Audio Madness! I am going to go crazy...

[Seth=L]

Also, I did a few back of the napkin calculations, and if my assumptions on your speaker sensitivity are close (86db/w, which could be generous as I mentioned up-thread) and distance (I used 8'), the 25 watt amp should hit clean up to 95 db or so, which is quite loud. So I agree, you're probably not running it in the red for polite chamber music, but you have very little margin for less polite levels. M&K's have always been the sort of speaker that didn't mind being flogged with a bit of power, given their low impedance and sensitivity. (FWIW, transient clipping is generally not a huge deal and wouldn't likely affect openness or sound stage unless occurring at gross levels, where the effects would be intolerable in a multitude of ways. I'm just a fan of more than enough amplifier headroom, to reproduce transient peaks in all their glory.)

I was listening at very low volumes, probably using less than 2 watts. I didn't level match, (no stand alone spl meter). If I had a noise generator I could use the SPL meter on my phone to get a rough level match but I do not. Funny enough I have both those things on my phone but cannot use them simultaneously. I'm going to try to fanangle something with my computer and the phone's SPL meter and see what I can accomplish.

 

[Seth=L]

All products should be purchased blind-folded. A handler should guide you into the room and equipment should be switched by an impartial source that is not allowed to speak and should have no discernable odor.

Of course, this will also be invalid since it will not be in your home.
Completely invalid as well.


-Rich

Seems legit.

 

[RichB]

You may well be correct, but I do find it improbable. The difference was dramatic. I might run another experiment again this evening if I am patient enough to do it.

I have listened to amps that are clearly distorting and ones that are not. In such a case, controls are not necessary since the difference is obvious. I also know that my systems sounds better than it did when I first bought the Revels but the processor (or lack thereof), DAC, and amps are all new. Attributing improvements is difficult.

I can say the USB DAC / J River / J Remote has revolutionized my music listening. I can find and play whatever I want in seconds ... and it sounds great too.

- Rich

 

[Goliath]

I was listening at very low volumes, probably using less than 2 watts. I didn't level match, (no stand alone spl meter). If I had a noise generator I could use the SPL meter on my phone to get a rough level match but I do not. Funny enough I have both those things on my phone but cannot use them simultaneously. I'm going to try to fanangle something with my computer and the phone's SPL meter and see what I can accomplish.

So you didn't level-match.

An SPL meter wouldn't do the job either - we are talking about electrical measurements here, not acoustic measurements, which are simply too coarse to be of any value.

You need a multimeter to read the voltages across the speaker terminals to match their levels properly. In lieu of any volume matching you could hear just about anything your heart desires.

Even a 'significant' difference on first listen may have been slightly over-exaggerated. Who knows. Just understand that any listening that is done at different volume levels, however small, is going to result in sound quality differences no matter what.

 

[Seth=L]

So you didn't level-match.

An SPL meter wouldn't do the job either - we are talking about electrical measurements here, not acoustic measurements, which are simply too coarse to be of any value.

You need a multimeter to read the voltages across the speaker terminals to match their levels properly. In lieu of any volume matching you could hear just about anything your heart desires.

Even a 'significant' difference on first listen may have been slightly over-exaggerated. Who knows. Just understand that any listening that is done at different volume levels, however small, is going to result in sound quality differences no matter what.

Nice.

I dragged the A-1D back into the living room. I just put some nice Boston Acoustics VR-M50 speakers in place of the Infinity IL10s and started listening with the little tripath powered Teac AG-L800 receiver I had set up there and I was enjoying the sound until I encountered one track that tripped something up. I started hearing a rather consistent "noise" from the tweeters on both speakers. I didn't want to immediately assume the tweeters were at fault, but after all these are used speakers. So in order to rule out the speakers as the cause I switched the A-1D into the setup, got everything wired up and plugged in the power. Magically the mysterious tweeter "noise" has vanished, and so has the nice open and clean top end and along with it the huge soundstage. This is no minor difference, the amplifier must not be operating correctly. Now I'm not sure what to do, the 50 watt per channel A-1D is the most powerful amplifier I have currently. The AG-L800 behaves weirdly and I've had to do some work to it as well, so it probably has bigger problems than the A1-D.

Had a Marantz SR 8002, guess I should have kept it.

 

[RichB]

If you are looking for a two channel system, the new Parasound Integrated has plenty of power and it's a DAC too:

http://www.parasound.com/halo/integrated.php

- Rich

 

[Seth=L]

If you are looking for a two channel system, the new Parasound Integrated has plenty of power and it's a DAC too:

http://www.parasound.com/halo/integrated.php

- Rich

Woo, I bet that is pricey. I switched in the little 25 watt per channel CR-H220, no weird tweeter "noise" and no flat boring lifeless sound.