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In Reply to: RE: Amplification for Tympani 1a posted by petri2830 on October 24, 2015 at 06:56:06
Have you seen this review?
I think you'll likely get the best results with a big mother solid state amp -- these are not efficient speakers. Perhaps biamp. I'm not sure if tubes are needed on the highs anymore -- JGH was writing at a time of more primitive solid state amps and if they sounded harsh it may have been because they were being driven into their non-linear range, where tube amps sound significantly better.
http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/673mag/
Follow Ups:
The Krell does a god job of driving the speakers, I was thinking that a little more subtlety at the extremes would be nice. It sounds like what I may need is a higher quality class A solid state amp, not necessarily an extreme amount of power. The Krell at 150 watts already does a good job of getting the SPL's I want. It has been difficult setting up the speakers as they do not have any feet to support the panels other than these metal sliders. Without the support for the panels, you are limited to how much you can play with lateral placement.
It's hard to say anything meaningful about amp size, since people listen at dramatically different levels. I'm a big believer in measuring since you can't judge this by ear. I'd measure peak SPL with a meter -- if it doesn't have a peak setting, add 10 dB. Then it's easy to calculate the rough size of the amp you need.
I had a 200 watt amp on my old 1-D's so I know that you can get by with a fairly small amp. However, these speakers won't work to their maximum capability with 150 or 200 watts -- any amp can make a speaker play loud, the question is how much its clipping the peaks to do so.
So I'd do the measurements and that will be a good baseline for choosing an amp, with the caveat that you can usually get by with a tube amp that has half the RMS spec of a solid-state one. Maybe put the Krell on the bass and a tube amp on the highs? Even if it isn't needed for power, bi amping sounds better than a single amp.
I do think you're going to have to get some feet! You really do need to experiment with placement with these speakers. Maybe you can get the feet from Magnepan. If not, you can make something yourself, preferably out of steel, but wood will work if you can't cut, bend, and drill steel -- make the horizontal runners out of wood, then screw on metal corner braces that you can get at a hardware store. You can probably get corner braces with holes that line up with the holes in your speaker frames so you can screw a bolt through them. And if the 1-A's are like the 1-D's, you only need two feet, on the center panel.
What do you screw the feet in to. Is the bottom of the speaker frame made of wood that you drill in to. Would they attach like they do to my 1.6's? I am thinking that I will attach the feet to the center panels.
As Satie said, there are already foot mounting holes drilled through the panels, at either side of the panel near the bottom. You should be able to find them easily enough. If they're like the later ones, they have captive nuts and you just screw bolts through into the nuts. Here's an illustration from my IVA manual, this view is from the back of the speaker.
Anyway, I don't know how much metalworking/woodwork you can do but if you measure the distance between the holes you can probably find a corner brace at the hardware store with the right hole spacing. Then make some horizontal wood pieces for feet and screw the corner brace into the wood, using washers to shim as necessary.
You could also give Magnepan a call, and see how much it would cost to buy new feet . . .
IIRC my Tympani 1Cs used two 'L' shaped brackets (of shiny stainless steel), one was affixed to the front of a panel, the other its rear. Then the supplied screws were pushed through the holes in the brackets and the pre-drilled holes in the panels. Tightening the screws was accomplished on the rear of a panel, using the also supplied washers and nuts. Looking at the speakers it wouldn't have been aesthetically pleasing to see the tips of screws, washers and nuts on the front of a panel. Being only able to see the head of a screw was a better choice.
Being ~30 years ago I might well be misrembering, however common to many of my years I can more easily recall what happened 30 years ago than what I ate for dinner last night, (although I can). When I can't recall my name or the route I use to drive back home, I'll be finished. (In ten days I'll be 'celebrating', if that's what I'll be able to call it, my 80th birthday. Certainly no 'golden ears' here).
Happy Birthday Norman !!!
Thank you very much.
A big preemptive happy B-Day Norman , anyone who has seen first gen toobs in the flesh and todays current version , gets my vote ... :)
Regards
I (also) thank you very much!
Hey, happy birthday! And far better to celebrate it than not, we won't all make it that far . . .
Fret not, I felt the same way as a youngster after learning about someone having reached my age. But look at me now! :-(
I'm definitely fretting, I played some test tones yesterday and my ears now roll off at around 11.5 kHz! Last I checked a few years ago they still got up to about 15k. (Curiously, I can still detect some sound at various frequencies up to 19 kHz but the level is so attenuated it doesn't make a practical difference, down near the threshold of audibility.) Give me a few more years, and I'll be happy with AM radio . . .
Losing some hearing, and perhaps some hair and teeth (or even some bodily functions), 'goes with the territory', and isn't a biggie. It's when an older person loses their mind, that's a problem.
Teeth and hair, I've lost aplenty. At least my hair hasn't turned grey yet! And the teeth are getting replaced by implants that could buy a year's production of 20.7's.
As to mind, what were we talking about again?
Re implants; been there...done that, however only 2 so far, setting me back only enough for 3.7i's. However lots of other work including crowns, a root canal, extractions (and then their 'flippers'). Nevertheless, the DDS I visit biannually had expressed some surprise, and paraphrasing; 'man you got a lot of teeth ...for someone your age I mean, I bet you can eat anything', perhaps I'm looking forward to the day when I can't). Oh well, our medical problems are OT and uninteresting (to others).
Earlier Tympanis had a different foot, http://www.integracoustics.com/MUG/MUG/pix/mitchell/index.html
These is what the legs for many of the Tympanis looked like:
(The 1Cs, 1Ds and IIIAs and IIIBs had them)
http://www.integracoustics.com/MUG/MUG/pix/mitchell/Tympani%201D%20Legs.gif
Sorry (too much of in a rush), make that what the 'feet' looked like!
http://www.integracoustics.com/MUG/MUG/pix/mitchell/Tympani%201D%20Legs.gif
I think I am going to order the feet for the 1.6 for the middle panels and modify as necessary. Happy Birthday Norm by the way and I hope you see many more. I have been in touch with Magnepan and Sheila in the parts department has gone above and beyond. Thanks again everyone.
Petri 2830, I thank you.
"Earlier Tympanis had a different foot, http://www.integracoustics.com/MUG/MUG/pix/mitchell/index.html"
Those speakers in the picture, including what can be seen on their bottoms, are barefoot. Those tiny circular gidgets on their bottoms were never intended as 'feet'! If used as feet, they'd have been very unstable and a tiny fart might have turned them over. Just imagine, suppose you set them up, extended completely open and all the panels in a single plane. Feet were comprised of a pair of 'L' shaped brackets secured to the front and rear of a panel by screws, washers and bolts. The vertical part of the 'L', being where brackets contacted a panel, and the horizontal portion comprised feet, making contact with the floor. I attached/separated my Tympani 1C feet several times; standing them up to begin with (I can't recall the particulars, but my dealer didn't do it), then taking them down and putting them back up again after having shipped them to Magnepan to completely refurbish (repairing the damage done by the UV sensitive adhesive, they were returned to me looking like new), and then down after having sold them.
Ah yes, it's been something like 20 years since I disassembled my 1-D's and I'd forgotten that the feet were in two parts. (A friend had them on loan after that, since I didn't have a large enough listening room to set them up.)
The old feet look awful!
Having them on the front was handy for kicking your Tympanis into place, though. :-)
The panels should all be drilled with threaded inserts at the edges of the MDF about 1" in from the sides. That is how it is with the 1.6 too. It is better to have a cross brace to a point about 2/3 up the panel but each panel needs at least one side braced it is not enough to do just the center panels.
Don't do just 2 feet. If you keep the panels connected to each other then you want two feet on the center panel and one foot at the edge on each of the side panels.
Again if the Krell are giving you enough power but you want more refinement at the top end and a stronger bottom end then first I would brace the panels as Josh suggested. I use steel corner braces and large 2' oak feet. The second thing is to detach the tweeter panel and put it on its own feet. They don't need to be as heavy as the bass panel feet. That should solve IMD problems coming from the bass panels.
You can also brace the top of the panel to the wall with a pole to prevent swaying from robbing bass energy..
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