Tube Amp Owners Rejoice!
I know I promised a bit of a CEDIA wrap up last time, and I still may write one (not that you're chomping at the bit for it), but I have more pressing matters at hand!
I occasionally run little mini-tours and host mini-listening sessions when a customer brings in a pair of speakers for repair. Yesterday a guy drove down from Ohio with his CS1.2s, so I hung out with him in the listening room for a few minutes. Our VAC Renaissance 70/70 300B tube amp caught his eye as it does many. It's a strikingly cool looking amplifier.
We were listening to CS3.7s which are really quite sensitive at 90dB, and they have a very stable impedance/magnitude curve, so I thought, what the heck. I wouldn't normally hook that amp up in our massive 10,000 cubic foot listening room especially for customers because many encourage me to "crank it up" beyond levels at which one can maintain sanity. This amplifier coupled with our speakers conjoined in our room is not a system built for blowing out walls.
Anyway, because of the great specs of the CS3.7 and our dear customer's sensibility with the volume knob, I warmed it up for an hour and then switched from a mighty Krell to this piece. Sweet Momma! This sounds Gooooood! So I turned it up...no strain!
After the office closed for the day I went in there to do some more listening. It was really for pleasure, but I did it under the premise that I needed some topical inspiration for the blog...anything to get out from behind the desk right? Vocal after vocal was super pure, violin solo was chilling, piano was true to life. This is a really fun setup to listen to.
We're only lacking in bass weight. The Krell will really spoil a man in terms of bass power and punch. I recalled having superb results with CS1.6s on this amplifier at home with a SmartSub, so I thought I'd try an SS3 and PXO2 in the mix. This worked marvelously. The bottom octave snugged up substantially and came up to the same level as the rest of the music. If any THIEL owner has a tube amplifier and feels like his/her bass is lacking, soft, or MIA, I very much encourage an audition of a SmartSub. I lost nothing in terms of coherence, the soundstage actually got wider and deeper. It took very little imagination to see the musicians working their art.
If I get some free time before we ship this pair to one of our distributors, I'm going to try an Integrator in crossover mode. I suspect that this will be even better because I can preserve more headroom in the VAC.
Back to my point stated in the title, many THIEL owners for many years have enjoyed considerable musical bliss with tube amplifiers. But, our flagship and 2nd best speakers aren't notorious for their high sensitivity and flat impedance curves. For this reason, many people have summarily dismissed tube amplifiers as a possibility for driving THIELs. I highly encourage anyone who has dismissed a tube/THIEL combo in the past to try again with CS3.7s, even in large rooms. You may like it, you may hate it, but CS3.7s are probably more well suited for tube amplifiers than any thing else we've built in the CS3.x series in the last 15-20 years, maybe ever. It's certainly a more appropriate match than CS6s or CS7.2s in the vast majority of cases.
Happy listening!
-Your glowing grid service guy
P.S. The CS1.6 is equally sensitive and 'resistive', therefore just as well suited for a medium powered tube amp as the CS3.7. I encourage this audition as well! In fact, if memory serves, one of our newer dealers sold a pair of CS1.6 on a Cayin tube amp much to the new owner's continued happiness!
I occasionally run little mini-tours and host mini-listening sessions when a customer brings in a pair of speakers for repair. Yesterday a guy drove down from Ohio with his CS1.2s, so I hung out with him in the listening room for a few minutes. Our VAC Renaissance 70/70 300B tube amp caught his eye as it does many. It's a strikingly cool looking amplifier.
We were listening to CS3.7s which are really quite sensitive at 90dB, and they have a very stable impedance/magnitude curve, so I thought, what the heck. I wouldn't normally hook that amp up in our massive 10,000 cubic foot listening room especially for customers because many encourage me to "crank it up" beyond levels at which one can maintain sanity. This amplifier coupled with our speakers conjoined in our room is not a system built for blowing out walls.
Anyway, because of the great specs of the CS3.7 and our dear customer's sensibility with the volume knob, I warmed it up for an hour and then switched from a mighty Krell to this piece. Sweet Momma! This sounds Gooooood! So I turned it up...no strain!
After the office closed for the day I went in there to do some more listening. It was really for pleasure, but I did it under the premise that I needed some topical inspiration for the blog...anything to get out from behind the desk right? Vocal after vocal was super pure, violin solo was chilling, piano was true to life. This is a really fun setup to listen to.
We're only lacking in bass weight. The Krell will really spoil a man in terms of bass power and punch. I recalled having superb results with CS1.6s on this amplifier at home with a SmartSub, so I thought I'd try an SS3 and PXO2 in the mix. This worked marvelously. The bottom octave snugged up substantially and came up to the same level as the rest of the music. If any THIEL owner has a tube amplifier and feels like his/her bass is lacking, soft, or MIA, I very much encourage an audition of a SmartSub. I lost nothing in terms of coherence, the soundstage actually got wider and deeper. It took very little imagination to see the musicians working their art.
If I get some free time before we ship this pair to one of our distributors, I'm going to try an Integrator in crossover mode. I suspect that this will be even better because I can preserve more headroom in the VAC.
Back to my point stated in the title, many THIEL owners for many years have enjoyed considerable musical bliss with tube amplifiers. But, our flagship and 2nd best speakers aren't notorious for their high sensitivity and flat impedance curves. For this reason, many people have summarily dismissed tube amplifiers as a possibility for driving THIELs. I highly encourage anyone who has dismissed a tube/THIEL combo in the past to try again with CS3.7s, even in large rooms. You may like it, you may hate it, but CS3.7s are probably more well suited for tube amplifiers than any thing else we've built in the CS3.x series in the last 15-20 years, maybe ever. It's certainly a more appropriate match than CS6s or CS7.2s in the vast majority of cases.
Happy listening!
-Your glowing grid service guy
P.S. The CS1.6 is equally sensitive and 'resistive', therefore just as well suited for a medium powered tube amp as the CS3.7. I encourage this audition as well! In fact, if memory serves, one of our newer dealers sold a pair of CS1.6 on a Cayin tube amp much to the new owner's continued happiness!
posted by gdayton at 6:37 AM
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