I am laughing because those monoblocks with tubes/solid state for biamping is the same concept Bob Carver came up with his current/voltage connections in his Sunfire amps. Granted these Mac amps are much better but Bob was waaaay ahead of the game as he conceptualized this more than 20 years ago and for a LOT less money.
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17 of 23 speakers in my studio and home theater systems are internally powered. My studio system is all Genelec and sounds very accurate. I know the best new concert and studio speakers are internally powered there are great technical reasons to design a speaker and an amp synergistically, this concept is much more important to sound quality than the vibration systems we often buy. How can an audiophile justify a vibration system of any sort with this in mind.
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@kota1 That is funny, Carver was definitely ahead of his time he just had a professional line of PA speakers and mixers that were really bad, I'm sure it wasn't his fault but still his name was on it. My BHK amps are tube front end and MOFSET back end that is actually a better system for an amp to sound better if it's connected to a passive or a hybrid speaker like my 9Hs the mid and high end are amazing the mid is a large beryllium cone, maybe 7 inches, even the expensive speakers aren't doing that, the 9h has fixed the edgy sound of the beryllium tweeter by using the grid in front of it, against my better physics judgement but it works. The Macintosh amps are perfect for bi-amping but what if I bought the Macintosh 900 then also used my BHK monos for tri-amping the Sonus Faber Aida how much latency would you expect, I'm not sure if there are any digital circuits in those amps, and time alignment is of course very important. The Aidas are so beautiful I may not have a choice, I'm falling in love with their looks. |
The Macintosh amps are perfect for bi-amping but what if I bought the Macintosh 900 then also used my BHK monos for tri-amping the Sonus Faber Aida It would NOT be what you say you want...matched. I have no idea how you fit BHK into a matched system, no BHK speakers. Your professional instincts KNOWS what you should do. You are entering play time after years of focused listening. I would stick with what you know works for BIG purchases and then play with tweaks like power and cables. Remember to audition those flagship Meridians in addition to whatever else you audition. |
@kota1 ill try the Meridians but I think Speaker guy is right, even if Macintosh owns Sonus Fabre I don’t think these units are made for each other. One reason is because the Mac 900 is basically 2 amps welded together it weights like 180 pounds it’s a tube amp and transistor amp worked together, what’s smart is tubes for mids and treble for bass, What I’m not really buying is this simply a gimmick could I buy 4 amps separately and do better or did Macintosh build this amp as a more synergistic low / mid treble frequencies, impedance, load, timing issues in mind. And of course the main thing the crossovers are in the speakers, this amp is not made for the speaker if it was the crossovers would be outboard and line level. @thespeakerdude i do have enough room for 6 feet around the speakers, I wanted to ask you what you thought about the depth gimmick, I love the physics and the sound of rear facing speakers and this design seems smart just a bit of mid and high frequency. With the design of the Aida the rear facing drivers don’t have a very big wave maybe 2 feet at most (500hz) not long enough to contaminate the front waves. Hearing the sound bounce off the back wall is key to creating a real sound source, Omni speakers have that quality. |
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