Allison Ones on Ebay

[jayrosc]

2 hours ago, newandold said:

It's enough, unless you like to play things consistently on the louder side, then 80/100 WPC (used with discretion) could be better. Straining an amp. to its limits could fry a tweeter down the road.

I'm sure you've seen that it doesn't take much power to get nice volume out of those A4's.

You could also improve the output of those by adjusting the placement. If that's your layout (pictured).

The speakers are hampered being so far back on that table, with the reflections against it and also, the receiver partially blocking the inside tweeters and all rather close together. I understand there is not always a choice, but perhaps you could try stands against the wall, with a farther spread.........it would make a world of difference.

 

Bill

I'll tell ya, the 4's seem to be a superior speaker to the 2's.

That placement you see in the pic is not what I'm using, but I'm still messing with where I place the 4's. Throwing convention out the window I just tried them in corners about two feet off the floor, angled in about 30 degrees so the outside tweeters shoot against the side walls and the inside tweeters toe in at about a 35 degree angle. The room is small, only 8 feet wide and 16 feet long. Speakers are placed on the 8 foot wall and I'm listening at about 12 feet back from them.

Guess what?

So far this is the best set up. Great bass and the imaging is much better.

Later on I may take the 4's out and put the 2's in the position just to see what I get.

[newandold]

That should be a sweet room for them.

Actually, the hardest thing to do with the Allison's is to put them where they sound "bad" if you know what I mean!

Enjoy!

[samberger0357]

On 2/4/2017 at 5:11 AM, jayrosc said:

Now that I'm using these regularly I wonder about power. I'm using a Marantz 2235B with 35WPC. I wonder if this is a bit light for these.

Recently acquired a 30 watt(although bench testing in the day indicated that it could hit the 40-45 watt range) Marantz 1060, and have delighted with how it handles the A1's without issue. Using a McIntosh C11 preamp, and the sound is warm, yet not without detail, and provides the same room filling experience as does the 200+ watt amps I've used. No issue with loss of bottom end either(don't know if the ESW I'm also using has anything to do with that...probably not so much) and overall an extremely satisfying combination. 

 

Granted I don't have a huge listening room, so even when I am listening to something that I want to crank the gain with more then usual, it doesn't take much to get the speakers more then loud enough for me.

 

Bottom  line, and as newandold indicated, one doesn't necessarily need a very big amp to get these speakers to sound good/great.

 

 

[newandold]

7 hours ago, samberger0357 said:

Recently acquired a 30 watt(although bench testing in the day indicated that it could hit the 40-45 watt range) Marantz 1060, and have delighted with how it handles the A1's without issue. Using a McIntosh C11 preamp, and the sound is warm, yet not without detail, and provides the same room filling experience as does the 200+ watt amps I've used. No issue with loss of bottom end either(don't know if the ESW I'm also using has anything to do with that...probably not so much) and overall an extremely satisfying combination. 

 

Granted I don't have a huge listening room, so even when I am listening to something that I want to crank the gain with more then usual, it doesn't take much to get the speakers more then loud enough for me.

 

Bottom  line, and as newandold indicated, one doesn't necessarily need a very big amp to get these speakers to sound good/great.

 

 

Roy Allison himself stated (back in the day) that 30 wpc with these puppies was all it took to get 100db. SPL in a typical listening room. That would be without the ESW

[samberger0357]

39 minutes ago, newandold said:

Roy Allison himself stated (back in the day) that 30 wpc with these puppies was all it took to get 100db. SPL in a typical listening room. That would be without the ESW

Yes I realize that. But you still can read how that won’t let you hear what the speaker fully has to offer without a lot more quality watts. And I do think that’s not wrong. But unlike a speaker like the AR3 where the recommendation was for 25 watts but it’s clear that more is better, the One’s are nowhere as picky. They get loud fast with my 1060 and the bass is pretty much as satisfying as with a 200 watt McIntosh amp. Which surprised me, thus my post.

[newandold]

25 minutes ago, samberger0357 said:

Yes I realize that. But you still can read how that won’t let you hear what the speaker fully has to offer without a lot more quality watts. And I do think that’s not wrong. But unlike a speaker like the AR3 where the recommendation was for 25 watts but it’s clear that more is better, the One’s are nowhere as picky. They get loud fast with my 1060 and the bass is pretty much as satisfying as with a 200 watt McIntosh amp. Which surprised me, thus my post.

Meaningful also, to point out, the “super amps” of the 70’s were not on the scene yet for the AR to benefit by (though still there were plenty arriving around the same time period).

That ease of output seen by the ones is largely due to double the number of drivers from the 3. Like so many voices added to the mix the output increase was rather dramatic.

As if that were not enough, going from 12 drivers in the A1 to 20 in the IC’s, that additional impact was once again felt, but on a new level of live with no strain whatsoever.

[samberger0357]

2 hours ago, newandold said:

Meaningful also, to point out, the “super amps” of the 70’s were not on the scene yet for the AR to benefit by (though still there were plenty arriving around the same time period).

That ease of output seen by the ones is largely due to double the number of drivers from the 3. Like so many voices added to the mix the output increase was rather dramatic.

As if that were not enough, going from 12 drivers in the A1 to 20 in the IC’s, that additional impact was once again felt, but on a new level of live with no strain whatsoever.

Excellent points all. Thanks.