pauln Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Well, tonight I decided to give the 16 ohm tap a try with the Lascalas on the Wright 3.5 SETs. When I had the Heresys the 16 ohm was a little intense on the high end - harpsichord sounded like ceramic tiles on the walls. I've had the new Lascalas for almost a year now without experimenting with 16 ohms. I tried 4 ohms, but it sounded sort of dark. 8 ohms has been excellent, but let me tell you about the 16 ohm tap. I was interested in trying this after discovering that all the SET folks in Japan use 16 ohm for any and all horn speakers. So, I set the Wrights for 16 ohm and did some listening... I use Sting's Synchronicity album as my test album because I know it well. It has super low bass on some songs and other artifacts of production that make it easy to tell if something is different, I also played my favorite Coltrane album (which A. Songer hates), the original In the Court of the Crimson King, and Steely Dan, Can;t buy a thrill, Fire in the Hole, and Brooklyn (Owes the charmer under me). On the Sting album, the first thing I noticed as kind of strange. When I listen to music, being a lead guitar player, I tend to focus on the solo instrument. I noticed right away that it seemed to me that I was able to hear more simultanious sounds - as I listened to the solo instrument I heard the other instruments without effort. I noticed this on all the albums - rather than focusing on the lead insteument I was haering all the other accompanment instruments without thinking about it. This was a very strong effect. In terms of the playback response, I would have to say that with 16 ohms, it seemed like all the bass boom was gone. I have said in another post that I don't look for "bass", but I listen for the instruments playing bass. The 16 ohm tap seems to do this very well. The midrange seems to be more delicate, more detailed, and the high end reveals some sounds not heard with the 8 ohm tap. The bass with 8 ohm is comparatively more liquid, but the 16 ohm tap plays the bass a little more realistically - I know what real bass souns like. The mids seem a more dry, and the high end is more extended - hearing new things... Another thing is that with 16 ohm the overall level seems to be louder than 8 ohm, but this is contrary to what the measurements should show. Not sure what is going on here... The synchronicity album sounded great. It made me remenber the first time I played though the SETs - made me want to see how the rest of my records sounded. The Coltrane album sounded different. Usually when I hear an album I know well it goes like -- there is the solo horm, now is the drum thing, here comes the piano solo, what a cool thing the horn section just did... with the 16 ohm the focus is more broad - the couterpoint is more fullfilled because I'm hearing all of the stuff going on. Maybe with 16 ohm the frequency response is more even - I don't know, but it seems to me that it is much easier to hear ALL of the stuff going on in the music. The King Crimson sounded authentic and full - the bass in 21st Century Schiz. Man is a Dante's hell, but it sounded great. If someone were to come over for a listen/visit I would play them the Steely Dan Can't buy a Thrill "Fire in the Hole" and "Brooklyn" - this sounded totally fine, full, and authentic. I'm starting to see why the SET folks in Japan go 16 ohm with big horns - enough blather - I need to hear King Crimson - Red. Off to listen... Anyone that has 16 ohm taps - give it a try and let us know what you think... Pauln Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofu Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 nice choice in music. i use the 4 ohm tap on my mc250. i'll try the 16 tomorrow. it's a pain in switching things out when you're not using spades or some kind of termination Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauln Posted January 12, 2006 Author Share Posted January 12, 2006 The guys in Japan have been SET crazy for decades - I have to believe that their preference for 16 ohm means something... Anybody have any info on why this works? Pauln Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofu Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 oh this improvement is SET exclusive? pff [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauln Posted January 12, 2006 Author Share Posted January 12, 2006 heck, I don't know... maybe this is good for push/pll and SS... the point of the post was to see what others thought.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I tried 8 and 4 ohm settings with my Fortes on my PP amp and settled on 4. I left it there when I switched to the Cornwalls. I am perfectly happy with the sound and as it takes a soldering iron to switch the leads on the transformers, I think I will leave things alone. It is good to hear that you think you have an improvement, thats great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Spinner Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 well, for one, you are changing your Damping Factor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiggerIsBetter Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 You are getting more power out of the 16 ohm taps, that may account for some of the changes, but you should also be getting more distortion....but as an SET guy I suspect you are already used to that [] There was a good thread in the last few days that disucss the technical aspect in a lot of detail....summary I got was the 4 ohm taps should sound "best" for the Klipsch heritage speakers. I have Push Pull "monster" tubes amps(AR VT-150 monoblocks), I think I will try the 16 and 4 again....I have been using 8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I tried the 4 ohm tap on my Cayin and liked the 8 ohm better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauln Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 As Max says, "What I say today I will contradict tommorrow" or something like that. Tonight I switched to the 4ohms and now I like that better! Its different, a bit darker, but the dymanics are back and the bass sounds more complete. All the detail is there. Just listened to Miles from the 50's and it was just right. His muted horn was breathy and intimate, and when he let loose it just popped out like the real thing. I think the turntable like 4ohm too. I seem to get more music on the volume control before the noise level comes up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauln Posted August 8, 2006 Author Share Posted August 8, 2006 Well, I've been in an experimental mood lately (comparing 70's SS with the SETs) and thought I would try the 16 ohm tap again on the LS. I just listened to one of my favorite classical violin concertos and really liked it on the 16 ohm tap with the SETs. More distortion? If so, right now I'm thinking, "Bring it on!". I'm going to listen to some other kinds of music.. Does anyone have a grasp of what is going on here technically? Change in damping factor? I have read that the lower taps (4 ohm) tend to allow the amplifier's attributes to dominate the characteristics of the sound, whereas with the higher taps (16 ohm) the speaker's attributes dominate the characteristics of the sound. Maybe if the speaker is really intrinsically good, this is the way to go? Although it might seem a little embarassing that I seem to like most for the moment the tap setting I last chose, I would like to know what is going on behind it. Damping factor, load line angle, frequency balance shift... distortion!? And then there is the 2 ohm tap... I'm a little afraid of that one. Is that a dangerous mismatch? At the power levels I listen a mismatch might not be risky, or is it? I don't want to lose any magic smoke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 The reason the SET crowd in Japan use the 16 ohm tap is because they have 16 ohm speakers. 24 and 32 ohms speakers from Altec, JBL, and RCA were common in the 50s. 05-18-2004, 10:14 AM 379627 in reply to 379613 djk Joined on 09-01-2000 Posts 1,891 Re: Using 4 ohm tap or 8 ohm tap "So are you saying that you can get better sound on the 4 ohm tap with Klipsch speakers and tube amps?"At low volumes a speaker always plays loudest on the 8 and 16 ohm taps. As you turn up the volume and 'thump' it a bit you will find the speaker sounds the best on the tap that closest matches its impedance, and plays the loudest too.Always try the 4 ohm tap. Leave it on whatever sounds the best.Hint: it sounds 'thin' when you turn it up if you have it hooked to too high of a tap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 pauln There is more out there in the impedance matching world. There are a few products that provide an ability to step up or step down the impedance of a speaker as seen by an amp. I currently use an atlas AF140 autoformer on each of my amp outputs to increase the load that the amp see's by a factor of 1.5 I'm using xovers which provie a 6 ohm load on my LaScala's, but they sound better if I increase that load to 9 ohm's. I also have found more detail across the board as well as bass that was under higher control and as a result, clearer. My costs for the autoformers was about 52 bucks each. There are folks out there selling impedance matching autoformers for 400 bucks a pair, and 800 bucks a pair if you want them in a nice wooden box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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