wd25a, are they for me?

Hi, my system is
marantz cd67se
rega planar 2 with ortofon 501 mk11
quad 44 pre
quad 405-2, moddified with better op amps ect and a dual mono power supply
mission 733 speakers.

I need more clarity and detail at lower volumes, my missions are ok, but only if you turn em up louder than my neighbours/girlfriend would like.
Turn them up with accoustic and its ok, but turn them up with 70's rock and the bass is too much and its too loud for my girlfriend.

So, with my amp, i want quality, clear sound at low-normal listening volumes.
I listen to alsorts of music, but most of it is reasonable powerfull, i.e. rock, powerfull classical, big band jazz, electro etc.

Are the wd25a what im looking for?

Thanx.

[James D]

Sorry can't help here as I don't know the Missions or the WD speakers. Petercom might be able to help advise you. See if he replies tomorrow.

If I wanted good sound at lower levels I would be changing the amplifier. The QUAD 405 needs to be driven to start to perform - at least the original one did. I would go for a small valve amp like an ECL82SE or EL84SE or 45SE or 2A3SE. These should drive the WD25s quite nicely and provide more detail and music than the QUADs can.

James

Thanx james, i might build WD's kel84 soon aswell, but thats not for definate.
Ill see if petercom can advise me more.

I agree with James, I had a 405 for a few years before my first valve amp and it had a indistinct and foggy sound, the bottom end as you say.
Will.

[andrew ivimey]

I too echo sentiments already expressed. I had a 405 and I can't remember what I did with it; loud but dull and loudness can mask real dull. The 303 had something and better with a few upgrades but although I'd rather have Quad than much SS, it just doesn't do it.

A push pull amp (such as Kel84) can show you the beginning of what is possible but if you can at all wield a soldering iron maybe go straight to single-ended wher real quality lies. Quite a few of us would recommend this that and the other and we'd probably agree on this.

If you are serious and can do it, say goodbye to solid state. It really isn't very good.

[petercom]

First of all the WD25s will get the best out of the 405. A lot of the problems with this amp is that it wouldn't drive difficult impedances. If you look at the power vs load graph you can see why. As the WD25 series have quite smooth impedance curves they can get the best out of most amps. On the other hand the KEL84 will give you a more enjoyable musical performance too.

Secondly the aperiodic design of the WD25a or WD25t gives a beautifully controlled bass performance, dramatically different to the overblown bass of the Missions. We have also designed them to work well on all types of music (a good speaker is one that delivers the goods without selectivity to program). They also allow you to hear bags of detail and are not level dependant.

[Cobblers]

I finished building the wd25a (standard tweeter design) last night after a few hours of sanding and varnishing.

I was hugely impressed from the 1st few bars. Many people claim various box speakers sound like panels, and usually this is total nonsense, but these do, very much so.

Completely box free presentation, incredibly open, natural sounding electrostatic like bass (not at all punchy, if you like that sort of presentation then these might initially disappoint with some pop recordings)
Much like David Price, they remind me of my old original Paper cone Heybrook HB1 s3's with the speedy open airy transparent quality, but these are obviously much, much better than that.

Incredible coherence, I can see why Peter isn't that keen on 3 way designs now, if you can get a delicate midband like this from a 10 inch drive unit.
(Though of course I am not saying a 3 way design cannot be very good).

This speakers balance is well suited to accurate reproduction of acoustic sounds. As I listen to mostly Classical this suits me perfectly.

They work very well at very low volumes too, which I like, for late night listening.

Well done Peter

[Cobblers]

A week on from initial build my admiration for these speakers has only grown.
They work extremely well with any genre of music that I have tried. These speakers have already had several hours of use every day, it's hard to switch off the system, at the end of an evening.

Classical, Rock, Ambient, Funk, Jazz, Tecno, and Electronic on Vinyl and CD, all presented with a big, open, fast yet powerful sound, with low perceived colouration.
Fabulous Dynamics as you would expect.

The room does not sound small anymore.

In case you haven't cottoned on, I like 'em!

Well, i was made a good offer for my missions, so i sold em today and just ordered a pair of wd25a.

Cant wait

Unfortunately, i now have no speakers untill ive recieved and built these

Oh well, a small sacrafice i suppose.

[I love my records]

Hi,

I've just spent the weekend removing the X-overs from the cabinet and sticking them in little plastics boxes. The results are significant. Somehow the response seems 'smoother' across all frequencies. Definitely worth the time.

Another plus point is that you can tinker with the components. I've changed
L1 on the WD25std mark 1 from 33mh to about 35mh and feel this sounds a tad better for my room.

However, as I am a born worrier, I was unsure whether or not I'd wired the units in phase or not, which leads to my question.

I know the LF units are in phase (with each other), by playing a test track on the HFN test record (male speech).

But, just to experiment I have tried inverting the polarity to the HF units to see if there is any of the 'suckout' which usually occurs with out of phase units. Maybe my room and its reections is making it hard to tell, but I really can't see (hear) which way is the right way around.

Does anyone out there have a foolproof method of showing whether the units are in phase or not? Maybe there is a vocal track or tune which would easily show the difference?

Thanks in advance,

Dave.