More Dynamic Speakers Than Vienna Acoustic

I second what Wolf said.  Micro and macro dynamic responses improve rather dramatically when you jump to horns, especially in the 100 db efficiency range.
I made the change years ago (AG Trios) and have never felt the need to update my system.  The nice thing about high efficiency is low power amplifiers are relatively inexpensive.  Good luck!

The problem here is that horns won't fit the budget, unless you get lucky with something used.


I think you can find some ZU Audio speakers in that range. They are about 10dB more efficient (when you do the math, the sensitivity of the Viennas comes out to about 88.5dB; this is due to their impedance). That will solve your power issue.

Now impedance plays another role- that speaker has a lower impedance in the bass frequencies- which means the amp works harder to drive it. If you are using the 8 ohm tap, the output tubes are seeing a load impedance that will cause them to make less power and more distortion.


On top of that, lower efficient speakers like this exhibit a phenomena called 'thermal compression'. This is where the speaker voice coil heats up due to the power needed to drive it. Its a measurable and noticeable effect. All lower efficiency speakers exhibit this phenomena; the greater the efficiency the less thermal compression. As well this particular speaker was designed to be driven by a solid state amp (this is revealed by the impedance curve which is low in the woofer region); IMO/IME you have a mismatch between the amp and speakers.

Atmasphere makes a good point. My Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grands sounds great but I am providing them with a 125 watts into 8ohm, 250 watts into 4ohms amplifier. I think they are a really fine speakers that I have heard many times in other venues and found them not to be set up very well.

Used or even new Klipsch Heresy IIIs should easily fit the budget...mine cost 1500 bucks new a couple of years ago.

Quite interested in the Klipsch options. I've heard the La Scala, Heresy, and Forte options are good. Zu also looks interesting but harder to find at an affordable price. 

I may be able to borrow a SS amp from my dad to see it makes a noticeable difference in the dynamic response before going in on something. I'm currently using his old tube amp and would love to keep it as a heritage piece.

@atmasphere Thank you for your response! This is such good info.