So I've chosen one of the most difficult speakers to drive with an amplifier. I made my choice, bought, paid, and shipped to my home. I'm beyond in love and can't imagine any thing else...pretty sick eh??
could ya's please read the following and leave comments on amps for me? Thankee buddies!
"[TABLE="class: table-condensed table-striped"]
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[TD]as far as the power amp is concerned, these ESLs can be modeled as a huge capacitor. This means that at low freq, the load impedance is high. At high freq, the load imp is low. Plus, for a capacitor the current leads the voltage by 90 degrees. This means that current & voltage are not always provided to the speaker at the same time (unlike conventional box speakers or even planar magnetic speakers). This means that the amp can potentially go unstable. How many times have you heard & read that the power amp failed into a high capacitance load? We've even read this for high capacitance speaker cables (like Alpha Goertz).
The other thing to note (since these ESLs behave like capacitors) is that these speakers are voltage driven devices (rather than current driven devices like conventional box speakers & planar magnetic speakers). So, the power amp needs to have a very high DC power rail. It's no surprise that both Sanders' amps are 400W/8 Ohms & 500W/8 Ohms where the DC power rails are +/-80VDC & +/-90VDC. And, they also provide a gobs of current.
What's happening here is that as the speaker impedance increases at lower freq, any amp would be pushing current into this higher load impedance & the output voltage will rise quickly. If the DC power rail of the power amp is not high, the output voltage will clip & you'll get distortion. A high DC power rail (such a 80VDC or 90VDC) will tend of avoid this output voltage clipping.
You were suggesting an ARC REF 250. If this is a 250W/ch, 8 ohms, I calculate the DC rail voltage to be 63VDC. That seems reasonable but I surmise that the output voltage might get close to clipping if the volume is turned up. It's hard to say; best to get a home/dealer audition with these amps.
Just a quick calculation: usually the first watt is where most of us listen but I don't know how loud your friend likes to play his music.
Suppose that he cranks up the volume such that the amp is outputting 5W into the speaker. If the speaker presents a load of approx 800 Ohms anywhere in the 200Hz-20KHz region (the bass is taken care of by conventional woofer) then the output voltage will hit 63VDC & will clip. Will your friend crank it up to 5W output? Hard to say...
I would not go below 250W/ch 8 ohms & try to look for something even higher in wattage (just to get that higher DC power rail voltage).
Hope this helps.
Thanks.
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[TR="class: discussion-post-row post-status-active"]
[TD][/TD]
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[TR="class: discussion-post-row post-status-active"]
[TD]<time data-localized="true" title="September 2, 2015 at 11:20am UMST" datetime="2015-09-02T18:20:22Z" data-local="time" data-format="%m-%d-%Y %l:%M%P"></time>
<time data-localized="true" title="September 2, 2015 at 11:20am UMST" datetime="2015-09-02T18:20:22Z" data-local="time" data-format="%m-%d-%Y %l:%M%P"></time>
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<form class="button_to" method="post" action="/follow?slug=sanders-10b-electrostatic" data-remote="true"></form>
[h=5]More to discover[/h]
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[h=5]Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento[/h]
could ya's please read the following and leave comments on amps for me? Thankee buddies!
"[TABLE="class: table-condensed table-striped"]
<tbody>[TR="class: discussion-post-row post-status-active"]
[TD]as far as the power amp is concerned, these ESLs can be modeled as a huge capacitor. This means that at low freq, the load impedance is high. At high freq, the load imp is low. Plus, for a capacitor the current leads the voltage by 90 degrees. This means that current & voltage are not always provided to the speaker at the same time (unlike conventional box speakers or even planar magnetic speakers). This means that the amp can potentially go unstable. How many times have you heard & read that the power amp failed into a high capacitance load? We've even read this for high capacitance speaker cables (like Alpha Goertz).
The other thing to note (since these ESLs behave like capacitors) is that these speakers are voltage driven devices (rather than current driven devices like conventional box speakers & planar magnetic speakers). So, the power amp needs to have a very high DC power rail. It's no surprise that both Sanders' amps are 400W/8 Ohms & 500W/8 Ohms where the DC power rails are +/-80VDC & +/-90VDC. And, they also provide a gobs of current.
What's happening here is that as the speaker impedance increases at lower freq, any amp would be pushing current into this higher load impedance & the output voltage will rise quickly. If the DC power rail of the power amp is not high, the output voltage will clip & you'll get distortion. A high DC power rail (such a 80VDC or 90VDC) will tend of avoid this output voltage clipping.
You were suggesting an ARC REF 250. If this is a 250W/ch, 8 ohms, I calculate the DC rail voltage to be 63VDC. That seems reasonable but I surmise that the output voltage might get close to clipping if the volume is turned up. It's hard to say; best to get a home/dealer audition with these amps.
Just a quick calculation: usually the first watt is where most of us listen but I don't know how loud your friend likes to play his music.
Suppose that he cranks up the volume such that the amp is outputting 5W into the speaker. If the speaker presents a load of approx 800 Ohms anywhere in the 200Hz-20KHz region (the bass is taken care of by conventional woofer) then the output voltage will hit 63VDC & will clip. Will your friend crank it up to 5W output? Hard to say...
I would not go below 250W/ch 8 ohms & try to look for something even higher in wattage (just to get that higher DC power rail voltage).
Hope this helps.
Thanks.
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: discussion-post-row post-status-active"]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: discussion-post-row post-status-active"]
[TD]<time data-localized="true" title="September 2, 2015 at 11:20am UMST" datetime="2015-09-02T18:20:22Z" data-local="time" data-format="%m-%d-%Y %l:%M%P"></time>
<time data-localized="true" title="September 2, 2015 at 11:20am UMST" datetime="2015-09-02T18:20:22Z" data-local="time" data-format="%m-%d-%Y %l:%M%P"></time>
[/TD]
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<form class="button_to" method="post" action="/follow?slug=sanders-10b-electrostatic" data-remote="true"></form>
[h=5]More to discover[/h]
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[h=5]Raidho Acoustics APS D-3 Latest Version[/h]Walnut Burl Like new 73500 / Now 31,995
[h=5]Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento[/h]
