2. amps-preamps
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Driving 1 ohm

Hi,

I'm actually driving my recently refurbished Acoustat 2+2 electrostatic speakers with a Conrad Johnson MF 2500A. My Acoustats have been completely modernized with new more rigid frame, new electronics in the interface, Medallion transformers and other tweaks.They really get down low with a lot more dynamics than before.

A lot of electrostatics owners will often chose pure Class A amplifiers to drive the load these speakers command. The 2500A plays beautifully and doesn't get very hot at the task.

My question is : am I slowly damaging the amp without noticing it ?
andr
unsound
7,327 posts
 
The c-j ss amps are lovely, but not the right tool for the job at hand.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,753 posts
 
Rwwear, ESLs do not respond well if the amplifier can double its power as impedance is cut in half. It will result in no bass and too much highs. This is why tube amplifiers are often preferred for ESLs, despite the misguided attempts of several ESL manufacturers of making the speaker's impedance really low in an attempt to make them work better with transistors. The result is often a speaker that neither tubes nor transistors can actually make sound right.

For speakers like this tubes and a set of ZEROs are usually the best solution. See

http://www.zeroimpedance.com
and
http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers/paradigm_paper2.html
for more information.
rwwear
2,866 posts
 
I wasn't recommending anything just defining a high current amp.
The Zero Impedance device looks like an autoformer or a similar device. It doesn't seem like something an OTL amplifier design would promote.
simontju
257 posts
 
Best amp to drive ESL?
Roger Sanders (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/manufacture/0702/index.html) of course suggest to use solid state amplifiers, specifically his own design.

I believe that Andr did not strated the tread asking advise to help him to find different amp then one he uses and enjoys - rather what harm it can endur by driving 1 Ohm load.

...of course when I owned Quad ESL 63 I used only tube amps (heh, heh, heh...)

Regards
Simon
andr OP
109 posts
 
Simontju is right on that one. The 2500A inherited the Acoustats. Long story short : I had Acoustat model 3 for a year and decided to have them rebuilt in 2+2 s. What I got back is something supposedly easier to drive but tremendously upgraded on the full range. And that brought me the concern. The rest of the electronics is probably forever : Simaudio Eclipse, CJ Premier 16,cables. The 2500A is here to stay until I get upgraditis again but for the time beeing, the WAF has been tested enough with the 2+2 s in the living room. I would not dare testing it again with large monoblocks,class A or tube amplifiers, at least for awhile. Class D maybe a solution but did not have the chance to audition some. In my vicinity(Canada), they remain quite scarce.
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