An audio friend, Krell/Infinity system, has raved about Spectral amps for the past 25 years, I've never heard them so have to take his word on their performance.
Here is an opportunity to read up on this "suggested - as - great" audio amplifier design.
Spectral Audio DMA-200S High Resolution Amplifier
And this URL too:
Spectral Audio DMA-200S High Resolution Amplifier
Have fun, this will sound way way good.
If out of your price capability, do a DIY DC 2A3 amp. That is what I have to do. I gave the " starter " URL, re : Marzio and Jelasi, for that 2A3 amp build in a previous thread and am willing to assist others.
Have FUN, reading up on this Spectral amp from the S.F. Bay Area.
Disclaimer : I have NO involvement with Spectral , what so ever. Just wanted to share this information with any and all like-minded audio enthusiasts.
Low Ohms......Jeff Medwin
Last edited by LowOhms; July 12th, 2017 at 12:55 AM.
An audio friend, Krell/Infinity system, has raved about Spectral amps for the past 25 years, I've never heard them so have to take his word on their performance.
A friend of mine that turned me into an A5 fan, had used all spectral electronics to drive his big B&W 801s, he swapped the amps out for a BIG vintage Bedini 100/100 One MEG dual mono amp that he got from me and never looked back. Spectral electronics are expensive, look great but maybe overrated sonic wise. I regret trading away my Bedini.Originally Posted by LowOhms
Jeff when I first read this post I thought , "Great he's finally going to get a proper amp to push his Altecs". But no, just a adversement. If you know someone with one, barrow it, so you can hear that your 1.8 watt flea amp is nowhere near 180 watts. (You'll have another 20 db of headroom.) Better yet, use your flea amp to drive the highs and 180 watts on your 515's. (Just looking at the specs you'll still do over 100 watts @16 ohms). Then you'll get that larger than life sound that most of us have been chasing all of are lives. After that we'll have to get you some proper 288's for the mids and use the 802's for highs. RESPECTFULLY YOURS, LOUDER !
I have to agree with Louder. Home brew flea watts are a mixed bag. A noisy tone control in many applications.
I do like tubes. Ayon and Berning are personal favorites.
I even have an old Forte 1A class a amp that will embarrass quite a few of the latest glass or silicon designs.
No need to get tweeky with Altec's. They sound good with a 40'watts and a stiff power supply. Give them 100 watts plus of the good stuff and it's like a live microphone feed. Old school dynamics.
Yeah, this is a real problem with many [most?] modern DIY amps be it tube or SS. When the transient[s] 'hit', the voltage spike can be up to 30 dB on some recordings in the lower mids [and clipped at that!], so that's 1 kW worth of voltage rails minus system efficiency referenced to average playback. With even some Altecs down at ~1 % efficiency, this gets expensive and why I recommend SS for [sub]woofers for all but small rooms, modest SPL.
GM
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean! As always though, the usual disclaimers apply to this post's contents.
Hello LOUDER !!
I LOVED your post, and I understand where you are coming from, BUT need to explain to you my situation.
I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, and my listening room is only about 15 feet by 18 feet by 9 or 10 feet high.
A two-way ALTEC allows me to listen near field, in a room my sized. There is NO room to run a three way with 288 mids, which would be useful in the realm of a LARGE LARGE room, to get it all to coalesce.
This Type 46 SET amp is only 1.3 Watts, and I am listening to it temporarily on my 515Bs / 802Ds , after designing and building it, to be sure it will be OK for a friend's well-wired VALENCIAS . He has his speakers in a small apartment. I find the TYPE 46 amp is OK for about 98% of the material, when listening at " normal levels ".
For myself, over the next two months, I am building a 3 Watt ( to maybe 5 Watt ) JJ 2A3 -40 SET monaural pair of amplifiers. Unlike many of the people on this Forum, I use very specific wiring techniques, to maintain a wide bandwidth transfer function - for the entire amp, through to drivers' voice coils. This is done to allow me to satisfactorily use my 2A3 Finals stage amps in my home. I would be totally bored, and have a HARD TIME, listening to large amps on a long-term basis, or any amps that incorporate ANY negative feedback as part of their design.
I have outlined specific wiring techniques on this Forum, that will allow anyone to use low powered amps on ALTECS, when Monster Amps would only do previously !! Of course, finding a "great-sounding" lower powered amp is a WHOLE other set of problems. IMHO, IME, darn few exist.
My main interest is in quality of the play back, and not necessarily in obtaining any sort of dB level. But, I say this to you respectfully, as you did to me. .... your care, thoughts, opinion and post, was appreciated. Have fun listening...I do !!
Low Ohms........Jeff Medwin
Now Jeff, who you trying to BS here.. A set of 288's take up no more room that your already using. They get stacked vertical. And think of all that mass loading, especially if you had some tar filled 8 or 10 cells. And you being a former R.C.A. owner, could give us a real critique of the 288's. And the big amp could fit right in the bottom of your 828's. My listening room is a little longer than yours (23') but about the same width. And I have 5 828's and 2 816's for surround back. Five watts on 288's and 802's would sound excellent just with a high pass filter. And you could probably run the 515's full range if you wanted to. No need for a electronic x-over. The quality of the big driver is a night and day difference over the little one. Hope you come around to hear it my way !
(My front three have 288's) Louder
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