Manley 440 monos to drive low impedance ribbons?


Hi!
I have a pair of Apogee Scintilla speakers, on the
nominal 1 Ohm setting (drops .5) and want to try to drive them with tubes (presently I use a pair of Bryston 7b ST's).
The most powerfull monos I can afford (second hand) would
be a pair of mono Manleys, delivering 270W each and 540W
each (triode and tetrode mode, respectivly).
Anybody tried to attempt anything similar? Results...?
Thanks!

John
jstones
No, Twl I'm not kidding. Yes, I am nuts.
Are you trying to tell me something about the combo?

Yes, Muralman I do have the Scinnies, but waiting for the Manleys to get modified and then get here, in Toronto (I already bought them). Congrats on your new great buy.
As long as Graz is out there, don't worry about a thing...

John
Manley are set from the factory for a 5 ohm optimum load and
can be modified to switch to 3 ohms nominal.
The fact that the power is not important, is disputable.
Not as important as the low z capability, yes but part of
the equation. About the Scinnies: drove them in the latest
12 yrs. with Tandberg 3080 (30 amps. peak receiver!!!) in
the 4Ohms configuration (85 dBs) with B&K 200 monos (95 dBs)
Bryston 7b ST (105 dBs). Progressive quality response too.
The best sounding combo was with Spectral 10D pre + DMC 200, which was failing to stable drive the Scinnies (both in the 1&4! Ohms). I kept an eye nopen for the Wolcott 220M's, Kraft 400s /or 250s and the Manley 440/or 500's.
Nobody seem to have tried the Manley/Scintilla combo, so...
why not? The worst,I'll end byamping (passive or active).

John
Jstones, I just don't think that 1/2 ohm impedances and tubes go together in the same sentence.You are going to need a SS amp, or maybe you could use one of those autoformers from Zeroimpedance to help, but I don't know how good those things work. The output impedance of all the tube amps I know of is too high for a 1/2 ohm impedance load. They are all going to go unstable at that kind of load. I would highly recommend researching this before you go blowing up some very expensive amps.
I see. That's of course were I started from, too.
Then, Mr. Henry Wolcott, kindly enough to address
the problem, assured me that:
he thinks that his 220M's (2x175W) are able to properly drive the Scintillas, because, at 0.5 Ohms, his tubes amps will still deliever 70watts to the speakers. Also, reminded me, that "tube watts", count as 3 to 4 times more that "transistor watts" as a given and scientificaly proven fact.
As I didn't have the chance to get a second hand Wolcott,
I assumed that a 2x275W / 2x540W Manley, won't prove less.
Here I might of course be wrong, that's why I was looking
for any possible confirmed opinion. BTW, Ms. Manley thinks
that it's gonna work. What a great lady, she is!
Do you have any hard facts, or (just like me) assumptions?
Thanks,

John