lucey
New member
Balanced Howard.
The room is beyond excellent. I'm a mastering engineer. Warm up was 9 hours. The unit is fully broken in.
Pre amp is discrete class A Crane Song Avocet, had it for 10 years, very musical and still accurate.
Needle moved a little at volume but the amp was not beautiful in the mids and top at any volume. Low end overpowering. Image not large or 3D. The midrange was recessed. High mids hard.
The distinction between all recordings frequency balance was less than tubes reveal I couldn't hear digital vs analog tape productions as well as I'm used to
Other amps here are push pull triodes from Cary.
V12R for 5 years with NOS front end and 8 Treasure 6CA7-Z
211 monos on demo with slightly upgraded tubes.
I demoed the XA.5 years ago and the mids were better but it also lacked the size and 3D depth of the V12
I respect Nelson and don't mean to troll. I thought maybe he had something that could balance neutrality and euphonics.
Maybe in 5-10 years I'll try another SS amp. .
Something ain't right.
The Avocet has all those customizable work station features that I am sure you dialed in manner which pleased you with the Cary stuff (phase, truncation functions, on the fly gain, trim etc.) Maybe something isn't interfacing as well with the .8's.
More likely, I would look at the impedance and phase plots of your speakers. You haven't answered the question of what you are running (or did I miss it). The 211's have some balls for triodes; also, are you using the V12R monos or stereo? Mono would be a lot of juice compared to the 30.8.
The room is beyond excellent. I'm a mastering engineer. Warm up was 9 hours. The unit is fully broken in. Pre amp is discrete class A Crane Song Avocet, had it for 10 years, very musical and still accurate. Speakers are Sonics by Joachim Gerhard Allegra (birch ply, not Immedia Allegra)
Needle moved a little at volume but the amp was just not beautiful in the mids and top at any volume. Low end overpowering. Image not large or 3D as compared to the V12R I'm used to. The midrange was recessed. High mids hard. The distinction between all recordings frequency balance was less than tubes reveal I couldn't hear digital vs analog tape productions as well as I'm used to
Other amps here are push pull triodes from Cary. V12R for 5 years with NOS front end and 8 Treasure 6CA7-Z. 211 monos on demo with slightly upgraded tubes.
I demoed the XA.5 years ago and the mids were better but it also lacked the size and 3D depth of the V12R.
I respect Nelson and don't mean to troll. I thought maybe he had something that could balance neutrality and euphonics. The freq balance, size and depth were a let down.
Maybe in 5-10 years I'll try another SS amp. .
If it sounded wonderful I'd gladly take a used one. To that end, would there be anyone in the New York area who might allow me to hear their Pass XA30.5?Too bad the point 5 (XA.5) amps are not available new anymore. Darn it.
If it sounded wonderful I'd gladly take a used one. To that end, would there be anyone in the New York area who might allow me to hear their Pass XA30.5?
Also, anyone in New York with nice open baffles that go down to 30Hz with some weight-and driven by practically anything would also be a big help.
Great passively crossed OBs + the XA30.5. A magical combination?