electrocompaniet aw 100 sound quality?

ears, well mebbe the p.o. was going a bit overboard, but i'm not interested in switching to any other solid-state amps. mebbe if i could afford a mondo set of melos tubed mono-blocs... ;~)

doug s.

I have heard what is likely an earlier version of the amp you bought in at least 3 different systems. It has a warm, rich sound, similar to Rowland or YBA, but the Electro seemed a little looser in the bass. I think I would be careful to match it with a tube preamp (I believe the Melos mentioned above is a hybrid design with a low output impedence). A friend of mine had one and liked it on his Magnapan's. I once heard the Electro in a biamped system with Thresholds on the bass, a Spectral preamp and it was probably the best sound I have ever heard but this was not an average system-the speakers were the WAMM's.

when i 1st got my 1st electro amp - the aw75, it was driving thiel 3.5's full-range, w/no problems in the bass output. the thiels are also notoriously hard to drive, especially in the bass, as they employed an active equalizer to obtain flat response down to 20hz. currently, my aw100, which drives the woofer of my monitor, is cut-off at 60hz, as i have a subwoofer system w/a pair of bridged adcom gfa555's driving the subs, so i can't really make an accurate assessment - at least below 60hz. i *do* know that acoustic upright bass sounds like it's *there*, in the room w/ya! ;~)

re: melos, at least according to them, my pre is *not* a hybrid, but all-toob. yes, it *does* have a wery low output impedence - 15 ohms single-ended, 30 ohms balanced. there's a www that's no longer valid re: contact info, but the info on their most recent product is still up-to-date, for those who may be innerested:

http://www.bitstorm.net/sedrick/mindex.htm

regards, doug

Hey , it came early,got it today and i love it.I have a b&k reference 202 preamp, until i can afford a replacement,but i have to say this amp is better than haflers,b&k,adcom and classe that i have had in the past.It has no problems driving the 4ohm load on my diy speakers which are like proac 2.5's, but with revelator tweeters and hovland/alphacore xovers.I have tighter,faster and deeper bass,lightyears better midrange resolution and top end detail than with the previous b&k,but i expected all of this,what i did not expect is the difference in sound quality between ic's,either this amp is real sensitive to what ic's it likes or some of the "giant killer budget ic's" i tried are not as good as i thought,and to make matters worse i just had someone win my best ic's electraglide sigs,but while i am waiting for the winners money these sure sound smooth and fast.Sedond got any tips for ic's? I also have a new coincident pc on the aw100,and according to all the owners and the maker of this brand,all there stuff including cords takes 3-500 hours to break in.I will try the stock cord in the morning and see if there is any difference.With music sounding this good,i can hardly wait till i get the right cable match and preamp,allthough the b&k is no slouch for the time being.Sedond,ever run yours mono or with balanced xlr's,does it make a big difference?

ears, the electro amps should have no problems w/wirtually *any* speaker loads, as the mfr claims they're stable down to 0.5 ohms.

re: i/c's, i haven't experimented w/any of the spendy stuff, i'm happy w/the tara labs quantum iv, which i use between pre-n-crossover, & from crossover-to-amps. these seem to me to be wery neutral, which is what i like. at some point, i may try something like alpha-core silver or silver-plated copper - perhaps i may gain even *more* resolution, but i don't wanna lose the neutral tonal balance...

to run xlr's, in a true balanced configuration, i'd have to send my marchand x-over back to have it set-up for xlr's. phil marchand sez the conwersion makes the x-over a true differential balanced unit instead of yust allowing the xlr cabling to be used in a single-ended circuit. but, he also sez that there will be no sonic benefits, even tho my pre is a true balanced design, & so are the latest electro amps. he sez the only reason ewe may get an improvement is if ya have an enwironment that creates too much noise w/single-ended cabling. i have also heard others who feel this way regarding balanced i/c's. i was interested in trying it, as the i/c between my pre & x-over is ~18', but it's wirtually silent - no noise issues in my enwironment.

re: running mono, this is something i *have* wanted to try, unfortunately my aw100 is a bit older, & doesn't allow for bridging, even tho it's supposedly the same in all other respects - this according to heinz preiss, electro's n-american service technician. this is why i had it adwertised for sale - i was trying to locate a used aw75, which *is* bridgeable, to match up w/the aw75 i have. well, unable to find one after looking for over a year, i've found a good deal on two brand-gnu aw60's, which will get tried as bridged mono-blocs (good for 220wpc), *and* they will also be tried in a vertical-biamped configuration. ironically, yust as i thought i had the aw100 sold, & after i sent the funds for the aw60's, i got a response from someone w/an aw75 that wants to trade straight-across for my aw100! he's not interested in bridging, he likes the electro sound & yust wants a bit more yuice. if this pans out, i may ackshully be able to run all four amps as monoblocs - one for each driver of my monitors! ;~) should be fun! :>)

good luck w/yer gnu amp, doug s.