Tube amp to power hi side of ADS 1290/2s

manu et deo

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Hi,

I'm horizontally bi-amping my 1290s and would like to try a tube amp on the top. Any recommendations as to how many watts I should shoot for?
 
need similar power top and bottom with a crossover of about 500hz according to Magnepan. But you are not going to want to get a 300w tube amp or two for the top end. So your rig will be limited by the max the tube amps will do and that is fine. Get as much as you can so you can play the speakers loud. If you don't need loud you can do with less.

The 1290/2 is more efficient than a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10s and I'm comfortable using 50 wpc on the DQ-10 and 100w on the woofer. I know the limitations of volume but the sound quality was so good I didn't need it really loud but it would go loud. I haven't tried using a big amp with the tube amps on the 1590/2s yet, but I think it would be very nice.
 
I am currently using a Kenwood M2a/crown combo and my NAD 1700 pre never goes past 9 o'clock. I tried around 11 once and it was scary loud. My room is 11 by 9 by 8h so it does not take a lot.
 
Hi,

I'm horizontally bi-amping my 1290s and would like to try a tube amp on the top. Any recommendations as to how many watts I should shoot for?

Well, the domes do not need anywhere near the power of the woofer section and why vertical biamping works well. When using stereo amps (w/ a common power supply) it's the bass channel that is tasked the most. The high-pass section is essentially coasting. Stripping the high-pass off to its own stereo amp and you can probably get by with a 6BQ5 unit w/ 4-ohm taps. That's 12-14W per side. This is wild-ass guessing though, I've not done it and might err on the more power side.
 
Well, the domes do not need anywhere near the power of the woofer section and why vertical biamping works well. When using stereo amps (w/ a common power supply) it's the bass channel that is tasked the most. The high-pass section is essentially coasting. Stripping the high-pass off to its own stereo amp and you can probably get by with a 6BQ5 unit w/ 4-ohm taps. That's 12-14W per side. This is wild-ass guessing though, I've not done it and might err on the more power side.
I think I'm going to try my ballad a230 is about 15 watts
 
You're going to use the active X-over in the Crown, combined with the passive X-over in the L1290s.

Yeah you are,, unless you disconnect the tweeter and the mid-range from the ADS cross-over.

I tried it. It's going to sound like ass.
 
You're going to use the active X-over in the Crown, combined with the passive X-over in the L1290
Yeah you are,, unless you disconnect the tweeter and the mid-range from the ADS cross-over.

I tried it. It's going to sound like ass.
Which part?
 
I guess I misunderstood the manual as it said if I set the switches correctly, I send a full range signal to the woofers and the correct xo to the mid and tweet. So I set the low pass on the crown to 500hz for the woofers and my m2a goes to the high side. Sounds great to me but what do I know.
 
I guess I misunderstood the manual as it said if I set the switches correctly, I send a full range signal to the woofers and the correct xo to the mid and tweet. So I set the low pass on the crown to 500hz for the woofers and my m2a goes to the high side. Sounds great to me but what do I know.

This sounds right to me at least from a try it out standpoint.
 
Basically....you can't put an active X-over signal into a passive X-over.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/rolls-sx45-stereo-two-way-active-xover.779957/

I'm not an engineer but, I respectfully disagree. I tried it once and it sounded killer.

Put a 3-way Heresy atop a Jubilee bass bin. Heresy had full passive, Jubilee...nothing.

Used EV-DX-38 (2 way) Put full (bass) signal to bass bin, crossing somewhere "around" (don't remember) maybe 500 (1,000?) Hz. From that point up, sent full signal (500 Hz up) to the Heresy and let its passive do the rest.
 

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Reading again, I might have misunderstood your comment. Oh ewll.. arm is broken and it's TOUGH typing with one hand.

:beerchug:
 
There are plenty of biamped systems that work just fine that have passive networks between the biamp HP output and the drivers. How else do you think a 3-way speaker system gets biamped?

All of ADS systems were done that way, whether with a C1500 or C2000. Only difference was where the HP/LP took place; on the C1500 it's relatively low for sat/sub use, on the C2000 it's higher because you're driving a dome mid/tweeter set above the HP and a woofer (as opposed to subwoofer) below the LP point. The HP side has to have a passive network to properly roll off the mid to tweeter transition to the two drivers. Pretty sure the factory took all of that into consideration before marketing those components and speaker systems.

Bottom line is one failed biamping experiment is just a story to share, doesn't mean you can extrapolate from that and make it into a rule.

John
 
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