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Something wrong with my Wright Sound WPA 3.5 amps or just not enough power????


MICA

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I get these amps today and seems not enough power with my Klipsch Cornwall or something wrong with RCA-2A3 tubes????I called Wright Sound and George told me to change RCA-2A3 with Sovtek-2A3 tubes and will be more power.Could be the brand of the tubes such important for power??? Are different type of 2A3 tubes?? Use to drive my Klipsch Cornwalls/101db at 9 a clock with ASL or Decware ZEN amps which is also 3 wats...Now with WPA 3.5 at 12 a clock volume control,hardly hear some music and normal listening level start to be at 3-4 a clock.What experience did you guys have swapping tubes and if there is any change in power at different 2A3 brand tubes? My preamp is a passive Creek OBH-12.I try and change the amps to 16 ohms and is a slight increase in power. My Klipsch Cornwall are 8 ohms. Any other new sugestions or idea will be fully appreciated. Thanks in advance for help.

thanks

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For me and my Wrights the 6sn7 tube made a difference in bass . I use older 60's Jan Phillips tubes. The wrights are the sweetest amps Ive had for jazz and female vocals but lack the kick sometimes. It also depends on the recording also. I just listened to tony bennet unplugged and the wrights pushing my khorns shook the concrete floor with the standup bass.

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BTW heres what Im using in the wrights,

EH 2a3 Gold meshplates

Jan phillips 1960's 6sn7's

Mullard GZ34's

This combo is really nice to me so far. The rca black's and chrome tops and the red base 6sn7's are all great.

Mazda 5ar4's and sylvanias are nice also. You also mentioned a Decware amp. I'm using a Decware ZTPRE preamp and it helped my amps with everything I was missing so far with my old preamps.

So far the EH Jan combo gets me the best bass extension That's the thing about tubes it's like different amps when you change them. Granted they can cost but not like having many amps..9.gif

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The other tubes are 6sn7 and 5y3 rectifier.

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The 6SN7 is a good driver tube for the 2A3 but it has less gain than say a 6SL7. I have a early version of the Cary AES SE-1 2A3 amp and it is designed with the 6SL7 for the input tube which works pretty good with a creek OBH-10 I have but even this setup benefits from a good pre-amp to drive it instead of the creek. Later versions of the AES SE-1 have a 6sn7s for drivers and first gain stage which increases its sensitivity while benefiting from the 6sn7's better ability to drive the 2A3 also.

A friend of mine uses the Wrights with RCA 2A3s with a Peach Preamp and Khorns with plenty of volume.

Using a passive puts all the pressure on the source to supply the drive required by the amplifier. The Wright is a good design but I would say it is best used with a good quality pre-amp or say a CD player with a strong output section.

mike1.gif

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On 8/22/2005 10:45:55 PM mikebse2a3 wrote:

It could be that the wrights are a lower sensitivity and just need more to drive them than what your creek/source can provide.

mike

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Bingo!

The Wrights are designed as low gain amp, therefore needing a high gain preamp.

A Creek Passive probably won't be sufficient unless the source is able to supply plenty of voltage, which I would doubt.

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On 8/23/2005 12:10:22 AM ben. wrote:

What color are the grills in said Cornwalls, and how many languages do you speak fluently? When all else fails, try eating some cheese.

(he knows what I mean... I have
not
eaten the brown acid...)

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Very helpfull inded!

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I agree on the gain of the Wrights. I passed on the Wrights when investigating SET designs because there was insufficient gain for use with the passive volume controls I prefer. A good preamp will solve the problem.

Leo

I don't know why George said to try the Sovtek. I have used Sovtek, RCA, KenRad 2A3s and 2.5V 300Bs .. all similar gain .. also, all very good.

Leo

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"Use to drive my Klipsch Cornwalls/101db at 9 a clock with ASL or Decware ZEN amps which is also 3 wats...Now with WPA 3.5 at 12 a clock volume control,hardly hear some music and normal listening level start to be at 3-4 a clock."

Don't sweat it. The position of the volume control means nothing WRT power from your amps. The Wrights, as has been mentioned, are just less sensitive then other amps. IOW, they need more input voltage. According to the specs for full power they need 2V of output. Most CD players will put out a max of 2v.

So IOW, if you turn up the volume control all the way about on the loudest portions of the music (when the CD player is putting out full voltage) the Wrights should be basically running at full power output. This should more or less keep you from clipping the Wrights. If you needed more volume still you will need a pre-amp with gain to turn it up further... but in doing so you could be clipping on the peaks.

If the volume in your room is about right with the passive pre-amp turned all the way up try the old 'hot rod' trick and just run the CD players output directly into the Wrights for maximum clarity. Most times trying that trick will result in way to high of SPLs but in this case with the Sensitivity of the Wrights it might work out pretty well.

Shawn

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On 8/23/2005 12:40:43 AM Painful Reality wrote:

The Wrights are designed as low gain amp, therefore needing a high gain preamp.

A Creek Passive probably won't be sufficient unless the source is able to supply plenty of voltage, which I would doubt.
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Interesting that the designer and manufacturer of the amp didn't know that.

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On 8/23/2005 9:14:37 AM Parrot wrote:

Interesting that the designer and manufacturer of the amp didn't know that.

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The answer he received is so stupid that something tells me either he didn't call George Wright and is making this answer up according to an old wife tales he heard somewhere. If he called, he spoke to the janitor. Or Mica didn't understand the answer, or partially or whatever but George wouldn't have said something idiotic like what is reported here. Unless George suddenly turned dumber than a sack of hammers. But I would doubt it as George is a rather good designer.

Changing between brands of 2A3 won't produce more power unless you tweak the operating points. George knows that...

George also knows that his amp has a rather low gain. He knows it so much, it is even specified somewhere on his web site.

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I bought a wright preamp to go with my Canary Audio 300b SET and in talking to him he assumed since I had his preamp that I also had his monoblocks. He seemed annoyed by the fact that I didn't have his amps to go with his pre but still gave me advice on what tubes to put in the preamp. I would bet that he assumed you were using his high gain preamp with his monoblocks. I have his WLA12A preamp and it is great bang for the buck just wish I had held out for the phono pre to go with it....

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the answer is simple, listen to jeff. I needed a high output preamp for my 2A3 amp, without it (like driven directly with my CD player) the amp cannot produce significant volume. get the right preamp for the wright amp and you will have PLENTY of volume with you rig. tony

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On 8/23/2005 10:50:39 AM sunnysal wrote:

the answer is simple, listen to jeff. I needed a high output preamp for my 2A3 amp, without it (like driven directly with my CD player) the amp cannot produce significant volume. get the right preamp for the wright amp and you will have PLENTY of volume with you rig. tony

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I often wonder if those that blast flea power amps just haven't heard them with the proper preamp. Just a thought but it looks like he is on the right track now.

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"The answer he received is so stupid that something tells me either he didn't call George Wright and is making this answer up according to an old wife tales he heard somewhere. If he called, he spoke to the janitor."

I called yesterday and George return my call to Toronto.The phone nr is on his website and you could find out and ask him if someone from Toronto spoke with him about the subject of this topic.....and THANKS TO EVERYONE TRYING TO HELP!!

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On 8/23/2005 11:00:26 AM seti wrote:

I often wonder if those that blast flea power amps just haven't heard them with the proper preamp.

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Not the case with me but your idea might apply to someone else's experiences. Of course no matter what preamp is linked with a flea amp, it's not going to have the soul of a 20W+ amp.

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