Horns vs. single drivers

Hi mmaudio,
I started with all Adcom and a year ago got an Ah! Njoe Tjoeb CD player. This has led to a slow, piece by piece upgrade plan. The sonic changes I made in tube rolling the CD player made me a believer in vacuum tubes and particularly NOS tubes.

My next upgrade came as a surprise. I auditioned a Cary and an Eastern Electric preamp and was stunned by the natural sound of the Eastern Electric. I walked out of the shop that day with a new preamp in hand.

Then I replaced all cables and powercords. My jaw hit the floor after listning to the Van den Hul interconnects - incredible synergy. I have Chris VanHaus powercords and Jon Risch design speaker cables. Cables are clearly as important as any component within the system.

Now I'm ready to get a new amp. I'm impressed by Quicksilver's philosophy - simple, minimalist design will tend to bring the listener closer to the emotion being conveyed. I've also considered George Wright's SET amps and the new Eastern Electric amp.

Staying with the minimalist philosophy, I feel that single driver speakers such as Lowther are worth a listen. I have been very happy with the Heresys and have always felt Paul Klipsch was an absolute genius. I had the pleasure of meeting him back in the late 80's. I've read that many musicians like the vintage Klipsch speakers because they duplicte the sound of a live performance. I have to agree, although I'm not a musician.

The hook up of the Quicksilvers to the Heresy's will be a simple swap of amps. My speaker cables are terminated with spades. The binding posts of the Heresy's are small(3/16") and I believe 1/4" is standard on most speakers. Certainly no soldering is necessary unless you want to hard wire the amps to the speakers. I've never soldererd but have a friend who makes a living at it so I may do an internal rewire on the speakers. The Klipsch website has a forum with lots of good info on this.

I highly recomend you to "take the plunge" into tubed gear. You'll never look back!!

Happy listening. Mike.

Mootsdude, at the risk of feeling really dumb, I'm still
not sure about the Quicksilver mini-mono's hooking up to the Heresy's with relative ease. Since I ownly have the two terminals on the back of the Heresy's(+-), and I
have two amps(one for each channel), the Heresy's
are not bi-wireable friendly, or am I missing something.
I must apologize, I'm a newbie when it comes to mono amplifiers when it comes to hooking up which wire to which, ect... But I want to learn. A friend has the mini
monos and modified Monitor Audio Gold floor standers,
custom built Arthur Loesch tube preamp, and the presentation is lovely.

I know that my Heresy's could really swing with tube mono amplification. I'm just not sure about which one's.

Happy Listening,
mmaudio

Mootsdude,
Sorry I had to get off the computer before commenting
on your system. So you did live with solid state amplification for awhile. Generally, how were the Adcoms with the Heresy's?

On another topic, based on a in-store audition,
you chose the Eastern Mini Max preamplifier over a Cary preamp. I'm sure the Cary cost much more, and that has got to give hope to the underfinanced majority
who need to get the most "bang for your buck." Sadly,
I'm deep within that camp, making very careful decisions, when it comes to buying audio gear.

Also, how you started your progression into the world
of tubes (Ah Tjoeb cd player), the ability to experiment
with tube rolling, was of particular interest. I've had my
eye on one of those down the line. Now I need to sell
some photography equipment for either a full tube
intergrated, single amp -pre combo, or mono's and
preamp. I should have about $2500- $3,000 to carefully
play around with. I also am probably looking at used
equipment, which can get a little tricky at this price range. Any suggestions would be graciously welcomed.

Your comment about cable synergy is also very true.
At present, I'm running 25 year old 14 guage(I think),
Monster Cable, Monster Cable 5000 interconnects,
so, you can see my set up is pedestrian, at best.
Of course, this is due to financial constraints, not preferred taste. My speaker run is 15-16 ft, so I need to
make a thrifty, yet, wise, decision when it comes to speaker cable. Any suggestions?

Happy Listening,
mmaudio

mmaudio,
I think you are confusing bi-amping with concern to having to biwire the speakers. With monoblocks you can run single wire from the amps. Each amp is simply a single channel within the two channel system. If you were to bi-amp, you would run two stereo amps to a pair of speakers and it would require biwire.

When I referred to rewiring the Heresys, I'm not planing on making the speakers biwireable. I'm just going to upgrade the existing internal wire with better quality wires.

The Adcom equipment is good bang for the buck. It was certainly a bit harsh when paired with the Heresys.

The Cary preamp that I compared to the Eastern Electric was actually an Audio Electronic Supply (AES) which is made by Cary. It has recieved good reviews in it's pricepoint and is roughly $1500. The Eastern Electric Minimax is $1200. Some of the reviews of the Minimax have put it on par with preamps costing nearly 5 times it's price!!

I feel the front end of the system is very critical. The theory that any faults in the musical signal coming from the source will only be amplified downstream is certainly true. With this in mind, I started upgrading with the source and headed downsream from there. I think this helps greatly with identifying component synergy within the system. An important issue is matchimg impedances between components.

The used market is a great way to maximize the investment. I'm amazed at how often people sell and buy new gear in search of audio nirvana. It's common to see gear that's only a few months old and in mint condition for a fraction of the retail.

The upgrade of cables and interconnects was an eye opening experience. The only way to be sure if a cable is "good" is to hear it in your own system with A/B comparison to other cables. "The Cable Company" has a library of cables and it costs 10% of the value of the cables rented for two weeks. This is applied to the purchase of the cables. They recommend cables based on your specific system. It's a great resource. Some of the DIY cables are a great bargain and relatively simple to make. I'd recomennd Chris VanHaus powercords. Many people also like Signal Cables. There are many, many options to choose from. Just remember, a cable may recieve rave reviews and come from a reputable company, but may not work well within your system.

Once I get the new amps, I plan on taking the plunge back into vinyl. I feel this will be the key to audio nirvana. I'm looking at a Teres turntable, but this will reqiure a significant investment.

I hope this helped. Feel free to continue asking questions. I've learned from many on this forum.

Happy listening, Mike