Melody AN845. Sweet, sweet integrated with excellent build quality. I use Elrog ER845s and Tekton Moab speakers (98db).
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What are some of the top 845 Amplifiers you have heard?
- Thread starter caesar
- Start date
The Audion Black Shadows live. They have been running for a few weeks now. In my hands are some Shuguang tubes and a Pisvane Hifi tube. I settled on the Shuguang C as it seems the most clean and linear. I still desire a better tube such as an ACME or maybe a premium Linlai. I'm trying to find the bios of these amps. The dealer won't talk to me anymore. I gave a bit of feedback about what I saw when they came back, a second time. Needless to say I had to get out my solder tool and wrenches before I could use them.
Update, Adion wrote back and gave me the bios.
With the Shuguang, its a nice amps. The soundstage is very large. Very spread out. It does an excellent job of hiding the speakers.
The tone and body are as good and better than any of the other amps I have owned. The tone, speed, dynamics are quite good. The quiet and clarity is also very good. I hear a little more detail than I use to hear with my modded kt88 PP.
I have one gripe. I am using these with PAP Trio 15 Horn. 96db. But are they. These speakers have 2 x 15" woofers. Thats a lot of coil and paper. At low to medium and medium high volume levels, the BS are pretty darn nice. excellent dare I say. As good and better than the other amps I have owned, accept in one area. When I start to push these amps to "ok, were rocking" volume levels, they run out of steam. The bass looses it dynamics and the music gets muddled up. But I have a solution, I hope.
Yesterday I paid for the new PAP active analog crossover designed by Nelson Pass for these speakers. I also bought the wire distribution boards. When I get all the parts, the BS will run the horn and my kt88 will run the woofers. I am confident I will have all the power I need.
Having direct coupled an amp to a voxative speaker, I know the jump in naturalness. I'm excited for this change and hope the BS does what I expect. I think it will be excellent all around amp when biamped and reduced in load. We shall see.
Update, Adion wrote back and gave me the bios.
With the Shuguang, its a nice amps. The soundstage is very large. Very spread out. It does an excellent job of hiding the speakers.
The tone and body are as good and better than any of the other amps I have owned. The tone, speed, dynamics are quite good. The quiet and clarity is also very good. I hear a little more detail than I use to hear with my modded kt88 PP.
I have one gripe. I am using these with PAP Trio 15 Horn. 96db. But are they. These speakers have 2 x 15" woofers. Thats a lot of coil and paper. At low to medium and medium high volume levels, the BS are pretty darn nice. excellent dare I say. As good and better than the other amps I have owned, accept in one area. When I start to push these amps to "ok, were rocking" volume levels, they run out of steam. The bass looses it dynamics and the music gets muddled up. But I have a solution, I hope.
Yesterday I paid for the new PAP active analog crossover designed by Nelson Pass for these speakers. I also bought the wire distribution boards. When I get all the parts, the BS will run the horn and my kt88 will run the woofers. I am confident I will have all the power I need.
Having direct coupled an amp to a voxative speaker, I know the jump in naturalness. I'm excited for this change and hope the BS does what I expect. I think it will be excellent all around amp when biamped and reduced in load. We shall see.
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Hi
Coherent Audio Gr10 full range speakers with pro radian driver modified by Coherent. Beryllium tweeter,1 cap 1 inductor in the crossower ,no resistor to pad down the compression driver to match the woofer output. Very Coherent ,neutral good with all kind of music, sensitivity from 94DB to 100DB. Double rear ported. My end game speaker.I like better the GR 15 but not to much space. Check the web for more info. coherentspeakers.net I am using LM 518ia gold version amp. If you convert Euro to Dollar is much cheaper.
Regards.
Istvan
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Of course there are any number of great 845 based amps, many of them already mentioned. I would have to nominate the Viva Aurora Mono Blocks into their very own Master Horns. Bob Clarke from Profundo brings them in...
http://vivaaudio.com/en/products/master-horn/ The Credenza is pretty great too. I always thought of the Credenza as a modern day JBL Paragon on steroids.
Personally, I prefer a well executed GM70 to an 845, but to each his own...
http://vivaaudio.com/en/products/master-horn/ The Credenza is pretty great too. I always thought of the Credenza as a modern day JBL Paragon on steroids.
Personally, I prefer a well executed GM70 to an 845, but to each his own...
Glad it’s coming together for you and also interested to hear how the Nelson Pass active works for you as well.
Am with you on the Acmes and the premium Linlais as a potentially good next move. Once I’ve got my next horn project happening I’ll probably go there as well.
Have heard many of what might be considered great SET amps but have not heard any that compare with my Chalice Audio 'Grail' monoblocks.The original prototypes were taken to an AudioNote Japan dealer,10 years ago, and he said they were 'the best he had ever heard'.They have a matched pair of Psvane WE 845s each and a Psvane ACME 300B.They can drive almost any speaker to whatever SPL you like. Just finished replacing the output transformers with special amorphous nickel/iron trannys from Dave Slagle...Also just added an EtherREGEN digital filter that is superb..
I'm going to recant part of what I said. I put both amps through their paces again today. Kt88PP 50 watt vs the Black Shadow. There was no difference in dynamics. Both punched as well as one another. However, tonally the Black Shadow ate the kt88pp for lunch. The BS has a way better sence of real. Neils Felder reverb sings throught the BS. Vocals are spot on and natural. In your room, live good. The KT88PP lacks the natural/alive hot running Fender amp tone. It's just not the same.
In summation, the Black Shadow lacks nothing for power compared to a 50 watt kt88 amp. The BS close to crushes it for tone and realism. My kt88 amp isn't a turd. Its a good amp. It's just not able to do what the BS does. And this is with a Shuguang 845C tube.
Fred - what Viva Audio products do you have? Their whole line-up looks amazing.
In the past, I had their Numerico DAC, their 'small' 845 integrated the Solistino, and their headphone amp the Egoista, (also based upon the 845). I had a memorable listening session at their booth in Munich some years ago. Here's a video I made back when I had Stereodesk... I don't think I ever shot one with both the Numerico and Solistino in the same system.
I shot another in Munich 2015...
Very cool. The Viva Audio amp you previously owned was a 845 integrated. Based on your previous comments, what GM70 amp do you currently use and prefer?
Destination Audio. Not on the site yet...truly special like all of their gear. Two versions, one excellent and one a bit over the top.
I truly loved my Nagra VPAs. Sold them a few years back, and I really regret it. Lightning fast, precise, tremendous slam, and great soundstage width and depth. They were paired with a Nagra PL-P, and drove Sonus faber Amati Homages. Better than the act of reproducing...
Once tried - at Nagra's suggestion - some KR 845s instead of the Nagra-branded chinese 845s, and they nearly destroyed the amps. Had to send them back for a rebuild, and then never again strayed from the Nagra tubes...
Once tried - at Nagra's suggestion - some KR 845s instead of the Nagra-branded chinese 845s, and they nearly destroyed the amps. Had to send them back for a rebuild, and then never again strayed from the Nagra tubes...
Won't that make them sound pretty bright? The tweeter will be a good 6 db or more sensitive than the mid/bass.
Possibly I’ll give it a try down the track but with the horns build initially I'm going to stay passive and 2 way until I’ve got my head around how just going a different configuration itself with 15 inch drivers works and then I’ll explore different horn and drivers in that.
Once I’ve settled on the best driver combination and passive xover build I will possibly compare that to active. But that’s a way down the track I’m guessing. Good excuse to try a 45 or type 50 amp as well though.
Hello
Line Magnetic 518ia which I have,but I have heard 219ia Line magnetic , Lm 845 special edition but i can't afford it.
Each of it has it's own sound character. I am satisfied with mine connected to Coherent audio GR10 full range speaker.
Has someone tried the new 845 Lin Lai Elite tube ?
Thanks.
Line Magnetic 518ia which I have,but I have heard 219ia Line magnetic , Lm 845 special edition but i can't afford it.
Each of it has it's own sound character. I am satisfied with mine connected to Coherent audio GR10 full range speaker.
Has someone tried the new 845 Lin Lai Elite tube ?
Thanks.
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By far the best I ever heard was a Komuro 845 at one of the old New York Noise shows held at Arlene’s Grocery. At the time I believed it was a direct coupled design but have not been able to find info about it since then. The tone of a good 2A3 design with the power of an 845. Simply wonderful.
What went wrong. I am having redplate issues with my amps. Only the Shuguang C works. I bought the Psvane ACME. Redplate. My tech says the amp is pushing 98 watts on the plate. 845 are suppose to be 100 watt plate dissipation tubes, so I should be ok. NOT.
Grant fidelity who sold me the amp says
M a x i m u m i s a n e x t r e m e w o r k i n g c o n d i t i o n f o r t u b e s . T u b e f a c t o r i e s a l w a y s r e c o m m e n d e q u i p m e n t m a n u f a c t u r e r s n o t t o d e s i g n t o u s e a t u b e u n d e r e x t r e m e c o n d i t i o n s c o n t i n u o u s l y .
H e r e i s A C M E 8 4 5 s p e c p a g e f r o m f a c t o r y :
h t t p : / / w w w . p s v a n e . c o m / e n / a c m e s e r i e s / 3 7 4 . h t m l
I m u s t s a y t h a t y o u r a m p i s p u s h i n g t u b e s v e r y c l o s e t o i t s e x t r e m e
Now I am trying to find the best way to bring the watts dowm. I wish the amps were manual bias. I don't like active bias. Not the way these guys do it. Just because a tube can dissipate 100 watts does not mean the tube is operating in the range it wants to operate in.
Anyhow, did you blow a tube and cause damage?
Kingsrex, I'm really sorry to hear of your ongoing woes w the Audions. I know you've been really patient in sorting their initial issues, only to be presented w this problem.
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