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Originally Posted by brospin /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Does the Big Joe have enough power for the K1000? It is said to provide 8V rms maximum output and according to my experience and others' comments, the K1000 is known to need around 12 to 15V rms (or around 30W rms per channel into 8 Ohm).
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I looked at your calculations, and I have to be honest here, it is way beyond my comprehension. I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to understanding the guts and inner workings of electronic audio devices, and I am also not much of a DIY kind of guy.
As such, I am a 'let's try it and find out how it sounds' kind of guy. So far my early impressions are that Big Joe is very capable of driving the K1000s, and it actually sounds very pleasing, which surprised me because I wasn't expecting it. I have the gain setting on high, and the volume knob at 9 o'clock, and that's about as high as I am willing to go for extended listening sessions. I also figured it was worth mentioning how I prefer the earspeakers to be adjusted on my K1000s. I have them adjusted out just far enough to not touch my ears.
I am sure your calculations may be correct on paper, but in practice, I have discovered that Big Joe has more than enough 'oomph' to drive the K1000s for my tastes.
Again, I am going to reserve in depth critical judgements until Big Joe has logged a decent number of hours, and I have spent a good amount of time with him. But my early impression is that Big Joe does indeed have the balls to drive the K1000s, and I am quite pleased with what I am hearing thus far.
Another cool feature of Big Joe is that the opamps are socketed, so they are user swappable! I haven't opened Big Joe yet to see what the default opamps are, but it is pretty cool that the option for opamp rolling is available. But that is a 'whole 'nother can of worms' to be addressed at a later date.
If I were to nit pick anything at this point it would be:
The amber power LED is way too bright.
The power switch is in a horrible location. Where the power switch is located is probably one of the worst design decisions I have seen in years. Perhaps Firestone audio will re-locate the power switch in the next iteration of Joe.
But they are very minor nit picks.
It will be interesting to see how Joe does when he goes up against the TA-10.1!
More to come.