New ML owner (ESL X) Amp Questions

[daveheff0119]

Well… the m33 is installed. I haven’t done the Dirac setup yet, but this is a PURE WINNER. The sound stage, presence, voicing and sheer clarity and depth of the music is unlike anything I’ve heard. While listening to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto (via the BluOS source streaming FLAC files from my home server over gigabit Ethernet), I could actually hear the creak of the piano bench under Van Cliburn!!

And so to my original concern about head room, the m33 is sitting at roughly -25 to -20 depending on the level of a track. This is perfect for me until I can invest (if I even need to) in larger amps for my room.

In the end, a Simply joyous experience. I can’t wait to see what more improvement the Dirac Live system will produce.

To anyone on the fence about the M33 and how it will play with the ESL X speakers, have no fear. It is incredible.

 

[Tmort]

Well… the m33 is installed. I haven’t done the Dirac setup yet, but this is a PURE WINNER. The sound stage, presence, voicing and sheer clarity and depth of the music is unlike anything I’ve heard. While listening to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto (via the BluOS source streaming FLAC files from my home server over gigabit Ethernet), I could actually hear the creak of the piano bench under Van Cliburn!!

And so to my original concern about head room, the m33 is sitting at roughly -25 to -20 depending on the level of a track. This is perfect for me until I can invest (if I even need to) in larger amps for my room.

In the end, a Simply joyous experience. I can’t wait to see what more improvement the Dirac Live system will produce.

To anyone on the fence about the M33 and how it will play with the ESL X speakers, have no fear. It is incredible.

Don’t get your hopes up to high about the effect of Dirac live, I don’t think it tends to work very well with electrostatics. I’ve tried it several times with my NAD C658 Dirac, it kills the sound from my panels. I am going to try it one more time and restrict the sound range to just 150 hz and below.

 

[ttocs]

Don’t get your hopes up to high about the effect of Dirac live, I don’t think it tends to work very well with electrostatics. I’ve tried it several times with my NAD C658 Dirac, it kills the sound from my panels. I am going to try it one more time and restrict the sound range to just 150 hz and below.

Actually, since Dirac Live 3.3.3 I've had success with full range correction. But it does depend on a range of factors, with a biggie being controlling the rear wave.

Prior to 3.3.3 I limited correction of the 13A's to 450Hz and below. This had great success for correcting the range affected by the woofers.

 

[daveheff0119]

Thanks for the heads up… maybe I won’t even risk it. It sounds so good now anyway!

Don’t get your hopes up to high about the effect of Dirac live, I don’t think it tends to work very well with electrostatics. I’ve tried it several times with my NAD C658 Dirac, it kills the sound from my panels. I am going to try it one more time and restrict the sound range to just 150 hz and below.

 

[Tmort]

Actually, since Dirac Live 3.3.3 I've had success with full range correction. But it does depend on a range of factors, with a biggie being controlling the rear wave.

Prior to 3.3.3 I limited correction of the 13A's to 450Hz and below. This had great success for correcting the range affected by the woofers.

I have the basic not full range software and had been limiting it to 400 hz and down but it still seemed to totally flatten my image and take out life from the sound (certainly above 400 hz)….hard to figure.

 

[codesx100]

I've never had any good results with room correction software and MLs. Leave it off and focus on manually correcting the room if needed. Enjoy the M33, I've heard good things about it.

 

[Leporello]

Setting your volume at -25 versus -15 has little to do with headroom. It's like Nigel's custom amps that go to 11. It's an arbitrary number. What matters is at what setting there is audible distress, either from the speakers or amp, what level you like to listen at, and the difference between them. That is a rough definition of "headroom". If the one you like to listen to at -15 clips at 0 and the one you like to listen to at -25 clips at -10, the headroom is the same. That is not to say that the amp with the greater power rating doesn't have more headroom, but your method of evaluating it is naive. In fact, if you talk to someone like Paul McGowan, who is OCD about the effect of volume controls on sound, -15 may be better.

Doubling the 8 ohm maximum continuous power at 4 ohms, and again at 2 ohms, means the amp is behaving more like an ideal voltage source. It's indirectly related to headroom, but also to frequency response, since an amp whose output sags at 2 ohms is going to be down at frequencies where the speaker impedance drops to that level or below.

My new Emotiva XMC-2 a/v proc implores me to "rethink high end" whenever it boots up, and also comes with Dirac Live. I am rethinking. Conventional high end wisdom says any room correction is bad, from long before DSP went mainstream. I haven't gotten around to setting it up and determining for myself, but when I do I'll report back.

Way OT: back in the 1970's, when I was majoring in physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Dirac was still live and lecturing at SUNY Stonybrook, I sometimes wondered what I was doing paying private school tuition (which was a pittance compared to what any college tuitions are going for today). In retrospect it probably wouldn't have effected my education since Dirac's lectures tended to be incomprehensible. And he was only there for a one year stint.