Absolutely blown away... Snell Type A V (5) Reference

Froggy5326 said:
I looked them up. Not exactly a low price leader. I appreciate that there may be some clarity or presence or coloration gained by going with these... but they are $7500 each for a stereo 8008, which has nearly identical specs to the Adcom GFA-555ii with exception of the bridged power, which is literally double on the Adcom. (400@4 ohm mono vs. 800@4 ohm mono)

I'm going to have to hear something extraordinarily compelling to spend 15x the price of these Adcoms, and I haven't heard it yet for sure. I'm overall very pleased with them. It can be argued that my ear isn't as critical as many on here, but I am very picky about what I like and what I don't like, and with the exception of being slightly underpowered on the towers, I feel that it would be very hard to significantly better this system... especially for the money considering a 10X+ increase in cost to have similar results.

I would love for someone with a more critical ear around San Diego to tell me what they think, but only out of curiosity.
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I was recommending used Aragon gear. That is much more affordable. 10% of new. Easily found on eBay, Audiogon, or US Audio Mart.
 
StimpyWan said:
I was recommending used Aragon gear. That is much more affordable. 10% of new. Easily found on eBay, Audiogon, or US Audio Mart.
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I'll keep an eye out. Any particular model you like? There is very little information on the website, short of the two current offerings.
 
StimpyWan said:
I was recommending used Aragon gear. That is much more affordable. 10% of new. Easily found on eBay, Audiogon, or US Audio Mart.
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It looks like the 8008bb is a comp, spec wise, to the Adcom GFA-555ii. There is one for sale on Ebay right now for $1600 plus $150 shipping. Would be interesting to compare them side by side.

Still more than triple (nearly quadruple) the price of a 555ii right now. Impossible to tell without audition whether it is three times as good.
 
Froggy5326 said:
I'll keep an eye out. Any particular model you like? There is very little information on the website, short of the two current offerings.
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The model numbers are their power ratings. These 3 are always recommended: a 4004, which is 400 watts into 4 Ohms. So, an 8008, 800 watts into 8 ohms. Another, the 2004, 200 watts into 4 Ohms. All great, but most like the 8008. There are mono-blocks too, those are Palladiums.
 
Froggy5326 said:
It looks like the 8008bb is a comp, spec wise, to the Adcom GFA-555ii. There is one for sale on Ebay right now for $1600 plus $150 shipping. Would be interesting to compare them side by side.

Still more than triple (nearly quadruple) the price of a 555ii right now. Impossible to tell without audition whether it is three times as good.
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From reviews, most feel an Aragon amp would be a step up from Adcom. No knock against Adcom. :)
 
StimpyWan said:
The model numbers are their power ratings. These 3 are always recommended: a 4004, which is 400 watts into 4 Ohms. So, an 8008, 800 watts into 8 ohms. Another, the 2004, 200 watts into 4 Ohms. All great, but most like the 8008. There are mono-blocks too, those are Palladiums.
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OK... so an 8008 is considerably more than the Adcom at 8 ohms... I think the 555ii is 625@8 ohms, bridged mono.
 
Wow - glad to read about another pair of Mr. Voecks (pre Revel) masterworks! I heard these at another AK'ers home about 5 years ago and I wish he was still here to comment on yours. If you search for his posts (awise1957) you may find some good info to help you in your amp search. He was running multiple Levinson amps when I heard them, and the sound was epic. He never had the subs with them - just the mid-tweeter columns and even without them there was some pretty solid bass down to maybe 70-80hz.

It clearly affected my own personal reference for sound as I own Salon 2's now :-)

jblnut
 
jblnut said:
Wow - glad to read about another pair of Mr. Voecks (pre Revel) masterworks! I heard these at another AK'ers home about 5 years ago and I wish he was still here to comment on yours. If you search for his posts (awise1957) you may find some good info to help you in your amp search. He was running multiple Levinson amps when I heard them, and the sound was epic. He never had the subs with them - just the mid-tweeter columns and even without them there was some pretty solid bass down to maybe 70-80hz.

It clearly affected my own personal reference for sound as I own Salon 2's now :)

jblnut
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You were one of the catalysts for me to pull the trigger on these. You are the only person I have interacted with that actually had heard some live, and let me tell you... the subs are absolutely magic. I can't imagine anyone spending the cabbage for these and not buying them... except that they are physically nearly as large as my A/ii speakers by themselves.

Because of Dad and the "Snell" thing... I was super pleased to find them, and you were right... I'm done looking.
 
I know another AK'er who has one of the 18" subs (currently doing duty as a coffee table) and I need to convince him to hook it up :-). The subs and columns together must be incredible!

jblnut
 
Unlike anything I have ever heard without multiple bass bins in the class of like an EV or Cerwin Vega folded 18" system like an EL 36... which thunder. I have owned two of them in a pro audio system and this is wildly similar in intensity... and hugely superior in musicality.
 
BANDWIDTH said:
I remember a friend of mine had the good fortune to visit David Snell up in Haverill, MA at his "home". He told me that he had to tiptoe through the maze of cables, wires, and naked crossovers strewn all over the house! Shortly after that (my buddy used to work at Nantucket Sound") where I purchased my set of A3i's - which I still have to this day. They are mint and waiting for me to get off my "too many projects" butt to have the woofers refoamed! They sound amazing still and they play quite loud with my bi-amped Luxman M0-5's.
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Do you mean Peter Snell by chance? Peter was the founder of Snell.
 
jblnut said:
The subs and columns together must be incredible!
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Tried to add this to my prior post but failed.

They really are. Based on what you said, I ran only the towers and was hugely impressed by them alone. Then I added my Sunfire True subwoofer, and it went a pretty long way into delivering real good sound, but the bass sounded "additional" and supplemental, not natural. In fact, that is exactly how it has always sounded. Like it was added to they system, and not playing particularly nicely. More of a bully actually. It found it's way into the crease, but replaced the absence of sub bass with overwhelming bass in a narrow band... as strange as that sounds.

These 18's are just sinister. They create air movement like nothing I have experienced. Just pressure waves of intensity on the lowest end. When they get musical, they keep the intensity, but very musically, the same way a loud drum strike would feel if live. When bands like Rush use the Taurus pedals, you can really feel them unlike any system I've ever heard in a home.

One of my comparisons is to always play live acoustic instruments, like a tambourine for example at the same time as the source. As crazy as it sounds, you need to be at about 105 dB for a tambourine to blend in and not be "hot" in the room mix. It's kind of a cool technique when showing off. I use Fleetwood Mac "The Chain" as an example track... and when you play the tambourine before the track, nobody would say it was particularly loud. Nice live sizzle and brilliance. It is, after all... what a tambourine is supposed to sound like. Then you put a big system together and crank it, and you will be surprised how loud it has to be for the tam to normalize.

These towers with your eyes closed replicate the tambourine so perfectly that you literally can't tell what is real and what is Memorex... so to speak. The bass is absolutely comparable to my live Boogie rig played at the same volume, to where the live rig is additive, but sounds like they added another bass player.

I really love this system.
 
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StimpyWan said:
The model numbers are their power ratings. These 3 are always recommended: a 4004, which is 400 watts into 4 Ohms. So, an 8008, 800 watts into 8 ohms. Another, the 2004, 200 watts into 4 Ohms. All great, but most like the 8008. There are mono-blocks too, those are Palladiums.
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I did a little bit more research since due to it's size and power it jumped right into my short list for the towers, but the 8008 isn't 800 into 8 ohms as you suggest. It is 200 into 8. 400 into 4. Not sure how they get to 8008 in keeping with the nomenclature. It doesn't look bridgeable either, which in any case would more likely yield 800 into 4 at the most.

The search continues. Lol.
 
Froggy5326 said:
I did a little bit more research since due to it's size and power it jumped right into my short list for the towers, but the 8008 isn't 800 into 8 ohms as you suggest. It is 200 into 8. 400 into 4. Not sure how they get to 8008 in keeping with the nomenclature. It doesn't look bridgeable either, which in any case would more likely yield 800 into 4 at the most.

The search continues. Lol.
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Yea, that was an incorrect assumption on my part. Sorry. Still, Aragon amps are worth investigating. I hope you find what you need?

Good luck.
 
****in' A! Nice. I bet those things sing!

I'm listening to my office system as I type this (two 18" in big vented on the bottom, driven by an MC2300) - nothing beats 18s on the bottom end . . . well, almost nothing. :)
 
StimpyWan said:
The model numbers are their power ratings. These 3 are always recommended: a 4004, which is 400 watts into 4 Ohms. So, an 8008, 800 watts into 8 ohms. Another, the 2004, 200 watts into 4 Ohms. All great, but most like the 8008. There are mono-blocks too, those are Palladiums.
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Not correct - the 8008 is an updated 4004 MkII with the same - 200 into 8 ohms and 400 into 4 ohms per channel. Both are dual mono designs, but the 8008 is available with balanced or unbalanced inputs depending on model.
Regards,
Jim
 
Here is a question... the speakers came with a Snell XO that is non-adjustable. This means I can’t equalize the volumes of the two differently amped sub-systems. I’d love to know what it is crossed over at stock though. I assume it has a HPF for the tower amps and a LPF for the subs.

Any simple way to determine the point, type and slope of it so I can replicate exactly with an adjustable XO?
 
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