Finally got my XPA-3 tri-amped

[handree]

Hello all,

I purchased my XPA-3 about 7 month ago. This was after
my home made LM375 parallel bridged amplifier shorted
and blew out one channel.

For many years I wanted to tri-amp my speakers but never
did because of cost. The XPA-3s (One per speaker) allow
me to do this.

Last week I bit the bullet and ordered an XM-9
kit from Phil Marchand. I just finished the kit and
installed it in my system.

Now the XPA-3s really sing. I dare to say that with
appropriate equipment this amplifier is just as good
as other I've heard that 5-10 more money.

My equipment list:

CD: Pioneer Elite PD65
DAC: Theta Basic
Pre-amp: Home made with relay volume control.
Cross-over: Marchand electronics XM-9
Speakers: Home made: Using
1 Newform 45" ribbon tweeter, 6 x 5" Kevlar
Focal midranges, 2 x 8" Scan Speak woofers
and 2 passive radiators.
Vinyl: Music Hall MMF5
Blu-ray: Pioneer Elite BF45

Harry

[Wideawake]

Whoa! Very cool man! Can you post speaker tech. details and frequency response curves for your system? Was it easy to integrate the NR ribbons? Details will be much appreciated.

[Deleted]

More Information for those like me.

www.marchandelec.com/

www.marchandelec.com/ftp/ug.pdf

reocities.com/capecanaveral/hall/1511/xm9home.htm

[handree]

As a follow up.

I do not have the response graphs ready. One mistake
I made was that there's some reflections in the focal
resulting is a couple of one note peaks around 800 and
1000 Hz.

The NR ribbons are very easy to integrate. They sound smooth.
I always thought they rolled off at the highs but since I got
rid of my tube SET's they sound just fine. With the Emotiva's they
even sound on the bright side.

It took me about 14 hours to assemble the XM-9 including
testing.

Phil Marchand is a nice guy and answered my e-mails within hours.

I build my speakers 9 years ago. I've moved since then. The
current speakers are too big for my current room (They are 6' 2"
tall and weight 200lbs each). I made them so they come apart
for moving.

I'm planning to build a new set next year. This is most likely
going to be a scan speak trio with the Revelator Aluminum cone
10" diver 26W/8867T, the iluminator 4.5" mids 12MU/4731T and a ring radiator tweeter (I'm not which one there are so many).
If you get ruler flat speakers all that is required is a simple
but steep 24dB/octave cross-over. The speakers should
flow nicely. Zaphaudio.com publishes distortion. Scan speak
and Seas seem to consistently have the lowest distortions.
Zaph tries to save money but since it will take 200 or so hours
to make a decent set of speakers I want to use the best components.

The new speaker will be about 50" tall and will have a stand
in the bottom for the XPA-3. I'll make them flat (about 12-14" deep
and wide ~20" wide. This way they will better align with the
plasma.

I'm also on the pre-order list for the UMC-1. The plan is
use this to do my room correction.

Harry

[handree]

I have the XM-9 in my system for about a week now. It's very good.
The sound is so clear and transparent. I'm listening now
to Supertramp Crime of the Century on vinyl. The sound is very close
to perfect.

I always found that my system was excellent. There's not much left
to improve. The kevlar mids are still a little sharp but this is really
a minor flaw.

I think the XM-9 has removed some non-linear distortion from the
passive cross-over. This could also have come from the
smaller slope.

If your system is very high end and still want to impove go for
bi or tri amping.

Harry