Although the Sugden has quite a low damping factor for a SS amp it might still be overdamping the bass.Valve amps or a Bakoon or Dartzeel SS amp will have higher output impedance and lower damping factor and would be worth a try.
I guess there is a spectrum running from Golds to HPDs to the more recent drivers. I'd love to have a really detailed sense of what they want and need.
To my mind they tend to work best with the kit of their respective eras, e.g. Silvers with SETs, Reds with push-pull valves, Golds span the valve and early solid state era, so both valves and things like 303s, 50Es, HPDs 405, 520 and more recent ceramic magnet Tannoys good modern solid state, e.g. I’d happily use Accuphase, Luxman, Sugden etc.
To highlight my point I have tried a lot of amps with my Monitor Golds over the years and they definitely seem to favour nice push-pull valves (Leak, Prima Luna, Radford) or my Quad 303 to say Naim, or even my Pass Aleph 3. The more modern the amp the smaller, thinner and drier they sound. The basic ‘Tannoyness’ just gets bleached out, and I’m sure it is damping factor. I was genuinely surprised by how bad both Naim (a 42.5/110 ages ago) and the Pass sounded into them, and neither are bad amps at all. The Pass is superb in its own way, a lovely match with the JR149s.
I really wanted you to remain a bit disappointed so I didn’t have to try Tannoys, now I’m going to have to.
I'm a little surprised you find the speakers so bass-light with the port blocked-off, however I have no experience of the HPD385. I did briefly own some HPD315 in sealed Chatsworth cabs and the bass positively pumped out of them and was punchier and more authoritative than my MG15 in sealed Lancaster cabs. I didn't have the gear to take acoustic measurements back then so I cannot confirm how deep the dug, but they certainly weren't lacking impact in my 4.2m x 3.8m room! I wish I'd kept them...
@cooky1257 would you mind modelling the HPD315 in a sealed Chatsworth cab? I'm curious to see what the roll-off's like.
Thanks, Frank! That's quite a difference between the fresh and aged spiders. I'm not sure how old my HPD cones were, when I pulled them from the cabs the cones were purply/blue and the surrounds looked in tip-top shape but the previous owner mentioned nothing about them having been re-coned. However, thinking back on it they must have been re-coned as an HPD foam surround wouldn't survive 35+ years?! IIRC they came out of a recording studio so the cones probably wouldn't have seen daylight!75L Chatsworth/315 hpd sealed;
...however look what happens here, hpds with old cone/spider, the Fs always heads south as the drivers age, often to between 16-18hz, this probably accounts for the old'uns sounding fat and warm(refoam pulls this back up slightly)
HPDs shift lower, HE Golds shift higher. Thing to take from it is they do age but within the usual range HPDs even when ported, the consequences aren't that problematic- maybe a bit of a hump around the tuning freq, for DIY I'd always recommend fresh T&S measurements though so you can take it into account if the sims throw up an issue.Thanks, Frank! That's quite a difference between the fresh and aged spiders. I'm not sure how old my HPD cones were, when I pulled them from the cabs the cones were purply/blue and the surrounds looked in tip-top shape but the previous owner mentioned nothing about them having been re-coned. However, thinking back on it they must have been as an HPD foam surround wouldn't survive 35+ years?! IIRC they came out of a recording studio so the cones probably wouldn't have seen daylight!
I'm a little surprised you find the speakers so bass-light with the port blocked-off, however I have no experience of the HPD385. I did briefly own some HPD315 in sealed Chatsworth cabs and the bass positively pumped out of them and was punchier and more authoritative than my MG15 in sealed Lancaster cabs. I didn't have the gear to take acoustic measurements back then so I cannot confirm how deep the dug, but they certainly weren't lacking impact in my 4.2m x 3.8m room! I wish I'd kept them...
@cooky1257 would you mind modelling the HPD315 in a sealed Chatsworth cab? I'm curious to see what the roll-off's like.
To my mind they tend to work best with the kit of their respective eras, e.g. Silvers with SETs, Reds with push-pull valves, Golds span the valve and early solid state era, so both valves and things like 303s, 50Es, HPDs 405, 520, and more recent ceramic magnet Tannoys good modern solid state, e.g. I’d happily use Accuphase, Luxman, Sugden etc.
To highlight my point I have tried a lot of amps with my Monitor Golds over the years and they definitely seem to favour nice push-pull valves (Leak, Prima Luna, Radford) or my Quad 303 to say Naim, or even my Pass Aleph 3. The more modern the amp the smaller, thinner and drier they sound. The basic ‘Tannoyness’ just gets bleached out, and I’m sure it is damping factor. I was genuinely surprised by how bad both Naim (a 42.5/110 ages ago) and the Pass sounded into them, and neither are bad amps at all. The Pass is superb in its own way, a lovely match with the JR149s.
Careful with that axis Eugene.Keep them off axis.