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RE: Great imaging speakers

Posted by erik2a3 (A) on November 25, 2011 at 03:48:40

In Reply to: RE: Great imaging speakers posted by geezerrocket on November 24, 2011 at 12:08:32:

Pending Post by erik2a3 (A) on November 25, 2011 at 03:46:05

In Reply to: RE: Great imaging speakers posted by geezerrocket

Pending Post by erik2a3 (A) on November 25, 2011 at 03:41:50

In Reply to: RE: Great imaging speakers posted by geezerrocket

Hi, geezerocket

I know it's exciting to finish a new speaker project -- best of luck with that!

So, the Transcendent Sound OTL amplifiers are IMO ideally suited to high efficiency horns. Except for a few of the sealed and bass reflex systems I built a couple of decades ago (scary to see myself write that -- I don't know where the time has gone), Klpisch heritage and Lowther horn systems have been mainstays. I listen to lots of classical, jazz, and "fingerstyle" guitar music, and nothing can capture the timbre and real wood amd string quality like the crossoverless Lowther, whichmis also in the same range in terms of efficiency as La Scalas and Klipschorns. Moreover, the genremof music mentioned above, at least for me and how I listen, the Transcendent OTL amplifiers provide adequate output power, particulalrly with regard to the T16. The output of the SEOTL (single ended output transformerless) is significantly lower, but with big horns sounds magical. Truly the best amplifier I have, but requires some special needs in terms of the space where it's used. I have been building amplifiers for years, using mainly the more common big triodes- 2a3s and 300bs, as well as a couple of 45s, and while allmof them did, and on occasion still do, provide quite satisfactory performance, they all share one common attribute that the OTLs do not: output transformers, and it's the absence of those in the Transcendent amps that are laregly responsible for the kind of extended response (both high and low) that sound so special with our La Scalas and Klipschorns. Thr bass response from the sub 2 watt/channel SEOTL is astonishing in terms of contro and tunefulness with the corner loaded klipschorns -- for me. I also used the same amps bridged mono for twice the output power, and would say that for most listeners, this would be a very good way to run them. This pair was not my own, though. I listended to them during the post - build testing before sending them to the person that asked me to build them.

Lastly, I can't stress enough how important personal taste is in this hobby. While a few watts up to the T16 couple of handfulls is enough for me, some listeners might need more power. I know of someone who truly loved the sound of bridged SEOTs with his Klipschorns but found them ultimately not quite powerful enough. It's all highly subjective.

I also found, yet again, what a critical difference the room can make. It is actually quite remarkable. I moved our La scalas from the large and open living area downstairs up to the "listening room" where we have the Khorns, set them up to the sides of their taller siblings, and was immediately sort of jaw-droppingly impressed by that uncanny imgaing of these horn speakers. At about 18 feet apart on the long wall, the La Scalas put the solo acoustic guitar of Pat Metheny right in front of me in a way that was holographic....totally real and in-the-flesh. And this was from an amplifier under 5 watts. I don't need that much power, but some do. Downstairs in the big open space, the SEOTL sounded truly too small, but the room is terrible for imaging, highly reflective and reverberant: tile floors, no wass treatment other than a couple of paintings, which amount to flat reflective surfaces -- and imaging is all over the place....smeared in comparison to then upstairs location.

Happy holidays......hope this helps at least a little bit. :). Erik

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