SWAN speakers (1 Viewer)

[DavidCooper]

Cool Tony....yeah I saw your pics on how you had them set up.

I have been back and forth trying to decide on getting the R3's or doinng 2.1's for surrounds. I have a pretty big living room that has a large opening to the dinning area...so......Im not sure how they will sound with no back wall to reflect off of. On the other hand I can easily put the 2.1's on the side walls but the have to be pretty much back right up to the wall. I'm not sure if that will hurt their performance or not.

 

[TonyWright]

As you saw from my message before, I have had success with the R3's. I have seen posts where people are using the 2.1's as surrounds and have great success as well. All great speakers and in my opinion you can't go wrong with either choice.

I am actually toying with the idea of picking up a pair of 2.1's for a bedroom. We'll see what the wife has to say about that...

Tony

 

[Burklund]

when you say the yamaha didnt have enough current, are you saying it didnt have enough amps?
What model/amps was the Yamaha?
What about the H/K?

 

[Rob Kramer]

He said Yamaha 2400 and HK 630 (you even quoted it in one of your posts).

I would guess that Tony was running the speakers in "large" mode (since he had no sub). This is very taxing on a receiver, especially if you have a large room and/or like it loud. Im sure getting those multiple 8-inch drivers AND a 6-inch midrange pumping takes some juice.

And the R3s arent any less taxing. They are 4-ohm speakers.

I believe the Yamaha's sound a little thin when they are cranked (the lower ranges begin to fall off). I believe this is what Tony was refering to.

 

[TonyWright]

That is exactly correct. My mains are set to large as I do not yet have a sub.

Basically, a high current receiver is going to be able to efficiently reproduce dynamic peaks in your audio that can normally be quite taxing on an amp. The high current receiver will be much more capable of reproducing the sound you like during those peaks. As was mentioned before, I have my speakers set to 'Large' because I don't have a sub. I imagine that sending the LFE to my mains was quite taxing on the Yammie's amp and it just couldn't reproduce the sound I was looking for. A high current reciever was just the ticket.

My receiver is only rated at 75 wpc, but it outperforms the Yammie was rated at 120wpc. Here you can see that sometimes the wpc rating of an amp is not always an indication that it will be suitable for your setup. Please keep in mind that your room will play into the mix here too. I have a fairly open room so I'll need a little more power to get the sound I want.

This was an extremely basic explanation, so if anyone wants to chime in with some added info, please don't hesitate.

Have you purchased a receiver or pre/pro and amp yet? If not, I recommend trying a Harman/Kardon. I have been really pleased with mine. Outlaw stuff is really nice too. They have a pre/pro + amp setup for around $1500. Great deal!

 

[Rob Kramer]

Pioneer's receivers also have good amp sections (great power ratings with ALL channels driven).

 

[Jon Lane]

Nice job, guys. You've nailed it precisely.

I tend to favor minimalist speaker designs, meaning those that aren't built to a simple flat SPL and/or impedance curve. Sound from minimalist designs tends to be more vivid, dynamic, and dimensional to my ears.

Combining the resulting dynamic load of the minimalist design with their higher than average sensitivity -- especially when they tend to be physically larger, more sensitive designs in the first place -- means that they can "wake up" with even 50 rated watts...provided said watts are provided with good current headroom that really "grips" the speaker's load.

To determine if an amp has better than average instantaneous current headroom, look at the 4 ohm power rating vs the 8 ohm rating. If the amp produces double or nearly double the power into halved impedance loads, it's a high current design.

For example, good high-current amps can be rated 50w/8 ohms; 100w/4 ohms; and 200w/2 ohms. You'll unlikely find this in many receivers, but a number of better basic power amps sport power sequences like this.

As Tony says, it doesn't take a lot of rated power to drive a speaker with 90dB initial sensitivity...and fortunately many of the better sounding amps are under 150-200 watts too.

 

[DavidCooper]

I'm running my Swan's with a Parasound HCA-855A rated only at 85 watts of high current power and the speakers sound fantastic.

Everyone who has heard them are totally floored with the sound.