View Full Version : Angstrom Modular Three
poppachubby
11-13-2009, 10:13 AM
Hey everyone. I got these for $20 CDN today. They were unclaimed stock at the repair shop I frequent. The guys felt bad they were unable to fix my Citizen fully, so this sale was a sympathy sale. Here's a pic, I am going to hook them up now.
I am wicked excited!! They weigh approx 18lbs each.
BTW, there are 2 pairs of inputs, both banana, unmarked. Do you suppose that one is for 8ohms and the other for 4ohms?
blackraven
11-13-2009, 10:50 AM
The 2 pair of terminals are for biwire and biamping. There should be jumpers that you remove for this. Leave th jumpers in place if you are just using standard wire connection.
harley .guy07
11-13-2009, 10:58 AM
I don't know much about Angstrom speakers but they don't look bad. They look to have 5 1/4" midwoofer and a soft dome tweeter, possibly 3/4" or 1" but they look to be built pretty good and at least are something to play around with and see what you can get out of them. Sorry about the Timex Amplifier but sometimes things can't be fixed if the damage is to deap. What was it they could not fix? Just wondering
poppachubby
11-13-2009, 11:25 AM
A quick view from my listening position...
poppachubby
11-13-2009, 11:30 AM
The 2 pair of terminals are for biwire and biamping. There should be jumpers that you remove for this. Leave th jumpers in place if you are just using standard wire connection.
Cool, thanks BR, I have left them. harley, these are Canadian made, perhaps why you haven't heard of them? Not as highly regarded as PSB, but a great company nonetheless.
Here's a link for you...http://www.angstromloudspeakers.com/
I have the Modular Three, they MSRP'd around 500 CDN when they first came out. After a quick listen, with only the 1515 hooked in, they sound amazing. I'll get the HK hooked in and run em through the course.
poppachubby
11-13-2009, 11:32 AM
Another link, for the M3, my pair....http://www.angstromloudspeakers.com/detail.php?id=1560&top_cat_id=78
BTW harley, left channel is imbalanced, soundstage innaccurate, only good for power now...
audio amateur
11-13-2009, 01:15 PM
They use Vifa drivers. I personally have never heard of the brand. I thought you were vintage only Chubbs?
JoeE SP9
11-13-2009, 01:31 PM
PC, is it the speakers or the amp causing the imbalance?
poppachubby
11-13-2009, 02:01 PM
No not vintage only AA, budget only lol. To keep synergy optimal, I stick with vintage mostly. Plus I love it. I had bought a beautiful Copland integrated, the beginnings of a small, TOTL phono-centric system I wanted to put together. But we got preggers, and that put an end to that. For the price, how could I say no? They are technically bookshelves, I may end up with them on the end of my digital/comp set-up.
As far as the Citizen goes (sigh).... I really love it. Talk about an amp with great dedication to vinyl. However, I noticed after a good cleaning, that the balance was significantly out. I took it in, long story short, 2 experienced techs spent 2 hours tracing it back from the potentiometer, with no success. It's listenable with the balance adjusted, and as background music. But for critical listening, no good. It's like with every recording, having one member of the band moving in front of another, from left to right. Very annoying.
Another feature of the Citizen that weighed in heavily was its headphone output. I'm a HUGE headphone junky and use them for necessity as well. It can easily power my high impedance cans and still sounds great, no balance issues. Right now, I will use it as an oversized headphone amp.
I am trying to get a buddy to reduce his price for a Dual integrated. The phono stage sounds incredible in it.
Hey I was wondering, can any of you explain bi-wiring? Also, how would 2 ports play into bi-amping?
02audionoob
11-13-2009, 02:38 PM
Bi-wiring is as simple as pulling two pairs of speaker cable from one pair of outputs. You then remove the jumpers on the back of the speaker and connect one pair of speaker cable to each pair of inputs. Some receivers have bi-wire outputs, so you don't have to put two cables on one output terminal.
Bi-amping would be when you run the outputs of two separate amps to the two sets of speaker inputs. Those two amps are often run by a single preamp, but then both pairs of inputs are getting a full-range signal, which isn't fully doing the job of bi-amping. You'd need an electronic crossover so the ouptuts to the tweeter and midrange have a high-pass filter and the outputs to the woofer have a low-pass filter.
audio amateur
11-13-2009, 03:06 PM
. You'd need an electronic crossover so the ouptuts to the tweeter and midrange have a high-pass filter and the outputs to the woofer have a low-pass filter.
Correct, however if you used an active crossover (effectivly that would be called active bi-amping), you would still have to deal with the crossover already present in the speaker (passive crossover).
All in all, the most you can do with normal speakers (passive crossover) is bi amp, not active bi amp. Only speakers designed for active crossovers should be actively crossovered.
There may be improvement bi-amping (which suggests using two of the same amps), but bi-wiring? Doubt it...
Stick with normal wiring.
poppachubby
11-13-2009, 03:22 PM
bi-wiring? Doubt it...
Stick with normal wiring.
There must be some advantage. Why would high end speakers have the ability otherwise? BTW "Tony", I will be online approx 9am your time.
audio amateur
11-13-2009, 03:26 PM
There must be some advantage. Why would high end speakers have the ability otherwise? BTW "Tony", I will be online approx 9am your time.
Tomorrow morning? If you're six hours behind, that means it'll be 3am your time.
poppachubby
11-13-2009, 03:57 PM
Tomorrow morning? If you're six hours behind, that means it'll be 3am your time.
Indeed, working OT, kids up at 6, sleep?!? Hahahahahahahaha........you game?
harley .guy07
11-13-2009, 04:02 PM
Cool, thanks BR, I have left them. harley, these are Canadian made, perhaps why you haven't heard of them? Not as highly regarded as PSB, but a great company nonetheless.
Here's a link for you...http://www.angstromloudspeakers.com/
I have the Modular Three, they MSRP'd around 500 CDN when they first came out. After a quick listen, with only the 1515 hooked in, they sound amazing. I'll get the HK hooked in and run em through the course.
I guess I missed this brand some how in the mix of the brands. They look pretty good for their price range. If they use Vifa drivers then they are probably pretty good, I have heard plenty of DIY speakers using Vifa drivers(mainly their tweeters) and they sounded good. How do they compare to the Avants and the other speakers that you have? I would bet they would be at least as good in most respects if not a tad cleaner and smoother in the responce mostly from the soft dome tweeter that the speaker runs. Let me know
audio amateur
11-13-2009, 04:17 PM
Indeed, working OT, kids up at 6, sleep?!? Hahahahahahahaha........you game?
I dunno man, I like my sleep on week ends:yesnod: I guess i could make an extra effort:eek:
Don't stay up just for me though, sleep is good...
JoeE SP9
11-13-2009, 07:42 PM
There must be some advantage. Why would high end speakers have the ability otherwise? BTW "Tony", I will be online approx 9am your time.
PC:
It seems that just about every speaker with pretensions of being high end is bi-wire capable. I can't see any advantage to it other than bragging rights. However, it won't hurt to try. If you hear a difference that's OK, if not, that's still OK. It's your ears you have to please.
Now, bi-amping has some definite advantages. In order to do it properly the internal crossovers should be bypassed. The inductors and electrolytic capacitors in conventional networks cause distortion and non-linearities.
An electronic crossover before the power amps is normally used. This allows each amp to work on a smaller portion of the signal. Less work means less stress.
poppachubby
11-13-2009, 09:51 PM
An electronic crossover before the power amps is normally used. This allows each amp to work on a smaller portion of the signal. Less work means less stress.
Well if more gear is required it will have to be a project for down the road. I have already broken my solemn oath of no upgrades twice. I still have to get a new dac, although I have adjusted quite nicely without one. Thanks for the input Joe, when I'm ready, I'll let you know. I am going to shop around for the DIY cable recipe tommorrow.
Early next week, my mate is comin over to hook up a seperate line from my power box. Dedicated breaker for 2 plugs, digital components only. Existing plugs are in series from another breaker. This is on E-Stats advice concerning the mix of digital and analog. Turns out it's much cheaper for me to go this route than buy an expensive power conditioning component.
harley I only got 10 minutes of listening with the M3's. I can say that they sound great but I didn't get to really try anything spectacular. My Avant's are in the shop, I am having new tweeters put in. When they come back, the M3's will go onto the comp with a sub. I still haven't ordered my dac, you? I have been running my soundcard at 16bit/48khz into my old H/T amp's coax CD input. Quite nice except I have a big, huge amp to contend with.
Once I have the dac, I'll run my 1515 with the M3's, no sub for the comp. Hey, how do you run a passive sub with speaker wire to an amp with no bass management. I have read about splitting it into the B channel, right? Tell me the secret harley or Joe.
poppachubby
11-14-2009, 03:05 AM
I would bet they would be at least as good in most respects if not a tad cleaner and smoother in the responce mostly from the soft dome tweeter that the speaker runs. Let me know
Boy oh boy. I can't believe what a deal I got. It's funny because I got my Technics table in the same manner.
I moved these around at first, but right now i have my HK 630 twin hooked up. I can't speak about volume, as everyone in the house is asleep. The stage these things present is incredible. They convey everything the amp is sending, superb seperation.
The most noticable quality, as compared to my Avants say, is superbly tight bass and low mid. Keep in mind the Avants are 10 inch! Punchy, crisp and never bloated or boomy.
I had them hooked into the comp system briefly, the difference to my JBL satt's was night and day. I have a pair of CS480 with a sub, I got sick of the DIY's, for now. The Angstrom's, with no sub, competed in the low bass dept. Not quite as full, but present. The M3's with the sub added? I put on Wolfmother's latest offering and it was a sonic delight. Big, fat chunky guitar riffs with HUGE bottom end and superb tone. They captured the exact image of the recording, talk about fun to listen to!
I can't wait to get back the Avants. These Angstroms are going into the comp system for sure. I have been spinning vinyl for the last 2 hours and havin a blast. These were something i was not expecting, but I think I've found the ideal speaker for my digital set up. All I need now is a pair of Genesis for the main system and I'm set.
The one thing that I love about these is the sheer size and weight. So impressive.
Anyhow, I have spun too many albums to name but a few that stood out and required multiple spins were:
Herbie Hancock: Headhunters (slowly becoming my new "Brothers in Arms", if you know what I mean)
Terrence Trent d'Arby: The Hardline According to... a superb vocal offering on a great pressing
George Benson: Bad Benson...a great instrumental workout that moves through alot of highs and lows
Anyhow harley, I'm impressed but keep in mind that speakers are not my strong suit. After all, I cherish my JBL L110 which is not the audiophile's choice by any means. I do know what I like when I hear it though, and these speakers have it in spades.
JoeE SP9
11-14-2009, 06:42 AM
how do you run a passive sub with speaker wire to an amp with no bass management. I have read about splitting it into the B channel, right? Tell me the secret harley or Joe.
You run speaker cable from the amp to the sub and wire the mains to the terminals on the sub. I have a pair of Minimus 7's and an old DBX sub running off an Adcom GFA-535 in my bedroom system. With no bass management or any other devices that's your only choice unless you have A, B speaker switching. If you do you can connect the sub to the B terminals and mains to the A terminals or vica versa. If you do it this way there will be no low pass for the mains. Many passive subs have a high and low pass section in their crossovers. Using the A, B speaker selectors will bypass the high pass section. Try it both ways and go with whatever sounds best.
You could also bi-wire with an amp that has only one set of terminals. IE: Run two pair of cables. One pair to the sub and the other to the mains (satellites).
Main speakers with little or no low end will probably respond better to a full range signal than a larger speaker with some bass. You would get an overlap of frequencies with the bass coming from three sources with mains that have some bass.
In any case try both ways. You can't hurt anything. So go with what sounds best to you.
My Minimus 7's have no bass and my 535 has only one set of speaker terminals so I use the subs crossover. I could bi-wire but I just use the crossover in the sub. Less wire and a neater setup is why.
I hope this makes sense.:crazy: :o
Headhunters: One of my favorites. Sly just builds and builds and builds and......
Try to find a copy of Benson's Body Talk. Incredible guitar playing, especially on Plum!!!
E-Stat
11-14-2009, 07:20 AM
There must be some advantage. Why would high end speakers have the ability otherwise?
While the voltage going to each section will be close (not exactly the same though), the impedance will vary between high and low frequency drivers. It allows the back EMF of the woofer to be isolated from the tweeter. It is also an easy way to lower the effective gauge of wire by 3. I use separate runs of 14 gauge wire to each of my four Advents. While this is not really biwiring, it does have the effect of using a single 11 gauge wire.
Your new MTM speakers look intriguing. It is for the same reason that I invert the upper pair of Advents.
rw
audio amateur
11-14-2009, 08:34 AM
Dynaudio is a company that doesn't offer bi-wiring option
poppachubby
11-14-2009, 11:21 AM
I hope this makes sense.:crazy: :o
Try to find a copy of Benson's Body Talk. Incredible guitar playing, especially on Plum!!!
Perfect sense. this is what I had suspected but you have given me a few more options to play with. The M3's will do without a sub, but what a difference the sub made! Once my dac arrives my config will change and the 1515 will take over duties for the comp. I may consider wiring a sub for that.
I am slowly but surely emassing a complete George benson/CTI years collection. I don't have Body Talk yet or White Rabbit. Without listing everything, I am about 60% there. BTW, I lost track of that thread in which you laid out a whole bunch of CTI artists. After my Benson hunt is through, I'll hit you up for some names again. I would have to say that Bad Benson is my fave thus far.
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