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How many of you have tried "Low powered" Marantz receivers with your Pi speakers???
Hi gang, Took my Marantz 2238B off my 4 Pi-pro clones and brought my 2215B back out. First off, the 2238B has the juice to drive my 2226J's and it seems to love the 16 ohm impeadance, and still give me 110db at the couch levels. With my 2215B however, I am lucky to put out high 90's, but the sound is better than most anything I have for low level listening. SET amps (2A3/45) that have been played here sound better, but not major difference. I can't turn my 2215B up past 9 o clock on the volume without losing that "Magic sound", but have to admit, if I don't need to crank it out, sounds best for low level listening. Who else has made comparisons with low-powered amps/receivers and what is their opinions! Cheers, Ron
Re: How many of you have tried "Low powered" Marantz receivers with your Pi speakers???
Where the heck have you been, dude?? Won't be long before nirvana!! www.midwestaudiofest.com
I had a 50 watt Yamaha receiver and later purchased a 120 watt model of their product line. I was impressed that they took the time to make sure that when the volume knob was at 100%, you were just hitting clipping if the input signal was 0.775v. It only takes a one-tenth cent resistor for each channel to limit the volume potentiometer this way, but I was impressed that they took the time to actually do it. Nice touch for a product like this, I always thought. And back then, I was running seven π's with JBL 2205's, 2105's and 2405's - An incredibly good sounding speaker, by the way. I still like that system and remember it to make some of the best sound I've ever heard. Anyway, this is the first time I've owned a small-signal power amp in, well, maybe forever. I don't know that I've ever owned an amplifier under 25 watts except maybe an embedded amp in something. I guess you probably read that I purchased a couple of Paramours, and I really like those little amps. After hearing what my π's do with these little SET amps, I'm incredibly proud. No EQ, no subwoofer. And just a smidge of power. It sounds great!!!
You know how those darn domestic things get in the way sometimes!!!
Wayne and Mike, Even when I don't post, I am always keeping an eye on the forums. My life has not been as complicated and busy as Mike's, but there have been a number of things happening lately for me, girlfriend has been sick for the last week and still not back to par, my job with the Govt will disappear after next year (24 years), girlfriends house has aluminum wiring that has been giving fits, and to top it all off, her cottage on the river has frozen pipes and we lost the storage tank and pump (well water). On the bright side, I had my tech fix my Dynaco SCA-35/ST-70 and McIntosh MC-240. I have been idle on the audio front, so no extra (cookie jar) money has been available. I am still trying to scrape every penny for the BIG EVENT (MAF). Wayne, it would be nice in the future if I had the money to build the 10 Pi's, but I am not even sure they would fit in my tiny living room (12' x 16' x 8'), I guess that would be like "Nearfield" listening??? I will see what the future has in store for me, Maybe I should work for you and build Pi speakers in the Ohio area, have TillE build my cabinets, and I install and wire them up and deliverly too! I want to try some experiments soon with some Peavey FH-1's I have and also want to cut down a (homemade) A7 (Altec) clone cabinet down to a clone of a 816. Wayne, I have one more question for you, I would like to build a pair of 2 Pi's, but I want to tone down the "Hot sizzle" in the piezo. Looking at your 1982 4 Pi schematic, and thought I might try that filter section you used on the piezo. (2 ufd/10 ohm - 1.5 ufd/20 ohm - 1 ufd/25 ohm) I am sure you remember that circuit, just thought I would throw the values at you again. I hope to try that sometime in the near future. The piezo is too shrill for me without it, maybe my old-ass ears are the problem!!! When using Altec/JBL compression drivers and horns with rolloff around 14khz to 16khz, I suffer less listener fatigue compared to the 2-pi sound. Wayne, if you had room on your site, would it be possible to post older Pi systems (Vintage/retro) from the old days for some of us vintage fans??? Okay, my 2 cents worth for the moment, nice to hear from you guys again. Ron Well, that's it for now guys,
I'd be interested in that 2 Pi filter section too
although i don't really know how it would be installed. any suggestions for this or other filters thanks jeff
The filter used in older three-way four π and seven π speakers with piezo tweeters was actually a crossover, and raised the crossover point. I'd suggest that you might want to attenuate your tweeters by using a 0.1uF, 0.22uF or 0.33uF capacitor in series. About speaker plans, there have been several requests over the years for the older three-way models and also for updated plans using current production models. I make those available, but I don't post plans on the website because I want to keep track of their distribution. So I always make plans available only by request.
Wayne: Thank you for experiencing SET and providing feedback. Sounds like you're liking the Paramours. have you tried any other tube amps, or have plans to? thanks, jeff
The Paramours are the first tube amps I've owned, other than a tube radio collection I have. I have heard other high fidelity tube amps, but this is the first one I've owned and I think it takes a while to properly evaluate audio hardware. You sort of have to live with it a while. This has been enough of a positive experience that I do plan to try others.
I've had tons of amps on my 2226Hs. Push pull 6550s with moderate global NFB are my favorite. I think the problem is that some 4" voice coils need a bit more juice to articulate and tighten up. These types of speakres are designed to sound good with 250-500 watt amps. 2-3 watters do surprisingly well but not the best. See if you can have a friend bring over such an amp, maybe a modded Ella. You might find yourself selling off some junk to get one.<p(.*)I've found a great test. I call it the Bonn Scott vocal test. Pickup a reissue (digipak) AC/DC, High Voltage or Dirty Deeds and give it a spin. It's surprisingly difficult to reproduce the vocals on top of the simple rock n roll kind of like a square wave on top of a square wave, huge bandwidth and dynamics. If the combination works, Scott's vocals are surprisingly articulate with finnesse. If not it sounds like a screaming anoying mess.