tripath 2020 with low efficiency speakers

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Hello everyone, new here :)

I wanted to ask the forum if anyone has experience with driving low efficiency speakers with one of the tripath 2020 based amps (amp3, autocostruire, charlize).

Specifically, I'm considering the Charlize, but I'm not sure it will be able to drive my B&W CDM-1NT's (8ohm, 88db).

Thanks for any advice... :confused:

[http://www.bwspeakers.com/downloadFile/speakerModel/DONE-product_info_CDM1.pdf]
 
vern said:
Hello everyone, new here :)

I wanted to ask the forum if anyone has experience with driving low efficiency speakers with one of the tripath 2020 based amps (amp3, autocostruire, charlize).

Specifically, I'm considering the Charlize, but I'm not sure it will be able to drive my B&W CDM-1NT's (8ohm, 88db).

Thanks for any advice... :confused:

[http://www.bwspeakers.com/downloadFile/speakerModel/DONE-product_info_CDM1.pdf]


Hi,

I use Carlize to power some big 3 ways (85 db, 4 ohm) with no problems. It will depend on your listening habits and the size of your room. If your room is not too big and you play music a low to medium level, then you should be OK.

Your B&W will love Charlize ! You will get a more present bass from this little puppy and keep the good mid and HF.

I plan to visit a friend and try my Charlize with some very good B&W 3 ways he have. I don't know if this will happen into the near future.

You should order Charlize and try it in a cheap prototype. This way, you won't have to pay big $$ to see if you like what you get.
 
I see the IPL A2 are 89db and 8ohm, only slightly more efficient than mine - so there's hope :D
As for trying a t-amp - it's based on the 2024 (15w) and weaker than the 2020 (20w) based amps. In terms of power should I just think of it as providing 75% of what the 2020 can do?

Thanks :)
 
Be warned, the CDM1NT's (i'm not sure if you have the old ones or those with nautilus tweeters) are a strange load.

They are not really difficult, but they do drop to about 5 ohms in the bass region.

The larger 7 and 9NT's had 3.3 ohm official minimal load on the specs. (The 9NT shared the N804's drivers)
 
Positive opinions so far and I'm becoming more and more convinced I should go for it :cool:

Yves - About your warning:
CDM-1NT is the one with the nautilus tweeters. What do you mean when you say it is a strange load? What should I be hearing (or not hearing, as the case may be)?
 
I meant the impedance vs frequency curve isn't easy for an amp to drive. You can't really hear it if the amp's got trouble, maybe it's going to clip faster and won't handle the bass so well.

The CMD-9NT and the N804 are worse because they are 3 way (impedance between 3 and 8 ohms)

You can't really hear it, but with less capable amps, the CDM-9NT and 804's were told to have anemic bass and harsh treble.

Don't worry, it's not that bad with the small CDM-1(NT) and the 805, less difficult do drive.

Go for it!
 
Now that we are on this topic, do you guys think that I can get away with using a 41Hz AMP3 and a pair of wharfedale diamond 9.1 (86dB, 6 Ohm)? They won the what-hifi award for under 250£ stereo speaker (and I wanted them before anyway, because I always heard good reviews and also because of the price of 176€).

Cheers!
 
It's working great

I did go for the Charlize, and I've very happy I did :D

It easily drives the speakers and has plenty of power. No compromises - there's as much volume available as I could ever want...

And yes, it's all true... what a great little amp - sounds so very good. I'm especially impressed with the imaging and how natural sounding it is... :cool:
 
Re: It's working great

vern said:
I did go for the Charlize, and I've very happy I did :D

It easily drives the speakers and has plenty of power. No compromises - there's as much volume available as I could ever want...

And yes, it's all true... what a great little amp - sounds so very good. I'm especially impressed with the imaging and how natural sounding it is... :cool:

Good to see that Charlize is able to drive your B&W with no problem !

At this day, all the comments I read about Charlize are more then positive (including mine :D ). I wonder if someone had the opportunity to compare Charlize to the more powerfull UCD180 ?
(At low to medium level).
 
My system

Well, the speakers are B&W CDM1NT and the source is a PC through an external usb soundcard - creative audigy 2 nx (surprisingly good, imho).
I guess it does function as a pre-amp as well, since the output is amplified (no analog line-out). I also tried using my portable (iaudio x5) as source and got good results (both line-out and headphone-out).
 
Charlize and JBL L100's (& others)

I hooked up Charlize first to a set of L100's (three way rock and roll speaks from the '70's). I think they are 87 db eff. My impression: not bad, a little weak in the bass area. This is without a preamp.

Then I tried my Mirage M3's (two way from the same era, I don't know the eff. rating). Better! Charlize had an easier time driving those.

The detail is very good with both.

I have a set of JBL L46's and a set of Advent originals that I plan to try tomorrow. They are both two way. I will post my impressions.

I don't listen very loud anymore and the room is small, so your milage may vary.

I plan on building my first set of speakers with full range Fostex, high eff. drivers in the near future. I want to give her something easy to drive and also experiment with full range drivers with no x-over.

Even so, she will play plenty loud enough to annoy my wife, and that's all I can ask of any amp!
 
Re: Charlize and JBL L100's (& others)

chipmec said:
I have a set of JBL L46's and a set of Advent originals that I plan to try tomorrow. They are both two way. I will post my impressions.

I've hooked my completely stock SI-5066 up to original Advents last night and it drives them just fine. I have also used it on a set of very inefficient ADS mini monitors and it did an admirable job on them as well.
 
Additional speaker tests

Charlize sounds great with my large Advents and really well with my JBL L46's. The L46's may be the most eff. speakers that I own, because they sound noticably more dynamic with Charlize than the other, larger speakers that I have put her with.

Interestingly enough, I hooked back to my L100's after the L46's and it sounded better than the test from yesterday. I guess a little burn-in time helps.

This is fun!
 
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