Home » Sponsored » Pi Speakers » 4 pi: impressions of a newbie (discussion)
icon14.gif  4 pi: impressions of a newbie [message #66655] Mon, 14 March 2011 13:33 Go to next message
rohitdev is currently offline  rohitdev
Messages: 8
Registered: February 2011
Location: Oregon Ohio
Esquire
I just finished building my 4 pis about a week ago and I thought I should contribute by posting my impressions. Perhaps somebody on the fence about 4 pis would just go ahead with the builds or buy them assembled.

These 4 pis have the JBL 2226 woofer and B&C DE250 HF driver with stock 4 pi crossovers with 15 gage inductors. I followed Wayne's build advise as closely as I could and as always he has been so obliging, answering all my stupid newbie questions. Thanks Wayne. You are a prefect gentleman.

So here are my impressions on sound after listening to them for a week. The 4 pis are replacing my beloved Quad towers 22L2. They are well known for their great midrange and soundstage. Well to put it bluntly the midrange and dynamics of this 4 pi pair absolutely kills the Quad 22L2. It didn't seem to be so initially. In my opinion the B&C DE250 HF driver does have a little break in. I am told it is probably psycho-acoustics but I am not quite sure about that. I noticed significant improvement after about 10 hours of playing. Now the 2226s have not broken in as yet but they seem to be going deeper the more I listen. Voices sound gorgeous. Acoustic strings sound and the piano so natural. I love listening to all my Telarc Jazz and classical recordings. Although I am mostly a music guy these 4 pis are good for HT too. I watched this horror flick on Blu ray and employed the speakers for HT 2 ch only. Nothing stands out in a scene with just dialogue. I have a good center fill image. Dialogues were very coherent. The speakers don't draw attention to themselves when everything is quiet in the movie. But once the special sound effects kick in, the experience was absolutely startling! I mean 0 to 60 mph in a sec! I don't know how else to describe the dynamics.

The 4 pis are currently being driven by my Primaluna Prologue 2 with KT88 ~ 30 watts / ch. The 2226s being pro drivers are supposed to wake up after seeing 60 watts or so in a very short period of time. In my setup and listening levels the 4 pis are seeing probably less than 1 watt. I have to figure out a way to awaken the JBL 2226 woofer by pumping ~ 60 watts or so. With the 4 pis being about 97 db I am estimating that would be ~ 110 db at my listening position if I fed them 60 watts! Have to do this when the wife and kids aren't home!

I wish I had good pictures to post of my 4 pis. I should be working on uploading them. Hopefully soon!
Re: 4 pi: impressions of a newbie [message #66658 is a reply to message #66655] Mon, 14 March 2011 21:30 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bill Epstein is currently offline  Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
Spkrman57 will tell you Fletcher-Munson is your friend. Get ahold of an old receiver with a loudness switch and play loud bass heavy music with the loudness switch on. The boost will help with break-in.

Damping the Eminence horn with rope caulk is also mandatory. See the thread below
Re: 4 pi: impressions of a newbie [message #66690 is a reply to message #66655] Wed, 16 March 2011 16:41 Go to previous message
Matts is currently offline  Matts
Messages: 359
Registered: May 2009
Grand Master
I broke my 2226's in with Tupac's Greatest Hits through a 60-watt/ch Adcom power amp. Just left it crankin' whenever we left the house. I felt sorry for the dog... It didn't take very long to loosen them up for use with the 2A3's.
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