
of what is real...

Our farms have been absorbed into the corporate ideal
of vast spaces tilled by massive machinery...and as a result
the food produced this way is much lower in nutrition and just
doesn't taste as good as food produced by small farms...particularly
organic farming...which really nurtures their crops so that they taste
really good and look really good and give you the nutrition you need
to live a healthy life...food as medicine is the future...

We have been "educated" by the audio high end to believe that we must
have measurable frequency extension in our speakers that reproduce
the lowest and highest frequencies that are present in the music...
speakers have grown in size and complexity to reflect what is essentially
an assault on sound reproduction...

I like things that have a scale that nurtures intimacy...

I like it that my life is essentially a small affair that is controllable...
I have everything I need in a modest life lived under the principle
that less is more...and it feels good and fits my temperament nicely...

I do not see that as a limitation in absolute terms...but rather as a
way of life that is contraindicative to the present American ethos of
large everything...

I would like to see a future in which all of us can be satisfied with
a small scale life filled with intimacy and affection...where the large
scale is not valued and not sought after because it sets up an impossible
goal that makes everyone nervous, anxious, and irritable...
I have already lost too many friends who have died running after
the impossible goals set up as "normal" by the current American way
of life...

And I like to listen to music in an atmosphere that promotes deep
absorption, meditation, emotional connectedness and intimacy...

So far my Omega's seem to get me there...and I am learning how to
listen in a new way...DMason is correct in his assertion that the
cohesiveness of a single driver full range speaker gives you something
other speaker designs take away...which I would characterize as a
thoroughly human, fleshy, organic sense that what you are listening to
has the essential attributes of the real...and that translates into a deeply
satisfying musical experience...

Warm regards -Richard-