Need more info on the Electron Kinetics Eagle-7A


Hi all!
First let me explain that I am currently using a Perreaux 3150B amp in my system to power the woofer columns in my RS 1-B speaker system. I previously had a Perreaux 2150B amp and before that a Bryston 4B. With the help of you all and especially Sean (thanks Sean) I decided to get the Perreaux 3150B. I bought it used. When I hooked it up I got a hum (not audible when music is playing) through the right column. I was also, however, getting a funny noise (sounding like sneakers of a gym floor?)every once in a while and when I powered it up. I brought it in to AnalogiQue for repair but they found nothing wrong. By the way...with my Perreaux 2150B back in place I get dead silence. So I'm thinking the amp most go (maybe).

Someone has an Eagle 7-A amp for sale....I tried looking up reviews but could not. Anyone here have experience with it.

I would also welcome comments on the following amps I am considering:
Bryston 7B
Threshold Statis 500
Krell KRS 250
Rotel 1090

Thanks again all for your help and support!!!
rwd
Hi, I just spoke with a buddy who uses a pair of Krell MDA-300s to drive the woofer towers of his modified RS-1Bs. He uses a Dahlquist active crossover in lieu of the Infinity crossover for a couple of reasons, one that the latter is out of commission and the other that it won't work with the MDA-300s which are quasi-bridged. He said he had tried both the KRS-250 and the Eagle 7A and found the MDA-300s to be better than either. I can't say how the others would do. You want something with generous output current capabilities and ample heat sinks.

Brian
It's been a long time since I owned the RS-1Bs, but I remember the crossover having a servo control function. This may be creating a feedback problem with the Perreaux. Have you tried floating the A/C ground on the Perreaux?

The Eagle 7A is a great bass amp, but who's going to fix it
if it breaks? Nothing beats a Bryston for performance and reliability.

Another amp to check out is the CarverPro digital ZR1600. 300 watt/channels for $1k.

Finally, those tall woofer columns in RS 1-Bs can be improved with some Blackhole 5 applied to the inside long
walls.
Rick: I apologize for not getting back to you after last time we spoke. Too many things going on and not enough brain cells to keep track of them.

Here's the thread that i made mention of: [url=http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?htech&1014011751&read&keyw&zzac=polarity]AC noise, polarity & hum[/url]
If you can verify that everything checks out fine with your AC system and you don't have any ground related problems, it is possible that the "servo control" that Kana mentions could be playing games. I'm not directly familiar with this design, so i have no idea what it does.

As to Kana's comments about the Eagle's breaking and who will fix them, there is someone ( can't remember who ) that used to work at Electron Kinetics that repairs / updates these amps. Besides that, a good tech can repair anything that you hand them. It all boils down to whether or not one wants to pay the money to do so.

The Carver Pro ZR1600 as tested by John Curl via Brian Cheney at VMPS showed the amp to produce less than 200 wpc cleanly. Carver Pro ( nothing to do with Bob Carver other than someone using his name to market their products ) can say anything that they want, but when an amp goes into self-oscillation at or below 66% of rated power, it obviously doesn't meet spec. Then again for that matter and a WHOLE lot more money, the Pass XA 160's are a miserable failure also. Sean
>
John Iverson, designed the Eagle 2 and later the 7A. His work was ahead of its time, as was he. He commented to me that designers did not understand the difference between voltage and current, and how manipulating them differently was the secret; I frankly didn't understand, and may have misplaced the words somewhat, and these are distant memories at best. However, his amps, and their sound are not distant memories to me. They were excellent! I put several Eagle 2's at $595.00 with the Conrad Johnson, Premier 3, a financially imbalanced system, but sonically spectacular.
I remember them sounding, generally, much more like a Bryston, though much more refined by comparison, than any of the others you mention. The Krell, for example, is much too hashy in the higher frequencies to have similarites in anything but the bass.
For its day the 7A was as remarkable as John, ahead of its time, just like him. With the difference in technologies, over the past 20 years, even at its level, I would doubt, but not emperically, that it could compare. Transistors are faster now, and more linear; circuits, and knowledge of proper placement of items on the boards, have evolved so much, unlike tubes. It is odd that a 1930's design may actually sound wonderful, even by today's standard; there have simply been too many advancements in the internals of solid state.
Plus, as someone mentioned, repair potential is not great.

Where is John? I would like to hear if anyone knows. He supposedly disappeared quite mysteriously. Someone told me that he was working on, 'Eyes only', Government weaponry systems, and one day, just vanished. This is all true. Stange, I admit, but true.
If any audiophiles familiar with John have any information I would like to know. He was a remarkable and brilliant man. If he were around today, working in audio, he would shame the lot of them out there.