Assemble: ahh, If you know how to solder, not hard at all. The xover is laid out on a board very organized. The diagram shows you the exact points to solder the 2 positive flat wires of the 2 W17 Midbass, the 2 negative wires, the 1 positive wire of the tweeter, the negative wire. Then shows you the points of contact for the tweeter output, points for the woofer output, has dual posts/cups. I had Richard Grey of New Orleans solder mine, he's fast. Took him 30 minutes to solder the wires in both cabinets. I screwed in the drivers. Lets see, the borad that holds the xover on, at the bottom is something we couldn't figure out exactly how it is attached, we just screwed it in with as best we could. Works fine, thats all that matters.
Compared to others I've owned:, well I've only owned the old 2 way Philips, awesome tweeter, and the new B&W's 2 ways. No comparison there. Also have heard at least 50+ speaker systems in the past 20 years. Nothing I heard compares to these. I don't want to go on about these speakers, it'll begin to sound...bias...IOW =hyped. I'll leave that for other posters....
OK, why Class A amp: ... Not an easy question for me to answer, but I'll try, if you'll try to understand my viewpoint. when I first put them up with the Jadis (Jadis' tone on flat, the tone control on the Jadis is like a vol control, but actually only responds as off or on, at full throttle, does it actually kick in 100%, though you can make a tiny adjustment for les, but NOT MUCH)...so the tone was off, I thought the Thors lacked in all areas, bass, mids, treble. So disappointly took the Thors upstairs to the Rotel, 981, "100 class B" watts. First heard it with the NAD cdp, nothing going. Unhooked the NAD, placed in the Cayin tube, a good change. So it clicked that these speakers do RESPOND TO QUALITY. With me so far? ...depressed, but alittle hopeful I took the Thors back to the Jadis+ Cayin. Put in some test cds..stated playing with the Jadis tone controls...BINGO, Dynamics, clarity, GALORE. I'd say the very first time my ears heard a real Class A sound. So Class A/B Jadis did deliver the fq's needed to blossom these drivers. The tubes in the Cayin are Bugle Boys, bought it used here on the Agon 2 months ago. When you loomat the craftmanship/tech aspects of the Seas' drivers + the beauty of the xover with PREMIUM parts (3 big Hovland Music caps for the tweeter), you'll know why these speakers do best with class A. Now as to which amps you consider class A, that's you're call. I already have my eye on another amp, maybe monos+pre. And its NOT Jadis. These speakers are only limited by the amp/cdp you use. If you go over to Madsisound, I've been posting quite abit about the Thor's there recently. I post under paul best. Also seems there is not only Tyler Acoustics that use the Seas drivers, but also a Phil Bamberg also uses the MTM W18+Millenium+W18. As to his xover, not sure how its done. The Thor by Jpseph D'Appolito I can say is "one hell of a design".
If you have questions, you can email me. Paul
