In Reply to: RE: Recommended amp for Voice of the Theater (VOTT) Speakers posted by Inmate51 on June 18, 2015 at 09:25:55:
Hey I am going to jump in here and defend Inmate51 a bit! My bias first...I own EV Sentry IV-A's. At this point they sound wonderful, but that is after a ton of work and expert guidance here, especially Paul E. and grindstone, on Hi-Eff asylum.
I have buddies that have Klipschorns and the other has A-7's. Both had their respective speakers long before I got the Sentry's. I had multiple listening sessions with both. Both sounded impressive with their respective amplification chains. (Klipschorn - Bottlehead 2A3 Paramours, A-7 JE Labs 300B's) I took a lot of crap, from both of them, on the purchase of the Sentry's..."butt ugly", (they were! ;-) ), "wannabe's" ...you get the drift.
Not to drag this out, but we did a "listen off" with my Bottlehead 300B Paramounts and Bottlehead Foreplay 3 Extended, (running 7N7's), after I got the Sentry's sorted. (Just in case you are wondering, we moved the BH kit to each house, thought it might be slightly easier than moving the speakers ;-) ) We all have similar tastes in musical genre, jazz, vocals, classical and some dino rock.
The winner was grudgingly unanimous. The Sentry IV-A's handily bested both the contenders in every subjective listening category. To be honest, the Sentry's have completely redesigned and built x-overs, all four 12" woofer refoamed and bass bins substantially built up. The K-Horns have ALK X-overs and the A-7's were stock,511B horns, reconed woofers by GPA and the stock networks.
The A-7 came in 3rd...weak bass, rolled off highs and a bit muddy in the mids with a metallic tinge. ('bout the same for the K-horns, just not as pronounced!) There is good potential there. They have cachet and a loyal following, but they need a lot of work to be on par with other "big sound" horn systems. I think the first step, assuming all is well with the drivers, is to dump the stock networks and build better crossovers. IMO that is a huge weak spot. (My buddy won't consider doing this, destroys the provenance!)
So let's cut Inmate51 some slack. He has a valid opinion. Just remember.....the only ears that you really have to please are your own!
Cheers,
Geary
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Follow Ups
- RE: Recommended amp for Voice of the Theater (VOTT) Speakers - Geary Lyons 18:06:05 06/18/15 (1)
- RE: Recommended amp for Voice of the Theater (VOTT) Speakers - Inmate51 16:47:10 06/19/15 (0)