Thoughts on Egglestonworks Andra II

1-4-06;corvettebob27

Hello Audioblazer---------I would recomend you call Jim Thompson @ Eggleston Works (Director of sales and marketing) as he has helped me with a couple of issues on my Andra 1's----great guy;however,keep this in mind,they like lot's of power,(I'm sure I heard tham say AND MAKE IT SOLID STATE POWER BOB)! to which i happily agreed to.To make a long story short,the speakers are not considered overly efficient (87db@8 Ohms nominal)also your 24 watt SET amp would have to contend with not only driving a total of 4 12 inch woofers but more importantly,CONTROLLING them (enter damping factor)This aside,I (we) could'nt be happier with our " EGGS",so much so that my better half has decided that we need to move up to the Savoy's!God love her:)BTW--the amp is ML.333.5 300/8 ohms 600/4 1200/2 hope this helps

Audioblazer...

I agree with Bob above. It takes a lot of power to drive the Andras happily, to their fullest capabilities. 24 watts may drive the tops if you bi-amp, but there's no way the SET amp will drive and control the bass drivers. BTW, the Andra IIs are a little more efficient than the orig., rated at 89db/SPL.

Positioned correctly, and driven by the right amp, you will find the Andra II wonderfully balanced and natural in its portrayal of music.

Let us know how it goes.

According to the Stereophile review of it, the speakers are a 6 ohm load speaker, which is "easy" to drive. They drop down to 3 ohms in the 50-100 hertz range. I, also, have been told that they need power. Audioblazer--I'm surprised that the bass was overwelming with Pass gear. I have a Pass Labs X 0.2 preamp and a Jeff Rowland 302 amp. My system is bass-shy! It could have something to do with the Nordost Valhalla/SPM speakercable that I'm running. I may go to Transparent or Siltech for speaker cable to beef up the bass. Also, my problem could be that the Nordost doesn't work well with the fast Rowland. The Nordost is a very fast speaker wire. Tough to tell what will work until you try different combinations. Overall, I'm very impressed with the Andra 2. Excluding some of the light bass in the music that I listen to, these speakers portray a phenominal live sound. Very life-like with a great soundstage! Stan

watt-puppy-7's image better than the andra's (and just about any other speaker i've ever heard), but the andra's have "soul"-i feel they are a more musical speaker, with a greater sense of ease and a smoother, sweeter top end.
the wp-7's are built better, and look more expensive (well, they are of course). consider this- i feel the andra's also outperform the maxx-2's ($45k) as far as musicality goes, although the maxx is a bit more resolving and will move a lot more air, has deeper bass, is more dynamic, and has fantastic build quality. but the eggs sound more like real instruments.
so, if 3-D imaging is your greatest priority, the wilsons are really unbelievably good. otoh, if you want to feel that you are actually listening to a steinway and not just a superb reproduction of one, get the egglestons. just make sure you have 100W/ch of high-quality amplification.

French Fries, I don't think that Wilsons can image better than Egglestons. The drivers used in Egglestons are much more revealing and accurate, especially the Esotar tw. As far as concerns the Maxx II, you should compare them with Savoys, not with the Andra IIs. Savoys have four 12" Dynaudio woofers and four 6" Morels plus the Esotar and retail for 40K $, near to Maxx II's retail of 45K. Anyway I agree on your point that Eggs sound more "real" while the Wilsons seem more impressive at first.