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In Reply to: RE: Craigslist - Spica TC50- Followup Initial Impressions posted by Ross on October 05, 2015 at 14:59:23
You should hook it up to a solid state amp with some power just to see what happens. It should handle the 4 ohms better than the tube amps.
Follow Ups:
You are probably right on that. However, I did hear them in the 80's hooked up to a Conrad Johnson MV45 (4 ohm tap) and they sounded quite nice. I think they are a fairly benign 4 ohms, so if you have a 4 ohm tap, it should be OK. Of course many vintage tub amps do not have a 4 ohm tap.
Dave
Their LF response, while very limited, can be surprisingly satisfying with a good s/s amp. I run mine with tubes, but not full range. If running them without a sub, I would be strongly tempted to pair them with a s/s.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
Have you tried them without the sub? The sealed cabinet along with the lower damping of a tube amp sounded very good to my ears. (Although I am going pretty far back. I haven't heard them since the 80's.
Dave
Sure, and I liked them, but the bottom end wasn't great with my old Manley amps, which have pretty high output impedance. (The TC50's vary from 4 ohms to 12 ohms below 100Hz.)
With a s/s amp, the bottom was actually quite good, but I wanted to keep the Manleys because the mids were so great. Then one day I found a powered ASI sub fairly cheap so I bought it to see if it would do anything good. It surprised me, as I didn't expect a fast-sounding sub with a single down-firing driver, but it is. So I got ASI's programmable EQ to even out the low-frequency room response, and that's where I am.
It also helped that I use a VTL Deluxe preamp, with two sets of outputs - high impedance unbuffered outputs, and separate low-impedance buffered outputs. With this, a series cap with high-Z outputs gives a 6 dB/octave high pass, which I set for 80 Hz. This is upstream of the Manleys and Spicas, easing their work quite a bit. (The low-Z outputs feed the ASI subwoofer amp.)
One advantage of handing the lows off to a sub is that it seems to relax the sound of the Spicas, especially on louder passages.
And yes, with almost any s/s or modern tube amp, the TC50's by themselves can be very satisfying.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
I use a subwoofer with my Spendor BC-1's and my Yamaha C-2ax preamp has to sets off buffered outputs. They are very useful with a subwoofer. A speaker has to have very good base not to benefit from a good subwoofer. I don't use a series cap. Maybe I should. I do want to give a tube amp a try. I was thinking of triode wired PP 6550/KT88, but I would need some extra cash for that!
Dave
I run the Manleys in triode, almost always with minimum feedback. The EH KT-90s don't have the magic of the great TungSol 6550s, or the Ei KT-90s for that matter, but it's still quite satisfying.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
Given prices these days, I will be sticking with modern tubes also.
Dave
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