Best amp to feed the Manger speaker

I was thinking about getting a new amp to feed some Manger Zerobox 103's. Does anyone have an opinion on the best amp to drive the Manger loudspeaker? Cheers.

 

Hi mate.

I dont know that many people have heard the Manger drivers yet.

Anyone?

 

something with as much speed and grip as possible. a naim, spectral, accuphase or bel canto would fit the bill. i heard some speakers with manger drivers in (overkill?) at heathrow last year. they were ok, very nice kick from the bass drum but they didn;t hit the spot for me,i seem to remember that this was fed by a dsc front end but i cant remember the amps. anyone?
cheers


julian

 

Ju, that was the spectron, although the 'Evans soul amps' we quite fair on the friday
In answer to Quarks question, I feel this is the answer you were seeking

"But the bigger spectral with its large bandwidth and huge current should be a good match. Infact I have a friend in Belgium who has used the DMA360 with the 103's and his own built version of the 103's and he is convinced that this is the best system he has ever listened to regardless of cost.
his version of the 103's. The DMA100 and 150 do not deliver enough voltage to consider them as worthy candidates to drive the Manger.

But for me there is only one Amplifier that outclasses all others from £0 to 20K and that is the dark and brooding ASR emitter 2, I am almost convinced that this thing is a living organism, every time I walk past this amp in my room I look at her and think that bitch is alive and she's watching me, coaxing me to feed her more so she can take me on that journey into black black depths of space, so so much space between instruments, a place I had always imagined in my minds eye but had never been to before. Finally my 15 year journey is over.
Sorry I get carried away"

Obviously a disconcerning Audiophile and Audio S6 owner (Maybe)

 

Thanks Guys
An opinion is always great welcome to me.
Julian, those sorts of candidates were in my short list - well except the Naim.
Re. the Overkill design you heared at the show: something has always puzzled me about their speaker in the way that they could hope to approach the performance of the Joseph Manger design LS unit using only one third of the bending wave transducers that Manger does in his top retail design! Any ideas because the overkill seems like very poor value for money in comparison?
Mr Wadia Master, yes you are rather over exhuberant about the ASR amplificateur. Had too much coca cola? Easily forgiven though, because this amp is also an apple of my eye. There is a guy in the Northwest of England that can show me what it would sound like with some Manger drivers..... soon!
Still, there is another object of desire...... not the Goldmund Memesis, no I cannot afford that; it is the little circuit that is the heart of the Memesis, namely - the JOB4 circuit. Does anyone have experience of JOB or Stellavox amps powering the Manger LS units? What is the difference between a JOB and a Goldmund?
Cheers!

 

Must admit, when auditioning speakers last year, the zerobox, 107's? was on my short list, along with 4 others, I auditioned them with 360 spectrals, 27ix/270 Wadia's and to be honest left me cold & uninvolved, something which cannot be levelled at either the spectrals or the wadia. I settled on the Meadowlark Blue heron 2, but it's horses for coarses, as for the ASR's very novo riche'. all right for those car seller asperations of having a Lambo dealership in peckham rye, & builders with too much in the development fund, who's daughters can't show jump for toffee, but it counts against the yearly tax bill
Prehaps a shoot out between the Overkill & the zero box's and let the public decide, that would be fun, cucumber sandwich anyone ?

 

I dont think those were WM's views

 

Oh, of course! Thanks for that Robbo. I didn't realise it was a quote from someone else or, that Wadia Miser was being seruptitious or indeed what he was really trying to say!?; I only asked a question.
I'm concerned about Mr Wadia Mincer might have other agendas, especially considering the vast quantities of posts he makes every day- do you think he is on the dole with nothing else to do except slate equipment that he could never afford, and therefore suggest by his many power of posts that a great purchase from 'big time, many sales.co.' is the best that mere mortals can aspire to? You tell me; I just wanted to discuss what's best to put with MY existing kit, but I seem to have got nonsense back - mind, I've given some B.S Back too: he just encourages it.

Many Diy'ers know how to 'cook a cable' by the way. Oh and it is easy to build an amp better than anything you can buy in the regular shops. Ha! Yes, you too can build your own interconnect, just look and read - you can match Kimber! YOU MIGHT EVEN FREEZE THEM? 'x26'x
Buy some 0.2mm copper coated silver cable, buy some bullet connectors, buy some wonder solder, buy some teflon tube or buy some CAT5 cable, search the web - you can do it!

I'll monitor this site from time to time but... I don't need all these zealous business driven judgement values being thrust at me; I just want to follow my hobby. Yes I know that you are sorry that I feel that way. Sorry to burden with my misgivings.

 

Surely, it's not a valid reason to quit posting just because one member of the forum doesnt rate manger speakers?

 

Hello Quark

If you have a business interest at Manger, or are in any way involved in the audio business, its considered good manners at ZeroGain to put this information at the bottom of your posts...see ''signature'' in your personal menu.

If you have no involvement with the audio industry, please ignore this post.

Thanks
Chris

 

Hi Quark,

WM is quite a character and can come across as somewhat brusque! His solution to most problems is to modify something - fair enough, but we all know this is his business. He also has a somewhat leftfield view and strong opinions that from time to time we may not agree with. Top bloke though!

Could you give some more info on your current setup? Are you using an analogue source? If not I would strongly recommend looking at some of the new digital amps, particularly the Spectron and Tact. I have heard the Tact with Manger (although custom speaker designs) and their strengths would seem to complement each other.

 

Just out of interest Where did you here the DMA 360's

 

Ergman, In the UK, Fareham in Hampshire, speaker cables were Siltec compass lake?, interconnects a/z silver ref/valhalla/z/squared au/au alloy, mains was shunyata (hyrda 1) anaconda's on the Wadia's, elrod sigs (on seprate hydra) on the spectrals, digtal cable was special custom made AT&T glass optics for both clock link & Audio signals, whole sytem was on custom Rixx Racks units, isolated further on still points, speakers tested alongside the z/b 107's Avalon Eildon/ Watt puppy 6's/Blueheron 2's. on the day the Bh2's took it on the day.
There are at least 3 people (not dealers) I know in the UK with 360's, one person having more than one pair, 2 of which post on this forum. excellent amps, very dynamic and full of life, never hard just seemless unlimited reserves. (much like the evo4, just more of it, but I'm working on that)
I've also heard them with a clearaudio master-ref keotsu plat ?cart/trick yank phono/full dcs firewire (with the spectral pre DM12 I think).
Hope that helps, I don't dislike the z/b's, they just did't do what I wanted in enough quantities, however they made the final list, no mean feat, trust me.

 

Hard to beleive that there are 3 sets of these amps around in the UK, I have been trying to demo these amps for over 2 years and through my many contacts i am only aware of one pair in the whole of the UK. No dealer has ever had a pair, the only pair i am aware of are owned by the importer himself and he had to beg spectral for them, he is also under strict instruction not to use them at any show events or demo purposes. Also when i contacted Spectral in the US they said they had never sold a pair to the UK at all, and they only make 50 pair per year that are sold to order. I also asked them about secondhand units their reply was that they keep a keen eye on the secondhand us market and were not aware of a pair ever having been sold.
But you seem to have heard a pair and know of 3 sets in the UK, i would be very interested in getting a demo and knowing the members on here that use the 360's.

 

Ergman you have pm

 

Oh heck, what a mess… I'll tell you what I'm using and what my objectives are:
Until recently I was using a DIY suspended sub-chassis design Origin Live T/table with a modified RB250 fed by a Dynavector 10X Gold. >> Into a Tom Evans Microgroove then into A DIY World audio design KIT88 (pure class A push Pull tube amp) with all the mods and the best tubes. On from there the music was handled by DIY IPL Acoustics M4 S5TL transmission lines - a flagship model from several years back. In addition to this I have been using an unmodified Micromega stage 5 CD player. The equipment was connected with a mixture of Kimber, Chord Co. and DIY cables; some of the interconnects look like WM's and use silver wire and an air dielectric. Mains cables are all Kimber. The combination of kit was very good at large scale orchestral and anything with a slow pounding bass line. Strings were gorgeous. The ability of the transmission line LS units to create an airy, free, breathy sound, I don't think I have heard anywhere else: I remember listening to some similar sized Naims in the Local BADA dealer once, but they couldn't touch the IPL's ability to charge a room.
Previous to the tube amp I had for several years been using a DIY transistor preamp and separate power supply with various exotic components feeding some BK Electronics monoblocks. This amp was good but it didn't have the sweetness, detail and would you believe bass control of the 40 watt tube amp. The set-up was good, but occasionally I craved more detail and sometimes with extreme bass, all rhythm was lost (swamped in bass) in what I thought was either room interaction or an artefact of the transmission line design: the way a TL LS unit uses the backward bass cone movement and pumps it out at the bottom in phase with what is coming out of the front. This design is sometimes blamed for sounding slow and I thought I might have been experiencing some of this design criticism. However, this statement seems at odds with other experiences when they had the ability to shock with grunting detailed bass and astonishing speed. If you cranked up the volume, they really rocked; they could occasionally create the feeling of being at the Gig. I'm not sure I'll ever reconcile the problems I perceived, but I did decide to make a change:
So I now use Manger Zerobox 103's - the active version with the options to vary bass output level and phase etc. In this version the Manger head is fed direct from your amp and you drop down with links to feed the active woofer amps that are enclosed in the lower assembly.
I first used the Mangers with the tube amp, because I thought it was the better amp. Certainly it is with the IPL's, but not the Mangers - no matter what I did, the sound was dull and uninspiring, there was certainly more high frequency information but muted, the system just didn't rock, it was muted especially in the in the midrange.
After a while I switched to my old faithful tranny amp (BK Electronics power modules with my own pre-amp) that has a much wider power bandwidth than the tube amp and found that at last the Mangers had arrived! I'll not wax the lyrical, just to say that they remind me of ESL's, but with more bass capability - Perhaps a sound like a Martin Logan but with a point source focus in the all important mid to high, rather than the dispersed sound of a planar design. Just as the truthfulness of the ESL can be disconcerting (or even unlikeable to some), so it is with the Manger; our ears need time to adjust to a more natural presentation of the source material.
Anyway, this is where I'm at: I now need an amp that can do justice to the loudspeakers. I have looked at some of the suggested candidates including Parasound, Naim, Spectral, Spectron, Bel Canto, TACT etc. I am also aware of Manger UK's suggested amplifier - the ASR….. Coming in at a more affordable price is the little JOB/ Stellavox 300 (Goldmund circuit) amp. I'd love to be able to test a pair of these beauties, but JOB will not supply then on 30 day trial and I don't know anyone who uses them. Customer service at JOB is the least communicative I have ever come across - they even state on their website that they don't answer the phone! The reason I mention these amps is that they are (according to their specs.) the fastest, (rise time in terms of nano seconds) widest power bandwidth amplifier I have found to date, and it is high power bandwidth that Manger say that is needed to correctly feed their drivers.

Now that I have bombarded you with info., I'll ask my question: Does anyone know where I can hear the JOB amps in the U.K? Perhaps they might like to hear them driving my LS units?
I'd love to do the pilgrimage to Manger UK with a set of JOB monoblocks in my back pocket and pitch them against the mighty ASR on a set of Mangers!
Cucumber sandwiches supplied (now with extra Olivio) for all participants……..





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