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RE: This Amplifier Should Be A Fine Match For Planars

Posted by Mister Pig (A) on March 2, 2008 at 07:29:06

In Reply to: RE: This Amplifier Should Be A Fine Match For Planars posted by morricab on March 2, 2008 at 03:06:12:

Those are reasonable impedance points, thats for sure. However, I grew up in a city that had an Apogee dealer close by. Matter of fact, I grew up in the halycon days of planars. Seen and heard them all, couldnt afford them cause I was a college student. Also worked in an audio store that had its own service department. Great job for a college student by the way. The combination of local Apogee dealer, and service department meant that I was able to deduce a few things from direct observation. Many people who bought Calipers and Duettas and ran them with mid-tier solid state amplifers eventually brought their amps in for service. We saw dead B&K ST 140 and ST 202. Dead Adcom. Dead NAD. Those are the ones I remember. Service department was a busy place in general. Talked with the Apogee dealer, nice guy. His opinion was that the value priced SS amplifiers, and the commercial japanese ones were going to fail eventually on the Apogees.....the line in general. These amps seemed to do fine for a year, 16 months, maybe 2 years. And then the magic smoke came out. Also, Calipers were somewhat affordable. A guy woiuld devote a lion share of his budget to the Calipers, and then use what he had left to find an amplifier that could theoretically run them. Quite often this strategy didnt pan out. These are my experiences, take it for what its worth.

High powered SET and planars. Heard of this combination, but its an odd one. I have lived with SET amplifiers for the last 7 years or so. Had many 13 wpc versions. Art Audio Diavolo, Electra-Print 300DRD, ASL SE-811. Have run speakers with 88 and 90 DB efficiency on them. Cones n Domes, but with simple x-overs. It works, but isnt optimal. Higher efficiency speakers always sounded better. Low order x-overs and stable impedance curves were also an important factor. Personally, I wouldnt invest my audio kitty in a planar/SET kit. I have yet to experience any low efficeincy/SET combination that shows promise. And for what its worth, a 20 wpc SET is cost prohibitive. Thats a whole briefcase of cash. At least a true SET using transmitter tubes.

Regards
Mister Pig

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