Spectron Musician 3 First Impressions?

iSanchez, I am particularly interested in hearing about your future findings with 2 Spectrons bridged to mono. Also, what is complete break in time for Spectron Musician 3 Sig?

Can the Spectrons be bridged? As a switching amp, I would think that it is already operating in a bridged mode. This can be checked by (with power off and speakers disconnected) taking an ohm meter and measuring if there is continuity between the 2 channel's low side (Black) terminals. If they are not tied together then it is already in bridge mode. Bridging allows for 2x the voltage to the speaker but no increase in current compared to amps that have the low terminal at ground. Bridged amps (especially switching ones) usually have only 1 (positive) power supply while non-bridged amps have 2 (1 positive V and 1 negative V) supplies that are equal magnitude volts.

Guidocorona,

My Musician III SE took about 200 hrs to break in. The overall sound character (or lack of character) is apparent from day one. The sound will be more detailed, more articulate and more balanced as the burning in continues.

Regards,

iSanchez

Cford,

Below are the instructions sent to me by Spectron for setting up two Musician III.

Regards,

iSanchez

Procedure: To use Musician 3 Amplifier in Balanced Monoblock Mode

Comment:

Using a Musician 3 in balanced monoblock mode requires one Musician 3 for the left channel and a second Musician 3 for the right channel. Fully balanced monoblock has a common mode rejection of more that 60db. This means that buzz and noise picked up upstream are substantially attenuation. In addition, this block of operation doubles the slew rate and bandwidth by virtue of the out of phase transmission. The distortions also will be greatly diminished. The major advantage is: there will be a noticeable improvement in dynamics and resolution of details in the music as well as liquidity and finesse. Finally, while not necessarily an advantage in every speaker, it triples the power and doubles the head room.

Procedure:

1. Connect the right channel output of the Pre-amp to both inputs of the right channel amplifier. Do the same for the left channel, preamp left channel output to both inputs of left channel amplifier. If the preamp has two output jacks in parallel, run two cables, either RCA or XLR. If the preamp only has one output, a cable with a “Y” connection at the amplifier's end will be required.

2. Connect the speaker to the two high (red) amplifier's binding posts. By convention, use the right channel of each amplifier for the speaker high (red) binding post. There are no connections to either of the two low (black) posts.
3. Flip the phase switch on the left amplifier channel from in-phase to out-of-phase.
4. Repeat steps 1 - 3 for the second (left channel) amplifier.
5. Reduce volume control to adjust for substantially increased sound pressure
The system is now ready for operation in the balanced monoblock mode

Can you imagine what would happen if Spectron decides to make an upgraded version of the amplifier with state of the art components, like Mundorf caps, Jensen coils, and so on...
And of course: another chassis, made of solid slabs of aluminium, treated with various damping materials. Maybe even an external power supply. It would double the price, but it would be better than two bridged Musician III's. Just kidding...

Chris