TAD R1’s get Bi-Amped

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by -E-

This is just nutty insane and awesome at the same time.

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

[emoji1787]

[substance]

I sold my Pass Labs XVR-1 to a person in Florida in couple of months ago. I told him I lived in the Orange County and would be shipping from there. He asked me if I minded meeting Andrew Jones who lives an hour away and handing the XVR-1 to him. He said Andrew is helping him actively bi-amp his TAD R-1s and Nelson Pass is helping with the crossovers. I said I would gladly meet my heroes.

Long story short, I met Andrew and we chatted for an hour or so. He is super cool and super nice. I am a power engineer. We discussed power, active and passive crossovers. He said they initially wanted to actively crossover the R-1 in a 3 way configuration. Nelson Pass doesn’t have the parts to make another XVR-1 and finding a used one is difficult. He said he doesn’t mind crossing the highs with a passive crossover but definitely wanted the low pass actively cut off. They wanted to stay in the analog domain too. So no DSPs or anything. I though I would share my experience here.

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by substance

I sold my Pass Labs XVR-1 to a person in Florida in couple of months ago. I told him I lived in the Orange County and would be shipping from there. He asked me if I minded meeting Andrew Jones who lives an hour away and handing the XVR-1 to him. He said Andrew is helping him actively bi-amp his TAD R-1s and Nelson Pass is helping with the crossovers. I said I would gladly meet my heroes.

Long story short, I met Andrew and we chatted for an hour or so. He is super cool and super nice. I am a power engineer. We discussed power, active and passive crossovers. He said they initially wanted to actively crossover the R-1 in a 3 way configuration. Nelson Pass doesn’t have the parts to make another XVR-1 and finding a used one is difficult. He said he doesn’t mind crossing the highs with a passive crossover but definitely wanted the low pass actively cut off. They wanted to stay in the analog domain too. So no DSPs or anything. I though I would share my experience here.

Aside from meeting him on numerous occasions, I have Andrews home & mobile numbers. We have spoken quite a bit about the R1’s over the years.

[Weirdcuba]

this whole thread is like doing a test drive at the dealer. Scary (and meeting Andrew would be super fun - he's had quite the journey).

[SCAudiophile]

An alternative to biamping,...not posted to imply "better", simply sharing it. Matching custom jumpers to high end speaker cables....

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by SCAudiophile

An alternative to biamping,...not posted to imply "better", simply sharing it. Matching custom jumpers to high end speaker cables....

Here's the pic20181001_162850.jpeg

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by SCAudiophile

An alternative to biamping,...not posted to imply "better", simply sharing it. Matching custom jumpers to high end speaker cables....

That is where I’m coming from before this major endeavor.

[MiamiAudiophile]

I’m the buyer of the XVR1. With Andrew’s help, I biamped my R1s, and I’m quite happy with the results. I’m using 4 Benchmark AHB2s, all in bridged mono mode as amplifiers. These were designed by Andrew’s twin brother, and they are exceptional, especially for the price.

Prior to this I had a pair of Constellation Centaur mono amps. For my ears, a single pair of AHB2s outperformed the much more expensive Centaurs. Two pairs of AHB2s in a passive vertical biamp was quite a bit better than a pair of Centaur. Cleaner high end, zero distortion, dead quiet, exceptionally smooth, highly resolving. The next step was to implement a hybrid active biamp. This took the system to another level of performance all together, but I could not have done this without Andrew’s help.

In the hybrid active biamp set up the woofer low pass filter in the R1s is bypassed. This requires removing one of the woofers and doing some minor, easily reversible rewiring, but it’s well worth the effort. In this set up the woofers are directly connected to the amplifiers, with no crossover in between. The low pass function is implemented by the XVR1. The woofer low pass in the R1, no longer in the circuit, is a weak link in the speaker as it uses an iron core inductor. All the inductors in the passive crossover for the coax are air core.

Andrew was brilliantly able to develop setting for the XVR1 so we could keep the coax passive filter intact. The XVR1 high pass is providing additional filtering for the coax. All this was done in such a way so the woofer and coax phases would align. We got a bit lucky in this regard. The system sounds amazing, unlimited dynamics, excellent bass response.

[Weirdcuba]

wow. This is quite the journey. Congrats on getting two of the greats involved. I have a pair of R-1s and would love to hear this setup.