BEL 1001 MK5 driving Joseph Audio Pulsars

A speaker in the 83-84 db range, is certainly going to tax any amplifier, if truthful dynamics is expected. I agree as well, the music, listening room / listener distance, volume levels, etc, all play a big part. My speakers play with any amplifier made ( modified / tweaked Lascalas ), and they do everything I find most important, with my music and in my room. That is a wonderful thing. I say stay away from very inefficient speakers.

I say stay away from very inefficient speakers.

having been there and done that a couple times in the past, i now do too...

just like heavy automobiles... they can work fine and be very good, but heading in the opposite direction just has too many inherent advantages

The BEL is a fantastic amp and is known to be subjectively more powerful than its rated 50 watts, so unless your listening proclivities lean toward high volume levels you should probably be fine. Of course, bdp24’s suggestion regarding obtaining a second unit and running them as mono blocks is spot on and would erase any doubts whatsoever.

Yes, If I could find a second BEL 1001 MK 5.  

Thanks all.

i stand by my post

some speakers are definitely better suited to some genres (and usual implied volume levels) than others... in my experience knowing what music you mostly listen to helps tremendously in picking the right speakers

The volume level and the ability to play bass might be the only possible ways a certain speaker might favor a certain genre. But beyond that, the idea is actually the most prevalent myth I've run into in the audio world. If a speaker plays bass well, its good in that regard for metal, rock, classical and jazz, as all genres sooner or later have bass and some of it can be quite deep and powerful, In that regard, bass has often all about budget, but the recent addition of the Audiokinesis Swarm to the audiophile toolbox has reduced that significantly.
The only other issue is volume level, again dictated more by housing constraints and budget. I do find that lower efficiency speakers are less able to play dynamics due to thermal compression but beyond that what makes a speaker great for rock, metal, jazz, folk and the like also makes it good for classical, downtempo 80s, electronia and the like. My taste is in all of these areas and I play them all at audio shows.


I've had many disagree with my about this myth but that is simply a measure of how well it has propagated. I think the classic example has been JBL L100s and rock. While many that like rock have used L100s, JBL would be able to sell it all that well if that speaker only played rock correctly. Not all rock is recorded the same way; rock has a history that covers over 60 years; in that time how its recorded has changed drastically...