Help with System Musicality

02-05-15: Jmcgrogan2
I am not familiar with your speakers though, do they have ribbon tweeters? Perhaps this may be causing problems too.

Good guess, John. Yes, they do, and it appears that the crossover point to the ribbons is at a relatively low 1900 Hz.

Communique1, the one suggestion I would offer is that before going to an EL34-based or other tube amp, first try to research whether others are using these particular speakers successfully with tube amps. I couldn't find an impedance curve for the CL2i or any other Volent speakers, but its specs (4 ohm nominal impedance, 88 db efficiency on a per watt (rather than 2.83 volt) basis, 180 watt power handling) are somewhat suggestive of the possibility that it may be designed to perform best with solid state amplification.

Also, I would suspect that its impedance rises significantly in the vicinity of the crossover point (1900 Hz). If so, the interaction of that impedance variation with the relatively high output impedance of a tube amp will result in greater emphasis of frequencies in that vicinity than would result from interaction with the negligibly small output impedance of most solid state amps. Increased emphasis of frequencies around 1900 Hz is likely to be perceived as increased brightness, which is not what you want.

I'm not saying that a tube amp wouldn't be helpful, or would be the wrong thing to do. I'm just suggesting caution.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

As I understand it, ribbon and/or folded ribbon tweeters also tend to be very directional and frequency response can vary widely with location. Worth taking note assuming to be true in this particular case.

Also, I think in line with Al's point, I always find crossover points in the midrange where most music occurs to work against musicality overall, unless very well designed and executed. Even then, it can only usually hurt and not help. Take a look a the musical frequency respone chart on the internet to get an idea of at what frequencies most music occurs.

That in conjunction with a highly directional tweeter could be a double whammy. The remedy for a directional tweeter is to be even more cognizant of room acoustics and listening position than otherwise, and then play with placement, tilt, orientation, etc. accordingly.

Thanks everyone for your input so far. What I miss the most is that 3d image that puts the artist in the room with you as though you're at the performance. By coincidence I got turned on to a group of local audiophiles with much deeper pockets than mine. I had the opportunity to go, listen and pickup a pair of Antique Sound Labs Cadenza DT 845 Mono amps. Upon first listen last night they were no where near as transparent as the Edge G8+ I have...makes me appreciate them even more. BUT, these babies image like crazy. I've yet however to check bias, etc. Unfortunately war made listening a lesser priority so I got rid of my "dream" system at the time, but I'm determined to return to the magic. It is hard to qualify the sound I'm looking for, bu as A former classical pianist a(in my youth) and stints in jazz and R&B bands in the seventies, I always listen for an emotional connection when I listen. I want the music to touch my emotions as well as my mind. Hard to describe, but I've heard this a few times with some systems.