Mono Blocks on a Budget, is it possible?

Tomorrow I'm going to go pick up a pair of the Crown XLS 1502's and try them vertical bi-amped with my Nautilus 801's that I picked up last weekend.  My Schiit Saga is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.  My Schiit Vidar is supposed to arrive on Saturday. 

I'm currently running my Meridian Explorer directly into my Velodyne ULD-15 then to my Yamaha M-85 (not optimal.)  Something in the ULD-15 processing or just adding the sub makes the system sound OKish right now.  I'm looking forward to the pre-amp getting here and I expect to remove the sub from the system.  It's a band aide at the moment.  

So I'll have four amplifiers to experiment with this weekend.  I can also try the Crown XLS 1502's in bridged mode with jumpers and compare that to bi-amped.  I like that the 1502's have a Y-mode so I only have to run one pair of RCA's from the pre amp to the amps.  That's incredibly helpful.

I have a Audioquest headphone->RCA cable, Transparent Audio Labs Musiclink Plus RCAs and an Anticable 2.2 RCA on order.  Assuming that I wind up with a pair of amps, I intend to order 3' Anticables speaker cables (probably 3.1s) for bi-amping.  It's a pretty efficient use of cables, I think.  Less than $500 total cable cost if they sound good is excellent.

I suspect I'll wind up trying a Schiit DAC in the future. 

This thread seems like a better place to post all of this information rather than my own thread since it will be comparing several of the things mentioned in this thread.  And this thread got me looking at the Crown amps.  They're available for pickup at Guitar Center according to their website and they should be able to price match to $349.  They even have a 14 day return policy if I decide that some combination of the Schiit amp or my Yamaha is better.

Should be a fun weekend!

I will keep posting as I listen more but as of right now I am impressed with the Crown XLS 1502s.  Almost my entire front end of my system is brand new right now, though.  The reviews of the amps say they need at least 100 hours to break in and I am sure the Saga will keep getting better.  Tubes take a long time to settle in?  

As it is, it is all slightly harsh, but really impressive most of the time.  I have it set up vertically bi-amped right now, and I can try bridged later.

The Vidar gets here tomorrow, so I will definitely have an opinion on it as soon as I feel it gets settled in a little bit.

I like it all enough that I went ahead and ordered four 3 foot Anticables.  If I don’t wind up with the Crown amps or a pair of Vidar, I am pretty sure I will have a pair of amps driving the system.

For anyone who read my post above about comparing the Crown 1502's to the Schiit Vidar in my system, it's not even close.  It's actually surprising how much better the Vidar sounds. 

Now, that said, the configuration that I've found that sounds the most fun is to bridge the Crown amps for the low end on each side and run the Vidar amp to the upper end.  That way I get everything that's great about the Vidar amp with the basically unlimited power of the Crown amps for the bass.

If I listen to Erykah Badu with just the Vidar powering both speakers (with a jumper,) the low end isn't involving enough to really be fun.  I decided to try the Crown amps bridged and this is the fun I'm looking for.  As a bonus, I get level control for the bottom end through the amps.  

Is this the most high end configuration possible for these speakers?  No way.  But it's the most fun with what I have here in front of me.  The only other thing I want to try is driving the bass with the Yamaha M-85 I was using, but I don't actually have speaker wires to try that right now.  I have 3' Transparent The Wall speaker wires that I was using in my bedroom system (40" TV and CDM2's on my dresser.)  

I bought a bunch of Rockwool Safe N Sound on sale yesterday at Home Depot for $14/bag.  I'm going to make a bunch of sound absorption in the next week or so and see if that improves things further. 

I need to write to Anticable and see if I can modify my speaker cable order still or if it's too late.  I guess if they offer a trial/return policy then I can return them before they ship them.  I'm still not 100% sure what the best cable configuration is.  I was most surprised that I seem to prefer my Straghtwire interconnects to the Tranparent Music Link Plus for the high end.

I think my conclusion for the OP, as it pertains to this thread, is that it's way more complicated than someone in a forum on the Internet being able to just say "do this."  Maybe you'd love the Pass Labs recommended above in mono-block form, or maybe a couple of Crown amps like I have ($350/each) bridged for the bottom end would work for you, too, and leave you $2200 for a very sweet amp for the top.  My friend in college had Legacy speakers.  I'm sure they could have used a lot of power.

Why not bi-amp?  I don't have balanced outputs with the Saga so I can't try mine as a mono-block.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if it sounded better bi-amping, either vertical or horizontally. 

I'm just running Transparent The Wall wire right now to the bottom end and it sounds pretty good.  You could test the configuration with inexpensive wires.

Alright, I turned off my noisy projector and my phone says 47-52 db ambient noise with the HVAC off.  My phone doesn't seem to pick up the HVAC noise, but I can hear it when it's on.  If I put my head right in front of the speaker and turn the Vidar off and back on again, I can hear ever so slight of a hiss coming from the mid driver.  I would say relatively it's maybe 1/2 as loud as the hiss coming from the woofer which is being driven by the Crown amps.  So I have a little bit of noise coming from both amps.

I can't hear it from my listening position over the ~50db ambient noise.  

This does really make me want to build something to isolate my HVAC and projector noise from my listening position.  I can design that.  I might need to add a little quiet computer fan to be sure the projector is venting heat.  I suppose I should cut a hole in the ceiling and put a tube up through the insulation and vent the heat into the attic.  My only concern would be if it's 150 degrees in the attic in the summer and the fan is off and I let a lot of heat into the room.  I have to consider that more.  But it'd be an interesting and inexpensive experiment.

I do have two dedicated circuits in this room so my power comes straight from the breaker box and isn't feeding anything but my computer, my monitor, my projector and my sound system.  I suppose I could improve that my putting the projector and computer on one circuit and the entire sound system on the other.

I have a Furman DJ "power conditioner" that I basically use as a plug strip and I also have  "POWERVAR" power conditioner that I got on eBay maybe 10 years ago or so.  I don't know if it's good or bad but it was like $40 used.  I can experiment with those things a bit more.

In conclusion, I can't hear the noise from the Vidar in my room while in my listening position.

Maybe you should go to Guitar Center and buy a couple of these Crown amps and run your bass off of them.  They had a 15% restocking fee for up to 45 days.  The difference for me between running the entire speaker off of the Vidar (in stereo mode) and just running the top end was dramatic.  We're not talking 10-15% different, we're talking the difference between a serious high end system and one that was kind of mediocre.  

But there is a reason that the Stereophile review for these speakers says they had to bi-amp them with a pair of Levinson 335's to get them to sound good.  Would if I could.

I've changed too many things at once to have a good opinion of the Saga.  I wish I had something like a Levinson or a Classe pre amp lying around to compare.  

To be honest, I have a Benq W1070 in this room and my computer running and so my ambient noise is pretty loud.  Plus I usually have to set my HVAC to "fan on" in order to keep this room from overheating.  My phone dB meter says ~60db ambient.  I have considered trying to find a way to isolate the noise from my computer while not overheating it, plus try to find a way to reduce the noise from my HVAC and projector.  I could probably figure out how to do that.

I just put my head right in front of the speakers to try to hear what comes out of them with nothing playing through them.  I don't get a hiss, but I do have audible USB noise.  I can't hear it in my listening position, but it's really obvious up close.  I didn't realize how much came through my Meridian Explorer.  I have to consider whether a Schiit Wyrd or a different DAC would be a better solution to that problem.

I've been catching up on Mr Robot and it is amazing how good these sound for TV.