Triamp Recommendation

[Guest Brucest]

I have Orion speakers which are tri amped.  I have two Carver 1.0t MKII's.  My question is where they might be used to best effect: woofer, mid, or tweeter?  The bass has two Peerless Woofers (actually termed subwoofers) a side.  I have, unbeknownst to me until recently, one inverting and one non inverting.  The Orion setup is has the two sets of woofers driven by separate amps. Since the Carvers have different sensitivity, that seems to cause me a problem in using them with the woofers.  I've thought of hooking the woofers in parallel or series and drive them with one amp.  But their impedence curve goes as low as 5.2 ohm, which means they'd be 2.6 ohm in parallel which makes me nervous.  Series would present a nominal 16 ohms which might be ok.  For the tweeters I'm kind of committed to a heavily modified Counterpoint 220 tube.  The other amp choices are Aragon 8008, Dussan V8i, which has the advantage of being an "integrated" amp with a volume control, and maybe a Krell, or something new.  I have a 5.1 surround system so the Carvers can definitely be used somewhere.  I don't expect anyone to be familiar with all these other amps, so I guess my question is whether the Carvers might be particularly suited to a given use either for one of the triamp sections or surround use.

 

Any help would be appreciate. 

[zumbini 6,147]

Many speakers have impedance curves that bottom out under 3 ohms.

The important consideration is how wide a frequency range is affected.

If it's only a narrow peak below 3 ohms I wouldn't be too concerned about it.

 

As to optimizing the use of your MKII's there are (at least) two ways to look at it.

1. Take advantage of their clarity and soundstage by using them on the highs and/or mids.

2. Take advantage of the available power by using them to drive the (sub)woofers.

IIWY I would try both scenarios, or even a mix of both, and see which gives the best result.

 

FYI - The different sensitivities won't be much of an issue if you bi-amp horizontally.

(i.e. one amp drives the left and right tweeters; the other drives the left and right mids)

This is assuming that you have a way to balance the gain of each frequency range.

 

BTW - I currently use a trio of M-500's in my main system (two M-500t's; one M-500).

One "t" drives the tweeters, one "t" drives the dual mids, the non-t drives the dual subs in mono.

My M-1.0t is being MKII'd as we speak so I've been giving lots of thought to how to use it.

I'm thinking M-500 on the tweets; M-1.0t MKII on the mids and M-500t's bridged in mono on the subs.

[weitrhino 1,443]

I hope you start a thread on your Orions.  

[Guest Brucest]

Thanks for the reply. After I posted the "horizontal" application of the Carvers for the woofers occurred to me. And I do have channel gain controls on the crossover supplied by Lilnkwitz for Orion.

[Guest Brucest]

I'd be happy to start an Orion thread. Let me know what you'd like to hear.

[weitrhino 1,443]

Load us up with pics! Tell us about your build process! Give us your listening impressions!

[zumbini 6,147]

PICS, PICS, PICS! So say we all.

[Guest RodH]

What's an Orion?

[VTypeV4 37]

I wouldn't worry about the impedance curves, as long as the nominal impedance is within the amplifiers spec ie 4 ohms ch stereo / 8 ohm bridge-mono or whatever, they should be fine..

 

I'm with Rod.. Orions?

[zumbini 6,147]

I assume he built himself or bought a set of Linkwitz Lab's Orion speakers.

 

 

[Blues Pwr 766]

 

 

I assume he built himself or bought a set of Linkwitz Lab's Orion speakers.

 

 

 

 

Those are some really nice high-end speakers(true audiophile quality).

They look like the ones Perry (PDR) built.

Starting at $14,750.00 not for the faint of heart or like me light in the wallet crowd.

Would love to hear a set, I'll bet they're worth every penny........ 

[zumbini 6,147]

From the Linkwitz Lab web site:

For DIY budgetary purposes consider that the minimum material cost for the ORION project, including tax and shipping, is approximately $3700, without power amplifiers. 

    Construction Kit    $350
    Tweeters (4), Midranges (2), Woofers (4)    $2100
    Cabinetry    $500    
    ASP crossover/equalizer    $650
    Cables, interconnects etc    $100
    Power amplifiers (12x60w or 6x180w)    $1835

If the speakers were sold through the normal distribution channels, the retail price for the complete ORION system would have to be over $22,000. 

 

[VTypeV4 37]

!!! And I thought EAW and Turbo Sound were expensive! 

[BillD 239]

I listened to some at the RMAF, and they sound nice.  Compared to a lot of other speakers I listened to, they were a bargain, too.  Consider, if you want to sell hardware, you need a reference speaker to compare it to.  It seemed that those were Wilson Sophia (budget) speakers at only $12,000 a pair.

 

When you're selling speakers, the sky's the limit .  I saw plenty of  6-digit speakers.

[SteveFord 1,119]

Use them on the woofer.

[PDR 1,194]

Yep.....they look like mine. When GR first came out with the V series, he was criticized for the design similarities.

Really the only thing in common is the look. The Vs have their own amplification for the bottom end, the servo subs, and the top is a Pro PAudio 12" Co-ax. The 97db sensitivity of the C0-ax allows it to be driven with as low as 6 watts, this appealed to me

because of greater selection of gear you could use. When I bought my sunfire amps it was in my mind to build a set of Orions.

I settled on the Vs because of the cost....mine were under 2k for the kit....and the great reviews they were getting. The only member here that has heard them is Balok, I think he liked them.

Since the development of the Vs there have been a ton of debate between the Vs and the Orions. I have read some discussions that have become down right nasty between the two camps. I dont want to go there. I was fortunate enough to finally hear a set of Orions about a yr ago......they were very nice, I enjoyed the greatly.. Its good to see Web developers out there that offer their goods to the public. Its one of the things that have made hobby a better thing in the last 10 yrs or so. These products could never leave the ground without the internet.