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twogoodears wrote:

I'm pretty interested in yr. opinion about the possible choice of best, safest, smoothest way to use solid-state amp/low-end with "Triamp"... ok... 3-channells DSETs... and my system upper ways... what slope do you think the most "musical", at 200 hz? Steep or smooth? Better mounting a low-pass in Triamp or simply a properly calculated and sized cap, 1st order, at woofer?

If you intend to use the “Triamp” to drive your system and to compliment it with SS amp the bottom then it is fine. I think a right was would be to mimic in the Triamp’s crossover the speaker crossover that you are using now. It is presuming that your speaker-level crossover point and the slopes that you are using now are sanely chosen by you and not just were mindlessly selected for you buy your manufactures or dealer.

There are many catches in this direction however. I have no idea what crossovers you use not. Many people use different complicated build up in crossovers (impedance normalization, zobels and etc…) making the driver at crossover level to react differently than if they are driven direct. It is not mentioned that when drivers stop to talk to each other they do behave differently…

There are many other catches. For instance: if you decide to use high order crossover and use DSET then not all DSET topologies would support complicated filters. The whole beauty of DSET in-line crossovering that they might be implemented in many place of amp’ circuit, frequently combining the functionality or amp with crossovering needed for the given channel. That is why I feel that study the DSET circuits is very stimulation and it is fun to see how people combine the filters acrobatics with the need of a given amp.

I do not think I would be able to advise you anything at this point. I do not know your speakers, your objectives for each channel, your power requirements and many other things. I for instance do not know how good the type 45 tube of Triamp’s LF channel will be able to diver your lower horn – will it go to A2 or not.

I think the best for you would be to get the Triamp without any filters, set it up with some kind of digital crossover of active analog test crossover (like Panasonic D-23 and a few others) and to model sound you would like to hear. Then give to Thomas Mayer the crossover points and the slope that you find and let him to see how he can imbed it into his amp. You would need to ask him what value of which components you might change and in which range in order to slightly adjust the crossover in the direction you would decide to go.

Mind you that it might be a lengthy and not straight forward proposes. It require a lot of listening, measurement, do some circulations and the most important thinking and interpreting what you are hearing and how the achieved small differences fit into your vision of Sound. No one will teach you it - and audio people are dead in this area - you need to discover it within yourself. It might take a few months if you have a proper DSET and proper acoustic system and it might take a few years. You might discover some things that will not fit the model of Sound you would like to have and it might lead to a new search of amps, drivers or new integration patters…

Well, as you can see it is not too strain forward process, at least from the perspective that I have.  It is not just about the “properly calculated and sized cap” but more about shaping large picture of Sound that one has in his/her mind. If you not technically inclined to make the technical design decisions then it is fine – make Thomas Mayer or whoever is closed you to work for you. They all would know what to do and how to help you – what they do not know is how your playback sound and where you would like to take your Sound. You need to make decisions, format the decisions in the format that the technical people would understand, delegate the decisions to them and then yourself test the validity of the solutions. No different than any other project management….

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