Posted by Brad Kizer [ 65.221.34.142 ] on December 29, 2003 at 12:49:08:
In Reply to: ZUS and Seal Electronics DIY amplifier posted by Wayne Parham on December 10, 2003 at 17:26:30:
Hi Wayne,
Somehow I missed your post. Sorry about that. Anyway, having built Seal Electronics Opti-Mos I can say for my "ears" I am very pleased. Having owned various speakers in the Klipsch line since 87' I have tried many different SS amps in an effort to find one that didn't impart the hardness with horn loaded speakers that SS is known for. Until the Opti-Mos (O/M) I exclusively used Mcintosh power amps and preamps. While tubes offered a wonderful midrange and top end I always found them lacking punch in the bass. (I'm not much of a guitar player but I won't have anything except a tube amp here!) Over the years Mac has become ridiculously expensive which eventually led me into DIY. My first DIY amp was one of Hugh Dean's
(Aspen Amplifiers)AKSA 55W kits. I was totally amazed at the level of sound quality and value it offered. At the time I had an Adcom GFA-535 in my HT system. That little 55W AKSA flat blew the Adcom away top to bottom. Hmmm I thought, "There must be something to this DIY thing." At that point I was hooked. In the meantime I found it necessary to educate myself in basic electronics so I asked the wife to pick me up a electronics 101 book on her next trip to the library. What she brought home was a basic electricity and electronics text book written by Randy Slone of Seal Electronics. After a number of lengthly phone conversations I purchased one of his O/M kits. The rest is history. To get back to your question, Randy has developed what he calls a soft clip circuit that basically emulates the soft clip of a over driven tube. So I felt this would be a good test for a pair of KSF 10.5's I have in a HT system. This speaker gets real bright rather quickly as the volume is turned up. Simply put I was blown away at what I heard next. Sweet and smooth through the mids and top end. Yep without any doubt the soft clip circuit showed it's worth. What about the bass you ask? Well I'm old school in that if you want realistic bass it takes big power and the 200W O/M has it in spades. Best bass response I have ever heard period. Clean, deep and tight. Again this is only my opinion as "sound" is subjective to the listener.
Seal Electronics will introduce a discrete Class-A preamp in the near future. A new amp called the Totem Pole which by the way can be operated in Class-A is available now.
Thanks,
Brad Kizer
[ SolidState Forum ] [ Help ]