I've been running my SL3s with the Musical fidelity XA-200 monoblocks and they were fine.
Then I decided to biamp them, and I used the XA-100 for the woofers. It delivers 200watts per channel at 4Ohms, and I thought that would be more than enough. After all they are just 10inch drivers with a low-pass filter, how hard could it be, right?
Now I've got another pair of XA-200s and tried them on. I didn't expect much difference really, from a point onwards it doesn't matter how much amp you throw at a speaker, it will still perform the same if everything else remains the same. After all they are just 10inch drivers with a low-pass filter, right?
Well, no.
Even the tonal balance has changed, to the point where now I've had to reconfigure everything around them (the 'helper' speakers I also use for rock, and both subs).
On their own the SL3s are now more 'adequate'. I get better frequency response with the settings at 'flat' now, while the smaller amp worked best at '-3db'.
This is surprising because nothing else has changed.The position/orientation of everything is exactly the same, and the volumes involved in the tests were not particularly high (80db).
Obviously all these amps have exactly the same voltage gain (30db)
So what gives?
I'd understand for the panels to sound different if I one was to swap a crappy little integrated with Krell monoblocks - panels need all the current they can have.
But the woofers?
These are quite a traditional load, and at 4 Ohms 200 watts shouldn't really be much different than 400 watts.
But they are
Edit: According to the table in this biamping article (scroll down a bit) the power distribution bass/panel is around 40/60% (the SL3 has Xover frequency at 250Hz).
Knowing the additional power demands of the electrostatic panels, I'd be inclined to modify this figure closer to 30%/70%.
This makes it even more strange that more power to the woofers makes such a profound difference.
Then I decided to biamp them, and I used the XA-100 for the woofers. It delivers 200watts per channel at 4Ohms, and I thought that would be more than enough. After all they are just 10inch drivers with a low-pass filter, how hard could it be, right?
Now I've got another pair of XA-200s and tried them on. I didn't expect much difference really, from a point onwards it doesn't matter how much amp you throw at a speaker, it will still perform the same if everything else remains the same. After all they are just 10inch drivers with a low-pass filter, right?
Well, no.
Even the tonal balance has changed, to the point where now I've had to reconfigure everything around them (the 'helper' speakers I also use for rock, and both subs).
On their own the SL3s are now more 'adequate'. I get better frequency response with the settings at 'flat' now, while the smaller amp worked best at '-3db'.
This is surprising because nothing else has changed.The position/orientation of everything is exactly the same, and the volumes involved in the tests were not particularly high (80db).
Obviously all these amps have exactly the same voltage gain (30db)
So what gives?
I'd understand for the panels to sound different if I one was to swap a crappy little integrated with Krell monoblocks - panels need all the current they can have.
But the woofers?
These are quite a traditional load, and at 4 Ohms 200 watts shouldn't really be much different than 400 watts.
But they are
Edit: According to the table in this biamping article (scroll down a bit) the power distribution bass/panel is around 40/60% (the SL3 has Xover frequency at 250Hz).
Knowing the additional power demands of the electrostatic panels, I'd be inclined to modify this figure closer to 30%/70%.
This makes it even more strange that more power to the woofers makes such a profound difference.
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