Concert Experience for $5k?

I have to echo jmcgrogan2 go for the Legacy speakers. There was recently a pair for sale here at the ridiculous low price of $1500.00. What a steal....er, I mean deal!

Regarding the Legacy Focus 20/20, see its impedance curve here:

www.stereophile.com/content/legacy-audio-focus-2020-loudspeaker-measurements

While the nominal impedance is 4 ohms, the actual impedance is 2 ohms in significant parts of the deep bass region, and varies up to about 9 ohms in the mid-range. For the reasons I stated in my post above, I would definitely not expect this speaker to be a good match for the OP’s amp. And in particular, the interaction of the amp’s very high output impedance with the very low impedance of the speaker at deep bass frequencies will result in very weak deep bass. And based on that impedance curve and on the output impedance characteristics of the amp, I would expect that weakness to probably extend up to as high as around 200 Hz.

Also, John Atkinson provides the following comment in the review:

The Legacy’s sensitivity was slightly lower than specified, but still a very high 94.5dB(B)/2.83V/m—this speaker will play very loudly even with a low-powered amplifier. However, its plot of impedance (fig.1) reveals that it needs to be used with an amplifier that can deliver high current into low impedances. Not only are there two minima in the bass of less than 2 ohms, and another of less than 3 ohms in the mid-treble, but there is an amplifier-crushing combination of 3.3 ohms magnitude and 60 degrees capacitive phase angle at 20Hz. Fortunately, it is rare in music to have high levels of energy this low in frequency. However, a good, beefy solid-state amplifier will probably work better than a tube design.

Regards,
-- Al

P.S: The GoldenEar Triton One which has been suggested by a couple of posters will also not be a good match for your amp, especially if you use the amp’s higher powered ultralinear mode (since as indicated in the measurements I linked to the amp’s ultralinear mode has much higher output impedance, which is referred to by Stereophile as "source impedance," than triode mode). The impedance curve for the Triton One is shown here:

www.stereophile.com/content/goldenear-technology-triton-one-loudspeaker-measurements

In this case, the result of the interaction between the amp’s very high output impedance (especially in ultralinear mode) and the speaker’s variation of impedance over the frequency range would be an under-emphasis of the mid-bass region, and excessive brightness in the upper mid-range.

I have no particular knowledge of the speakers that have been suggested other than the ones I have specifically addressed (Legacy Focus 20/20, some Zu models, Triton One). But again, unless a speaker is known to have a relatively flat impedance curve I would caution against assuming it would sound similar with your amplifier to how it sounds with most other amplifiers, including most other tube amplifiers.

Regards,
-- Al

Maybe t-bon3 doesn't have as much "horsepower" as he thought, huh Al?

John (Jmcgrogan2), as you probably realize but others may not, it’s not a matter of horsepower (i.e., watts). It’s a matter of the effects of amplifier output impedance on tonality, resulting from the interaction of that output impedance with the variations of the speaker’s impedance over the frequency range.

BTW, there are of course quite a few speakers having relatively flat impedance curves, as well as relatively high sensitivity, that I would expect to be great matches for this amp. Including the Daedalus speakers I use, and I believe also models from Coincident, Tannoy, and others. But I have no specific suggestions to offer that I feel confident would provide the sonic character the OP is looking for (I am mostly a classical music listener, not a rock concert-goer), and that would also meet his price point.

Best regards,
-- Al