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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Vitavox’s S2 Survival Guide.
Post Subject: Re: I juts do not follow youPosted by guy sergeant on: 4/11/2005
In your earlier piece about how to use the S2 'properly' you wrote
"Whatever happens between the 400 and 2,5 is pretty much unnecessary for you garbage. So, get any known to you soft capacitor of 3uF and place it in series with the S2 driver. This will introduce to 15 Ohm of the S2’s load a first order slop starting approximately at 3,500Hz. The beauty of this cap that is quite nicely snatched all wildness of the ugly secondary resonance."
You also recommend the use of a 550 Hz horn which will really only allow the S2 to work effectively above 1000 Hz or so.
There's no mention in this earlier piece of how good it can sound from as low as 500 Hz upwards. I don't think I've ever seen you mention this before.
Now you seem to have realised that the Lamm preamp was adding an unpleasant element of hardness (distortion) to the sound. Having removed it you now find the S2 to be both more usable and more acceptable all the way up.
The Lamm will have been imparting this characteristic of harshness to everything you fed through it, be it the CD player, the phono stage/cartridge combination, whatever. You surely must feel the need to re-evaluate the components in your analogue playback knowing as you now do that the Line stage was introducing sufficient distortion to make the S2 unlistenable in that region. I know I would. I suppose the problem now goes back to your earlier post about finding or trying to build a totally transparent buffer.
Based on limited exposure to the Lamm electronics a year or two back, on speakers I know well, I would say that I found the poweramps ok, if a little slow and vague. The linestage I heard then sounded, (for want of a better word) dirty and not interesting enough for me to pursue it further. Whether they were or are exactly the same models you use, I don't know. I was underwhelmed. I have had the opportunity to look inside a few of the pre-amps when they are exhibited at various shows. I don't have the schematic diagrams. As I recall they use quite a number of large electrolytic capacitors and solid state rectifiers. They're built on printed circuit boards. They use solid state regulators as I recall. You might tell me that all those items can sound ok but you're also the one telling us that the Lamm pre-amp has been the culprit hindering your efforts in getting the best from the S2's.
Don't take too seriously my comments about the EAR and the Koetsu. Both have always sounded 'lush' in my experience. I was only wondering whether the Lamm linestage had made their characteristic bloated qualities (my opinion) more amenable.
Of course this is a thread about the S2 but your whole re-appraisal of it is due to your pre-amp or now your lack of one, hence the comments regarding what other re-evaluations its removal/replacement might necessitate. That should probably form another thread.
best regards,
GuyRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site