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16 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
new. Chat with any competent speaker
designer over a beer, and by the second
brew he’ll ’fess up that his speaker power
rating doesn’t mean a whole lot, and
that’s especially true of the maximum
recommended power. But, you know,
people expect a number, so what are you
going to do?
When you think about it, it seems
obvious. What possible advantage could
there be to having the amplifier distort
and compress when you turn up its
volume? Would that protect the speakers?
Quite the opposite. Distorted sound
is rich in unnatural harmonics that are
great for blowing tweeters. The problem
is at the other end of the power range:
can the amplifiers you’re looking at
drive these acoustic suspension speakers
adequately?
Raw power is not the only criterion.
The reason acoustic suspension speakers
fell out of favor is that they were, by
modern standards, wickedly insensitive.
They required huge amounts of power.
You may know that modern speakers,
even those of conventional technology,
have sensitivity ratings around 92 dB.
Acoustic suspension speakers commonly
had sensitivity ratings that, in today’s
terms, might be around 78 dB. That
means the older speaker needed 25 times
more power than that efficient modern
speaker. At the same time these smaller
speakers had limited headroom.
The Luxman should have little difficulty
driving your KLH speakers to a
respectable level. The Creek Destiny is
also a beefy amp, and should be up to
the job. We would add only not to put
too much stock in common published
specs such as harmonic distortion. Better
harmonic distortion figures are all too
often obtained through techniques that
are not good for music and other living
things.
I have a Hafler DH-200 amplifier
which I love. Unfortunately the left
channel has started to overheat which
causes the output to cut in and out.
I paid $400 for it used in 1986. Is it
worth repairing?
Paul Coaker
MISSISSAUGA, ON
Paul, unless you happen to know a
clever tinkerer who works cheap, we’d
say no.
The overheating could be caused by
the failure of a single component, such
as a resistor, but a more likely contributing
factor is the gradual breakdown
of the silicone compound that bonds
the output transistors thermally to the
heat sink. The intermittent cutting out
may be a sign that the overheating is
causing failures elsewhere. After three
decades, it is also possible that certain
key components, such as capacitors, are
nearing the end of their useful life…
and the overheating isn’t helping them
any. By the way, the DH-200 used to be
available as a kit, so your amp may not
have been assembled at the factory.
We would organize a solemn funeral,
to express gratitude for the very good
value you’ve received all these years
Many new audio receivers list themselves
as 7.1-channel, and also list dts ES
and Dolby EX as options.
Assuming 7.1 in Blu-ray indicates two
additional side channels and 6.1 standard
DVD means one speaker behind the
listener, how can the listener set up his
speakers? Must he choose to wire for
exclusively one format,, or will there be
enough speaker outs to handle 9 (counting
the .1) channels? I was told that, in
at least one case, 9 outs means 7.1 plus a
stereo pair for a different zone.
Salespeople have not been informed
of the issue, much less the answer.
John Elliott
TRURO, NS
It’s confusing, no question, John.
Perhaps the nine outputs are for 7.2
channels, with provisions for two
subwoofers.
Dolby EX and dts ES are obsolescent
playback formats. Intended to work with
conventional (i.e. highly compressed)
DVD sound, they use sonic steering
techniques like those in Dolby Pro-
Logic to simulate extra channels. There
is an actual dts format with 6.1 channels,
but it is rarely used and is not likely to
have a future. Setting up speakers for
surround sound is difficult enough,
but setting up different configurations
for different discs…well, that way lies
madness.