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"Polyamping" A Look to the Future or Fancy Fad?

In a recent quest for information regarding DIY speaker designs, I was referred to the Linkwitz Orion Project. These speakers employ active crossovers and it is suggested to give each driver its own, separate amplification (actually one for each woofer and one for the tweet/mid - three per speaker). Linkwitz recommends the ATI AT6012, a twelve channel, six zone amp (60W/ch). I am not sure about the merits of the ATI amp but, regardless of amp, does anyone think this will be a "growing" design. I mean I have heard the benefits of biamping and have heard tell of triamping but, in this case, "sextamping"? Octamping would seem to be next. All accounts say that the Orions sound fabulous. Perhaps I am just behind the curve. What so you learned folks think of this direction in audio?
4yanx
russbutton's avatar
russbutton
429 posts
 
Linkwitz doesn't require that you run the ATI amp to drive
his Orion loudspeaker system. What he requires is that you
use 8 identical channels of amplification. His bass
drivers are mounted on an open baffle, so they can't handle
a lot of power. 60 watts per driver is about it. And you
certainly don't need to use more than that for a tweeter!

I'm planning to build a pair of the Orions and have cheaped
out by picking up 4 Hafler P1000, pro-style amps. They're
50 wpc and are 1U high rackmount pancakes. I've gone to an
all rackmounted system and these things mount in there with
plenty of room. I picked 'em up on EBay for an average of
about $140 each, so for a bit less than $600 got the
amplification I need.

Russ
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
4yanx...Of course the idea of an amp for every driver has been around as long as I remember, and I go back to the early 50s. However, your invention of the term "polyamplification" is a great leap forward!
kpinneo
10 posts
 
Hi all, glad to read all your inputs, especially as it relates to my current project.
I'm building the Orions, but am making what I consider to be significant improvements to Linkwitz' design. I do highly regard his designs and expertise, yet in researching the Orions for this project, it became clear to me that some improvement could be made in the area of baffle resonance, for example, and so I am taking great pains to isolate the Seas midrange and also dampen overall resonance.
My system will be:
Sony SCD-1 modded
Supratek Sauvignon linestage
Linkwitz designed active crossover
(2) Bel Canto EVO4 II (each driver driven by 120w)
Linkwitz Labs Orion Speakers
Chimera Labs CCC Litz-wound interconnects and speaker

I can hardly wait to see how this sounds. I won't be done with everything until May or so. I'll post with an update if anyone is interested.
gregm
3,405 posts
 
I am taking great pains to isolate the Seas midrange
From what are you isolating the mid?
Interesting about the baffle resonances. How are you thinking of doing this (bitumen sheets or...)? Cheers
foxtrot
211 posts
 
Hey Sean, when are you going to build your ''System'' here and post some pics of the arrangment you just wrote about ?

Rgds.
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