Speakers for Stratos..

sfpepper · « **Reply #20 on:** 2 Jun 2003, 10:58 pm »

I own vmps 626r, RM1 and RM2. I had moved the floorstanders out of the room in anticipation of the arrival of my new Mono EXs, which arrived 2 weeks ago. (My God, these amps are heavy!) Have been burning them in with the 626...and am extremely happy with the sound. cheers...

RHINO · « **Reply #21 on:** 3 Jun 2003, 03:40 am »

I have the Maggie MMGs with my mono blocks. I think they match very well. The MMGs are quite inefficient and can take whatever the mono blocks can dish out. For $550 they can't be beat. Be forewarned, placement is very important.

Tyson · « **Reply #22 on:** 3 Jun 2003, 03:44 am »

I agree, if you have the space for them, the MMG's are very nice indeed for the $$.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #23 on:** 3 Jun 2003, 07:19 am »

Rhino, how do you like the bass you're getting from the MMGs? Do you run a sub with them or do the monoblocs extract enough grunt from the Maggies to get by without?

gotmikey · « **Reply #24 on:** 5 Jun 2003, 10:12 pm »

Ellis 1801F's... outstanding so far even with a crap cd player.

barvindh · « **Reply #25 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 01:20 am »

I use 3a Sigs with my mono blocks and tempest. I have a rather spacious room, double high, but man oh man, do the vandersteens kick some butt? As the Klause himself said, the vandersteens work best when they get a kick in the rear, and the monoblocks give them that kick

jcoat007 · « **Reply #26 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 04:14 am »

I have Vandy 3A sigs also. I have them in an 24x18x9 room with the Xtreme's. Great combo.

mgalusha · « **Reply #27 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 04:20 am »

Indeed the 3A sigs are a very nice match with the Xtreme's. IMO the Vandy's demand a good amp. They seem to love current, which the Xtreme's have plenty of.

Captain Humble · « **Reply #28 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 06:51 am »

Quote

I use 3a Sigs with my mono blocks and tempest. I have a rather spacious room, double high, but man oh man, do the vandersteens kick some butt? As the Klause himself said, the vandersteens work best when they get a kick in the rear, and the monoblocks give them that kick

Quote

I have Vandy 3A sigs also. I have them in an 24x18x9 room with the Xtreme's. Great combo.

Quote

Indeed the 3A sigs are a very nice match with the Xtreme's. IMO the Vandy's demand a good amp. They seem to love current, which the Xtreme's have plenty of.

Guys, I think he has a Stratos. Different animal then Monos or Extremes.

Suggestion - Call Klaus and trust him. I had completed two transactions with him prior to ordering a pair of Loreleis which I hope to receive early next month. The first was for a Dual Mono, great piece of gear and fantastic bang for the buck. The second was when he stepped up to the plate and resolved a problem on a piece of gear THAT WASN'T EVEN HIS after the original manufacture chose to do nothing to address the issue.

A few months ago Klaus was in Dallas on personal business. He swung by my house, listened to my system and made a minor positioning change to my speakers that made a serious difference in performance. Again these weren't even his speakers.

Has he earned my respect for his knowledge and committment to his customers. YES!

Am I on his payroll or do I get any kind of kickback. NO!

You're faced with a tough desicion. None of us can audition every speaker in the market place. Speaker preference is subjective. An audiophile I met in a high end shop in Dallas once told me that when he was younger he preferred and owned a particular speaker but as he got longer in the tooth his hearing changed as it does with most of us. There came a point in time when he had to change speakers. This was not an upgrade but a change. The new speakers weren't better intrinsicly, they were just better for him because of phsyological changes to his hearing.

This thread offers nothing regarding the type or types of music you like, sound you like, room size, etc. Without that type of info it is impossible for anyone to recommend anything.

I submit that the above is at least compelling enough to warrant a conversation with Klaus. He's consultative, honest and will point you in the right direction regarding matches with the Stratos for your taste and environment.

Good Luck,
Jeff

mgalusha · « **Reply #29 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 05:15 pm »

Quote from: Captain Humble

Guys, I think he has a Stratos. Different animal then Monos or Extremes.

Indeed it is but a very similar animal. I have used these speakers with a regular stereo Stratos and the results were very good. If I hadn't I would not have made any comment. The Stratos made them quite happy, albeit not as happy as the Xtreme's. I'm pretty sure jcoat007 was driving his with a stereo Stratos before the Xtreme's as well, so he can speak from experince on this.

No disagreement on Klaus, he's a class act all the way.

Captain Humble · « **Reply #30 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 05:39 pm »

Sorry mgalusha,
The posts I quoted referenced Monos and Extremes so I didn't realize that you guys have experience with the straight Stratos as well.

It was the two references to "kick in the ass" and "love current" that compelled me to point out the references of a match were to more powerful amps.

Glad you cleared it up.

Jeff

mgalusha · « **Reply #31 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 07:58 pm »

Jeff,

No big deal. Actually the "normal" Stratos provides enough current to make the Vandy's come alive. It's lesser amps that they aren't happy with.

Mike

JackD · « **Reply #32 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 09:07 pm »

Jason:

I used the Stratos and then the Monos with the 3A, 3A Sig, Hot Rod Kestrals, Reynaud Offrande, Trentes and Twins, Sound Dynamics RTS-9's and Norh 6.5's. Off all of these I found the Vandies to be the best match. If you are moving to a smaller room (less than about 15'x19') you might want to look into the 2CE sigs instead. Then if bass is not sufficient use a Vandy or even ACI sub. The dealer friend I bought my 3A's from went down to the 2CE sigs and the sub and didnt feel he gave up a thing. He did however build a bigger house later and moved up to the 5's. He ran his Vandie's with Classe amps which I tried and prefered the Odyssey's. The ex didn't like the Vandies look so I ended up with the Reynauds with the two Vandie subs on the bottom. I still may go back to the 3A Sigs at a later date. As for breathing room as long as you follow Richard's grid chart you can make them work well in any reasonably sized room. I have used them as close as 18" from the rear wall and about 24" from the sides.

Jack

JackD · « **Reply #33 on:** 6 Jun 2003, 09:07 pm »

Jason:

I used the Stratos and then the Monos with the 3A, 3A Sig, Hot Rod Kestrals, Reynaud Offrande, Trentes and Twins, Sound Dynamics RTS-9's and Norh 6.5's. Off all of these I found the Vandies to be the best match. If you are moving to a smaller room (less than about 15'x19') you might want to look into the 2CE sigs instead. Then if bass is not sufficient use a Vandy or even ACI sub. The dealer friend I bought my 3A's from went down to the 2CE sigs and the sub and didnt feel he gave up a thing. He did however build a bigger house later and moved up to the 5's. He ran his Vandie's with Classe amps which I tried and prefered the Odyssey's. The ex didn't like the Vandies look so I ended up with the Reynauds with the two Vandie subs on the bottom. I still may go back to the 3A Sigs at a later date. As for breathing room as long as you follow Richard's grid chart you can make them work well in any reasonably sized room. I have used them as close as 18" from the rear wall and about 24" from the sides.

Jack

jasonc · « **Reply #34 on:** 7 Jun 2003, 02:20 am »

Thank you all for your suggestions. This post is almost two months old and you could say it was back during this time I was at a crossroad..knew I wanted to make a significant change in my system but I wasn't sure which way to go or, in other words, what best to drop my hard earned pre-child skrew saving even though my dad's a financial advisor I want a new toy we're all most likely to die in the near future anyways money on.

... to the meat of it- I've since sold the Stratos to try tubes eventually... and haven't looked back.

Yesterday I received my pair of 626Rs (FST tweeter, Auricaps, SC) and I'm very impressed. They are currently on bar stools (bearded Sound Anchor Stands on order) being powered by a 90 watt Arcam receiver. My immediate impression is that they are incredibly detailed and vivid sounding speakers (in another league entirely than the 6.9s). I can only imagine they would sound even better with the Stratos if I still owned it.. however you won't find a frown face anywhere in this response.

I can now build my system around my speakers, which is the way I believe it should be. Because of this it's possible I could end up with the Stratos again in my system but who know's, I've just begun down this new road with no rear-view-mirror, but no fret to Klaus, a well intact aural memory for the time being.

Tyson · « **Reply #35 on:** 7 Jun 2003, 03:13 am »

The Radii tube amp sounds superlative w/the 626R's. I wouldn't go below 60 or 70 watts to them, especially if you're going to be running them full range with no sub. You can also check audiogon, but I am a little bit more cautious about buying tubed gear used, simply because it is more finicky than Solid State.

My AVA FetValve amp and T7 pre sounded quite good hooked up to Jason's 626R's, but I though the Radii stuff was a better match overall, especially since he high passes to stereo subs. . .

Val · « **Reply #36 on:** 8 Jun 2003, 12:00 pm »

My Odyssey monos combine very well with B&W Nautilus 804. The only bad thing is I will be selling the whole system next week

RHINO · « **Reply #37 on:** 11 Jun 2003, 09:22 pm »

Quote from: Rob Babcock

Rhino, how do you like the bass you're getting from the MMGs? Do you run a sub with them or do the monoblocs extract enough grunt from the Maggies to get by without?

Sorry for the long delay to answer your question. I do not have a separate sub. The sound I get is very pleasing to me although I haven't wanted heavy bass since I was a teen. The bass I get is not overwhelming and fits very nicely with the rest of the music. Another reason I like the "controlled" bass is that I live in an apartment complex, and bass is what seems to travel through walls, floors and ceilings. I can crank up the Maggies and not get any complaints. I also use 2.5 inch acoustic foam behind the MMGs which helped the bass a lot as well as the soundstage. Larger Maggies have more bass if that's a consideration. I have a friend with MMGs, but not Odyssey amps, who does use a sub. Beauty is in the ear of the beholder.

adamaley · « **Reply #38 on:** 10 Nov 2009, 04:56 am »

Hello people,

I know this thread has been dead for a couple of years now. But I would like to resurrect it for selfish reasons. I own a Stratos Extreme amp, and am, in the near future, looking to upgrade my speakers. I am hoping that upgrade will be my final one for the forseeable future

I am currently using Quad 22L2s with a Candela in the mix. I am hoping for the Stratos amp to be a mainstay in my system. I must add that i am leaning towards a couple of more sensitive speakers, namely Hyperion's HPS-938 and Silverline's Sonata/Sonatina. The Quads are 89db efficient and love current.
I'm hoping Stratos amp users, be it in whatever iteration, will post the current speakers they are driving with these venerable pieces of audio joy. Especially so for 90db + sensitive speakers. Hopefully this comprehensive accumulation of information will serve many others that come down this road on their journey.

ducky7566 · « **Reply #39 on:** 10 Nov 2009, 07:10 am »

hello to you, "" boy's odyssey ""...

I have my extreme stratos mono for almost 1 year ...

I've bought to replace MC 501 ...

they could not pregnant my driver ... infinity kappa 8 A ...
safekeeping mid volume ...

the stratos them arrive well ... cool ...

but I did not try very high volume ...
I also have a pair of JBL 250 TI ... black limited edtion ... cool as ...

Saturday I'm going to a buddy, try stratos on kappa 9 A ...

challenging test, because more difficult to driver that K 8 A ...
these beautiful United States were called "the killer amp"
we take the opportunity to do a test on JBL 4435 ...

I will tell you the result ...

have a look...

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1030&t=29907528&start=645