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An Audiophile's journey

Well, How do I begin? First of all you english teachers out there just don't read this and we'll both be the better off for it. English grammer and spelling is something that I'm not well educated in. I will tell you that I'm a business owner and at 45 years old I don't hit a lick anymore so, all you proper spelling and grammer people just eat your heart out! Now let's get to what I have to say. I've been an audiophile since I was a kid in the 70s. My parents used to punish me by sending me to my room. It was grounding me for being bad. I was bad a lot! My Realistic receiver, BSR turntable, Technics cassette deck was my best friend. Oh, I forgot to mention my Advent loudspeakers. Anyway, I went all these years with solid state gear. When I finally got old enough to not be punished anymore(at least by my parents anyway) I got some Martin Logan SL3 speakers and a Krell amp. I just thought I had arrived! Bring it on everybody! Several years went by. I ventured into trying a tube amp on my SL3s. WOW! What revelation! It was a Rogue M120 Monos. I remember thinking why can such an outdated technolgy be so right in my rig. Then as time went by I got involved in this new website called Audiogon. Audiogon made it possible to buy and sell stuff at a minimal loss if you didn't like it. WOW! What an Idea. Poor dealers! This was late 90s early 2000. Those were the good old days. There were just a few of us excanging ideas and information. It was like an audiophile AA! I bought and have tried so many pieces of gear that I've forgotten more than others know! Then the SET revoltution came. Man, I fell hard. I've since went back and forth several times from SETs to solid state or push/pull tube amps always trying to find that nirvanna or fountain of youth of audio. Fastfoward through the great Bill Clinton years, I tried my hand at being an in home dealer and found that dealing with audiophiles was worse than babysitting children. So, that didn't last long. I still have some connections but, recently I've been blown away! A couple years ago I had a friend that got some popular UCD digtital amps to try and I thought they had great potential. But, still weren't my SET horn combo. Now this SET horn combo was a biamped system with a digital amp on the bottom (600Hz and below) and a SET amp on the top. It was, what I thought, the magical audio reproduction machine. Then a friend got a Spectron Audio Musician III SE MK II amp for his Aerials. He was blown away. He kept after me to hear his rig. Well, to make a long story longer I gave in and listened. I'm as fimiliar with his rig as I am my own. We decided to hear it in my rig. I didn't habe speakers suitable for this monster of an amp. So, I got some Dali Helcon 400 MkII for audition and we went at it. Well, to say that history was made is an understatment. I've since been selling all tube gear and living in audio heaven. I can't beleive that there is not the first tube in my rig now. My take on this is that solid state manufacturers were resting on there laurels during the late 80s and 90s. That why a 300B SET amp came along and all the people were freaked out by the great sound an 8 watt amp could produce. That great midrange! It's what brought audio out of the dark ages. Solid state has gotten on the ball since then. Digital has come a long way and is now sitting in the catbird seat. Sorry for the ramblings this Monday afternoon but, just had somethings on my chest.
philefreak
rwwear
2,873 posts
 
Shadorne, as much as I respect your opinion I have to disagree with you. An active speaker may work well with the proprietary internal amp but is even more dependent on the specific amp designed for it. Which is one reason such designs are unpopular.

As far as an amplifier not being speaker dependent, I have to disagree again. If an amplifier has enough current to drive the lowest impedence loads and supply increasing power into the same loads(usually lower frequencies)as well as having enough power to drive higher impedences then it will not be speaker dependent. In the same case the speaker will show it's true self whether you like what you hear or not is a matter of taste.

Complicated crossovers can also represent a difficult and power consuming load. Here again I find a high current/powered amp essential. Which is also the reason I used a Krell amp when I helped design speakers for an OTL amp company.
dpac996's avatar
dpac996
714 posts
 
Atmasphere:
Do you have a notion of the PSD for a given musical genre?

Most of the power in the musical waveform is actually contained toward the lower frequencies. Since power in the signal diminishes anyway with increasing frequencies the transistor amp paradigm you presented also becomes less important.

There is no perfect solution.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
However you can make a speaker pretty much independent of amplification by making it "active".

You mean like ATCs and PMCs?
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Rwwear, In addition to impedence there is the matter of Phase Angle. Some amps are simply not tolerant of huge phase angles and will heat up or otherwise show there displeasure. You made note of this issue but I think it really deserves near top-billing as a reason.

Some speakers are notorious for being bad on amps, and part of it may be not only the low dip (Apogee Scintilla?) but huge phase angles, which may be brought on by massively complex crossovers.

As for active speakers, I think one of the major drawbacks is simple economics. It is less expensive to make a speaker out of available drivers and electronic components without having to buy / vett an amp and than provide aftermarket support.

I don't think speaker designers give a HRA about amplifier designers. If they did, we would not have need of some amps now deemed 'necessary'.
I am as guilty as anyone, running 85db, 4ohm speakers, and panels at that, which are power hungry, but at least a reasonable load.

That being said, I still fondly remember my first exposure to the than new Braun Tri-amps....LV 1020?
oem
91 posts
 
Rwwear>>> your big Krell can indeed drive any speaker,but isn't it quality of sound that we all seek.
IMHO The Big Krell is not a good match for every speaker.
I recall an instance when a Hafler 500 was driving Quad 63's.The Hafler was able to drive any known speaker at the time.It drove the Quads so well that they blew up.
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