Muralman, with all due respect the theme of your post should have been: are the Scintillas on the brink of extinction? BTW, I've already heard several prominent amp makers suggest that every day for the eAR maker is turning out to be Ground Hog Day. No wonder you love them. |
Muralman, surely you mean conniption? And if not, you should at least try to define extinction, especially for those of us not as blessed as you. |
My Dear, you cannot plagiarize a quote that's already extinct. |
Muralman, the sublety of the above posts is obviously lost on you so let me, the "feisty one", spell it out. You come across as a shill (look it up). You would have us believe that a discontinued speaker generously described as notorious now powered by a "revolutionary" amp only sold "factory-direct" defines the "state of the art". Who can replicate your experience? And why would we take your "word" when you so easily confuse dB with Hz in your posts? And your obsequious email to Acoustic Reality as "Vince" 11/03 undermines your veracity to the point that I must ask: What financial stake do you have in the North American distribution of Acoustic Reality products? Better yet, where can I find these gems at CES next month? |
Muralman, chastized as such by the choir, I accept the sincerity of your posts and offer my apologies for any doubt expressed indeftly. Rgcards says it best, indeed. BTW, have you sold your Pass Labs? I might be interested. |
Unsound, electricity has not replaced winding megaphonographs at all. It simply has taken over the winding. For a romantic evening would you prefer GEs incandescents with a space heater or some candles and a crackling fire? |
Unsound, if electricity has replaced the megaphone, i.e., non-electronically amplified sound, then why do we still have concert halls? Must be that "day-to-day" basis thing I guess. You prove Seandtaylor99's point exactly: new technology generally becomes mainstream but seldom displaces its predecessor for the special occasion. Cinema did not kill theatre nor did television supplant movies. No home stereo can bare to compete with LA's new Disney Concert Hall. I will concede however that Class D digital amps could be the perfect complement to incandescent light bulbs and space heaters, though the fluorescent afficionados are already cying foul. |
Muralman, your boundless enthusiasm for your amps has me wanting ot explore Class D further. What I've heard in stores has not impressed me so I'm trying to set up some home auditions. I can get my hands on a Spectron Musician II but where do I find the eARs? Is it true they are only sold "factory-direct"? |
Ecclectique (fabulous moniker BTW) of course owners of low impedance speakers will find digital amplification synergistic, much as those with high impedance speakers embrace single ended triodes. To each their own, except for those of us who champion the sound of music in real time. |
Muralman, I don't know how you came to interpret my last statement to mean that here is always an advantage to latter production speakers. BTW I certainly do not think there is always an advantage latter production amplifiers either. I've heard remarkably good low and high impedance systems but none can yet truly get the sound of music quite right. That's all I meant really. I am truly glad you have found a combination that evokes so much passion. In fact I'd love to hear it! I never liked SETs until I heard the right setup either. You congratulate Ecclectique for being one of the few people who have heard the Scintilla properly powered. And that is part of the problem: so few of us can hear for ourselves and make our own judgments regarding your claims. I have found that any speaker sounds much better "properly powered". Only most speakers have a greater range of "proper" amplification choices than your Scintillas, allowing for more individual tastes and preferences to be considered (ie row E or H from your listening chair?) Not to mention choice of Pre-Amp. What is the rest of your system besides the eAR and the Scintillas? For the record I'm running koetsu/triplanar/delphi V, Shanling SCD-T200 and MD 108 front ends into an HP 100 to JA 100s to W/P 7s. Just ordered the HP 200 and the Radia however the latter being the most amazing SS amp I have heard at least on the W/P 7s. We are more alike than you may think with my running cutting edge dynamic speaker design with "antiquated" amps and your running quite the opposite. |
Calanctus, the Tripath Bel Cantos sounded bad on Quad 988s and Jadis Eurhythmies but not too bad on my W/P 7s. The HCA-2 and Spectron Musician II sounded very good on all transducers auditioned and startled me with their performance. For the money I don't think you can beat the Spectron. But for sheer musicality the Radia takes the cake, easily. But I must say that the Quad 988s powered by bridged-mono Hovland Sapphires lit my wick recently as well. |
While I'm assembling my comparisons of available class D amps, a few corrections of the myths already evolving regarding these things are in order, courtesy of my father, a well repected audio engineer for the various recording studios and soundstages here in Los Angeles. Class D circuit topology has been around since 1947. Infinity made an attempt to develop them first in the 70s with Carver and of late Tact Millennium further desecrating their potential. The genre was resurrected by the EU's mandate that power supplies not backwash "hash" onto their 220v system which necessitates class D switching power supplies or major performance restricting filters on conventional power supplies such as those found on most North American amplifiers such as Krell, Audio Research, Classe, Bryston, Theta, Pass Labs, VTL, Boulder, Conrad Johnson, Rowland, Levinson, you know those antiquated slouches. If we can do it to their cars once they achieve certain market share here (smog devices, retractable bumpers, etc) why wouldn't they do it to our amps? I think an American free-ranging Ferrari might have the same effect as European free-ranging Boulder. Who knows?
Whatever the case, the first really listenable class D amp was developed exclusively by Karsten Nielsen of Bang & Olufsen who was allowed to form his own subsidiary called ICEpower. Acoustic Reality had nothing to do with the development, only the hype. And Nielsen himself is embarrassed by the Euro-Hype surrounding his product as he expressed in his candid presentation of its limitations at the Audio Engineering Society Convention in NYC this past October, which I attended. Any rush to get on the "feeding chain" will be determined by the need to serve the EU market. To which Muralman's "Jiffy-Pop" analogy should prove especiably translatable. |
Rgcards, the Bang & Olufsen store here on Colorado Blvd. will be getting the BeoLab 5 speakers soon and I will definitely listen carefully. I suspect class D amplification will find its niche with self-powered speakers and might thus redefine the art.
Btw, if this post does not appear at least three times consecutively then there is something wrong with my "enter" key. |
Rgcards, the B&O store here in Pasadena actually already had the Beolab 5s so I was able to audition them, albeit in a smallish showroom fronted by components heavier on form than function. But I was still very impressed much to my surprise and perhaps even chagrin, much like you. My understanding is that they use 4 different class D ICEmodules per speaker each customized for the particular driver to which it is driving. I think that is the future especially when SPDIF/PCM can be transmitted directly to the digitally optimized self powered speaker (so long Nordost Valhallas, thank you very much) converting to analog at the last available juncture. B&O has had the most experience with really well designed class D amps (since 1999) and isn't it interesting that they chose to apply their technology to self-powered speakers rather than free-standing amps.
I've had a chance to listen to several recent class D amps (Bel Canto, PS Audio, Spectron) and I will again say that I was surprised. There is an impressive price/performance ratio here, one that can only be good for the high end: transistors have goaded tubes into never sounding better; CD players have resurrected turntables, now arguably "ne plus ultra" front ends, and I'm sure the first well-executed class D amps will bring the stratospheric pricing of the status quo more into the line of the earthbound.
For what it's worth, the finest SS amps I have auditioned in my home so far have been the Halcro dm 58s, the Classe CAM 350 monoblocs, mono-bridged BEL 1001 MkVs and the Hovland Radia, the latter being my ultimate choice, mostly for my wife who prefers its sound for her remixes as she VJs for the private club scene here. Not to worry, the JA 100s standby, fired up and ready for when she returns seeking solace from the fray. Guess what her favotite amp is? |
Iseekheils, your moniker is so trippy I have to ask what it connotes. Are you seeking Heils for Hitler or lamenting the demise of the eponymous speaker? Or maybe an odd phonetic rendering of Ezekiel? Whatever the case you should definitely mod your HCA-2s, especially with a tube driver input stage. Then again you could always buy something unheard, hyped, and "factory direct". After all "they're your Euros" as my alliterative Scandinavian associates are so kind to remind us "New Worlders". |
