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Need advice on amp strategy

S

SHKnapp

New Member
I've got a pair of Martin Logan Aerius speakers that I want to drive with a few Marantz vintage amps. I'm currently driving them with a 300DC from a 7t listening to vinyl and open reel tape. It all sounds great, but I've always wanted to drive them with tubes. I bought a working 8b that's on its way to me and I'm eyeing a second that's not working. Let's say I buy it and get it working. That's a lot of amps with lots of possible wats to drive the ML's.

1. Try to get the two 8b's sounding the same and run them as monoblocks... maybe in triode mode?

2. Use both 8b's in stereo and bi amp the ML's. my thinking here is that they are not a matched set, so use one amp in stereo to drive the panels and the second in stereo to drive the 8" woofers. Again, maybe in triode mode.

3. Bring in the 300DC into the mix. Both 8b's as monoblocks driving just the panels and the 300DC driving the woofers. Triode?

4. The 8b's are unmatched, so just use one 8b in stereo fro the panels and the 300DC for the woofers

5. Get rid of those ML's and get a pair of...

Here's the specs fro the ML's:
https://www.martinlogan.com/products/aerius

Love to hear the everyone's thoughts... Thanks!
 
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first what is so unmatched about the 8b pair, is one significantly worse than the other?

Getting the internal crossover out of the signal path will free up power to for the drivers. At about 500Hz, there is equal music power above and below that frequency. That is why companies that have speakers easily biamped at about that frequency recommend equal power from the amps. Putting the 300 on the woofers and the 8s on the top, you will be able to stop increasing volume based on the more audible high pass section of the audio spectrum which will be handled by the less powerful amps, but that power difference shouldn't be a problem. That is what I would aim for as you try different options.
 
I'm not sure how different the two 8b's might be. One has holes drilled in the side that lead nowhere, like there may have been xlr inputs at come point. It's also been modified to have a power switch. I'm having it checked out by the guys at AEA Audio. The other looks largely original with a few caps replaced.
Maybe I'm being overly concerned about them being "mismatched". I've read that it's best to get serial numbers as close as possible to each other to ensure they don't have many descrepencied between them. My instinct would be to send the more original one to them as well and have them do their best to match them to each other.
 
You mentioned a lot of watts a couple times. If a lot of watts is a concern, triode mode generally isn't the way.
 
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