Macallan Posted October 16, 2009 Author Share Posted October 16, 2009 why lowest power? I was thinking either the D-100 or D-200. Would lower be better or would the more powerful just be unneccesary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leok Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Higher power is not used and with pulse modulation amps using the same technology, low noise generally occupies about the same dynamic range. So the range of low distortion will extend to lower minimum powers with the lower power amp. The low distortion at lowest power possible is what makes an amp sound natural and clean. High end distortion is generally clipping, and I don't think that is an issue with either the D-100 or D-200. S, I suggest optimizing for low distortion at low power which points to the lower power amp. Leo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWL Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Leo, What would your response be to bi-amping the RF-7's with a high power ss amp on the lows and one of your tube amps on the highs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gartenman Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 never thought about that. Is that as simple as connecting each amp to the respective connectors on the RF-7s? Also how do you switch between the B&K and the VRD? Does a switch or selector box degrade the sound? My friend uses a Sima Speaker Selector box. You can connect up to 6 speakers to it and it has individual volume and on/off controls for each speaker. He connects 6 speakers into it and it sends a 8 ohm signal to the amp(s). You can connect 2 amps to it so he connects his solid state and tube amp to it. When he wants to watch HT he flicks a switch and the solid state amp pulls duty and when he wants to listen to music he flips on the tube amp. I know there are those with discriminating hearing who will say they can hear a difference but I thought it sounded great! It uses bare wire connections but I've always heard that bare wire is the best connection and connection looks easy. I may get one myself as I don't like using my tube amp for HT duty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leok Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 I've never had success with biamping. There are some technical issues that might be part of what didn't work. For frequencies outside the pass regions (highs into the woofers crossover and lows into the horn crossover) the amp sees an open circuit. That might not be real good for some amps. In the crossover region amps see higher than normal impedances which would cause a high output impedance amp (the tube one especially) to accentuate that region. There may be phase of delay differences between the amps further confusing the issue. Also, I doubt a whole lot of effort was made by any speaker designer to optimize this mode of operation because the amp drive is so unpredictable. I think it is mostly a marketing feature. Bi-wiring might be a better use of the ability to separate the high and low sections of the crossover, and may be more of what the crossover designer had in mind. But again, the crossover designer wasn't using your cables which in a biwire config are now part of each crossover. So, since for me it didn't seem to improve anything I gave up on splitting the crossover and just use a pretty hefty set of wires from the amp. Leo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Hi Leo, nice to see you posting (and a good one too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leok Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Hi Dean, Thanks. I've been having a good time listening these days. Leo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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