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Newbie and IRS Sigmas Don't Mix Well

Listnnthdark said:
Congrats ! Nice Vertical move !
(1. What should I do to make sure that I never even come close to burning the EMITs/EMIMs out? I've heard they are incredibly fragile to both clipping and excessive power. Since they are rare and expensive, I really don't even want to get close to hurting them in the first place )

(( BE CAREFUL )) . The only time I have ever damaged a tweeter is not by intentionally turning up more volume than the tweeters can handle . It was because I inadveratntly had volume way up when switching sources . ( This happens when the " Brain " of the listener forgets that the track ended and then mashes on the volume for no apparent reason and the the hand "connected " to "brain" hits the "fm radio" button ).

> Me :whip:< Myself

I am totally clueless on all this Dac stuff ..Can someone please enlighten ? I get all my music via youtube or xbox . I plug into the headphone jack and then a $2.63 splitter goes to my receiver ..
What I am missing .? Just like any other source if the recording sounds great it sounds great :music: ( with no dac ) .. When the recording sounds poor it sounds poor ( Does the dac make everything sound better .) Or What :idea:
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A DAC [Digital-to-Analog Converter] is a device that converts digital audio information (comprised of a series of 0s and 1s) into an analog audio signal that can be sent to your preamp, If you are streaming off the internet or downloading digital files it has to be decoded/converted to analog somehow, a DAC does a way better job than your cpu can do even if you buy a sound card it won't sound nearly as good as a DAC
 
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Congrats on your speakers and welcome. My advice is to be patient and select your components carefully. I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I bought my big infinity’s. It was a learning curve and a lot of late nights playing around with placement mixing of components and cables. By the way I’m am using carver amps on both pairs of infinity’s and they sound fantastic. That Tfm-35 is a great amp but might not be a good match for the sigmas. I’m running 2 Tfm -25 s in bi amp mode. I had one amp rebuilt and it was 500 dollars itself all said and done but it is light years ahead of a stock one.
 
Okay so I've been running around too much this weekend to get back to everyone, but thanks everyone for the input so far. I'm excited to start building the setup to get the most out of these.

I've been looking into a few USB DACs and have narrowed it down to a few that are on my radar. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic, the Schitt Bifrost, and the Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2. Already in the process of rearranging my room to get the computer over closer to the speakers so I don't have to run quite such a long cable.

From what everyone is suggesting here trading out the amp setup for maybe a Crown XLS 1502 for the woofers, then getting something a bit more expensive for the mid/highs sounds like the best option. I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything class A or generally 'higher end' to thrown in there when I can.

As for positioning, I've gotten them quite a bit closer than they were when I first set them up, their sound melted together after I moved them a bit closer together and put a tiny toe in on them. Now vocals/instruments are coming from specific places in the room rather than the center of the speaker or just everywhere. I think I'm slowly figuring it out.

As for pictures, this is all I have on me but will try to snap a few more once I get home.
FS7n4s3.jpg

and I thought my Kappas were big.

Thanks again for all the help guys, with all this info I think I'll have them singing like they were made to in no time.
 
Also don't judge on the setup, I did it to get them up and running after I got home from the 13 hour drive I made to pick them up :D

My brain was a little tired and I had to get this while they were all set out and looking pretty.
 
Don’t get me wrong, class a is fine but I’d run the mids with Vtl or audio research tube gear if you want to throw more $$ into your system after the dac. Maybe just enjoy for a while and buy more music instead buying more amps. The emims are not going to play night club loud so don’t over do it. They also will make you hate much of your music if the recordings are only fair. Tube gear will soften the midrange up a bit and you might be able to listen to classic rock without hating your gear. We all have opinions and this is just mine, I haven’t heard it all but have heard a lot and the two pair of infinity speakers I have with emims shine brightest with tube amp and preamp but what the hell do I know I still like Adcom too.
 
Hah, noted. Maybe I'll just sit down and be happy with them when I have the DAC. They already sound way better than anything else I've heard, I'm just a chronic tinkerer so improving the setup is always the goal.
 
Brunt .. Your poor 6.1s .. Dont like seeing them on thier backs like that . Looks like they got into a knock down drag out w your others ( And got knocked down but not dragged out ):rflmao:. Thanks Okie . Im going to start looking for a dac ( Brunt please share your findings in your dac search .) .
 
Brunt said:
Okay so I've been running around too much this weekend to get back to everyone, but thanks everyone for the input so far. I'm excited to start building the setup to get the most out of these.

I've been looking into a few USB DACs and have narrowed it down to a few that are on my radar. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic, the Schitt Bifrost, and the Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2. Already in the process of rearranging my room to get the computer over closer to the speakers so I don't have to run quite such a long cable.

From what everyone is suggesting here trading out the amp setup for maybe a Crown XLS 1502 for the woofers, then getting something a bit more expensive for the mid/highs sounds like the best option. I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything class A or generally 'higher end' to thrown in there when I can.

As for positioning, I've gotten them quite a bit closer than they were when I first set them up, their sound melted together after I moved them a bit closer together and put a tiny toe in on them. Now vocals/instruments are coming from specific places in the room rather than the center of the speaker or just everywhere. I think I'm slowly figuring it out.

As for pictures, this is all I have on me but will try to snap a few more once I get home.
FS7n4s3.jpg

and I thought my Kappas were big.

Thanks again for all the help guys, with all this info I think I'll have them singing like they were made to in no time.
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So, what makes you think a cheap Chinese Crown switching amp is in any way an upgrade to the well respected Nelson Pass designed Clas AB Adcom 555 that you already own? Just because it’s more powerful does not make it better. Lots of cheapskates about AK that think these cheap Crown amps are all you need ... but many have never even heard a 555, let alone a better amplifier.

Seems to me like you’ve got some decent gear already ...
 
Label me a cheapskate, there's no way, not a snowballs chance in hell I'm letting ANY Adcom 555 or 555-II regardless of condition near those speakers. Period.
 
Nothing in particular makes me think that it would be better :p Like I said I'm pretty new to all of this and lucked into a great set of speakers.

Damacman, enlighten me on why the Adcoms are better or worse than the crowns, and 7.62, what about them makes you say you wouldn't let them near the Sigmas?

This is all a learning experience for me, my main goal is enjoying these things for years to come and to as close to their full potential as I can manage with my income.

Oh and listn, the kappas are still being used, they just lay down and take it easy now cause when they are standing up it effects the imaging of the sigmas. The rest were set there for the family photo. :)
 
Simple. The Adcom is a Class AB power amplifier - it simply increases the amplitude of the signal put into it. The Crown XLS is a switching amplifier - it simulates the signal put into it and creates a signal with greater amplitude from said simulation. The Adcom 555 lacks speaker protection, which is why some won't run them.
 
Browsing amp ads on US Audio Mart, didn't reveal many choices in the $500 dollar range. There were a couple of Parasound amps, a couple of Audio Research SS amps, and an Acurus A250. These might work?

Also, if looking at DAC's, maybe consider the Maverick TubeMagic D1 Plus instead of the D2? Add the optional BurrBrown opamp upgrade, plus the GE 5670W tube. Then you'd have a DAC that could be used as a DAC Preamp. The D1 has dual outputs too; one set tube based, and one set SS. Run the tube output to your mid/treble amp, and the SS to the bass amp. Enjoy, until funds allow further upgrades. The D1 is a very nice sounding DAC, and there's an AK member that biamps his Infinity RS-1B's exactly as I describe.
 
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I'm not nearly as educated or as smart as most of these fine guys here, I can only speak from expierence using the amps that I have with assorted Infinity's I've owned since getting into the hobby, and the years are growing. The Adcom 555 & 555-ll are good amps but as you move up the chain, as you've done they just don't cut it. I've used the 555 on both the RSll & Kappa 8, both in stereo and as mono blocks. Those just sucked the life right out of the amps if you even attempted to get loud for any amount of time, even with mellow music my original Kappa 8's would clip the 555 after any length of time. Frying pan hot.

I switched to pro power & never looked back. BUT I agree that you may not get the best sound. I pulled my Ren 90's because with Crown power the top end was to bright, I knew there was more. The 1502 does my 8.1's nice, no issue.

I knew where I wanted to go with the 90's, serious power. Enter Krell. Completely different speaker now. It is pure bliss.

Myself & and others here are using higher quality power with our Infinity's. It's a complete game changer, you may very well have to spend double even triple what you paid for the speakers, but it will be SO WORTH IT ! In the end. Good crowns I think would get you by until that happens. But your missing out until that day comes, which should push you, like others have said, AR, Levinson, Krell, McIntosh...Etc BIG power.

Your Sigma's look really, really nice, that day you fire them up with a Really good amp....I'd love to see the smile !

So it's just my opinion, they're worth reserving for proper power.
 
Hard to disagree with that. Somewhere along the way, someone decided that they didn't need a better amp than a Crown XLS. That doesn't make it a great amp nor a bad amp - it's just that it happened to suit that particular person's needs. I've owned Crown for two decades so I'm not anti-Crown by any means. I am anti-cheap. I learned a valuable lesson long ago - one rarely saves money by saving money. I've been a McIntosh owner for three decades. While the particular amps I favor aren't inexpensive, they've saved me untold thousands by not wanting more . . .

When it comes to Class D amplification, I've been an open critic here. I mean after all, we are chasing perfection. Class D amplification will never be more than the best photograph of a painting possible at any given time. If you can't tell those apart, then that may be just fine with you.
 
Ok so now that I have a little more info, getting a single really good amp, and as stimpywan suggested a dac/preamp all in one would sound better for the same cost as bi amping with lesser amps? Something along the lines of a used high end class A with the tubemagic D1.

If thats the case then I could sell off my adcoms and justify they extra cost relatively soon if it was a real improvement.
 
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After looking around I now see the problem with 'a single class A' namely that the big power ones cost 10k. So is there a problem with using the 555 or something similar for the lows and a smaller class a for the highs as Okeeteekid has done, so long as I keep the volume down and run them carefully?
 
The Advom 555 is a great amp for the woofers. Stereophile even recommended it for use with the RS1B bass towers.
 
Brunt said:
After looking around I now see the problem with 'a single class A' namely that the big power ones cost 10k. So is there a problem with using the 555 or something similar for the lows and a smaller class a for the highs as Okeeteekid has done, so long as I keep the volume down and run them carefully?
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Not at all. Good plan. And you don’t have to look only at Class A offerings as there are a great number of stellar Class AB options thay can be had affordably on the used market.
 
Older class a amps like the lovely Krell KSA’s tend to need some maintenance by now. This gets expensive real fast since they are over the weight limit for most carriers and need to be shipped freight. They are major league, require good power from the wall, run super hot and are so huge most average size men can not move them by themselves. Definitely a commitment going that route.
I know what you mean about tinkering and it is fun to get new gear. Some of the best tinkering I have done is uncluttering my listening room (this is ongoing because clutter keeps coming), precisely moving my speakers around (marking the floor, using measuring string, making them perfectly the same distance from my ears...) low cost room treatments (throw rugs, pillows, potted plants...) and organizing the mess of wires behind my gear. All these things have made a difference in the sound and cost almost nothing.
I really hope I can find a pair of Infinitys from the IRS line someday. They really were the best Infinity had to offer. You did very well.
Jim
 
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