Ron’s New System

[morricab]

The Clarysis are ribbon drivers. Does the rising impedance hold there as well?

No, it should be pretty flat because there is not the inductance you have in a moving coil driver.

 

[Atmasphere]

Example ?

We've made a few that have no troubles with that and I'm sure there are others.

Most tube amps lack the drive real music has

I agree!

 

[hopkins]

You have no idea what I am talking about…but that’s ok…

I realized after that quoting your post may have led to some confusion. I perfectly understand how your ex playing violin in your house could overpower the room...I did not mean to imply that an instrument could be enjoyed in ALL circumstances.

 

[Kingrex]

A successful dealer once told me he sells 95% of things without audition, because people like to buy what they haven’t heard due to the mystique/curiosity about that option.

I am about to pull the trigger on a Porsche Macan S, 2023, site unseen. I have driven some. But not this one.

 

[Kingrex]

Kedar, I continue to be impressed with your recall, reminding us of conditions, and the way things have developed. Thank you for taking notes and reading them later. It grounds the discussion.

Kedars mind freaks me out. Too smart. Maybe he's a first generation AI?

 

[Kingrex]

I think we can assume that most people enjoy live music when they get a chance to experience it, even when in sub-optimal acoustic conditions:

There are obviously always exceptions.

I was walking through a NY subway in the 80. I heard this amazing drumming. I followed it in the tunnels. Turned out to be a guy sitting on a 5 gallon plastic bucket beating it and a second one pinched between his feet. Acoustically it was the perfect environment. The eco of the hard surfaces was like a reverb. And the dude was good. Real good.

 

[Kingrex]

Most tube amps lack the drive real music has

We've made a few that have no troubles with that and I'm sure there are others.


I agree!

Interesting.
I hear SS amps as generally having a more meaty bass. There is a sense of power and control. But I hear "some" tube amps while not seeming to have that force and power, have a faster more harmonically textual sound that is closer to say a real drum or piano.

I have had a few tube amps that were sluggish and lacked drive and power. Remember that Ampsandsound you worked on Ralph. When I compared it to some other tube amps that came to my space, I heard the lack of pretty much everything in it. The Rogue was a little the same, lacking. The CJ Premier with Teflon I owned was a beast. It ripped your face off with power. I have never had another tube amp that seemed to display the raw guts that amp had. I get a lot better textural detail now with the Blade. But I don't get the same sense of umph.

I bet Ron could try a CJ. But it would probably be very similar to the VTL.
Riviera might work too.

 

[morricab]

Interesting. I forgot about this. Heard you say it in the past. I doubt its playing lower than 50 hertz.

And really, I could shove my speakers against the back wall, or sit in a corner to find fake bass. But I'm focused on Good bass. Not more bad bass.

Volume has nothing to do with Brigjtness or artificial colorations from electronics.

I agree that volume has nothing to do with Brightness or colorations…but what does this comment from you have to do with what I posted?

 

[AudioLibertarian]

What is your hypothesis here as to incompatibility?


The long interconnects are a weight on each amplifier. Please recall that the room + system has no brightness issue when using Jadis.

My experience has been that sometimes some brands are just incompatible with each other. I learned it the hard way when in mid 90s bought Audio Research preamp and Krell amp. It was very well known among critical afficianodos within the hi-fi industry that these two brands were a horrible combo, but no one had told me. Also, sometimes Cardas Golden Reference cables (your interconnect cable is a newer version of that series) may have high freq "upshift" with some gear.

By the way, FYI the Mastersound's new Spettro preamp when fitted with real NOS (diamond Telefunkens) tubes is just superb for a relatively "sane" money.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Full DH. But, the speakers only had 5 or 6 hours on them. And he just put them in the room. We could hear the potential. The system has a ways to go. I will go back when ts more mature.
Tough room too. Lots of glass. Thin space, then opens to a large space. Many reflections. The side wall is about 3 feet from the side of the speaker.

Which speakers by DH?

 

[Ron Resnick]

You'll need more like about 3.3uf and 5 Ohms if your speaker is nominally 4 Ohms to put you in the right range, assuming the use of the 4 Ohm tap.

How are you arriving at those values?

 

[AudioLibertarian]

I did just that with my ex, recording her playing Paganini Caprices standing between my speakers. The violin was a Stradivarius and it did indeed overpower the room….to the point my ears were pulsating and it was hard to not saturate the tape (R2R).

WOW, a real Strad in you living room? That is some treat! Too bad she is your ex now

 

[Ron Resnick]

Kedars mind freaks me out. Too smart. Maybe he's a first generation AI?

The level of myopia and frequency of repetition suggests a bot.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

The Mastersound PF100 Litz amplifier does not use any feedback.

The Aries Cerat Incito S preamplifier does not use any feedback.

Each of the ribbon drivers in the Clarisys speakers has a pretty flat impedance.

Have you received the Aries Cerat preamp?

 

[Ron Resnick]

Have you received the Aries Cerat preamp?

no

 

[Ron Resnick]

the mismatch between amp and speakers being the far simpler explanation.

To fix it you either need a ZOBEL network as I described or an amp with a much lower output impedance.

What are you calculating as the likely rise in dB at around 5kHz due to the "mismatch."

 

[Holmz]

I like to use SET in a bi-amped set-up, with SET limited to handling around 200Hz and above.
…

ow are you doing that?
Some filter between the preamp and the amp?

 

[AudioLibertarian]

andromedaaudio said:


Most tube amps lack the drive real music has

We've made a few that have no troubles with that and I'm sure there are others.


I agree!

Funny you should say that that tube based amps lack "real music" driving power. The most musically realistic ( and I mean comparable to the live un-amplified music, i.e the absolute sound) systems that I ve heard ( and I ve heard ALOT) were using Tube Research Labs 800 and 400 model amplifiers, and those used MANY dozens tubes. Winston Ma's legendary system to this day is considered by some the best ever .... The only amps that I would consider close to the reference Tube research Labs amps are the Futterman designs (within their limitations) and the Mastersound PFF-100. Imho of course as I have not heard every other contender for extended periods.

 

[morricab]

WOW, a real Strad in you living room? That is some treat! Too bad she is your ex now

Yeah, she used it for a four concert series where she was playing all 24 Paganini Caprices in one go… I recorded some of her prep as she got close to being ready. We also had some other very valuable violins in the house during that period…all sounding radically different from each other. The Strad, though, was by far the loudest for a given amount of effort. A combination of geometry, structure and materials I guess that resulted in a superior sound amplifier.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Yeah, she used it for a four concert series where she was playing all 24 Paganini Caprices in one go… I recorded some of her prep as she got close to being ready. We also had some other very valuable violins in the house during that period…all sounding radically different from each other. The Strad, though, was by far the loudest for a given amount of effort. A combination of geometry, structure and materials I guess that resulted in a superior sound amplifier.

That Strads sound is some real sound reference point I d say!