Premier Acoustic Speakers Discussion - Page 7

Jeff Adams · 02-08-2007, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aht3

Good point Jeff. Has anyone reviewed the sub yet? I have one in my living room and it sounds good. FYI, the port is on the bottom (go figure) I put a pie of MDF underneath it (unused bookshelf) and it thumps surprisingly well. I believe that ports on subs sound better when firing against solid surfaces. JMO. Yes, I kept it when I sold the speakers. He was cool with it given the price. I am going to give it to the guy when I upgrade my living room sub. I gave him and MTX with dual 12s and it sounds pretty good in his room.

I actually had to of PA's subs for a week or so. I liked them. Once again for the price, you really can't go wrong. Great output, I really couldn't drive them to the point of distortion or bottoming out and the fit and finish on them are very nice. Doesn't have the sound, look or feel of a $299 sub. I did however return it and stepped way up to an SVS but I paid quite a bit more for that. But again, I enjoy the look, sound and build quality on my entire PA line. Nothing wrong with them at all and for the average person wanting a true home theater experience without breaking the bank, this really is one of the best options out there. It is so much better than the garbage you can get at the B&M stores and HTIB crap.

Is there better speakers out there? Without a doubt but in most cases at a lot higher price tag.

red2erni · 02-09-2007, 12:07 AM

Well, Parker and Andrew...,

The large, new binding posts shown in jpeg #2 in the rear are the new, three way replacement parts, the little broken, half part with the nut on it in the foreground is the PA part that is the center pin of all the PA binding posts in your speakers and mine.

Similarly, in jpeg #1 you can see the other broken PA binding post which broke in the same place, where the wire pass through hole leaves almost no material to support the twisting torque of the plastic PA binding nut which galls in the open position. It is not enginous to suggest I should send one or more of these speakers anywhere to have shoddy 2 cent parts put back in, particularly since I spent 25$ to have the boxes and foam recycled. I'll post some more pictures when I get the new to you, 50 cent, three way binding posts installed and tight banana plugs wired into the drops. The PA part does not take a standard banana, let alone a tight, long pin banana as will the replacement binding posts.

What you don't discuss is jpeg# 5 which shows the lower set of binding posts on the towers are not wired up at all ! If one of the good folks on this thread or elsewhere were to innocently "bi-wire" the PA-6F, and remove the external strap, the lower set of wires would run into an open circuit. That is just unacceptable, at the risk of repeating myself and not getting any reply again. If a 'dear reader' were instead to have left the external strap, all the power would go through the same two little leads to the same little cross over, so what is the benefit of configuring particular frequencies or doubling all that copper wire? To have an external feature that is a dead end is either poor design or cynical marketing or both. I saw the two sets of leads in the pictures on the PA web site before I bought them and assumed I could either "bi-wire" or "bi-amp" them with the Yamaha I bought which is quite flexible. My mistake, silly me!

If PA wanted to make this product right, they would provide a cross over with two sets of leads from the two sets of binding posts, that topology is well known, or wire one set of posts directly to the tweeter leads (shown in yellow in the pictures) so as to bi-pass the cross over. That would be better yet. Everyone worth his salt knows that cross overs are to be avoided at all cost. And that would be a good feature on this product which is striving to make the jump from consumer to mid-fi performance.

Then lastly, I'd like to know if the drivers in your speakers have loose spade connectors on the driver leads. That could account for the jitter I hear at higher SPLs where the driver is likely shaking the loose spade connectors on it's own terminals. I put a Keithly DVM across one spade lead and shook the driver in my hand, in diode mode, the Keithly beeped, so there was a continuity issue as received in both of the drivers I tested.

As I reported in my last post, I'm looking for upgraded drivers for the PA-6Fs (any suggestions) so I just crimped the spade connectors in both towers. That seemed to stop the beeping. I would have soldered them if I weren't planning to replace them. I hope in your next reply, you report lifting a hex drive or checking continuity with a meter, or look to see if your lower leads also go nowhere instead of just opining as per all the thread above. Is there damping cloth pealing off in your enclosures? Is there any damping cloth at all?

In my business, production vacuum thin film depostion equipment, quality and performance problems are very valuable to find, because only when they are fixed does the product improves.

These posts are in that spirit. See if you can get this; 'bad new is good news, no news is bad news and good news is no news at all! The last is why I find nothing useful so far in this thread.

Regards,

red2erni
Portola Valley
CA

aht3 · 02-09-2007, 11:51 AM

Hi Red. I guess you did not read my earlier post. Not that it matters. I tested the lower posts without the clips and they worked just fine just no highs. Anyway, I hope all works out for you.

red2erni · 02-09-2007, 10:48 PM

Hi AHT3,

Try removing the external straps and the lower binding posts only will not have any sound at all, since the lower binding posts go nowhere inside. Top and bottom are wired through the upper binding posts through the external sheet metal jumpers and both sets feed the same cross over, so that is why there is no extra high frequency response if you run extra leads to the lower binding posts.

But never fear, I'll have some pictures of how you can easily rewire your PA towers to give you honest "bi-wired" performance by running leads from the bottom binding posts directly to the tweeter. Easy since they are not wired at all on the inside now. Also easy since PA used spade connectors that are easily removed. But you will need to remove the sheet metal jumpers on the outside that run between the lower and upper posts.

Also, did you check for loose spade connectors on the driver terminals?

red2erni
Portola Valley CA

aht3 · 02-11-2007, 12:52 AM

Red..Let's endthis. I have said twice that I have attached speaker wire to the lower terminals on both speakers without the speakers. I did this to see what they would sound like. Anyway, those speakers have been sold and it really makes no difference. My only point is that I did nothave the same problem that you did. Have a good one and I hope you can somehow use your equipment.

mcc17ss · 02-12-2007, 04:44 PM

I almost bit and bought a pair of these tower speakers but luckily I read all 7 pages of this thread. They may still be an awesome bargain but the photos and comments of that technonerd guy really made me think twice. I got lucky once a few years ago buying closeout wharfedale opal 90 speakers on ubid; they took forever to break-in but they have been very good after that. I must say this thread has been entertaining nonetheless and i will come back soon......newbie

Mike Frezon · 02-12-2007, 05:47 PM

Mark:

We serve to entertain...and to inform!

Come on back soon and jump into the discussion!

texstechfan · 03-24-2007, 01:03 PM

New here. I thought I had read all 7 pages of the post on this forum before I purchased a set of PA-6F's three weeks ago. I came back here to see if anyone had tried out the sub-woofers. I have now read red2erni's comments and I can say that I pretty much agree with him.

I am using a new Sony STR-DG1000 7.1 700W to drive my system. As stated in the Sony manual the two back surrounds can be set in bi-amp mode and utilized to bi-amp the two front A ch. speakers. Since I have no plans to use the 7.1 "back" surrounds I set the unit in bi-amp mode and ran an additional set of copper to the PA-6F's. Now I will tell you that they do sound great but I am not happy man. After reading "red's" comments I thought I'd better take a look so I took off the front covers and shined a light through the port. Pissed & disappointed, yes. The bottom two sets of lugs are not tied to anything! What a fool I felt like. Here I am driving air!

I call Eric Winston and asked him about it. He stated that the lugs were there if I wanted to wire them for a bi-amp configuration. I asked him how he would recommend that I do that and he explained it to me. He also stated that he would just leave it alone the way it was. I told him my Sony was capable of doing it but he said he wouldn't recommend doing it. Why?

One of the reasons I bought these darned things was because the pics on the site showed two sets of lugs and I wanted to try this bi-amp thing with my new Sony.

So, any ideas? Should I re-wire for bi-amp, leave it alone, or send em back to Sound Distributors? I would appreciate any feed back. If red2erni is still around I would like to have a rundown on his the upgrades he has made.

texstechfan · 03-24-2007, 01:21 PM

New here... I purchased a set of PA-6F's before I read all of this forum. I came back to look for a post on PA subs. My PA-6F's are just as red2erni has described them. Bottom set of post are connected to nothing. After reading red's post I took a look through the front port and sure enough I have been driving air! Called Eric Winston and he told me they were there if I wanted to wire them internally for bi-amping. I thought when I saw the pic of the speakers on the web site with two sets of post I could bi-amp them. Well I guess I can if I rewire. Pissed & disappointed...... Any suggestions? I feel like a fool. This is the first set of speakers I have purchased that have two sets of post and the first time I have ever had the ability to provide bi-amp power. Do other new speakers with double post come this way?
Thanks guy's....

gene c · 03-24-2007, 03:59 PM

I've read quite a few threads around here of late on bi-amp and bi-wiring and it looks like you need separate power supplies (not just separate channels) for the highs and lows to properly bi-amp your speakers so even though your Sony allows the use of the rear channels for it, I'm sure they all run off the same power supply so apparently you aren't actually bi-amping. And bi-wiring doesn't seem to offer much, if any, improvement in sound quality, from what I've read. I was also thinking of using the back channels but feel it would be closer to bi-wiring than amping so decided not to. BTW, my 3-way Swan 5.2's have three binding posts and they are all wired and ready to go. I was thinking of getting a six channel Rotel or NAD (that have separate power supplies) and tri-amping the silly things just for fun, but they sound so good to me off one wire that I'll probably just leave them as is. I think you should do the same if you like the way the Premiers sound. Unless you really are pissed off. Then return them and get something else. The best speakers in the world won't sound that good if you're mad at the guys that sold them to you. Oh, and welcome to the forum

.

Luis Gabriel Gerena · 03-24-2007, 04:15 PM

I dont really feel its going to make a big difference to biwire or biamp neither but its really wrong and sort of deceiving to put the extra lugs if they have no connection just to make them look more high end maybe?
This seems to back up my review and opinion on them.