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Question for Till E. and Wayne [message #35049]

Fri, 08 February 2002 16:41

Garland
Messages: 269
Registered: May 2009

Grand Master

Over on the Bottlehead Forum one poster who just inserted his new Theater 4 Pi's in his system driven by Paramour 2A3 amps had a problem with missing high frequencies. In your experiance is there any lack of highs in the performance of the Theater 4's driven by low powered tube amps. Just curious as I hope this is an anomaly exclusive to this case.
-Only got one speaker of mine near ready to play but have to work all night tonight so no fun for me!

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The madness of crowds [message #35051 is a reply to message #35049]

Fri, 08 February 2002 18:31

BillEpstein
Messages: 886
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (2nd Degree)

I saw that cry for help on the Bottlehead Board; It's not the speakers unless the tweeter cables came loose or the network cap blew out. Has to be the Amp or a case of 2 people exhibiting mass hysteria. And the PSD-2002 is sweet!

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Tube amps and four π speakers [message #35053 is a reply to message #35049]

Fri, 08 February 2002 23:43

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18784
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Several people are running Theater Series four π speakers on Paramours and report no ill-behaved traits.

The person you are talking about recently took delivery of some nice teakwood Theater Series four π loudspeakers. Initially, he felt he might have a problem with his speakers, but found it was the amplifier instead. He had written to me about the problem, but had discovered the cause and before I even noticed his first E-Mail, he had sent another explaining the reasons for his problem.

Patrick and I have exchanged several E-Mail's since then and he is enjoying his speakers, reporting that they "sound lovely."

I've heard people complain about the performance of some loudspeakers on very low powered tube amplifiers, but it is almost always related to lack of output in the bottom octave. I've not had any reports of a properly working amplifier of any kind generating reduced treble output, and I wouldn't expect to because there is not usually the same kind of impedance fluctuation at high frequencies.

The most load-sensitive amplifier I've come across is the flea-powered 1.5 watt Decware Zen amp, and π Speaker owners report success with that one too. If speakers work with that amp, they'll probably work with just about any low-power SET amp. With the Decware Zen, if Zmax is high you won't have any bass at all.

So the point is that the tricky part with SET amps is getting good bass response and overall sensitivity, and in both these areas, "tube friendly" π Speakers do a wonderful job.

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Yup, that's exactly the case! [message #35078 is a reply to message #35053]

Mon, 11 February 2002 06:31

Patrick
Messages: 10
Registered: May 2009

Chancellor

Hi Garland,

This is Patrick who posted over on the Bottlehead board. I swapped out my Paramours for my Scott 299B and the sound is lovely. Better than lovely, actually. It's the most lifelike sound I've ever had in my system! I'm going to post a lengthy review once I've spent a good several weeks with the new speakers. I LOVE them.

As to my Paramours: Doc B. suggested that perhaps they weren't compatible witih the Paramours. From Till's experience however that doesn't make any sense -- and in fact I now realize that I'd been having trouble with the Paramours for a while now, but just never attributed any of it to the amps. (Was looking at equipment support, cable and speakers.)

I'm SURE this is not a defect in the Paramours -- when I first built them they sounded wonderful with my old speakers. The thing is, I modded these amps to within an inch of their lives (see my post on Bottlehead for a list of mods) and I'm a DIY newbie. I'm pretty sure I've messed something up in there somehow. So I'm going to spend some time going over them and tracking down the problem.

Thing is, my system sounds SO awesome right now that I don't have much motivation to sit down at the workbench!

Have fun,
Patrick

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Thanks, Patrick... [message #35080 is a reply to message #35078]

Mon, 11 February 2002 08:30

Garland
Messages: 269
Registered: May 2009

Grand Master

... for the reassurance. I have been a bit carried away with paranoia recently since in a short while my whole system is going to consist of kit or DIY modded components and should one piece be incompatible I fear I'd freak out and who knows what I'd do. I love the anticipation of it all, though, and especially the fact that this stuff promises to sound better than so much of the high-end stuff out there for super big bucks! I love my Bottlehead Foreplay and can't wait to get the Pi's and Paramours up and running soon!
So good luck in tracking down the Paramour problem and please post any findings here or on the Bottlehead board.

G.

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