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RE: Best SET amp for 110 db Horns multiamp

Posted by tube wrangler (M) on July 31, 2012 at 02:25:21

In Reply to: Best SET amp for 110 db Horns multiamp posted by Saturntube on July 29, 2012 at 17:26:33:

I'm climbing on here late because I wanted to see if your problems got solved without me.

They're not at this time, so here's some food for thought. Remember, what I'm about to say may be controversial-- but it will work very, very well.

First, I've enjoyed being able to have Hi-Eff drivers to get serious with, I think I really like the 4-way ALES system Thom Mackris, my Bro., and I put together for a client of mine.

The Ales are in the efficiency range you're using-- they're very low distortion and have huge acoustical outputs. Think-- ALTEC drivers after a complete Blueprint job-- on each-- yeah-- on steroids..

OK-- so we have a handful of top-notch drivers. What can we do with these?

There is always the temptation to use a separate amp-- dedicated to the driver at hand. At first glance, this looks good-- the amps have an easy time of it because they're only being asked to operate in a narrowly-defined frequency and power range.

Decently good sound can be obtained by this method-- THE BEST of this method is to use 4 identical amps in each channel.

Why -not- use a different amp for each driver? That way, each can be suited to its driver? Want a simple reason? It may very well sound pretty good, but it won't reproduce music! Why? Each amp is DIFFERENT, and each amp is DOING DIFFERENT THINGS to the music-- in DIFFERENT paces, rhythms, and timings! Is this coherent? Can one MAKE it coherent?

Yes, one can make it more coherent by inserting time corrections into all of the frequency-shapers, and by time-aligning each and every driver to the room it's in. If you do all these things, and get it as good as it can be, you'll have impressive sound, you WILL NOT have a replica of the music that is playing-- not completely..

It still won't be good enough because those amps are different from each other, and although you've corrected for it, nobody on the Planet could do all that is necessary to really get all of it right. Why do I say all this? Years of building movie theatres for the ultra-demanding theatre owner. Not the usual movie palace-- I mean the GOOD stuff.

OK- so what does work? A lot of people frown on passive crossovers. They reason that those capacitors, inductors and resistors get in the way. But here's the rub-- you have those tone control circuits anyway-- if they're not in a passive crossover, then they're in each amp, or in an active crossover-- doing the same thing with similar parts! All you've done is rearrange where you put the circuitry!

So, if this separated amp kind of system is going to play-- ALL the amps MUST be EXACTLY alike. Not only that, all speaker cables and interconnects to this system must be identical-- and of equal lengths. Now, the system can start to work-- as well as it can, that is.

But- it's still a great big mess. What happens when a tube in one of the amps slides a bit-- and that amp is now out-of-time-alignment with the others? It's non-coherent again! (to some extent-- the uninitiated will think it's OK-- but you'll know!--- it's NOT OK!

OK-- what else? What if an amp could be designed that could actually drive all of the drivers simultaneously and do a great job on each one? Ever seen/heard an amp that can do that? You can count those on 4 of your fingers, but they do exist and two are Solid-State. Well, that's nice! Here we have equal representation-- tubes and Solid-State! Yes, I believe we do...

Remember here that the passive crossover-- OR the frequency-shaping networks applied to each amp (if you Tri-amp, or quad-amp)-- the parts are there in either case, and so-- if either is built right, they're a non-issue, Flip a Coin on that question-- there isn't any question.... in either case, simply use the best parts and designs.

Is there an advantage to be gained here? OK, then, How? If you use only one S.E. amp, then you're not going to generate skews between equipment and wiring that are going to be heard at your speaker drivers.

The only question left is can the amp do it--- ALL of it-- ALL of it simultaneously-- ALL of it fully presented?.

And, what happens if it can, and you've paid attention to cable lengths and wire types, and you've still time-aligned the drivers-- but this time, you only had to align them to the room-- you didn't have to mix that with amp-alignment also.

What does it sound like when done right? Better than anything you ever thought possible. Why do it? Less room-heating, less maintenance, less fuss, less bother MUCH better reliability and FAR greater overall musical performance.

What's not to like? Maybe still not convinced? Going to get it right anyway-- just use the right amp for each driver?

Nope! You can do it, blow a lotta bucks, but it still won't play with the best single-amp system.

One last note-- in all those years of theatre-building-- it was amplifiers that were-- and still are-- the sorriest parts in the entire system(s).

It seems almost tyrannical-- the "better" the theories, the lousier they sound. We can't (or don't) measure the most important things that are required to play back music.

What we can do is apply common sense, and see where that leads us. If you pursue it long enough, you will indeed arrive at the Gold Mine.

By that time, one could be old and battered! OR-- you could take a look at what we have learned already-- and apply that.

---Dennis---

Edits: 07/31/12

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