Pro Amp vs. Plate Amp

[academia50]

.............. My MLTL (the black one) goes from 20kHz to 32Hz flat within 10dB with a 6" driver, ............

waxx , Is this your design ?

Designing Mass-Loaded Transmission Line (MLTL) Speakers – Neurochrome

 

[waxx]

waxx , Is this your design ?

Designing Mass-Loaded Transmission Line (MLTL) Speakers – Neurochrome

No, but t’s similar. It uses an other driver altough, the alpair 10p, i use the CHN110

 

[audiobomber]

From my experience, they don't always show on the frequency response, only the big ones does. The smaller ones that smear the sound are not easy to spot on a frequency spectrum, and they are often only visible when you really measure them.

I measure with a Umik1 at the listening seat. I use REW on the left and right channels separately, then playing together. Applying auto-EQ adds about a dozen filters from 20 to 100 Hz. I add one custom filter at 25Hz and a house curve. There's no way I could get this kind of accuracy without auto-EQ.

First i also did not took much attention to it, but when i started to do it, my speakers started to sound a lot better with the same drivers in the same box with more or less the same crossover frequency and slopes. But i'm rather picky on the crossovers, the often necesairy evil... That's why i still prefer fullrange drivers, or at least a waw setup where the crossover is very low. You may be not that picky.

I can assure you, I am very picky, especially in Covid times, when I've been spending several hours a day in critical listening mode. I've made many improvements on the computer audio and network sides in the past few months, to the point where computer audio now surpasses my CD transport and previous turntable systems.

I do enjoy full-range qualities. I have a pair of Raw-1F speakers in a secondary system. They use CSS FR125S drivers in a ported 7L box. I have a pair of Jordan JX92S drivers and 7L box which I expect to use sealed, or possibly with the Marchand passive line-level crossover and small sub for my office. I just need to get the baffle cut. I have a four CSS WR125ST 16-ohm drivers two WR125S drivers and a pair of Usher tweeters for a future project, but they've been waiting a long, long time.

I brought the Raw-1F downstairs to the main system for a quick listen and was very pleased at how well the Bamberg MTM stood up to the full-ranger's strengths, with of course the multi-way's extended frequency response. If we eventually move to an apartment, I could live with just the little full-range system.

 

[academia50]

No, but t’s similar. It uses an other driver altough, the alpair 10p, i use the CHN110

Can you attach the measurements of the axis FR vs. SPL? Only for curiosity.

 

[academia50]

...............
I can assure you, I am very picky,.........

Yes, you are more of a perfectionist than a picky !
I imagine that if you attend a symphonic music concert and someone coughs near you, you get up from the theater and leave ...
Or, like it happened to me, an idiot answered his cell phone while the musicians played! they will not believe it, it was in our Teatro Colón, and the director said to the subject (who was near him, in the stalls): "take your call calmly, we can wait."

Teatro Colon - Wikipedia

 

[audiobomber]

I imagine that if you attend a symphonic music concert and someone coughs near you, you get up from the theater and leave ...
Or, like it happened to me, an idiot answered his cell phone while the musicians played! they will not believe it, it was in our Teatro Colón, and the director said to the subject (who was near him, in the stalls): "take your call calmly, we can wait."

Teatro Colon - Wikipedia

LOL! Good for the Director. I love the sarcasm.

 

[audiobomber]

Coda: One of the Dayton plate amps failed, so I gave up on plate amps and bought a Crown XSi 1500 to drive my sealed stereo subs directly. Power is doubled; 155W@8Ω vs. 300W@8Ω. I implemented a Linkwitz Transform, bandpass filter (BW2@20Hz & BW2@200Hz), REW Auto-EQ from 20-400Hz, house curve (+1dB from 80-20 Hz). The bottom end was still sagging, so I added PEQ (+9dB@25Hz, Q=3).

I am more than happy now, because I have significantly better sound quality (subjectively) and a flatter FR curve (objectively). Fan noise is audible at the amp, but not at the listening seat.

 

[academia50]

I did the same thing, while my Dayton SPA250 didn't fail, my two sealed subwoofers of 18" cabinets were left power hungry. So I went for Bheringer NX3000 DSP.
Very satisfied, although I do not use any room compensation (to my ears it behaves well), I only regulate the power and apply DSP in the bass dn the first two octaves (20-40 hz), because the main speakers cover 40 Hz well up. (Too much expense for so little, some will say, but I am a lover of organ music among other musical genres)
I changed the original fan (too loud) for a Noctua and the torture of noise is over. I'm not too interested in losing the warranty, I decided to take the risk and the coverage time for it has already ended, so it was all win-win.

Congratulations and enjoy the music !

If you want to try bass, dynamics, attack, treble, everything! I recommend you :

" Walking on the Moon "
Yuri Honing Trio.
I heard it on Tidal in Master quality and my socks fell off.....

 

[audiobomber]

Coda: One of the Dayton plate amps failed, so I gave up on plate amps and bought a Crown XSi 1500 to drive my sealed stereo subs directly. Power is doubled; 155W@8Ω vs. 300W@8Ω. I implemented a Linkwitz Transform, bandpass filter (BW2@20Hz & BW2@200Hz), REW Auto-EQ from 20-400Hz, house curve (+1dB from 80-20 Hz). The bottom end was still sagging, so I added PEQ (+9dB@25Hz, Q=3).

I am more than happy now, because I have significantly better sound quality (subjectively) and a flatter FR curve (objectively). Fan noise is audible at the amp, but not at the listening seat.

A couple of corrections. My sub amp is the Crown XLi 1500 (Class AB), not XSi. Also I worked on the cross, tried many configurations, ended up preferring BW2@20-63Hz, Linkwitz Transform, Auto-EQ to 63Hz and a House Curve (+1dB/octave, 80-20Hz).
A miniDSP with REW is an awesome combo, far more capable and versatile than a plate amp crossover.

 

[bentoronto]

And box alignment also, sealed has the lowest group delay, then TL types, then BR and then horns. But sealed are hard to get real low in frequency.

But an amp won't make the difference, it's the driver(motor) and the enclosure who do that. Plate amps or pro amps won't make a difference on that.

But a motional feedback amp will make a big difference.

It maybe that so-called misnamed "tapped horns" are last in the sequence, but are you sure true horns are not first?

B.