Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

ML2 is also making me hear my modified AI M3A pre-amp, not to mention I guess I could now benefit from all shielded cables.  All this stuff was fine with the Wright 2A3s. 

Speakers:  I built a version of Dick Olsher's 3-way Diamond Edition BassZilla (hard to find at www.blackdahlia.com), and I tricked it out considerably from his mule.  Bass is BR, 15" Audax P380MR, which is a nice semi-stiff driver, low-passed at 150 Hz.  Lowther DX4 is high-passed at 150 Hz. All drivers share a 2' X 6' front baffle, and there are tapered wings for the Lowther, which is OB.  Lowther is notch filtered at 2.4k and 8k, to tame its "spikes", but I let it run itself out up top.  An Arum Cantus G2Si phases in at 10k, since the Lowther trails off from that point.  Driver integration is seamless.

Nework is passive, which I may address to deal with the impedance wavering from 40 Ohms at ~80 Hz (this is correct; I mis-stated it above) to 4 Ohms at ~50 Hz +/-.  Otherwise, load stays near enough to 8 Ohms, where it matters.

The best I have gotten from these speakers is the best I have heard, overall, certainly better than Avante Guarde Trios, overall.  Since I am so attuned to pitch and timbre, I have not found suitable horns, and also I like the dynamics I'm getting better than the tromboning I hear from horns, despite their stronger initial "push", which is nice.

Lowthers have well-known problems, but DX4 has better potential for correct tonal/timbral balance than Alnico drivers, IMO, and addressing the "spikes" changes more for the better than some might suppose.

As you say, the speakers aren't realized without a suitable amp.  ML2 may not like this speaker, but I can tell you it handles it pretty well, and likely as well as any off-the-shelf amp could.  These speakers are way too revealing for SS, and PP was a disaster, as well.  They sound great with the 2A3s, as long as you don't feed them a lot of signal.  ML2 is another kettle of fish, handles tons of signal, no problem, as you know, and way more clarity, and so astoundingly realistic in its presentation, it's uncanny.

Since ML2 is obviously better than these speakers, it looks like I can use ML2 to develop these speakers for a while yet.

I still have some other work to do before I start in with bi-amping, although that is something I have considered since the beginning.  I have also considered subs from the start, and if/when I get to that point I could re-address the crossover points, apropos.

Again, I just stay amazed that more people have not gotten onto these amps, especially since they are now available on the re-sale market.

Best regards,
Paul

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site