maxg Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Anyone on here remember my posting about a friends all digital setup using a Primare surround sound amp. I am not a huge fan of digital in any form, but that system was the first I have ever heard play 2 channel well (into a pair of KLF30's - in themselves not my favorite Klipsch). Talking to said friend, and having agreed that his system sounded good he was immediately inspired to change just about everything - typical - why do I ever bother to comment on these things. As ever, he is avoiding analogue and remaining true to his digital love - but this time in 7 channels plus the subwoofer as opposed to mere 5.1. This time he going for separates and the system starts with one of these: This is the SP31.7 processor details of which can be found here Attached to this (currently) is one of these: A 2 channel amplifier - details here And one of these: A 3 channel amplifier - details here Although he may swap that 3 channel amp out for a 5 channel verion: Details here The 2 channel power amp is on loan until he gets to test out a variety of tube amps (powerful ones). Neither of us has any idea how the pre-amp/processor thing will tie in with these tube amps but he is considering: The Tsakiridis amp - details here and rather higher up the price range... details here Of course non of this addresses the issue that he heard the KHorns at the high end show and fell in love with them. Doubtless he will head off in this direction at some time in the future. With all that power and the sensitivity of the speakers he already has, let alone KHorns, I would advise avoiding the area. I will post map references for future reference and suggest an exclusion zone of around 5 miles. Now if all those pics and links worked I will be stunned!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted December 11, 2003 Author Share Posted December 11, 2003 Not a sniff, nary a response, nothing??? Now I know we are all vinyl lovers here but there must be someone out there with an opinion, comment or mere acknowledgement of a post it took me a long time to put together.... Nothing on the Cary V12 for example? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 First, I am impressed with the flawless post, technical-wise. Ole Max, you're on a roll. I read it but didnt really know what to say. To me, that is monster over-kill. And I am not sure the V-12 is the right direction either. Your designer friend's amps are massive. Both of the tube entries were created to address speakers with challenging loads, hard to drive beasts that need this much effort. There is something about a big tube amp that sounds damn pleasing at times but on the long haul, they seem to lack some subtlty and finesse, at least a good many do. I would not envy him at re-tube time, however. IF he is looking for impact, perhaps he is heading down the right road. IF he is looking for Khorns, then he will have a lot of tube boxes to round up for sale... kh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted December 11, 2003 Author Share Posted December 11, 2003 Thanks Kelly, Frankly your sentiments echoed my own to him. These amps are not for Khorns. In fact I went further and suggested he take the whole thing - sell it and get a nice analogue 2 channel KHorn system. This went down like a lead balloon!! There is a funny thing with the KLF30's, which, I am sure has to do with the 4 12 inch woofers being driven and that is that they seem to need bucketfulls of power to play properly. In theory, with 102 dB sensitivity they should represent an easy load - but they do not appear to. I dont know what is going on with the impedance curves for these things but I suspect there is something there that needs watts to overcome it. As for tube rolling - I think he is going to have to choose well in the beginning and stay there and he is definitely a candidate for turning the amps off when not in use. If he can get 5000 hours of play out of them we reckoned that would be good for 4 to 5 years at the rate he plays. In all honesty I think the KHorns are a red-herring here. I cannot see him spending the money (even with huge discounts they are 9,500 euros new - about $11,400) on the speakers any time soon. My conclusion after a long conversation with him was to forget the tube option altogether and go all digital with the Primare amps he is so fond of (and I have been so surprised by). He is heavily enough into home cinema (including the so far not mentioned 3 lens projector thing suspended from the ceiling) to warrant basing the system mainly around that and have 2 channel subordinated to it. It should certainly rank as one of the best Primare installations around - he will have the best of everything in full 7.1 surround sound. Do you think I should tell him that Cary do Solid State surround sound (ssss?) amps as well?? At least he is going (probably) for Klipsch speakers for channels 6 and 7. Looking at this thread now I probably should have posted it in the Home Theatre forum - its just that I never go there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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