By-pass or Remove X-over in Revel Studios 1st Gen

If you want better sound, upgrade the parts in the original crossover. It's better than re-engineering a speaker when you have no idea what you're doing.

Dear Face: Your advise IMHO could means maybe to attain a " different " sound but not necessarily a better one.

As Stringreen point out: " all that R&D that Revel did.... " means between other things that the speakers were voiced with that original crossover parts.

Of course that if we are lucky enough and if we know what we are doing maybe we can/could attain a better performance but not always.

+++++ " If Revel thought biamping would improve this speaker, they would have included the necessary inputs. " +++++

this can't be more true. In the past I ask to a two different speaker designers ( Jim Thiel and Neil Pattel ) how to bi-amp their speakers and if there will be an improvement doing this. Both designers ( by separate ) give me the same answer: what Stringreen posted.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

To all who have or may post answers, thank you for your help. I will not mess with crossover's Revel Studios.
I do however wonder why the put Hi/Low inputs on the speaker in the first palce. I would like to ask Mr. Vokes that question.

I would still like to upgrade. So I will ask once more of you some advice. Is my current setup of Pass Aleph P and Aleph2 mono blocks a good match for my first generation Studios?

The remainder of the system is Rega P5 with Benz L2 cart. Jolida JD9 tube phono stage with Underwood level 2 mod.
Rega Jupiter CD player.

Should I go for room treatments, better TT, Better CD??
Or maybe just a nice rack. What upgrade would make sound difference?

Again thank you all very much!

If you have to ask about room treatments, you need them.

Kal

I thought I'd bring this thread back to life since I am going down the bi-amp route now with a pair of Von Schweikert VR4.5 speakers.
I started down the "active" route and NOTHING sounded right at all. As KAL and Raul have stated, those speaker designers spent a lot of energy coming up with the crossovers. You have to spend a LOT of money to reproduce the transfer function correctly. I'm sure it can be done to good effect but I wasn't getting there. Out went the crossover idea.

I did some more research and athough a lot of people dismissed it, the passive bi-amping (I think that is what it's called) is the way to go. If the speaker manufacturer provided seperate inputs, then they also think it is a good idea to biamp (not just bi-wire!).
Just have two amps go straight into the speaker with no external crossover and let the speaker crossover do the work. If you are using the same amps you are done!

But have you exploited all the advantages of bi-amping?
I will respectfully disagree with Raul about using different amps. I'm no trail blazer here and this advice came from none other than Albert Von Schweikert himself who advocates using SS for the Lows and tubes for the Highs. Check it out on the AudioCircle VS forum:
wwwdotaudiocircledotcom/index.php?topic=59529.0

So it can be done and to good effect.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you use different amps, as I have, then you still have some work to do to level match the amps. Get out your Radio Shack db meter and feed white noise (or is it pink noise?) and adjust until even. A simple resistor attenuator is all that's needed. You can build one into an RCA or XLR "adapter" that can go between your preamp and amp.
I used an NHT PVC to adjust and will eventually build the adapters and remove the NHT.
I am very happy with the sound. I now have the smoothness of a tube amp (Thor TPA-60) and the bass slam of SS (Sim W5) - the best of both worlds. Did I say I am very happy with the sound? Oh, yes i did8-).
HTH