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.

Thanx everyone, very helpfull.
Pretty much reinforced what i already though, but its reasuring to get other peoples opinions.
I think ill build the speakers for now as ive not had the amp long and have other comitments for my money. At least this will get the best from it for now, and when funds allow, ill build a nice valve amp.

Expect lots of nieve questions about valve amps in a month or so
Thanx again.

[Cobblers]

Hi everyone,
What would be the minimum size room that the WD25a would work well in?
Thinking of driver integration in close quarters imaging etc

I have a tiny L shaped listening room with a main listening area of 11.5ft by 9ft

Ordinarily I would not even consider a whopping 10 inch driver, though I like the idea of a tube friendly speaker with closed box like performance.
Can an 10 inch driver (very large by Bass only driver standard these days)smoothly integrate by modern standards with a smallish tweeter?

I liked the idea of a loudspeaker with an 8 inch paper cone mid/bass in a closed box, like the kls14 (rose tinted memories of speakers like this in my youth? or have things gone backwards for the sake of commercial success? ), but did not go for this because I couldn't find any reference on the old forums to anyone having built a pair!
I was a bit wary that they were maybe too similar in wide and depth (a little knowledge might be a dangerous thing)
I like to see a balanced number of opinions before trying something out.

I really liked some of the old Heybrook speakers. Years ago I owned HB1's and heylo's and thoroughly enjoyed their swift, fleet footed presentation, yet I could also enjoy the (perhaps more matter of fact) presentation of my fathers atc scm20's and Quad 63's, but found these otherwise majestic speakers slow and dull with some material.

Sorry about the rant, anyway if they are not at all suitable for a small room will there be a smaller tube friendly standmounter in the future from World designs?

[petercom]

Welcome, cobblers, to the forum.

There would be no problem using the WD25a in that room. Driver integration is fine at a meter or more listening distance and the bass is so controlled that you don't get any room boom.

The bass/midrange driver was carefully designed by SEAS and ourselves to exhibit controlled breakup as the frequency increases. This happens gradually, thanks to the soft paper cone, and not abruptly at one frequency which creates coloration problems. As a result the 10 inch driver becomes more like a 5 inch driver above 800Hz, thus maintaining good dispersion and integration with the treble unit. At the crossover frequency the main output is from the dustcap area!

If you liked the HB1s you will like the WD25a. David Price's first comment on hearing them at Hi-Fi World was how they reminded him of HB1s.

If I can I may do an 8 inch two way along the lines of the HB1 in the future.

[Cobblers]

Peter,
Thanks for taking your time for the reply, they do sound very interesting.
I would like to see another 8 inch closed box design from you.

How close to a CRT screen could the wd25's be used, 2-3 ft enough?