Not on my full-range system.Don't you use bass management?
Not on my full-range system.Don't you use bass management?
I'm growing interested in a mini DSP 2x4 HD. It seems like it will do the job, but it might be too complex for me to figure out! I can do 2-way on up to 5-way active crossover. I guess the software can, but not sure how this would be achieved with only 4 outputs. Maybe you have to buy more units?https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rane-AC22-...443719?hash=item289a2eb387:g:y7kAAOSwq1NfLvRk
Put this or something similar between your two power amps and your preamps. (Your preamp would not have any problem driving both power amps but they would have to have some level adjustments.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DBX-DriveR...917&hash=item46b39ebf33:g:eek:bEAAOSw8gVfLWaI
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...&_osacat=0&_odkw=electronic+crossover+network
You have to make sure the crossover and amps are compatible with respect to balanced and unbalance inputs. Pro gear is usually balanced but can be wired for unbalanced too. You can start with a single stereo two way and then when you hear how much better it sounds you can progress to a stereo four way system.
The polarity is not that important. You just alternate the red and black leads on the output of the power amps. (Either both wooofers or both high sides)
the real best crossover to use is a pioneer D-23 four way. There are two from japan for 13-1400 dollars. You can start out two way and then expand to four way as you get amps and get more audacious.
I have had lots of audiophiles tell me that using a D-23 is not as good as what the factory engineers come up with. But I have seen very very few audio nuts who have gotten rid of a multi amp system. It does take more reading , and effort initially to get it right. You have to be careful to not blow up expensive drivers. (My Be drivers were unobtanium priced right from the get go when they WERE available to order I think the dealer cost on the four mid ranges was $350 each plus shipping. You better believe I was careful bringing the levels up. You also can add capacitors for protection and fuses.
The audiophiles who decry making these mods are the ones who think there is something sacred about the way they come out of the factory in the 1980s.
They are your speakers. Have your way with them. MAKE them yours. And by the way the reason I was late getting HERE is I never heard a good quad system. Similarly most audio hobbyists have never really heard a properly set up multi amp system. It's the ONLY way to fly.
It is true that an amp will deliver more power into a lower impedance load. That really is not the way these things are supposed to work. Since it amounts to a six way system they probably just figured "what the hell".
Good question & I have what might be a semi-interesting answer. Officially my 555’s were later MK I but they had already made some improvements most recognizable was changing the bridge switch from cheapo slide type to a high quality toggle switch. So if anyone shops for a used 555 & sees a slide switch on the back panel, it is the oldest of the oldies.Do you use the original or the Mk II?
They are both so similar in power output (5300/80 WPC, D150A/75 WPC) that I see nothing decisive there. However the Crown does a very high damping factor, in excess of my Adcom 555, & has bi-polar outputs which makes for better current dumps than the 5300 MOSFET. I would suggest low pass the Crown & use the Adcom for the high end.Ok, latest discoveries:
Both of my intended amps, at this point, have unbalanced inputs.
My Emotiva UMC-200 preamp has Zone 2 and Zone 3 capabilities. These are unbalanced stereo outputs.
So, I'm on the hunt for a good, but affordable, active crossover that will sit well between them, right?
Given that I'll have a Crown D150A and an Adcom GFA 5300 to play with initially, which would you put on top and which on the bottom?
Was this someones post that was made on April 1st?What would an @edisonbaggins thread be without a good curveball, huh?
I'm hearing that success can be had powering kappa 9's with a low-watt (like 20w) push-pull tube (valve) amp. Without even bi-amping. Though some say you get better bass control by throwing a high-current SS on the bottom.
If i's true, that a push-pull can work well with the k9's, thoughts on a good, yet affordable model?
In addition to the suggestions Gene made I might second your motion to consider using DSP. For the low cost I'd even suggest considering a 4x8 unit:I'm growing interested in a mini DSP 2x4 HD. It seems like it will do the job, but it might be too complex for me to figure out! I can do 2-way on up to 5-way active crossover. I guess the software can, but not sure how this would be achieved with only 4 outputs. Maybe you have to buy more units?
It's late. I'm confused.
I totally disagree with you about tubes, tubes always sound good (at worst) great at best. Tubes are much more reliable than people give them credit for. Normally after years of use valves start to become weak and need to be changed out but they don't seem to fail catastrophically the way solid state amps do. I wouldn't recommend them for a bass or sub base amp due to their lower damping factor however. Yes tubes generally produce a bit more harmonic distortion, but I think that there is more to their great sound than added harmonics, possibly less or lack of TIM (caused by use of excessive amounts of feedback). On the negative side tube amps can be very expensive, but if you build amps yourself they are quite economical. If you live in a hot climate the heat might be a problem, here in Canada we can use a little extra room heat most of the year. My tube amps are in the basement which is cool year round.I forgot to mention the Dayton 408. Could very well be a good economical as well as FLEXIBLE starting point. I think ( have never seen one in person) Parts express likely to give refund if you are in time frame and unhappy with theproduct. It does most of the tricks a dsp is supposed to do. The super tweeter and tweeter can be driven by the same amp.
never ever use tubes. there is NO reason to ever use tubes anymore. Unless you LIKE the sound of harmonic distortion. And having to replace tubes every few (fill in the blank depending on how bad the design is). And space heaters in your amp space even in summer. (Note: I rejected some of the first transistor amps because they did not sound as good as my many dyna MkIIIs , Stereo 70s Mark IV Bs , MacIntosh tube amps (LOTS of them) until the mid seventies or so. I built many of the aforementioned dynas from kits and repaired many others. I have felt the bite of a 700 volt plate supply on my hand) My very first biamped system had a dyna stereo 70 driving the jbl horns. Because it sounded better full range than the solid state power amp(SAE mk something) that was driving the woofer. Them days are OVER. (yes everybody has an opinion and that is mine)
If your system is unbalanced and you get a balanced pro power amp usually there is an op amp stage that is the balanced line receiver and converts the signal to local unbalanced. You usually can easily bypass this stage and in the case of some pro amps they even may provide the exact procedure. It is easier to just find consumer grade unbalanced power amps. But crossover networks are easier and cheaper to find with balanced. (Hint Because PROS like to use them AND won't participate in absurd pricing.)
Having low impedance outputs means it can drive most inputs (so probably from a few 100-Ohms upwards, studio audio gear is often 600-Ohm) with no issue. I do wonder what they mean by 'High Voltage' though! As 0dB into 600-Ω is 1V, 0dBu into 600-Ω is 0.775V, so often studio levels are +4dBu so 1.228V. There is the possibility you could over drive the Power Amp input!Trying to find specs on my Emotiva UMC-200 preamp. Short of that, I found this blurb: "High voltage, low impedance main analog outputs for uncompromised dynamic headroom..."
Ok. MK II it is! Follow up question is, how is the power consumption of your HC units? Do you have to be careful which outlet you use? What kind of surge protection do you use? Do you brown out your neighbors? Does your power bill skyrocket?You’ve already got the MK II upgrade.”
I might be closing a deal on a Jolida (wooden chassis, looks classy) JD-302B soon.I totally disagree with you about tubes, tubes always sound good (at worst) great at best. Tubes are much more reliable than people give them credit for. Normally after years of use valves start to become weak and need to be changed out but they don't seem to fail catastrophically the way solid state amps do. I wouldn't recommend them for a bass or sub base amp due to their lower damping factor however. Yes tubes generally produce a bit more harmonic distortion, but I think that there is more to their great sound than added harmonics, possibly less or lack of TIM (caused by use of excessive amounts of feedback). On the negative side tube amps can be very expensive, but if you build amps yourself they are quite economical. If you live in a hot climate the heat might be a problem, here in Canada we can use a little extra room heat most of the year. My tube amps are in the basement which is cool year round.
Any idea how the Dayton stacks up in quality against the mini DSP? And the mini DSP HD? What is the advantage of the DSP part?In addition to the suggestions Gene made I might second your motion to consider using DSP. For the low cost I'd even suggest considering a 4x8 unit:
https://www.parts-express.com/dayto...nal-processor-for-home-and-car-audio--230-500
The nifty thing about a product like this is you can so easily control filter crossover points, the slope, the over all level, and even click & reverse the polarity on high or low sections. One of the challenges doing this on a speaker like yours is the bass crosses over very low; on my Kappa 8 it's 80Hz. This is quite low but that means there's a whole lot of audio energy left over for the high pass section. Keep in mind that when they say a filter point is 80 Hz it is already -3dB so you wouldn't want to cause a dip by setting the line level filter at the same. My starting point might be low pass at 160Hz with no need for super sharp cut off maybe -6dB or 12dB per octave. On the high end you might want to set the high pass filter say 6oHz & use a very sharp cut off, say 24 dB per octave.
I have considered buying the Dayton DSP unit for my own purposes so I downloaded the app & put it on my PC. I immediately got frustrated ( I do this when I can't figure something out right away) but after about 10 mins it smoothed out. It didn't suit my usage for what I was looking for but really is a pretty cool amazingly flexible product. And you can get a phone app for it too!
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...-killer-kappa-9-in-extended-bass-mode.518318/Was this someones post that was made on April 1st?
I guess it depends on what you call "success" running like this. I'm sure it would sound different than high power solid state but if it sounds better I wouldn't venture to say.
At least compared to low power solid state amps a tube amp has an output transformer & no matter what the speaker load the output tubes only sees the transformer primary load. So the output tubes would always be protected. The output transformer can only deliver so much no matter what the speaker impedance is calling for so in that respect tubes beat SS for ruggedness. For myself I would never spend & time much less $$ chasing this approach.
The follow up question here is... how do you wire the kappa 9's to work with one amp? Do you wire to only one set of binding posts on the k9's? Or do you have to use some sort of y splitter, so you can wire to both sets of posts? Are those posts bridgable or jumperable? Sorry, this all might be in the manual. I figured you might know off the top of your head though.One thing I'd suggest if you haven't already done it, is before you jump into filters & bi-amping, just hook the Crown up by itself as a test. Play some music at not too loud level & listen to the over all sound & ear to each speaker driver & make sure it's working, no buzzes or other strange stuff.
Well, the advantage of the DSP part id it is Digital Signal Processing rather than analog. The Dayton 408, the MiniDSP & MiniDSP HD are more similar than not & both will do what you want. the Dayton & miniDSP work at 24/48 while the MiniDSP HD functions at 32/96, a considerable improvement.Any idea how the Dayton stacks up in quality against the mini DSP? And the mini DSP HD? What is the advantage of the DSP part?
Quite interesting thanks for the link. I'd have to hear it to believe it but the OP seems very passionate about it, no BS trolling. Buy your Jolida & let us know!
My speakers came with a pair of very nice fitting gold straps that connect the speaker posts. But otherwise to test with a single amp just hook the amp to the low connection & jumper low ground to high ground, low positive to high positive.The follow up question here is... how do you wire the kappa 9's to work with one amp? Do you wire to only one set of binding posts on the k9's? Or do you have to use some sort of y splitter, so you can wire to both sets of posts? Are those posts bridgable or jumperable? Sorry, this all might be in the manual. I figured you might know off the top of your head though.
Enter your email address to join: