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Hank©[_3_]

On Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:14:38 -0500,the celebrated boater, "Mr.
Luddite" wrote:
On 1/13/2014 6:40 PM, Hank wrote:
On 1/13/2014 6:19 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/13/2014 5:30 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 1/13/14, 5:20 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/13/2014 3:22 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 1/13/14, 2:57 PM, wrote:
On Monday, January 13, 2014 2:30:43 PM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:

I've a pair of Magnepan electrostatic speakers that were
given to
me by
a friend breaking up his household after a nasty divorce.

They're
hooked up with a pretty decent subwoofer. The array suits
me.

Magnepans can sound very good, but they require massive
amounts of
power (current) from an amplifier that can drive a low
impedance, and
they do require a subwoofer.

I have a friend with a pair of them, driven in a bi-amp
configuration
with over $6k worth of hi-end amps, plus pre-amps, etc.
Great sound,
but costly.

Oh, and technically, Magnepans aren't electrostatics. They
are
dipole
magna-planars.

Dipole magnaplaners? Holy toledo! I of course have not a clue
what
that
means.

My "magies" are driven by a pretty high powered McIntosh amp
running
through a preamp. I got the McIntosh at a pawn shop in
Virginia. It
was
practically a give-away, since it had been sitting in the
pawnbroker's
store for months, and about every two months, I'd stop by and
make
him a
ridiculous offer for it. I've got what I think is called a
"passive"
subwoofer that strips the lows off the lines running to the
magies.

Magies are excellent speakers. Like 3452471@gmail says
however they
are not considered to be electrostatic. They are a form of
ribbon
speaker technology that have fine wires on a mylar film,
causing the
mylar to vibrate. Also, as mentioned, both electrostatic and
hybrid
ribbon speakers like the Magnepans are notoriously inefficient
and
require higher powered amps to drive them properly. With due
respect to
your McIntosh, it may not have enough power to drive them for
max
performance. McIntosh are fine amps but typically are not
noted for
being high powered, except some of the solid state types. If
that's
the
case, it's not a true McIntosh .... :-)

You mean, my McIntosh amp was made by...gawk...Apple?

I don't know who made it, if you are claiming it was someone
other than
McIntosh. Too esoteric for me. But when I first saw it in the
pawn shop,
I knew I wanted it. It was sitting there, like Scarlett
Johannson.

The spec sheet reads as follows. I have no idea what most of
these
numbers below THD mean:

Power Output per Channel

450W @ 2, 4 or 8 Ohms

Number of Channels

2

Total Harmonic Distortion

0.005%

S/N below rated output

124dB

Dynamic Headroom

1.8dB

Damping Factor

40 Wideband

Rated Power Band

20Hz to 20kHz

Frequency Response +0,-0.25dB

20Hz to 20kHz

Frequency Response -3dB

10Hz to 100kHz

That's a very nice amp. Purest however will stick their noses
up at it
however because it's solid state and not tube. I wouldn't ..

I don't think McIntosh made commercially available tube amps in
that
power range. 100 amps would likely require at least two sets of
push-pull output tubes and you'd notice that you didn't have to
heat the
house anymore.

What is it about the tube amps that makes them special? Is it the
60
cycle hum

To some people tube amps have a warmth that solid state lacks. I
am not
sure I go along with that, but in the true audiophile world solid
state
is a no-no.

There is really no reason that a well designed tube amp should
"hum" any
more than a solid state amp. Most of the hum originates from using
AC
to power the filaments in the tubes. A 6L6 power tube requires 6
volts
for the filament, a 12AX7 requires 12 volts and so on. High end
tube
amps will typically use rectified AC meaning "DC" to power the
filaments. That usually all but eliminates any 60hz hum.

I believe the truth about tubes vs solid state has a different
origin.

You don't hear anyone comparing tube versus solid state for modern,
digitally recorded music. It's really a throwback to analog
recordings
that used tube circuitry to both record and reproduce classic
music.
That's what people got used to hearing and when played on solid
state
amps, you'll hear the complaints about it being too bright and
lacking
warmth.

Another example using guitars as the subject:

The early (1950's era) Fender Telecasters had horrible pickups,
especially the one in the neck position. It had a dull and muddy
sound.
But the music of that era was recorded with them and it
established
"the sound" of a Fender Tele.

Modern Telecasters have much improved pickups from a technology
point of
view but they don't sound like the 1950's versions. Musicians
often are
trying to capture the exact tone of a guitar used in an old
recording
and find they can't quite get it right with a modern Telecaster.
It
cracks me up because they revert to additional pre-amps and effects
to
try to make the technologically superior, new Telecaster sound like
the
inferior 1950's version.

Musicians also love tube amps because you can overdrive them and
distort
the crap out of the sound. Kills me. A solid state guitar amp
won't do
that and again has to rely on signal processing circuits to
recreate the
distortion.

I like 'em sounding clean.

Good explanation

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