Best speakers 2,500 can buy.

Thanks for the info Phil. I will seek out the Druids and hear these for myself.

Snipes: Music taste is omnivorous in my case. I couldn't possibly choose a speaker for a specific musical preference. I have everything from Gregorian Chants to Junior Brown in my collection. As for equipment, I have SET tube amps available for use from 7/7w to 30/30 watts, but also have occasions to use solid state amps in the 500/500w class. In fact, one can choose a speaker that excels across that kind of functional range. Or one can choose a speaker that specifically cannot. It makes more sense to me to choose the former, especially since I've learned so much over decades making do with the latter.

Phil

Phil: Did you change to a passive preamp with the Druid's. I have read that high gain preamps loose control with the 101bd effeciency of these speakers. Is this true?

Preamp gain choice will depend on the input sensitivity of your power amp, or put another way, on the gain allocation between preamp and amp. I have two systems and use a TVC (transformer volume control) with +6db passive gain on one system, and use an active tube preamp with the system that has Druids. It just happens that I prefer my amps on that system with an active preamp rather than the TVC. I don't use resistor-based passive preamps as that option has never sounded worthwhile to me, though I haven't yet heard the Placette which is commonly cited as an exception to the common maladies of resistance passives.

What you won't want with Druids is a high-gain preamp driving a high-gain (or high input sensitivity) power amp. You'd end up with very little useful rotation in your volume control and your noise floor might not be acceptable. But a high-gain preamp is necessary with a low-(voltage)gain power amp. For instance, the Audiopax 88 monoblocks have only 18db of voltage gain compared to a normal range of 26 - 32 db gain. In such a case, a high-gain preamp is warranted, even on Druids, to be able to drive the amp to full power.

Phil

Elsneb: It has been a few months now, did you ever get the chance to compare GMA Callisto and Zu Druid?