George, not having ever used the ZEROS, I can't speak to their pros or cons. Having said that, as I mentioned in one of my posts above, I tried a couple of gizmo tweaks in the signal path in various places and was disappointed. So, I suppose based on those experiences, I would be biased (pun) against inserting **any** artifact in the signal path .... unless my back was up against the wall.
For that reason, I would shy away from using ESL speakers with wacko impedance and phase angle curves, even if ZEROS would enable my amp to drive them. At one point, I was wondering whether picking up a pair of QUAD 2805s would be worthwhile. After doing some reading about their impedance curve, I decided against it.
Hey ... there's a lot of amp ball-busting speakers out there. The impedance and phase angle specs of some "fav" dynamic speakers are killers. So I happen to concur with the parts of your last post that counsels caution when matching amps and speakers.
As I also said above, it is only through dumb luck that my ARC Ref 150 seems (??) able to do a good job with my Paradigm S8s. Talk about amp ball-busters. I think the reason the combo works is because (i) I use a self powered sub woofer to pick up some of the low end load, (ii) the S8s are spec'ed at 92 db sensitivity, (iii) the Ref 150 is rated at 150 wpc, and (iv) the Ref 150 can presumably deliver serious current because it has a beefed up capacitive power supply of 1040 joules.
Btw, I currently use my amp's 4 ohm output taps. Output impedance is probably on the order of .5 ohms or so. If correct, the "actual" damping factor is probably 8 or 10'ish in the S8's bass region (60 Hz to 500+ Hz) because the S8's spec'ed impedance is about 4 or 5 ohms in that frequency corridor. That is clearly better than if my amp had an output impedance of 4 ohms, in which case the DF would be about ONE (1) .... not so good.
Finally, I think there is more we agree about than not. Hopefully, we'll all read each other's comments more carefully to avoid talking past each other.
Cheers,
Bruce
For that reason, I would shy away from using ESL speakers with wacko impedance and phase angle curves, even if ZEROS would enable my amp to drive them. At one point, I was wondering whether picking up a pair of QUAD 2805s would be worthwhile. After doing some reading about their impedance curve, I decided against it.
Hey ... there's a lot of amp ball-busting speakers out there. The impedance and phase angle specs of some "fav" dynamic speakers are killers. So I happen to concur with the parts of your last post that counsels caution when matching amps and speakers.
As I also said above, it is only through dumb luck that my ARC Ref 150 seems (??) able to do a good job with my Paradigm S8s. Talk about amp ball-busters. I think the reason the combo works is because (i) I use a self powered sub woofer to pick up some of the low end load, (ii) the S8s are spec'ed at 92 db sensitivity, (iii) the Ref 150 is rated at 150 wpc, and (iv) the Ref 150 can presumably deliver serious current because it has a beefed up capacitive power supply of 1040 joules.
Btw, I currently use my amp's 4 ohm output taps. Output impedance is probably on the order of .5 ohms or so. If correct, the "actual" damping factor is probably 8 or 10'ish in the S8's bass region (60 Hz to 500+ Hz) because the S8's spec'ed impedance is about 4 or 5 ohms in that frequency corridor. That is clearly better than if my amp had an output impedance of 4 ohms, in which case the DF would be about ONE (1) .... not so good.
Finally, I think there is more we agree about than not. Hopefully, we'll all read each other's comments more carefully to avoid talking past each other.
Cheers,
Bruce