In article
s.com, scribeth thus

Jim Lesurf wrote:

It would depend on various factors: What kind of music you like. How large
your listening room is. What speakers you will be using. etc.


Classical music - not excessively loudly but of course orchestral
climaxes can be loud.
Digital sources - not vinyl.
Room 11' x 13' x 8' high (rather small probably for the speakers Focal
JMLab Chorus 714V Power handling 130W max (90W nom) Sensitivity 91dB)

... or just to
start an argument. :-)

I've been thinking I'd like to "upgrade" my 20yr old Audiolab 8000A
(50W) in the near future.
I was thinking of spending up to £1000 but if I don't need to spend
that much I won't.

Phileas

I reckon you'd be well pushed to improve of the Audiolab excellent
amplifier even at 20 years old)..
--
Tony Sayer

tony sayer wrote:

I reckon you'd be well pushed to improve of the Audiolab excellent
amplifier even at 20 years old)..

You must be living in a very weird world then. Its design is utterly
'agricultural' by today's standards. It's barely any better than a decent
semiconductor manufacturer's application note of that era. Frankly it's a joke.
Plus any one you can find will need total re-capping of the electrolytics.

Graham (pro-audio designer with 37 yrs experience)

In article , Eeyore rabbitsfriendsandrela
scribeth thus


tony sayer wrote:

I reckon you'd be well pushed to improve of the Audiolab excellent
amplifier even at 20 years old)..

You must be living in a very weird world then. Its design is utterly
'agricultural' by today's standards. It's barely any better than a decent
semiconductor manufacturer's application note of that era. Frankly it's a joke.
Plus any one you can find will need total re-capping of the electrolytics.

Graham (pro-audio designer with 37 yrs experience)


Bet you'd be hard pressed to tell one apart in a listening test!..

No perhaps not.. their prolly too neutral for your linking;!...
--
Tony Sayer

On Oct 13, 6:14*pm, wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

It would depend on various factors: What kind of music you like. How large
your listening room is. What speakers you will be using. etc.

Classical music - not excessively loudly but of course orchestral
climaxes can be loud.
Digital sources - not vinyl.
Room 11' x 13' x 8' high (rather small probably for the speakers Focal
JMLab Chorus 714V Power handling 130W max (90W nom) Sensitivity 91dB)

... or just to
start an argument. *:-)

I've been thinking I'd like to "upgrade" my 20yr old Audiolab 8000A
(50W) in the near future.
I was thinking of spending up to £1000 but if I don't need to spend
that much I won't.

Phileas

I should also mention that I was thinking of using a Benchmark DAC1 as
a pre-amp (hence my post elsewhere on this group). So I'm thinking
about a power amp. Is the Quad 909 needlessly powerful for example?
I want a well built amp of sufficient power for my modestly sized room
and quite sensitive speakers.

Phileas

wrote:

I should also mention that I was thinking of using a Benchmark DAC1 as
a pre-amp (hence my post elsewhere on this group). So I'm thinking
about a power amp. Is the Quad 909 needlessly powerful for example?
I want a well built amp of sufficient power for my modestly sized room
and quite sensitive speakers.

Get a *professional* amp not bloody 'hi-fi' if you're serious. You can pick them
up used and still in excellent condition on ebay for pennies in the pound. They
may have some 'rack rash' from touring but they'll utterly blow away audiophool
****.

For example I recently bought one of my own designs, a Studiomaster 700D (which is
only 200+200W into 8 ohms but that's fine for just drining SR tweeters) for a mere
£62. It was 10 1/2 years old yet looked (apart from the scratches on the outside)
about 2 years old inside.

s/n ratio ? 100dB UNWEIGHTED - about 113dB A-weighted.
THD ? 0.008% @ 1 kHz into 8 ohms at rated power.
Full power bandwidth ? 45 kHz !
Freq response ? +0, -0.2 dB @ 20 Hz and 20kHz. (or +/- 0.1dB if you prefer it that
way).

Hi-Fi ? Doesn't even come close. Not even within spitting distance.

Graham

wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:
It would depend on various factors: What kind of music you like. How large
your listening room is. What speakers you will be using. etc.


Classical music - not excessively loudly but of course orchestral
climaxes can be loud.
Digital sources - not vinyl.
Room 11' x 13' x 8' high (rather small probably for the speakers Focal
JMLab Chorus 714V Power handling 130W max (90W nom) Sensitivity 91dB)


I had some larger JMLab speakers a while ago - sounded rather bland to
my mind, despite the glowing reviews. Certainly easy to drive, in the
sense they went loud. But of course it's all a matter of taste.

I'd have thought they were rather large for your room? In my 16' x 11'
room I've found all floorstanders to be overblown - very difficult to
get an even bass. Probably not what you want to hear, but I'd suggest
trying some 'bookshelf' speakers and see how you get on. A decent hifi
shop will let you borrow some and it'll work out cheaper in the long run

I bought some little (1.1 I think) Dynaudio Contour speakers about 5
years ago and have never (well, rarely) felt the need to change, used
with a REL subwoofer on occasion.

Rob

wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

It would depend on various factors: What kind of music you like. How large
your listening room is. What speakers you will be using. etc.

Classical music - not excessively loudly but of course orchestral
climaxes can be loud.
Digital sources - not vinyl.
Room 11' x 13' x 8' high (rather small probably for the speakers Focal
JMLab Chorus 714V Power handling 130W max (90W nom) Sensitivity 91dB)

An orchestra even in the auditorium can peak at over 120dB.

To recreate that with 90 odd dB sensitivity speakers requires a 1kW / ch amp.
That's why decent studios have such things. Probably about 6 of them for 5.1
sound.

Graham

On 2008-10-13, Eeyore wrote:


wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

It would depend on various factors: What kind of music you like. How large
your listening room is. What speakers you will be using. etc.

Classical music - not excessively loudly but of course orchestral
climaxes can be loud.
Digital sources - not vinyl.
Room 11' x 13' x 8' high (rather small probably for the speakers Focal
JMLab Chorus 714V Power handling 130W max (90W nom) Sensitivity 91dB)

An orchestra even in the auditorium can peak at over 120dB.

Do you have a reference for this? I have been looking for credible
sources for peak orchestral SPLs in the auditorium for a long while.

I have quite a few health & safety measurements of very good credibility
inside the orchestra and a few at the conductor's rostrum. However I
have only semi-credible figures for places in the auditorium and they
only go up to 109 dB SPL.

--
John Phillips

John Phillips wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

It would depend on various factors: What kind of music you like. How large
your listening room is. What speakers you will be using. etc.

Classical music - not excessively loudly but of course orchestral
climaxes can be loud.
Digital sources - not vinyl.
Room 11' x 13' x 8' high (rather small probably for the speakers Focal
JMLab Chorus 714V Power handling 130W max (90W nom) Sensitivity 91dB)

An orchestra even in the auditorium can peak at over 120dB.

Do you have a reference for this? I have been looking for credible
sources for peak orchestral SPLs in the auditorium for a long while.

It's a 'well known fact' amongst audio professionals. Google it.


I have quite a few health & safety measurements of very good credibility
inside the orchestra and a few at the conductor's rostrum.

In other words completely useless because they haven't the tiniest clue what
they're measuring. Thankfully or even orchestras would have to be banned from
playing for HSE reasons.


However I have only semi-credible figures for places in the auditorium and they
only go up to 109 dB SPL.

A or C weighted on fast or slow response ? The average dB meter is about as useful
as a wet blanket when measuring either impulses or frankly most music. There is no
correlation between industrial hearing damage levels as measured by a typical dB
meter and music because the waveforms and wavefronts are WILDLY different.

Graham

p.s. I know what I'm talking about. Precious few do. But then I'm an audio
professional.

"John Phillips" wrote in message
...
On 2008-10-13, Eeyore wrote:


wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

It would depend on various factors: What kind of music you like.
How large
your listening room is. What speakers you will be using. etc.

Classical music - not excessively loudly but of course orchestral
climaxes can be loud.
Digital sources - not vinyl.
Room 11' x 13' x 8' high (rather small probably for the speakers
Focal
JMLab Chorus 714V Power handling 130W max (90W nom) Sensitivity
91dB)

An orchestra even in the auditorium can peak at over 120dB.

Do you have a reference for this? I have been looking for credible
sources for peak orchestral SPLs in the auditorium for a long while.

I have quite a few health & safety measurements of very good
credibility
inside the orchestra and a few at the conductor's rostrum. However I
have only semi-credible figures for places in the auditorium and they
only go up to 109 dB SPL.

--
John Phillips



Funny that - and I'm not psychic. Before I finished reading the first
paragraph of your reply the number 109 was in my mind. Then I read the
second paragraph.... we must have read the same comic at some time (I
have one of those memories for numbers.)


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com