Considering the New Tekton Design Encores? AND Owners Group - Experiences/Questions

@ditusa I drove my Encores to 94db peaks and 90db continuous spl from 10ft away with only 13 pc not 8wpc when using my Art Audio Diavolo.  Tom Willis installed the larger power transformer modification to support a 300bxls tube. Rather than argue with you, I will only say I did it and it sounded fine, even the bass.  I now own Allnic A6000 Quad Parallel SET Monoblocks which I run with only one 300bxls at 15wpc currently in the summer months and with up to 4 300bxls to produce 60wpc in the winter months.  The thing I notice is that at my normal listening level of 85db I don't need more than 15wpc anyway. I only moved up to Allnics because I had upgraditus and always wanted to own a more powerful pair of SET monoblocks and I love the EML 300BXLS tube.

@sid-hoff-frenchman I did own a pair of Nord 700wpc/4ohm One Up SE Ncore Class D Monoblocks ($4k) for awhile. They sounded alright, but absolutely nothing sounds like a good tube SET amp to me (I'm very biased about this so take that into consideration), except maybe the XA25 coming in as a close 2nd.  I thought having the Nords would be good for when I watch TV/MOVIE or just to save my tubes from wear when I am not critical listening.

I use a Luxman AS-55 Amp/Speaker Switcher to switch between tube and solid-state amps in my system.  Now, did having all that overhead make a difference?  Yeah you can blow your eardrums out, but most realistic listening levels are achieved at much more pedestrian wattage levels. The XA25 produces 50 watts into 4ohm at .01% distortion in pure class A and has reserves to go much further.  Most amplifiers are at 1% distortion at their rated power.

It's a 10 to 1 ratio with wattage anyway.  It takes 1000w to effectively double the output of 100w amplifier in spl.  So even with 50w you need 500w just to double the perceived spl.  At least that's how it's been explained to me. Please correct me if I am wrong.  All that being said, the Parasound pairs nicely with Tekton.  Eric loves pairing them together at shows and events.  You really can't go wrong with them.

@charles1dad Charles I feel like a heretic buying the XA25! It’s the first solid-state amp I’ve owned that I actually was intrigued with sonically within a few seconds of hearing the vocals and midrange play even while it was cold right out of the box. The gestalt was very jarring. My preconceived notions of solid-state are forever altered. Pass has devoted so much of his time to his First Watt amps and he sneaks this XA25 amp into his line up, which is nothing like the rest of the XA .8 series which use many transistors and have actually worse specifications. The utter simplicity of the XA25 along with it’s truly single ended circuit seems to be winning me over. I had 2 people suggest it to me whose opinions I value and so I decided to take the plunge and try it just to prove them wrong, but I am very pleased with it. Terry London’s Review mirrors my own sentiments regarding this amp being built entirely around the midrange and that it’s as close to SET like I’ve ever heard.

@ JCARCOPO i am happy that you like the encores as i stated i did not what to hijack the post i do not what to argue.what i was saying is most speaker company are miss leading in there numbers.your right 15watts is all you need.i can’t used more then 5-watts.@my seat 13’ the spl is 106 Db.but @1watt its great.your art audio diavolo SET-300b tube amps are great.that 1-watt in that amp is what i live for in audio.but it is more then just spl? you know that. the jbl i use are two/way.the $2500 i paid for them.i have not found better for what they sound like and cost i found better the jbl everest but at $60,000? if you found audio happiness with *encores*thats the audio (grail).don’t stop until you you drink from the silver cup.why are you reading this? GO listen to the (ENCORES) over and out.

It's a 10 to 1 ratio with wattage anyway. It takes 1000w to effectively double the output of 100w amplifier in spl. So even with 50w you need 500w just to double the perceived spl. At least that's how it's been explained to me. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Power to volume is logarithmic, but not quite that much. Doubling the power is only 3dB louder. Double three times- 3, 6, 9dB- you're talking 8 times the power to go 9dB louder. The ten to one you're thinking of is probably 10dB takes ten times the power. That one is true. 

Another factor is "double the perceived spl" that one is pretty subjective. 3dB is only a little louder, but a lot of people would probably agree 10dB is twice as loud. So that may also be where your 10 to 1 comes from.
Either way, based on what I am hearing from my Moabs its a slam dunk that Encores are super easy to drive and sound amazing.