Tekton Double Impacts

Mac48025 4-20-2017
The LTA specs show the MZ2-S output at 1 watt into 4 ohms and .5 watt into 14 ohm. Let’s say that makes it .7 watt into 8 ohm. Is there any real advantage of .7 watt into 8 ohm over 1 watt into 4 ohm? I know Al will have the answer!

Thanks, Mac. And I believe I do know the answer. I believe the answer is that it is unpredictable :-)

It will depend in part on how the impedances of each of the two versions of the speaker vary over the frequency range, in terms of both the magnitude of the impedance (i.e., the number of ohms), and the phase angle of the impedance (the degree to which the impedance has a capacitive or inductive component, as opposed to being purely resistive). And on how the amplifier reacts to those variations.

It will also depend, of course, on whatever intrinsic sonic differences may exist between the two versions of the speaker.

BTW, concerning bridging the LTA amps, I infer from various statements at their website that when the amps are used as monoblocks they are not being used in what is usually referred to as a bridged configuration. They are being used with the two channels connected in parallel. What is usually referred to as bridging generally provides much more than a 70% increase in power capability (potentially/theoretically as much as a 4x increase, although most designs fall short of realizing that much of an increase), but is often reported to compromise the sonics of an amplifier relative to the sonic quality the same amplifier provides in stereo mode. Especially if the amp is driving a low impedance speaker.  So presumably/hopefully that sonic compromise would not occur with the LTA amps if they are "bridged," although the resulting increase in power capability is not all that great. (A 70% increase in power is about 2.3 db). 

Best regards,
-- Al

P.S. to my previous post: What I suspect is likely to make a more significant difference in sonics when the LTA amps are "bridged" than the resulting power increase, with the difference most likely being for the better, is the fact that the amp’s output impedance would be cut in half as a result of the channels being paralleled. And that potential benefit can be expected to be greater in degree in the case of the 4 ohm version of the DI than in the case of the 8 ohm version.  Higher speaker impedance makes amplifier output impedance less critical, everything else being equal.

Best regards,
-- Al

@jetter 

Got it.

Thanks!

I forgot about that Al. Mark of LTA explained that the amps aren't bridged in the traditional sense and while it may not produce as great of an output increase there's not supposed to be any degradation of sound at all......there's actually an improvement with better channel separation along with the power increase.

I'm thinking there's a good reason Eric chose the DI to be a 4 ohm speaker originally so I'm going to stick with what I have and hope two MZ2-S's will suffice. A few people have heard the DI's with the MZ and have been greatly impressed....the combination could be the audiophile bargain of the century!