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In Reply to: Agreed... posted by clio09 on January 25, 2008 at 21:05:28:
I've used a single and also a pair of SM-70PRO's on my QUAD ESL-57's using just a 100k pot and selector switch, this is of course not a PREAMP because there is no AMP pre- or otherwise in the control circuit.
It sounded good. Generally speaking the mids and lows from an SM70 PRO sound too "clinical" on an ESL-57; the highs are to die for, but the mids and lows of the ESL57 like a little more euphonious coloration- the SM70 is too accurate, really. I like a hybrid tube amp on the ESL57's, with a little looser bass and that certain "liquid" midrange which is really some kind of coloration you get from the interaction of the ESL57's weird impedance curve with a tube amps' output transformer. With the SM70pro the frequency response seems ruler flat, and after listening to a tube amp which bloats up the midbass / midrange a bit, you get to LIKE that bloat.
Taking the active preamp out and just using a pot and a switch, you hear a little more clarity through the SM70pro, but it's not as big a change as you heard wehn you went from a class AB amp to the SM70. The SM70 itself is the source of audio goodness, and it doesn't seem to be much of an improvement to take all the active stages out ahead of it, unless of course the preamp is some attrotious piece of crap.
I have FOUR SM70's, I use them all over. I am driving the ribbon tweeter of my tri-amped Magnepan MG 3.6 with one of them, and I can't begin to tell you how great THAT sounds. The SM70 is one FANTASTIC sounding amplifier, especially in the higher registers, where bipolar class AB amps all sound really harsh, to my ears. In fact, I use the SM70 to prove to my friends that different amps have different sound. Replacing the SM70 pro driving the ribbon drivers with a good bipolar / class AB / high feedback design and then going back to the Monarchy amps- it is like NIGHT and DAY. The difference in sound is NOT subtle! All the AB / high feedback amps sound like they are generating bursts of noise along with the sound, up in the 6 kHz range. It causes IMMEDIATE "turn it DOWN!" reactions. Playing the same music with the Monarchy driving the ribbons (the xover is 1500 Hz) - at the SAME loudness level as verified by a good SPL meter- and listeners say WOW what an incredible DIFFERENCE! Cymbals sound like shimmering plates of brass and not like bursts of air escaping from a compressor along with breaking glass. People who SWEAR that all amps sound alike ALL leave saying "I guess different amps DO sound different." There has not been ONE SINGLE amp skeptic who has heard this demo who was not INSTANTLY converted to understand that the difference in amp sound is sometimes NOT AT ALL SUBTLE.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Agreed... - BillMilosz 01/26/0802:40:20 01/26/08 (1)
- Part of that phenomena - E-Stat 07:14:23 01/26/08 (0)
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