chip amp with Orion speakers ?

[sl_1800]

Has anyone tried the chip amps on the Linkwitz Orion speakers? If so which chip amp and how did it perform. Thanks.

Steve

[rick57]

I know someone who’s' built the multi (8) channel amp with LM3886s per the SL outline on SL's site, exccept with PCBs from Elliot Sound. I think it was fine, in fact truly excellent, especially the bass.

He's about to try it with Elliot Sound (P3a?) amps. Will be interesting to see if it sounds any better.

Are you there Ray J?

[ray_jay]

Hi Rick, et al,

never really got rid of the @#^@$^% ground loops in the 3886's, my fault I suspect.

Anyway, as Rick57 has noted, I'm building 2 x 4 channel p3a's with MJL4281A and MJL4302A this will give me the option of varying the quiesent current on the mid and top end amps almost into full class A if needed, just as an experiment <smile>.

Single Transformer for 4 channels but seperate bridge/caps per pair of amps/boards so 1 p/s for bass and 1 p/s for mid/tweets per speaker.

I would *strongly* recommend that anyone bulding amps for the Orions uses a speaker protector circuit on at least the tweeters as they are very sensitive to *any* low frequency inputs. I pulled the p/s on the Orion active crossover one day with the 3886's still powered up and popped one tweeter ( SL said that the transient from the active crossover was unusual behaviour ) and later connect an rca with the amps on ( my mistake ) and blew another <groan>.

they will look something like this

http://members.iinet.net.au/~wallaroo/4channel_amp.html

The Orions are wonderful, very natural in presentation and all speaker components integrate well. The many reviews on SL's site sum it up better than I can here.

The down side is that badly recorded music souds just that ..... *bad*. Also make sure that you can accomodate the room needed from the rear and side walls, if you listening area is limited it can encroach on your space.

Dipole bass is an aquired taste, I love it but some may not, you definately don't get the "slam" of a monopole and some may miss this.

These are the first really *high end* speakers I have built and I am extremely pleased with the results ( as most contructors are <g> ) but I sometimes wish I could have bought an amplifier off the shelf.....

Also make sure that you have a good temperature controlled soldering iron, when soldering all those op amps for the crossover you need all the help you can get <smile>

Ray

[rnoble]

Ok Ray you have now officially scared the crap out of me, ok not scared but maybe well warned.

I have built 8 channels of GC amplification for my Orion kit. Maybe now I'm thinking of going the Rotel route. The GC's can run my surrounds I guess.

[ray_jay]

Hi Rnoble,

wasn't meant to scare *anything* <g> out of you !.

As you noted , maybe well warned is the case. Fully active systems do have a seperate set of issues compared to "normal" systems. If you are careful there should be no problems.
Have you actually built the Orions and crossovers yet ?.
I'm relaying my experiences here, SL said that the transients I had from the crossover on power up/down were higher than usual but were possible. Tweet diaphragms are about $90 AUD from the distributor in Melbourne so it's not the end of the world if anything goes wrong. With 3886's you should be fine on the mids and woofs as they are pretty robust.
I'm going to use one of Elliot Sound's "speaker protector" circuits
http://sound.westhost.com/project33.htm
at 1Khz for the tweets and see how I go.....

After borrowing a proper temperaure controlled iron with a nice tapered chisel tip, I wouln't go back...it's a Weller 921ZX BTW if you are interested.

Ray

[ray_jay]

And the Rotels prot circuits are not going to provide any "better" protection from overexcursion/overpower to the tweets than anything else ,
just a thought. Just don't turn the active crossover off b4 anything else ! ( Mine may be an exception here with its behaviour but better safe than sorry )
Ray

[5th element]

Yeah with active you just have to be careful. With mine its,

Turn on DAC, turn on active xover, turn on power amps.

Now simply just buy yourself something like a 50uf solen or wilmslow audio supersound cap, put them in series with the tweeter. This filters out all the turn on thumps and lets you have piece of mind. I cannot hear the difference with my d2905/97's, with or without the caps.

[SteveA]

RayJay-
I am running my Orions with two four channel P3A's (not as elegant as yours) and am quite pleased with the results. I have a little ground loop problem issue to resolve yet but for most listening its okay (my tinitus is a bigger problem but I don't know the solution for that). I used the "old" power transistors on these.

I built a 6 channel P3A with the newer transistor recommendations but have a problem on one of the boards. Running it as a 4 channel amp is very nice.

I am in the process of building two 4 channel GC's (BrianGT boards). It will be interesting to compare the sound.

As for the Orions, they are truly outstanding.

SteveA

[rnoble]

Hmmm as I'm using IEC's maybe I could use the male IEC sockets in the back of the active xover to power the amps, that way the amps can't be powered up unless the xover is.

Yes I'm building the Orions. I'm building the cabinets first, then the xover then buying the drivers. Basically doing everything I can until having to spend the dollars on the drivers. The 2 4 channel GC's are done which you can see here:

[tktran]

I haven't been able to eliminate my ground loops on my P3A either...

Even with the residual hum, it still sounds nice. But I wish I could figure it out where it's coming from. Most likely a little from various places...