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Phase Linear (Andromeda) Phase III speakers -familiar with these?

ommp said:
Going to go pick up another pair of these this afternoon. Found locally on CL.
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and....?

How did things pan out yesterday? I saw a listing for a pair in Gresham yesterday, thanks to a fwd from Susurus. Wow, I'd be all over those. I assume those were the ones you went after...?

ommp said:
SpeakerLabFan, I did run my setup by Bob and he said that that would work just fine...... and it does.
My wife will be just finishing Chemo and Rad treatments around the time of the next gathering in Kelso so I will have to see how things are going, but if I can make it I will bring the modified Phase III panels. It would be good to put faces with the names and meet some of you guys.
Ken, did they come yet ???????
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I hope everything goes well with the treatments, thanks for sharing and you're in my thoughts. and I do hope you can make it - would be good to meet and see those Panels. :thmbsp:

Good to hear that setup has Bob's approval. I used to power the sub separately with a Carver cube amp. Right now I'm happy w/ the big Mcintosh running everything. I listened to the Andromedas last night, and was as usual totally blown away. I listened to Linda Ronstadt/EmmyLou Harris doing a Leonard Cohen tune - Sisters Of Mercy. :music:
 
I find that the easiest way to bi amp them is to come off or your PL pre amp's 2 'main out' connections. If your pre amp has an 'external processor' loop like my Carver C4000 you can connect the motion controller into that. With an active crossover in the loop I am guessing that the panels and sub's crossovers would have to be disabled. Maybe someone with a bit more edge-a-macation could answer this question. Glad you got them and they appear ok. Beware that the plastic dispersion cones. They are VERY fragile and replacements are tough to find.( if there are any to be had at all). I have been thinking about taking one of my cones into a shop and having a bunch made so that those of us who own these will have a source of replacements for the future.
 
Hey SpeakLabFan, Yes those were the ones I picked up yesterday. The grills were kinda dirty but all surrounds look good. The side strips of wood are very nice. The sub has a few scratches but the top is very good. Overall a very nice score for 125.00. I'll bet that with your Mac powering that system she just sings some very sweet songs. Good choice of listening material BTW.
Thanks for the good thoughts. With the help and support of friends and the good Lord above, all will be well.
Thanks,
Dan
 
I ran into that problem before trying to use an active crossover, as it didn't work to well without removal of the passive crossover. I thought that if I just limited the range in which each amp had to work and stay within the range of the frequency that they were driving that is would make it sound better, I was wrong. I think I will just for now try using one amp to run the whole system. I just sent off for the complete service manual on these which I am sure will included the recommended ways to use configure the components. Anyone have any ideas as to where I can find foams for the mids, possibly orange county speakers?
 
I think that you are correct when you say that with an active crossover you can possibly get better sound by just sending the freq to the amp. and then out to the drivers directly. Doesn't your PL pre amp have 2 'main outs'???? as well as an external processor loop??
 
Oh and hope everything goes well with your wife and her chemo treatments.

I wish I lived on the West Coast of the country, you all have a lot more good audio eqiupment over there than here (Florida). I would love to come and hear some other peoples set ups and listen to how they sound compared to my stuff. I had a hard time even finding a place that even sold new stuff (hi end) to compare equipment. I had to drive over an hour to Vero Beach to find the nearest dealer, he sold Mcintosh stuff, and even than it was a TV shop which mainly repaired TV's and they only had one small tube amp a MC275 with a small pair of speakers and they only had a consumer junk CD player as a source. They wanted 5 thousand for the amp, 5 thousand for the speakers, and they had a Mcintosh AVR as a preamp. They did have a nice home theater room but all the amps were gone except for one Mcintosh single channel which powered the sub. Seems the owner had taken all the rest to his house. They did offer to take me over to his house to listen to a good system, I declined. I can't find no one here that is very interested in this stuff, they all simply shake their heads when another truck pulls up with speakers or amps for me. I think all the retired people moving here sold their equipment before they moved here, and now they just walk the beaches, pick shells and wait to die. It really is a shame you would think they would enjoy sitting on their porches and watch the sunset and listen to some good music possible coffee, or wine. Oh well such is life.
 
Yes my PL 4000 does, had a problem with that the other night seems like sometimes one channel drops out and you have to push a little on the rear RCA jack or tap on the top and then it kicks in. I got irratiated with it when I was trying to listen to some music that night, yanked it out and put in a different preamp, a mcintosh C28 so now my rack has a foriegn object in it!

I am watching for a new preamp as just so I have some time to tinker with the one I have. Looking for another PL 4000 or a Carver CT-4000, either one. There is one right now on ebay I am watching but I think the problem lies when they are shipped the banging around in the trucks and all. I had thought I had fixed it by resoldering the connections where the RCA's meet the main board, it worked for about 2 months and now is messig up again.
 
Ken, a few of my surrounds on the 4" front and back facing drivers were also starting to go. Bob saw these surrounds and promptly took out a tube of clear silicone sealant and proceeded to spread it on the surrounds. Well what do you know, it worked. You will probably want to do a more final fix by getting new surrounds but for now and the near future, give this a try.
 
ommp said:
Hey SpeakLabFan, Yes those were the ones I picked up yesterday. The grills were kinda dirty but all surrounds look good. The side strips of wood are very nice. The sub has a few scratches but the top is very good. Overall a very nice score for 125.00.
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:tresbon::thmbsp:

These just don't show up, especially in complete and restorable condition. Although you seem to have better than average luck with reeling these in.

I think it helps that these appear to be way off-the-radar for alot of hifi guys, and hard/near impossible to ship, so the flippers probably aren't interested.
 
Well I just got a new preamp, a Carver C-4000, I think it will go ok with my rack and I can use it till I track down the problem in my PL-4000.
 
I saw a pair of the Phase Linear III speakers on audio asylum list for sale and contacted the guy but it had already sold, just missed it. It was in Clovis CA and he only wanted a couple of hundred.
 
SpeakerLabFan said:
:tresbon::thmbsp:

These just don't show up, especially in complete and restorable condition. Although you seem to have better than average luck with reeling these in.

I think it helps that these appear to be way off-the-radar for alot of hifi guys, and hard/near impossible to ship, so the flippers probably aren't interested.
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Hate to vary off of the thread But I wondered Speaker Lab fan about a listing I came across for a pair of Speaker Lab Primas? Are they any good? They must be big as they are very heavy, and the orginal price from the Manufactor was pretty expensive, just wondering if they are real good and since they are electrostatics are they going to be real problems in the future or present if the panels go bad.
 
Ken Boyd said:
Hate to vary off of the thread But I wondered Speaker Lab fan about a listing I came across for a pair of Speaker Lab Primas? Are they any good?
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Sorry Ken - I've never heard of "Primas". My akname refers to the Speakerlab from the 70s staffed by long-haired hippies and putting out low-cost speaker kits with numbered names like "One" through "Seven", I started out w/ those kits. I know very little about the later stuff. You might start a new thread in the Speaker forum to see if anyone else has any background on these..?
 
Thanks did that we will see what they have to say. The speakers are a very large electrostatic panel set, and weight 360 lbs with an orginal price of 7000 dollars so they were probably some high quality units. But I am concerned about reliablity.
 
Hey Guys -

Just posted over on the Speakers forum regarding my getting back my PL AIII bass module today. I won't go into a retarded redundancy here so if you are interested in how it all went, go check out that other forum. I will repeat just one word here...................WOW!!!

Regards to all.........Terry
 
I selfishly noticed that this thread was starting to get buried in the pages so decided to just make a few additional comments here so as to bring it back out onto the first page. Selfish you all may ask? Only because I figured that if it was back on the first page it just might grab the attention of a few other PLAIII owners that may have missed it on the first go around, and get some comments from them. I am still working on acquiring a used PLAIII system so I can try using two bass modules in my listening room. I have a fairly large room and I believe it will handle two of these "bottom-feeders" quite well..........

Regards to all............Terry
 
Your probably right no that, as my Kappa 9's have two 12 bass drivers per side, and my RS-1b's have six 8 inch bass drivers per, and if you use an amp with a gain control just for the bass you can always use that to balance it out.
 
Well today was the day, I pulled them from the warehouse and brought them home. Had to move some other speakers out of the way just so I could get them in a somewhat reasonable placement, pulled the shrinkwrap off of them, off came the grills, everything looks like it did pretty good in transport except, the one front firing small silk dome hi frequency driver which is mounted on a metal bracket is bent. All the plastic cones no problem. Dug out some wire and connected the base unit and then ran wires from the bass unit to the panels. Made the interconnects to the Motion Control unit, and crossed my fingers and fired up the amp rack.

I have to say, I am in total suprise as to how good they sound. First off, the small hi frequency driver which was bent during transport, is now dead. I will attempt to repair it but I am concerned the voice coil wire from the terminal to the voice coil is broken. But soundstage is amazing. I would have to say better than my QLS-1's or my RS-1b's. Its hard to give it a fair rating on the imaging as with the one hi drive out they don't sound quite as bright as my RS-1b's. I kind of lean a little toward them on the sound for violins and cello's but other than that I like these better. I really can't beleive it myself, base is great very tight and deep. I hope I can fix that tweeter or find another one. Everyone keep an eye out for me for a hi frequency driver, that would be the one center firing one that faces out to the front. I can tell right now I am going to love these. I will post some pics soon as soon as I can straighten out the mess so I won't be to embrassed. I thank all of you for your advice and honest opinions on these. I really didn't expect them to come near my big Infinity's to be honest, I was wrong, these might become my favorites.
 
Congrats on your new acquisition Ken. I think you will find yourself listening to this system a lot. It really does grow on you due to the overall natural sound it is capable of along with the impressive sound stage you can create with it, etc. Hope you can locate another tweeter to replace that broken one. There are a few other used sets floating around out there but unless they are in your area, it becomes a shipping problem with them due to their size, weight and fragility, etc. I am trying to get my hands on a used system currently and if I do I plan on using it as a spare system in case I lose any tweeter or mids, etc, in mine. If I can get hold of it, I will let you know and will give you a good deal on a couple of tweeters if you haven't found one by then. Take care, enjoy them and be glad you have them. Not bad for being over 30 years old huh?

Regards............Terry
 
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