Bi-amping 2Ci’s with Hafler DH-120’s

[olds1959special]

I found another Hafler DH120! I’m now bi-amping my 2Ci’s with two Hafler DH120’s!

[Boom Boom]

Nice! Can you describe any improvement in sound?

My first preamp was a Hafler. I sold it and bought a PS Audio IVH. The phono stage in the IVH was good enough to work well with my SOTA Sapphire rig. I was running a Talisman Sapphire low output MC. The first amp I used with my Vandersteen 2Cs was an Acoustat TNT120. Hafler acquired Acoustat when they filed Chapter 11. Jim Strickland's Trans Nova designs were used in the upper end Hafler amps. I wasn't able to acquire a second TNT120 to bi-amp. Here's an old review of the Hafler Trans Nova amp using the Vandersteen 2Ces as one of the speakers used to evaluate:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/hafler-transnova-9500-power-amplifier

 

[olds1959special]

3 hours ago, Boom Boom said:

Nice! Can you describe any improvement in sound?

My first preamp was a Hafler. I sold it and bought a PS Audio IVH. The phono stage in the IVH was good enough to work well with my SOTA Sapphire rig. I was running a Talisman Sapphire low output MC. The first amp I used with my Vandersteen 2Cs was an Acoustat TNT120. Hafler acquired Acoustat when they filed Chapter 11. Jim Strickland's Trans Nova designs were used in the upper end Hafler amps. I wasn't able to acquire a second TNT120 to bi-amp. Here's an old review of the Hafler Trans Nova amp using the Vandersteen 2Ces as one of the speakers used to evaluate:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/hafler-transnova-9500-power-amplifier

 

Cool, thanks for the link. The sound improvement for me is huge. Before I was bi-amping with different amps, but using the two DH120's together the sound is very well balanced and full, and also clean. Before I tried a Rotel RB-1050 amp (with the gain turned down to match) on the bass driver.  But now I don't have the match the levels, because they are the same kind of amp. 

[Holmz]

Is there a left hand side (LHS) amp amd a RHS amp?
Are you filtering b for the upper speaker inputs?

[olds1959special]

On 11/12/2023 at 3:40 AM, Holmz said:

Is there a left hand side (LHS) amp amd a RHS amp?
Are you filtering b for the upper speaker inputs?

I tried both. I wanted to use one amp per speaker by putting them in mono mode, but for some reason I wasn't getting sound to both drivers on one side when I tried this. I wonder if the amp is faulty. They do sound good when in stereo mode though. I'm going to try them in mono again and see if I can get it to work.

Edited November 13, 2023 by olds1959special

[olds1959special]

I just checked and I guess the second amp I got has a broken stereo/mono switch. 😞

[Holmz]

You could always use a Y splitter in stereo mode.
And go vertical…
It would be cheap enough to try.

[olds1959special]

4 hours ago, Holmz said:

You could always use a Y splitter in stereo mode.
And go vertical…
It would be cheap enough to try.

Yea, that's what I'm doing now. I don't need a Y splitter cable because my pre-amp has two sets of outputs. Sounds good this way, but I wanted to try mono mode too, but I guess I'll have to fix that amp first.

Edited November 14, 2023 by olds1959special

[Holmz]

Is there a switch on the back to bridge left and right?

[olds1959special]

On 11/15/2023 at 6:58 PM, Holmz said:

Is there a switch on the back to bridge left and right?

Yes but on one of the amps it’s not working.

[Holmz]

Without the switch one could run them as vertical  bi-amping.

Probably best to run some HPF to the upper frequencies… even  these Harrison Labs inline RCA jobs.