So 8000 watts into 1 ohm? Please share the link. BTW, you'd need 60+ amp breaker / line to handle that much power. ;-)
Thoughts on hearing a Wilson XVX Chronosonic System at Evolution Hifi
- Thread starter Lee
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Dark sounding amp with emphasis on the lowest bass, missing some mid-bass agility. All the regulation for the "sliding bias" system gives the highs a not so clean sound. I replaced it with a modern high power amp and even though the Krell MCX700 measures well it was first relegated to the job of sub-woofer amp and later totally replaced. On paper the Krell drives everything, but when it comes to making music the big MBL's are in a whole different league, both on my MBL speakers and on the very hard to drive ML Statements.
The MK1 were fantastic amplifiers and the best PP tube amp i ever heard , drove anything taps were 16-1 ohm for load, measured very well on the bench too ..
Mostly Krell Kps 25sc connected with cast cables, but also different XLR and rca cables. Also tried Primare 928 and 201 and a mid level VAC preamp. It was a good amp back when it was designed, but is easily surpassed with newer designs, also newer Krell designs. Just my opinion of course
My brother still uses his FPB 700 MCX with a KPS 25sc into first model Focal Grand Utopias, those tweeters need some taming down anyway.
Mostly Krell Kps 25sc connected with cast cables, but also different XLR and rca cables. Also tried Primare 928 and 201 and a mid level VAC preamp. It was a good amp back when it was designed, but is easily surpassed with newer designs, also newer Krell designs. Just my opinion of course
I know from experience they are sensitive to preamp drive , previous models not so much but the CX series was. What speakers were you driving , MBL’s ..?
The Krell KPS 25c has a reputation for being a dark sounding digital component from numerous reviews.Mostly Krell Kps 25sc connected with cast cables, but also different XLR and rca cables. Also tried Primare 928 and 201 and a mid level VAC preamp. It was a good amp back when it was designed, but is easily surpassed with newer designs, also newer Krell designs. Just my opinion of course
Please link one of those numerous reviews ! FPB 700CX still sounded dark on other preamps too.
I don't disagree in general. A lot of solid state amplifiers from Krell and Mark Levinson from that period could be characterized as "dark" sounding. I believe it was Harry Pearson of TAS who coined the phrase "Dark Levinson". In comparison, Audio Research amplifiers from that period were fairly "bright" sounding. But now ARC has definitely taken a turn towards darker sounding components. But this is a subjective view. Objectively, there's no rolloff in response or any devlation from flatness into the multiple hundreds of kilohertz. The darkness could be a subjective impression of the class A design.
I'm curious about all these opinions of the 3500 as being cool running while driving a 1-2 ohm load at 300+ watts. Mathematically, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. According to McIntosh, the 3500 Mk2 requires 6 amps at 120 volts (which is 7000 volt-amperes), which roughly translates to a 700 watt power dissipation. So, your two 3500's are consuming about 1.4 kilowatts. I wonder if you tried to measure the surface temperature or tube temperature with an infrared thermometer. That would tell you how "cool" running it is.
Amps to Kilowatts (kW) conversion calculator
Amps (A) to kilowatts (kW) conversion calculator.
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You all be the judge of the quality of the connection. I personally think it excellent. Halloween costume party last night at Brentwood and Mike and me doing a little performance in my private rink before leaving for the rink. That's Corissa, alias Sunchild. She's one of the best skaters in America, period, male or female. One of the finest athletes I have ever seen.
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Elliot G.
Industry Expert
I dont know anything about skating , looks like fun but the spades you are using are to small and are halfway on the post. Those require a larger spade that goes around the post on both sides and lays flat when tightened down. How much this changes sound, if at all, I can't tell you but the connection is not at its best.
Elliot G.
Industry Expert
You are spot on. The 33h, 33 and Ml 20 etc of Levinson were dark and not nearly as transparent as the ARC of the time however the ARC at that time did as HP called it a whiteness to the sound and were somewhat foward.
my 2 cents is that it looks as if it's 'good enough'. but not quite excellent. but when you have a system such as yours, and the most significant issue is your amp<->speaker interface, where you have a $500k in investment at play....is 'good enough'.....enough? i'd want perfect.
it would not cut it personally for me. in my system. YMMV.
my question (along the lines that @Elliot G. mentions) would be whether the spade can fit 'around' the terminal lug to begin with? if it can, then maybe consider ways to support the cable to allow the terminal to hold the lug in the correct place securely so you get maximum connection. mechanically the speaker terminal needs even pressure all around to perform optimally. my guess is that as it is with the 'eye-hole' offset that the spade flat surface is not entirely snug on the binding post flat surface as it could be. but that is just a guess as i cannot see it that clearly with the photo angle. not sure even the right angle shot would tell you the whole picture. metal to metal interfaces less than perfect promote accelerated surface degradation, oxidation and tarnish. gets worse over time when it's not solid. even solid they need cleaning from time to time.
good for you; having fun and being happy and healthy cannot be over-rated. as a 73 year old myself, my hat is off to you!
agree.
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I appreciate the analysis and comments. I might mention that this is the way McIntosh suggests to make the connection in the OM. It's really quite good, IMO, and totally reproducible. Those are WEL Signature spade lugs. Again, extremely well made. I think the question is how much surface area do you really need? Knowing McIntosh and AQ I would say that if the connection is quite tight and it is, there is plenty of surface area in the connection that you see. I really like it. IMO the connection between the amp and speaker at both ends has always been problematic because there is no standardization. If there is more than enough surface area to capture all of the signal, and I believe there is, then you get a 100% perfect connection every time, with every kind of spade lug. It's an engineering question that I believe McIntosh and AQ have answered in the affirmative.
I'm a great believer in connections. Consequently, my connections are more expensive than my Mac gear by a wide margin. I really like solid silver connections. That's why I use AQ and I really like their power conditioners. I also believe that isolation devices and passive room treatments vital. The heart of my system is my WEL Signature 24' balanced IC between my 3500's and my C-12000 An. This allows me to move my gear out of the sound field and the placement of my Thor in the music position specified by Dave Wilson, horizontal lie with a 4.1K plinth made of X-material and mounted on Wilson acoustic diodes. Years ago this IC was 28K retail and solid silver. I wouldn't want to know the cost of that IC now. But the result is amazing resolution and clarity without hardness. That's the beauty of silver over copper, especially with tubes but it sounds great with SS too. Every connection in my main system is solid silver. That's why I had to have that 1 meter Dragon IC between my MCD12000 and my C-12000.
I'm a great believer in connections. Consequently, my connections are more expensive than my Mac gear by a wide margin. I really like solid silver connections. That's why I use AQ and I really like their power conditioners. I also believe that isolation devices and passive room treatments vital. The heart of my system is my WEL Signature 24' balanced IC between my 3500's and my C-12000 An. This allows me to move my gear out of the sound field and the placement of my Thor in the music position specified by Dave Wilson, horizontal lie with a 4.1K plinth made of X-material and mounted on Wilson acoustic diodes. Years ago this IC was 28K retail and solid silver. I wouldn't want to know the cost of that IC now. But the result is amazing resolution and clarity without hardness. That's the beauty of silver over copper, especially with tubes but it sounds great with SS too. Every connection in my main system is solid silver. That's why I had to have that 1 meter Dragon IC between my MCD12000 and my C-12000.
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I was looking at the specs of my Mola Mola Kaluga class D monoblocks, and remarkably, they are rated at 1200 watts per channel into 2 ohms. So, for folks who have an XVX and are looking for a really cool running but highly rated solid state amplifier that's very light (15 pounds per amp!), I can highly recommend these. I am using these with my massively large Soundlab G9-7Cs (which are 9' feet tall and almost 4 feet wide!), and they do a really splendid job of driving these large panels. Although large electrostatics have the opposite load issue to an XVX. In the bass frequencies, impedances are very high (> 30 ohms), and the high treble, impedances fall below 2 ohms.
Here are some more pics. I think you can see the classic connection that is made by the WEL Signature spade lugs to the XVX and the marked difference between it and the Solid Cinch McIntosh connection. I went and reviewed the OM of the 3500 to be sure I had read it correctly. It's quite interesting, the difference. I feel very comfortable with both engineering approaches. It's a question of did Mac do their due diligence and I have confidence they did. I think the Mac solution quite novel. Back in their day these speaker cables retailed for about 40K for 3 meters. They are solid silver. I also included a pic of the connections of all the modules of the XVX to the crossover at the rear of the XVX. They are absolutely beautiful. It's easy to understand why Wilsons are so well made.
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