You have three choices IMHO for a decent solid-state amp.
#1
AB International
#2
Amplifier Technologies Inc.
#3
Emotiva Audio Corporation/Jade Designs
That is, of course, simply wrong on fact.
There are many, many makers of just fine amps. For example, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Bryston, Anthem, Crown, McIntosh, etc. (Sure, some are more expensive than others. Whatever. Some of those, such as the Anthem PVA-series, can be had for reasonable money.)
Emotiva's not one of 'em. They're too cheap to pay for an
OSHA-approved NRTL to certify their electrical safety. If an amp doesn't have a stamp of approval from an NRTL on the back, a smart person doesn't buy it.
And the budget price is no excuse. Sherwood Newcastle stickered their
seven channel A-965 for just 1500 USD through local dealers, and Jeff Hipps, et al., weren't too cheap to get the proper safety certifications for it. (They also otherwise engineered it better than one typically finds in cheap amps, with one of the blackest noise floors of any amp I've ever heard. In the same league as Anthem Statement, Bryston, and McIntosh.
A cheap amp is very expensive if one has a house fire and the claims agent uses the fact that one had a high voltage/current device that lacked the appropriate NRTL safety certification in the home to deny one's insurance claim.
hmm... I have seven of those monoblocks. They do perform a lot better with 6-8 ohm and the noise floor does climb as it dips to 4 ohm.
That's of course not the issue. The issue is that the Emotivas, in addition to lacking the safety certifications that would make them suitable for use in a domestic dwelling, want people to think their amps "sound better." That's how they get the rabid fans they have, after all, by sounding noticeably different from other amps. So they jack up the gain, and to hell with the noise problems that creates. For most inefficient speakers, it doesn't hurt anything, though it does limit their market a bit.
What you describe sounds like "syllabus" or "bright" as people describe it. It's basically high frequency distortion. When people talk does it seem the the letter S like in the words "sucks" sorta roll off with a SSSssss?
I suspect it's more like hiss, even with nothing playing.
PS: it's "sibilance."
Generally compression coaxial tweeters are RAGGED on FR plots and ARE NOT A DECENT TWEETER IMHO.
Incorrect. It's the diaphragm (dome, ribbon, cone, planar, whatever) mounted on a 180-deg waveguide (a.k.a. a flat baffle) that is simply
incapable of high-fidelity music reproduction under the vast majority of circumstances.
Show me one "high-end" design for real meaning a "real" pedigree loudspeaker design for home use that uses a coaxial driver that would be considered "modern" as a design from the last 15 or so years.
So as to not repeat myself,
KEF Reference 201/2
You won't because they don't exist....
Oh, what was that above?
Just for good measure, here's another from a different maker:
Gradient Revolution.
and you know why? Because coaxial tweet/mid drivers generally SUCK on the highend as transducers. A simple look at the spec sheet will reveal this with ALL OF THEM.
Please show me the spec sheet that shows a compression driver on a proper low-diffraction waveguide.
Here, for reference, is what a Chinese clone of the B&C DE250 can do, on a low diffraction 12" waveguide:
Note not just the exemplary on-axis performance, but the properly controlled directivity. You won't find that with some 180deg waveguide.
You know what coaxial drivers are manufactured for most and in what application they are used? friggin PA speakers for musak etc in hotels and they are generally examples of the worst transducer design you'll ever see.
Such speakers typically have tweeters on a post or a bridge, not high-quality BMS ring radiators (judging by your stridently ignorant comments, a superior device to anything you've yet heard) firing through the pole piece of a cones designed to control their directivity. The JTR design also minimizes midrange cone motion by using a large midrange cone - which also helps increase the ratio of direct sound to reflections, unlike some stupid dome or ribbon flushed into a 180deg waveguide that indiscriminately sprays all over the front hemisphere - and by crossing it over to helper woofers.
PS sensitivity is a BS spec for home audio for the most part unless your a tard and use tube amps!
That reads as if it were written by someone who has yet to hear actual high fidelity reproduction.
Dynamics matter in real music.
Thermal compression matters in real audio systems.
Energy efficiency matters to civilized people.
hahah It's so funny to see people be concerned about it and let that spec make them decide the loudspeaker and then... because it doesn't sound right... LOL... they go and buy a 500 pound gorilla amp like an ATI3000 series to drive a 98dB speaker!!!
Well, that is a bit silly, I'd agree. With a speaker in the mid 90's, there's not much reason to go beyond 100W/ch. Unless it's cheap and can be done without noise.
PSS did you know that an amplifier will have MORE NOISE at 1W driven than at say 60% load! DUH!!!!!!
Not if it's a good one.
OK TANNOY's designs...
SURE LOOKS LIKE MODERN TRANSDUCER DESIGN TO ME!
no comment
You really should've just stuck to that "no comment."
Of course it doesn't look modern. That's because it isn't, and you're not knowledgeable enough to know that it isn't.
Tannoy retired that design long ago. Their current designs feature an improved phase plug (the "Tulip" radial design, as opposed to the pictured "Pepperpot"), and many other functional enhancements compared to the old Gold.
And some Englishmen still think they have an empire
Again, someone who knew something would know that Tannoy (like KEF, Quad, etc.) are now Chinese...
Indeed. I did several times reading your screed.
Do you realize you could have got Brian Dings "Direct Servo" subs in a CUSTOM Salk Signature Sound cabinet for just over HALF the price Seaton is asking!
Seaton's sub is much better. That flake's servo system compromises something material (top-end bandwidth) for something useless (lower 2d order distortion).
Salk's cabinetry is gorgeous, though.
I'm not sure how large your room is but if it's not to big I'd take a serious look at the Ascend Sierra Tower and Sierra Horizon Center.
Are you seriously suggesting a non-matching front trio?
Whatever respect I had, now officially gone.
There are two ways to do front speakers:
(1) identical speakers, at identical heights, in identical orientations
(2) flawed
