Fortes with Quicksilver Mini Mites

[RJD]

I've decided to use tubes to smooth out some of the harsness of the horns with ss. Been thinking about trying the Quicksilver mini mites. This is my 1st venture into tubes and was wondering if these would be a good match. Also considering the Transcendent SE OTL amp which they recomend for horns; however it only puts out 1.5 watts. which seems quite low for my fortes. My budget is around a thousand and both fall right in there with the Quicksilver at $998 and the OTL at $1299. My preamp is a Mac C26 ss. Room size: 14x20 Music preferences: accoustic gituar, light rock, Bocelli, Brightman, blues

Any comments or suggestions please?

[philtubes]

Hello, I have a freind that just bought a pair of Fortes and is driving them with the Quicky Mid Monos and loves the combination, the Mini Monos should have a little warmer sound. He uses the 6L6 tubes in his amps and prefers the 6L6 over the KT-88's and 34's. Call Mike at Quicksilver and ask about the combination. Good luck.

Phill

[Tarheel]

I have Quicksilver Audio Horn Monos and LS with Altec 511/902 horn/driver and ALK xovers. That combo pleases me. Using JJ KT-77 for output tubes. I think if this is your first foray into tubes Quicksilver will be reliable and you can try different tubes. Let us know what you decide and how you like the results.

[NOSValves]

I have a pair of horn mono's here right now. If warm and fuzzy is what you want they will deliver it in spades.

Craig

[Tarheel]

Better check those monos out. Sounds like they may have been damaged during shipping. Had mine for over two years and warm and fuzzy would not come to mind in describing the sound. You may want to read the Stereophile link on the QS website and read what John Atkinson and Robert Deutsch had to say. Their impression of the sound and build is very favorable and rather than fuzzy they called the monos "accurate". Atkinson stated " I was frankly astonished by the measured performance of the Quicksilver Horn Mono".

[nu2toobs]

I've got a pair of Horn Mono amps in Garage Sale right now as we speak for $1100 shipped.

Actually they are the ones Craig speaks of.

[NOSValves]

Better check those monos out. Sounds like they may have been damaged during shipping. Had mine for over two years and warm and fuzzy would not come to mind in describing the sound. You may want to read the Stereophile link on the QS website and read what John Atkinson and Robert Deutsch had to say. Their impression of the sound and build is very favorable and rather than fuzzy they called the monos "accurate". Atkinson stated " I was frankly astonished by the measured performance of the Quicksilver Horn Mono".

Open them babies up not much to go wrong inside. My comment was just meant that I find them to be a the laid back side. I'm not going to go into details because I think it's not appropriate. Trust me these amps are working just fine. If you read the review your quoting I suggest you read more closely and realize the Stereophile is renowned for sugar coating things. I've never read a reveiw that was not tilted to the positive aspect of a product. Here are a few examples in the review that fit right in with my more blunt comment.

"The sound was entirely comfortable, with an easy-on-the-ears quality that invited continued listening"

"highs that were perhaps very slightly on the soft side" ("very slightly" what does that mean ?)

I'm not a professional reviewer. I just state things straight to the point.

[Tarheel]

Yes I have read the review numerous times and again last night. I know Stereophile presents the positive side on most components (though not on the Paladin mono blocks and a few cartridges here and there). I was offering a third opinion since ours differ somewhat. No problem here. I remember when Nu2toobs got his amps he said they arrived with a broken tube hence the question about damage.

I would be interested in your take on the18 db less gain employed on the monos than on QS standard amps. This appraoch was to avoid noise and gain problems that normally appear when using horn speakers. "The horn mono is designed to sound good at very low levels that horn speakers require". " It has extremely low noise and distortion at low levels" "Many amplifiers actually have higher distortion at these levels"

BTW.....Mike Sanders designed the horn monos for his personal use with his La Scalas. Friends heard them and asked that he build some for them hence the HM going into production. In the end it always comes back to a matter of what sounds good to your ears. Sorta like some folks like Jubes....some don't[]

[nu2toobs]

Yes I have read the review numerous times and again last night. I know Stereophile presents the positive side on most components (though not on the Paladin mono blocks and a few cartridges here and there). I was offering a third opinion since ours differ somewhat. No problem here. I remember when Nu2toobs got his amps he said they arrived with a broken tube hence the question about damage.

I would be interested in your take on the18 db less gain employed on the monos than on QS standard amps. This appraoch was to avoid noise and gain problems that normally appear when using horn speakers. "The horn mono is designed to sound good at very low levels that horn speakers require". " It has extremely low noise and distortion at low levels" "Many amplifiers actually have higher distortion at these levels"

BTW.....Mike Sanders designed the horn monos for his personal use with his La Scalas. Friends heard them and asked that he build some for them hence the HM going into production. In the end it always comes back to a matter of what sounds good to your ears. Sorta like some folks like Jubes....some don't

Let's not bring up Jubilee's in this thread, I don't thing the webserver has the bandwidth for two Jub threads.[]

[Tarheel]

LOL.....and right you are. Bout went blind reading the Jube thread and the Tull thread last night. Just had to get a dig in on Craig[]

[oldtimer]

I'm not sure I get what is meant by (paraphrased) "horns require low levels?" I understand that low levels of distortion are desirable for any system, but is this what is really meant by the quote? I think I'm on the right track but maybe some clarification for (well I would say people like me but no one would ever want to be like me or admit they were) me?"

[NOSValves]

Yes I have read the review numerous times and again last night. I know Stereophile presents the positive side on most components (though not on the Paladin mono blocks and a few cartridges here and there). I was offering a third opinion since ours differ somewhat. No problem here. I remember when Nu2toobs got his amps he said they arrived with a broken tube hence the question about damage.

I would be interested in your take on the18 db less gain employed on the monos than on QS standard amps. This appraoch was to avoid noise and gain problems that normally appear when using horn speakers. "The horn mono is designed to sound good at very low levels that horn speakers require". " It has extremely low noise and distortion at low levels" "Many amplifiers actually have higher distortion at these levels"

BTW.....Mike Sanders designed the horn monos for his personal use with his La Scalas. Friends heard them and asked that he build some for them hence the HM going into production. In the end it always comes back to a matter of what sounds good to your ears. Sorta like some folks like Jubes....some don't

My take on the 18db less gain is that it makes you turn the volume control up further on your preamp. If your preamp is of high quality (not noisy) then no problem exists that this low gain is going to fix. If a preamp is noisy I fix the preamp not modify the amp to mask it. Heck I have had hundreds of vintage amplifiers more or less dead silent on Klipsch speakers. Now with that said a high gain preamp is never going to mate perfectly with a high gain amplifier or the reverse system matching is always important when using separates.

Tube amps in general sound there best at the lower the output no secret there. The distortion number go down the lower the output with any reasonably good design. All your really doing by having an amp with less gain is flipping the gain responsibilties over to the preamp and allowing it to have a higher noise floor. There is always more then one way to skin a cat...........

Craig

[Tarheel]

Oldtimer.....if I may give you a link you can read the review in its entirety. I think what Mike is saying is that with really efficient speakers the first watt is the most important and where too many amps generate the most distortion and noise. I interpret this as the hum when your amp is on and no music playing (audible on most amps) Its not that they require low levels rather that it takes fewer watts with horns so make the first watt very clean. Not a tecnician here so without further rambling let me direct you to the site. It is really an interesting article.

Go to quicksilveraudio.com. Click on product offerings and then on horn monos. Two quotes from stereophile magazine will come up and click on those. That takes you to Stereophile site. Upper lefthand corner click on tube amps. Then go to page two.

[oldtimer]

Thanks tarheel.

[Tarheel]

Any time Oldtimer.

Thank you Craig for your take on the gain issue.

Man....we are all so polite on this thread[]