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bracurrie

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Posts posted by bracurrie

    Listening Impressions SE vs Push Pull vs Solid State

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted · Edited by bracurrie

    Please excuse this lengthy attempt at a review of sorts.

    I have been lucky enough to have around an ampsandsound.com SE amp Little Ben and an ampsandsound.com push pull Stereo 15. I do not have the technical experience to go into and fully understand what makes these amps different other than the basic differences. I won't go into the specifics of comparing the tube choices that Justin gave me when he sent the amps.

    My system is a bi-amped active crossover two way consisting of Jubilee clone cabs with Crites drivers on the bottom and Dave Harris's Eliptrac 400 horn with an Faital HF200 on top. The crossover point is 500 Hz with 24db slopes.

    I had been listening for about a week to the system with the Stereo 15 connected to the Jub cabs and the Little Ben connected to the Eliptrac horns. The arrangement was quite pleasing as my system images well and the SE treated vocals, strings and percussion with a delicacy that let the music be the star. Rock guitar and EDM didn't wow me, but was good enough to keep listening. But I kept playing classical and jazz favorites and was enjoying them a great deal.

    Yesterday my tech guy came over and we played amp round robin and began to try different configurations. First we took my Audio by Van Alstine Synergy 240 and put it on the Jub cabs and kept the Little Ben on the HF horns. The AVA is a state of the art solid state amp that dampens the bass drivers better and thus the bass is tighter and cleaner when you turn up the volume. I had anticipated it would end up on the bottoms as I had them there before and was quite pleased. Impressions of the Little Ben on the HF remained the same.

    We then switched out the Little Ben SE for the push pull Stereo 15 on the HF horns. This is where the comparison gets tricky as both are very pleasing. The Stereo 15 seemed to attack transients faster and reveal more detail with percussive sounds, guitar and cymbals. I then played a low definition MP3 that I know irritates my ears and while the Little Ben allowed me to enjoy that track the Stereo 15 revealed the annoyance more. My tech and I agreed that analogue classical and jazz would be quite pleasing with the Little Ben or the Stereo 15.

    The acid test was when we put the Stereo 15 on the Jubs and put the Synergy 240 on the HF horns. The tech listened for 10 seconds and then said it sounds like almost any decent SS amp but that it was lifeless and thin compared to the either the Little Ben or the Stereo 15. We played rock and classical for only the next ten minutes as we both were eager to get the Stereo 15 back on the HF horns to re immerse ourselves in the warmth of tubes.

    Then later Saturday night after attending a Vanderbilt men's basketball game against Arkansas where the good guys lost and then going to see my Predators lose to the Ducks I was looking for a music pick me up.

    I hooked up the Stereo 15 to a pair of KEF 140 monitors that were my #1 speakers before I discovered horns. They are 2 way and very flat but not very efficient. I played a classical piece with a lot of transients and dynamic range where detail and volume are needed to reproduce the piece. The sound was warm, detailed with no irritants. Even my low res MP3 was listenable. I tried the same with my Synergy 240 and while there was nothing wrong, it wasn't as pleasing on the same classical piece and my low res MP3 was again unlistenable. Rock and roll was about the same on both with maybe a slight edge to the Synergy 240 on Led Zep's Celebration Day live concert. But again the Stereo 15 played the Led Zep with great enjoyment as well as EDM and pop.

    All in all I would say the Stereo 15 plays the breadth of styles very well. And its just plain more fun anyway, I do not write reviews for a living and I didn't stay in an Holiday Inn Express so please excuse my attempt to describe what I heard. If there are any questions I would be happy to answer.

    • Like 1

    My New Tube Amp from ampsandsound

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    Thanks man!.. I woke up and put bob marly on the 2nd upstairs rig with the 2way cornscals... your plywood horns! Watching the little one dance to it :-).

    Off to the pound to convince the wife its time for a puppy.

    Now you have gone and done it. A canine companion for a family with small children is a commitment. Only advice (from a person who has over the last 25 years of family life had 8 dogs) CRATE train CRATE train CRATE train.

    My New Tube Amp from ampsandsound

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    Hey Everyone,

    After some consideration about road showing ampsandsound, I am willing to send my Little Ben SE 5watt amp out for anyone who would like to audition. I had been hesitant to allow demo’s as the return policy is generis. That said, if you’d like to demo Little Ben, send me a PM or email through my site. I will need a deposit of $600 (doesn’t cover cost but is fair I hope.) Shipping both ways will be paid for by the recipient.

    As a general rule, anyone who calls and wants to know some of what I’ve learned; I’m happy to share. This includes secret sauce ideas for Cornwalls which was learned from the experts here and my own trial and error.

    My love of tube amps and horns was born of the support of communities like this. If you ever want to know something, ask… I’ll probably tell you how I do it and why and help you to succeed trying to do it too.

    Wow if you are seriously thinking tubes may be for you and like me it was hard to justify the high priced "audiophile" stuff, jump on this. Please don't take advantage of Justin's willingness to do this, but if you are seriously in the market you really have to hear it to believe it. Horns and tubes are naturals.

    AVA SS or Manley tubes for Jubilee clones?

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    Dean said: Too much gain
    Not sure I follow this. I have to rebalance after the switch, then I listen.

    I think Dean is right, and I recall discussing this at length. This sounds like a gain matching issue, and certainly not grounding or the other usual suspects trotted forth when supposedly quiet amps are being accused of being "noisy." Chasing grounding problems when your only dealing with hiss, not buzzes and hum, usually doesn't work.

    The first thing l'd ask is, can you turn down the gain on the amplifiers? Perhaps the manufacturer designed it to have high gain, not a good idea with horns.

    The other possible reason is too much gain in the preamp or processor in the circuitry following the volume control. Short of redesigning the pre, turning down the amplifier gain might be a solution here, too.

    I have tried to prevent gain problems in my equipment over the years, by choosing amps and preamps with low gain. My current preamp has only 11 db or less gain in the line stage, which follows the volume control. This works for me.

    LarryC - Thanks for jumping in here. The root of the problem is I have high sensitivity 16 ohm drivers mounted on great horns. I cannot adjust the gain on the amps without major surgery or tube changes. I did have a grounding issue that I isolated on and fixed and things are much better. My original issue was with my Manley GY50 and its a beast. We did increase feedback and reduced the gain with a tube switch. That plus an attenuator did the trick. My preamp is really a sound card attached to a computer. Its very quiet and I have the gain throttled way back.

    You are very correct about watching gain.

    Jubilee and tubes

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    I just connected my ampsandsound.com stereo 15 to my jub clone cabs and I am very pleased with the results. Of course I am active so I am using a different amp on top.

    Interesting.... I am currently using McIntosh 252 with active dx38 and if would add tubes it would be to the top end.

    Yeah, I am using ampsandsound.com Little Ben Sorry I should have identified it.

    Stereo 15 From Amps And Sound

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    Justin Weber from Amps and sound gave me a discount on a pre production model Stereo 15 he had and I have been enjoying it for the last 5 days now.

    I do not have a preamp so first I hooked my Oppo 103 up to the Stereo 15(ST 15) and used the volume control on the Oppo remote with very good results.

    Next I tried the passive preamp Justin provided with about the same results as the O 103.

    Finally I tried the pre out of my Denon 4800 with the best results.

    It had been 5 years since I had used a tube amp and I have been enjoying the ST 15 since I got it!

    I plan to use the tubes Justin sent with it for 2-3 months and then try some different EL-84s.

    I want to thank Justin for answering my questions and the quick responses to my emails! I want also want to thank him for adding the passive preamp to the deal at no extra cost!

    Here is two links on the Klipsch forum to other people who have bought or used one of Justin’s amps.

    https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/148025-my-new-tube-amp-from-ampsandsound/

    https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/147874-amps-and-sound-se-84/

    Justin Weber from Amps and sound gave me a discount on a pre production model Stereo 15 he had and I have been enjoying it for the last 5 days now.

    I do not have a preamp so first I hooked my Oppo 103 up to the Stereo 15(ST 15) and used the volume control on the Oppo remote with very good results.

    Next I tried the passive preamp Justin provided with about the same results as the O 103.

    Finally I tried the pre out of my Denon 4800 with the best results.

    It had been 5 years since I had used a tube amp and I have been enjoying the ST 15 since I got it!

    I plan to use the tubes Justin sent with it for 2-3 months and then try some different EL-84s.

    I want to thank Justin for answering my questions and the quick responses to my emails! I want also want to thank him for adding the passive preamp to the deal at no extra cost!

    Here is two links on the Klipsch forum to other people who have bought or used one of Justin’s amps.

    https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/148025-my-new-tube-amp-from-ampsandsound/

    https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/147874-amps-and-sound-se-84/

    Been enjoying mine for a few days now. Congrats.

    So, I love my forte's.....

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    Congrats on pulling out the Fortes and enjoying it. I would suggest that good speaker placement is still the most important thing for good sound. Some of that audiofool stuff about placement and room treatments etc. do make sense so you probably know this already.

    I just had my Forte IIs in a very large room probably 30 deep and 100 wide. The imaging was spectacular and there was no shortage of bottom end. Enjoy!

    HD Audio...anybody listening?

    in 2-Channel Home Audio

    Posted

    Dave,

    I really appreciate your experience and research into these matters a great deal. I plan to expand my listening of piano and violin based recordings and after taking your posts into consideration I now have a better understanding of why I like what I like.

    I spend a great deal of time in the summer at Chautauqua listening to live classical and chamber music, maybe as much as 20 hours a week. Most is not amplified in any way, but when it is I tend to not to enjoy it as much. Here Nashville the symphony used to play at TPAC and the acoustics were so bad they had to amplify so the woodwinds could be heard and I hated it. There must be an art to live amplification for classical that I bet doesn't get the attention it should.

    BTW Chautauqua has one hell of an outdoor organ. You should check it out.

    Brad

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