In Reply to: Better tweeters for my AP Avanti IIIs posted by jeffreybehr on March 27, 2011 at 16:21:22:
These Avanti IIIs were replaced a few years ago with Vandersteen 5As, after I realized that, after my fooling around with removing x-overs and actively amping the bass drivers, the quality of the Avantis' bass wasn't as good as I wanted. The 5As lasted a couple years and were replaced last year by the excellent Serenity Acoustics Super-7s and a pair of First Watt J2, 30WPC-into-8, all-JFET, class-A-biased poweramps. BUT...since I'm now, at 71 years old, starting to downsize, this week I moved those S7s out and the Avantis into place, connected them to my J2s (to which I added an input cap creating a nominal-190Hz HP filter), borrowed a friend's pair of plate amps, and they're running...after about 4 years of literally gathering dust. I also reinstalled the (parts-improved) Vandersteen VCC centerchannel speaker. (I had been using the open-baffle, mag-planar Eminent Technology RFT-12 with the open-baffle S7s.)
With the channels of the J2s paralleled (with the blessing of Mr. Pass), each now-monoamp is rated at 30 into 8 and 60 into 4; the Avantis are rated at 4 Ohms. The sound overall is very good, verging on excellent, and I believe that'll improve slightly with break-in. With no padding of the B-G Neo3PDR tweeters, the system is again a dB or 2 too bright, but probably I'll fix that with a 1- or 2-Ohm resistor. Time will tell if the 60W.-into-4 J2 monoamps have enough power driving the MR and treble; right now the combination sounds quite good.
My goodbuddy had a pair of inexpensive 250-Watt plateamps that I borrowed, and the bass already sounds better (I think) than it did years ago. At least it now sounds very good--well integrated with the lower-MR--and it didn't years ago--and that's what triggered the Avantis' dismissal from my system. I had an inexpensive, mono, third-octave equalizer in the CC system; took that out and am using that in the right bass channel, to good effect, in that the bass on that side of the room is less 'lumpy'.
Have purchased another 31-band mono eq. and will install that in the left channel. More later, probably in a new thread.
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Follow Ups
- Summer-of-2015 update--they're back :-) - jeffreybehr 07/22/1516:37:51 07/22/15 (0)