Single Mono's or Dual Mono?
 

I'm building a pair of Zen V4's.

Right now I'm looking into the cabinet design. I can't help help wondering what road to choose... single or dual mono?

Both will give you the same results if properly designed. Mono block takes more space and it is more expensive in parts and time to build it (two chassis).

It is only a matter of taste.

One problem I encountered with mono blocks is that I have to lift the ground off one of the blocks in order to break the ground loop since they are place close to the speakers and plug into the side walls in different outlets.
Regards,
Chris:(

Mono blocks have advantages, like placing in the room, look better, easier planing but many disadvantages like too much metal work. You have almost double the work with the boxes.

If you have time and money make the mono blocks if not the dual mono work exactly the same.

This is a question I have been thinking about myself. Clearly, it
is more expensive to build monoblocks, but is there any
advantage sonically? Crosstalk, som would say, but I don't
think that is much of a problem. What I wonder about is rather
whether it is preferrable to have as short speaker cables as
possible (monoblocks) or as short interconnect as possible (dual)?
A friend of mine uses monoblocks with rather long interconnects
and it does not seem to be much of a problem in his case, but it
would probably cause problems with certain other preamps,
having less driving capability.

Opinions/experiences on this topic are welcome.

If you have a true dual mono with separate transformers you don´t have any cross talk unless you are running low signal cables from separate channels directly in parallel.

The shortest interconnects are more preferable because the signal is low in voltage and current.

You are right and no one should use active crossovers because they destroy the (low in voltage and current) signal.
Not to mention the extra connections and cable lengths the signal has to go through to finally reach the input of a poweramp.

Well,,,, on a second thought you seem to be right, but one has to hear the difference in sound quality after replacing 10 ft. of speakercable with just 1 ft.

It is not only a matter of signal voltage and current. The input of a poweramp is not the same kind of a load as that of a loudspeaker and its interaction with interconnect cables is not of the same nature as the one of a loudspeaker with speakercables.

Just think of what happens to the damping factor of a poweramp with every extra foot of speakercable added to its output.

Think of the difference between interconnects and speakercables.
They are not made with the same attention to detail.

How many "high end" cables manufacturers provide written information about the electrical characteristics of their cables?
About interconnects, very few. About speakercables, I haven' heard of anyone.
The only ones providing such information are Belden, Mogami, Lapp and a few others, but then they are not making cables for "high end" gear and "golden ears".

Did you ever wonder why most active loudspeakers sound livelier and add "presence" to the sound?
It is not because each drive unit is connected to its own amp. In most cases there is a common power supply for all output stages and the active crossover too.
And the active crossover is definitelly not something like the XVR-1.

Regards,
Nick

Ohhhh, I forgot to tell you, my poweramps have no binding posts.
Each one has 2 ft. of speaker cable soldered directly to the output transistors and the ground. And since I'm using Kimber 4TC in single-pole configuration, I'm using one of the conductors to get the feedback reference from the end of the cable.

We are interested in the frequency bandwidth and optimal sound performance. These depend largely on the source impedance, load impedance and cables having different resistances, inductances and capacitances. Already complicated...?

I select the cables like this. If I do not like to think about these complicated things, I just close my eyes and use the short cables. What should I do if I can not avoid long cables? I would just use the long cables. Otherwise, I have to start to figure out the complicated things, math or laboratory test.

If there are two rules,
[list=1][*] Short speaker cable and long interconnect line[*]Long speaker cable and short interconnect line[/list=1]
my rule of thump would face the rule 1 because most preamps in the market have low output impedance and most power amps also in the market have high input impedance.

:)