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Am I the only one to opt-out on the Sopra 2's?

I home auditioned a pair of broken-in Sopra 2's for over a week (Clayton M 100's and Naim 272 pre).  I began by loving them but then gradually found them fatiguing.  Then I noticed that I'd been making excuses for them when high notes became painful and the sound stage seemed blurred.   So I tried Dynaudio C1's, also broken in,  and everything was suddenly better.  I ended up with C2's  and could tell a difference even when they were not broken in. All of these speakers were auditioned with a REL subwoofer.  In the end, I not only disliked the Sopra's, I disliked them a lot.  All the Sopra reviews seem to be generally favorable.  I know I'm probably in a minority, but in my system, the Sopra's were a failure.  Its been suggested that my reaction was because I was  used to the Dynaudio tweeters in my Merlin VSM's, but I think it was more than that.  Anyone else have a similar experience?
hinde

Showing 2 responses by mmeysarosh

mmeysarosh
126 posts
 
Erik seems to be spot on in regards to the Sopra 2 being demanding for power right around 80-100hz. It goes below 4 Ohm and and includes pretty demanding phase angle as well. The NRC measurements published by Soundstage has both plots.

It wouldn't surprise if the bookshelf design had taken into account a less beefy amp and adjusted accordingly. Sounds like your situation was a system mismatch.
mmeysarosh
126 posts
 
Not being familiar with Mac gear, it appears to be a very hefty amplifier with some design specs that are somewhat uncommon.

First it appears to produce 450w of power no matter the load 8,4, or 2 Ohm. We more commonly see increases (and sometimes decreases) as impedance drops. The other is the three sets of taps which are rated for 8,4, or 2 Ohm. This again a fairly unique element for their amps.

While I doubt the 2 Ohm taps are necessary, maybe some experimentation between 4 and 8 ohms would be worth while test. This model does stay fairly low going from the baser to the mids and then goes up a good but as it moves up.
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