[LeroyC33]

Hello everyone.  I just bought a pair of Emerald Physics CS2 speakers, I know that these speakers need to be bi-amped, and I am now looking for the amps with which to drive them.  I spoke to Clayton, (the designer of these speakers), on the phone, and he said that for the lower frequencies, that the CS2s need at least 100 watts to be driven effectively on the low end, and so then he recommended that I use a solid-state amp in order to drive the low frequency woofers, and so I will look for a good solid-state amp to drive the woofers of the CS2s on the lower frequencies.  I also asked him about what type of amp I should use for the higher frequencies, but he would not give me a recommendation as to whether or not I should use tube amps or solid-state amps on the high frequency tweeters, saying that he had customers who were doing both and were happy with them.  And so, I am asking my questions to and referring my questions to you guys who already own these speakers and who have had experience with them: can you tell me which would sound better driving the high frequency tweeters of the CS2s--tube amps or solid-state amps?  Has anyone actually tried driving the tweeters of these speakers with a tube amp, and did it sound good and was the sound to your liking?  And also, has anyone actually tried driving these speakers with SET tube amps, and did you think the speakers sounded good driving them with those amps, and was the sound to your liking?  I was also looking at a specific tube amp to pair with the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers, and that is the Art Audio Carissa Signature 845 SET tube amp.  I was told by Clayton that the power output of this SET amp would be enough to drive the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers due to the use of the 845 tube, but he had never heard of the amp before, and so he could not say whether or not he thought that this amp would be a good match with the CS2 tweeters or not.  Has anyone had any experience pairing this particular 845 SET amp with the CS2 tweeters?  Has anyone had any experience trying to pair another 845 SET tube amp with the high frequency tweeters of the CS2s?  And if you did, did it sound good, did you like the sound, and did it sound musical?  Everyone’s input is appreciated, and all are welcome to reply, but I would especially like to hear from CS2 owners and those whom have either tried to use tube amplification in order to drive the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers and who have had experience with using tube amps with these speakers, or those who have heard the speakers before being driven separately by both solid-state amps and tube amps.

Thanks in advance to everyone who replies.   

[zybar]

LeroyC33,

I am using my CS2's with all tube amplification and I think it sounds wonderful!!

I use a pair of Bella Extreme 100 mono block amps in Pentode mode (roughly 100 watts each) to drive the woofers and a McAlister PP-150 stereo amp to drive the tweeter.

While I don't disagree with Clayton's recommendation of using a solid state amp on the woofers, you can absolutely use tubes on the woofers if you take the time to select amps that will work with the CS2's.  You need to make sure that the amps can drive a four ohm load, have a good dampening factor, have some punch to them, and are mechanically quiet.  Don't be fooled by the very high efficiency of the CS2's and think that lower powered tube amps will work on the woofers.

As for the tweeters...there is a lot more flexibility there due to them being an 8 ohm load and not needing much power to drive and control them.  I would think that the Art Audio amps could work quite well.  Just make sure that whatever tube amp(s) you select that it is quiet.  Any transformer hum, tube rush, or ground loops will be very loud on the CS2's.

Hope this helps.

George

[TomS]

Leroy,

Congrats on the CS2's!

I am using the Odyssey Mono's on the LF and Bella Extreme 3205 on the HF with great results.  You just have to watch the level matching.  There is a lot of discussion on various amps used with CS2's on this thread:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=49946.0

I don't know of anyone specifically trying 845/SET combos yet, but with so many CS2's entering the market lately, there is bound to be someone who's tried it soon.  Hopefully they'll pipe up.  Zybar has it right though - just make sure the HF amp is dead quiet because with the high efficiency a high noise floor on that amp will be very distracting.

Tom

[cloudbaseracer]

Hello everyone.  I just bought a pair of Emerald Physics CS2 speakers, I know that these speakers need to be bi-amped, and I am now looking for the amps with which to drive them.  I spoke to Clayton, (the designer of these speakers), on the phone, and he said that for the lower frequencies, that the CS2s need at least 100 watts to be driven effectively on the low end, and so then he recommended that I use a solid-state amp in order to drive the low frequency woofers, and so I will look for a good solid-state amp to drive the woofers of the CS2s on the lower frequencies.  I also asked him about what type of amp I should use for the higher frequencies, but he would not give me a recommendation as to whether or not I should use tube amps or solid-state amps on the high frequency tweeters, saying that he had customers who were doing both and were happy with them.  And so, I am asking my questions to and referring my questions to you guys who already own these speakers and who have had experience with them: can you tell me which would sound better driving the high frequency tweeters of the CS2s--tube amps or solid-state amps?  Has anyone actually tried driving the tweeters of these speakers with a tube amp, and did it sound good and was the sound to your liking?  And also, has anyone actually tried driving these speakers with SET tube amps, and did you think the speakers sounded good driving them with those amps, and was the sound to your liking?  I was also looking at a specific tube amp to pair with the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers, and that is the Art Audio Carissa Signature 845 SET tube amp.  I was told by Clayton that the power output of this SET amp would be enough to drive the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers due to the use of the 845 tube, but he had never heard of the amp before, and so he could not say whether or not he thought that this amp would be a good match with the CS2 tweeters or not.  Has anyone had any experience pairing this particular 845 SET amp with the CS2 tweeters?  Has anyone had any experience trying to pair another 845 SET tube amp with the high frequency tweeters of the CS2s?  And if you did, did it sound good, did you like the sound, and did it sound musical?  Everyone’s input is appreciated, and all are welcome to reply, but I would especially like to hear from CS2 owners and those whom have either tried to use tube amplification in order to drive the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers and who have had experience with using tube amps with these speakers, or those who have heard the speakers before being driven separately by both solid-state amps and tube amps.

Thanks in advance to everyone who replies.   

Leroy,

I know you had a budget of 10k for speakers from another thread you started (most realistic speaker technology).  Can you tell me what made you choose the CS2 system?  What else did you audition (names and price please)?  Were there any that were close to or possible even better than the CS2?

Just curious of your findings,

James

[LeroyC33]

Hello James,

Sorry for the late reply.  I'd love to help you out with deciding which speakers were better, but unfortunately, I'm afraid that I probably won't be of much help to you.  You see, I made my decision to purchase the CS2s without actually hearinging what they sounded like beforehand.  I chose to buy them based mainly on the reviews and the impressions that I read about them here on AudioCircle, on AudioAsylum, and Audiogon.  I never heard them before I decided to buy them, and I did not manage to hear what any other speakers sounded like either before I chose to buy the CS2s to see whether or not I liked the sound of any other speakers over the CS2s.  The reason why I did not do this is because the most important consideration for me when buying the speakers was time, because I have precious little time left, you see I am entering into the medical profession, and the schooling is getting harder and harder and more and more intense, and so I knew that I would not be able to have much time in order to go around to different audiophile stores and to other people's houses and to audition and hear many different pairs of speakers because I am in the middle of my school semester.  But I still wanted to buy a good pair of speakers that would last me for a long while, but as my courses get harder and harder, I realize that I have to bear down more on my courses and concentrate on that and that alone, and unfortunately, that means that I have to pay less and less attention to audio things, and so in looking for a pair of speakers, I knew that I wanted to buy a pair of speakers that would last me for at least a good five years, or maybe longer. 

But the real thing that drew me to the CS2s was the description that people gave about the speakers' sound after they heard them.  Many people, on many of the audiophile boards on the Internet, said that when they heard the speakers, that the speakers sounded like they were hearing a performance "live".  That's it.  That's exactly what I was looking for, that's the very reason why I started the thread, "what is the most realistic speaker technology", and tried to find out which speaker sounds the most realistic.  I wanted a pir of speakers that would sound like they were recreating the live experience.  Of course, you can imagine that I got plenty of different answers to my threads, with one of the most common answers being that I would have to audition different speakers in real life, and to hear them for myself, because everyone has a different idea of what "realistic" means, and I thought that that was very wise.  But of course, that was the exact opposite of what I actually could do since school is beginning to take up more and more of my time, and my medical courses are becoming harder and harder, and I did not have enough time to go around and to actually hear what different speakers sounded like in person.  So the only thing that I had to go on was what other people said, and so I had to think long and hard about my decision.  I was actually seriously considering buying either a pair of Coincident speakers or Merlin speakers, new or used, those are the two choices that I had narrowed it down to.  I would have had to wait a few more months to save up more money in order to buy these speakers new, as that was outside of my self-imposed budget, but I was willing to do it, if other people said that the speakers sounded good.  But then I thought about it, and I realized that that would have left me paying attention to audiophile concerns for at least a few more months, as even if I could afford the speakers, I would have to save enough money for associated amps and other components, and be thrifty and scrimp for the other components for a long time more, and that it would have been at least one more year before I could put together a complete system, and that that would have left me paying attention to audiophile concerns well into the harder, more involved, part of my schooling, like while learning clinicals in a hospital, something which I could not afford.  And so based on what everybody said, I decided to buy the CS2s instead.  That way, I would have enough money to buy a complete system, and I would be able to build a system almost immediately, and I would not have to pay attention to audio concerns for several more years out of necessity.

And so then, because of everyone's enthusiastic response to the CS2s, and the very low, (comparatively) price of the CS2s, I decided on the CS2s.  I have yet to receive my speakers yet, although they are on order, and so I have yet to hear them, but I realized somewhere along the line that even if I had made a mistake, that at least I will have made a $3000 mistake, instead of a $12000 one, (the approximate price of one of the higher-end pair of speakers from the Coincident or Merlin line if I could not get them used including delivery), and that I could live with, while a $12000 mistake, would be much harder to live with.  I know that the Emerald Physics speakers are not the "best" pair of speakers out there, if there is really such a thing, but, even with my limited audiophile experience, I know that you would have to spend much more than $10000 in order to get such a thing, although I know perhaps many would disagree with me.  Now, I have never heard a pair of Coincidents or Merlins in person, though I know that they are good speakers from what numerous audiophiles and the audiophile press has said about them, but how they sound compared with the CS2s, well, is anyone's guess I suppose.

Well, I hope that this has helped you in some way, and I am sorry that I could not answer your questions fully and help you further.  I hope that you find someone who can answer these questions for you.  Once I receive my CS2 speakers, which Clayton said should be about in 2 or more weeks, if you have any other questions about them, just ask me, and I'll be happy to help you out with answering them after I set up my system.  In the meantime, I wish you good luck in your search for answers to your questions, and if you are in the market for a pair of speakers like I was, then I hope that you arrive aat a decision that sounds good and that makes you happy.

Leroy

   

[richidoo]

FWIW, I heard the Art Audio 845 amps at RMAF at the Daedaleus exhibit. It was a highlight of the show for me. Man those amps are just pure sex. Whether they would mate well with waveguide compression tweeter I don't know. The CS2 tweeter is very revealing, so you will get all your money's worth no matter which amp you use on the top octaves. At least on the more traditional Daedaleus speakers those amps were simply heavenly.
Good luck with your new toys!
Rich

[mca]

Leroy,

Have your speakers arrived yet? What do you think of them? What amps did you decide on?

[LeroyC33]

Hi mca,

Hi, thanks for asking, sorry for my late reply.  Believe it or not, my speakers have been sitting in my house for several months now, but I have yet to open up the boxes and to set them up, because I have not had enough time yet because of school, and because I had to gather together all of the other components of my system and doing that took a long time.  Now that school is out however, I do have some more time, and I will be setting up my speakers within the next 3 weeks.  I will give you an impression of them after I have finished setting them up, and letting everything break in after a while. 

In answer to your question, the amps that I purchased for this pair of speakers are Don Allen custom-made 300B monos for the tweeters, and NuForce Reference 9s for the woofers.  I have not set up my system in my room yet, so I really don't know how the speakers and the system sounds yet.  But once I do, I will post again, and let you know how the speakers sound.

Good luck to you in looking for more impressions about these speakers.  I will post again as soon as I can.

Leroy