Amp upgrade?

[BrianC]

I'm all giddy about my new Sierra 1's (recommended by you all), which should be here in a few days! So like a good little audiophile, I'm combing through my system and cleaning everything up in preparation for the new arrivals. They will be fed by a Yamaha 673 used as pre/pro, and a Hafler XL-280.

Any thoughts on this combo feeding Sierras?

Also, has anyone experienced the Musical Concepts upgrade to Hafler amps? Its a tad expensive, but I wonder if it's worth the dough, as applied to the Sierras.

Thanks

 

[GIEGAR]

Excellent speakers Brian!

Very briefly... the Hafler amp mods are a complete waste of money.

What sub(s) are you running?

 

[BrianC]

Thank you, I needed to hear that about Hafler mods.

I'm currently using a Klipsch Synergy 12. Good enough for movies, but craps for music. Also, a fair amount of deadspots in the room. Room is 22x15w. 75% of the right side of the room opens up to dining area or upstair-case. Listening position in about 12-14ft from speakers.

 

[BrianC]

check out what I can do in stopped Bay Bridge traffic! I'm available for hire...

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

You should definitely invest in better interconnects, like from Tara labs
[/Sarcasm]

Now seriously - Klipsch Synergy sub sucks - you need to get solid music sub. Call SVS - but I think PB2000 is the one for you
as an option this one: POWER SOUND AUDIO — XS15se Home Audio Powered Subwoofer

 

[BrianC]

Being more impressed with quality sound in music, should I go sealed? Will 1 of these subs fill my space just fine with a pair of Sierra 1's?

 

[GIEGAR]

Thank you, I needed to hear that about Hafler mods.

I'm currently using a Klipsch Synergy 12. Good enough for movies, but craps for music. Also, a fair amount of deadspots in the room. Room is 22x15w. 75% of the right side of the room opens up to dining area or upstair-case. Listening position in about 12-14ft from speakers.

No problem Brian. I usually don't post "hit & run" like that but I had to scoot off yesterday. I realise you don't need further convincing, but I should expand on why I said that...

This is the page I found about the Halfer mods: Musical Design | Hafler Amp.

The first aspect to note is the complete lack of any technical explanation for the claimed improvements and a reliance on a heap of flowery, subjective prose. The gig was up third paragraph when particular makes of metal film resistors were described:

They sound clearly superior in the sense of lucidity, soundstage and overall naturalness. There is a sense of a quieter, darker background that allows the instruments and voices to be more clearly located in transparent space. All PA-4 series driver boards,excepting the SE, have these superb sounding resistors. The PA-4 Elite Ultra version uses the wonderfully dynamic, dimensional, rich, powerful sounding Takman resistors. Yes, some things are worth the extra expense.

This continues all the way through with sonic "properties" attributed to components such as circuit boards, eutectic solder joints, electrolytic capacitors and various Rhodium-plated bits; eventually ending with this about the dual-mono power supply conversion:

Improve the transparency, focus, imaging, bass solidity and resolution abilities of your amplifier with the tried and true optimization of your power supply for a mono amplifier level of sonic results. The ability of the amplifier to sound more "together" and unstrained is greatly improved.

This is all just rolled-gold nonsense designed to extract cash from the gullible tweaker. All price points are neatly catered for too!

Coupled with this is the second aspect... There are no testing results or measurements provided whatsoever. If the claimed improvements are so apparent, where are the measurements to back it up? That's right... Musical Design didn't actually make any specific technical claims that can be measured!

These few posts by Arny Kruger cover it much better than I can: (Vintage) Hafler XL-600 Musical Concepts Modifications - AVS Forum


Brian, I enquired about your subs because you didn't mention them and your other equipment is fine. Depending on your answer, I was going to suggest that the money would be far better spent putting towards a sub upgrade. It looks like you're right on top of that though.

 

[GIEGAR]

Being more impressed with quality sound in music, should I go sealed? Will 1 of these subs fill my space just fine with a pair of Sierra 1's?

I would Brian, because I'm partial to sealed subs in general. But an accurate sub is an accurate sub regardless of whether it's ported or sealed. A ported sub will have greater output at port tune, which is handy to reproduce the loud/dynamic LFE (boom!) in movies but response drops off quickly (24dB/octave) below tune. The equivalent sealed sub won't play as loud but it's gentler roll-off (12dB/octave) gives it an opportunity to lock into some "cabin gain" from the room and extend it's low end. For a ported sub to play as low, the box needs to be significantly larger to lower it's tuning frequency.

I personally favour sealed subs for this smooth and extended in-room low end and their relatively compact size. The compact size also makes it easier to scatter more around the room to achieve a smoother response over the listening area, further extend the low end and increase the total output by an average of 3dB each time you double the number of them.

My favourite sealed sub is the Rythmik Audio • 15" servo subwoofer F15. As you may be aware, you can order Rythmik via Ascend Acoustics. As you're a very recent Sierra customer, Ascend may still give you the "5% when purchased with speakers" discount.

With respect to filling your space (2640ft^3 assuming 8' ceilings), I have an email at home from Enrico at Rythmik advising what space a single F15 can "handle". I'll find it later and let you know.

 

[GIEGAR]

Reference the above, below is the advice from Rythmik I received. To explain, Rythmik's DS1501 CI kit builds a DIY F15 and the DS1510 CI kit builds a DIY F15HP or FV15HP.

Two DS1501 CI Kits can handle easily a room till 6000 cuft, so you should be fine. As you said, two DS1510 CI Kits are overkill.

Best Regards,

Enrico Castagnetti
Rythmik Audio - Tech Support

You can readily infer from this that a single Rythmik F15 will fine filling your ~2640ft^3 room.


How are those Sierra 1's going Brian?