It didn't explode....... YET (aka niges amp)

[nige2000]

Soundstage greatly decreased?
And much more focused ?
How's the detail?

I just connected the xlr cable and no more zzz into the speakers, when I comnect Entreq ground!

With XA100.5 I get more detail, more dinamics, more controled sound.
The bad is less focus and sound is in my face, Instead, how it used to be, behind speakers and back wall! The sound what used to be behind speakers, now is comming from the speakers!

I guess that the only solution will be to play with speaker position and lidtening position!
I dont know how else to fix that!

ok im sure you'll get there then

[sima66]

I will hang my Quads like the picture on the rear wall!
This way my rear wall will sing again!! :) :)!

[jkeny]

I reckon when sound is noticeably coming from the speakers it signifies some distortion in action drawing your attention.
Distortion at a low enough level brings the sort of magic you mentioned you had with your AA amp - in this case it seems to be ground noise issues
I have my theories as to what part of the soundfield is being affected based on auditory perception research.

[sima66]

I reckon when sound is noticeably coming from the speakers it signifies some distortion in action drawing your attention.
Distortion at a low enough level brings the sort of magic you mentioned you had with your AA amp - in this case it seems to be ground noise issues
I have my theories as to what part of the soundfield is being affected based on auditory perception research.

The voice is coming from the middle, not from the speakers, but is not that focused as before! It's much wider and the instruments are not that separated!
The effects and presentation of the instruments that were on the rear wall (behind the speakers) are now coming directly from the speakers!
For example on the Tracy Chapman song "Give me one good reason", the bass guitar on the beginning of the song was on my left side of the rear wall.
It was so precisely pinpointed that you had a feeling that there is another small speaker placed there!
Now, that guitar is directly into my speaker and into my face! Totally the opposite!
Since Quads play front and rear, I always attributed the "rear wall effects" to them, but not anymore!
After 15 years, this is the first time that I tried different amp(s)!
With AA I barely ever heard my speakers! They were there more like a display in the room!

I apologize for hacking this tread with my amp problems, but it's all Pearse fault! :)
I just wanted to ad to his statement how much amps can make a huge difference! In my case the biggest change!

[Fran]

Is there any chance that the amps or speakers are wired out of phase?


Pass amps have vanishingly low distortion usually - although they may not like driving stacked quads. Unlikely though....

[nige2000]

i believe some orders of harmonics can sound quite nice, think its second order mostly coz the rest are fairly offensive
which is the type valve amps usually have
if you google harmonics you'll find plenty of info
including pass
https://www.passlabs.com/press/audio-di ... d-feedback

i wonder in your type of system would you be better with 4 single pair mosfet amps rather than 2 multiple pair mosfet amps like 4 pass f5 amplifiers
divide out the load with simpler devices

often when your change is more resolving has lower noise its difficult to believe a backwards step has been made

[sima66]

Is there any chance that the amps or speakers are wired out of phase?


Pass amps have vanishingly low distortion usually - although they may not like driving stacked quads. Unlikely though....

Out of phase came to my mind, but as far as the speaker wires, everything is the way it was and the way that it should be! Only if there might be some change, or fault inside the amps!

Those amps are monsters, and it shouldn't be a problem to drive a stacked Quads!

Also, even if I want to play with speaker positioning, I don't have much room to do it, because of cabling problem and space problem!
And, since I don't have much experience with different amps, if the previous amps had a perfect focus and presentation with the existing speaker setup, shouldn't this amps have the same?! Or I'm wrong?!

Here is how my speaker setup looks in the last 10 years:

[Fran]

I've used a pass F5 with my stacked quads with no problems. Could it be something else - preamp not playing nice with the power amps?

[sima66]

My speaker setup was perfect for the Audio Aero amps. Speakers very wide and close listening!
That kind of speaker position does not work with Pass Labs, because they have much bigger sound-stage!
Just moving my chair less that a foot back, the improvement was huge!
I never thought that the speakers setup need to be changed, once when its found the best sound! I guess that I was wrong!
I will have to try to move speakers a bit more back and close together, but even with this sound I'm now very happy!
Sound is much cleaner, more air, more details...

I don't use preamp. Wadia recommends connecting the 922's directly to the amp(s) and that's the best sound. The 922's have 4 different output voltages to choose for best match the amp(s) input. I had Karan KAL Ref MK2 pream($18,000 retail) and I preferred direct connection!

[k99_64]

Finally got to see the end results of this, lads when the big players get their hands on this and become scared at the results they might try to figure out how you all did it?