SETs vs. Push/Pull

Tom,

I am in a similar situation. I love my SET, but my 89 db electrostatics are not efficient enough. At 86 db, your speakers are (efficiency wise) a bad match for an SET amp. One speaker that I currently own are the Hornshoppe Horns. They probably need a sub for most people as most single driver speakers do. If you live near eastern Massachusettes, you can borrow mine to try them out to see if they work for you.

good luck, Paul

Paul...thanks so much for the kind offer but unfortunately I live in Michigan which is quite a ways from Mass.

A couple of things about speakers and "driveability". There is a three fold requirement for ease of drive: 1) Efficiency, 2) Impendance load, and 3) Phase angle. 2.5s easily meet 2) & 3) which actually makes them quite easy to drive. The first two SETs I ever heard about 7-8 years ago were on 2.5s and that was what swayed me to go that route. My ProAcs do not drop below (at least as explained to me by the importer) 6 ohms and do not rise above 11. They also have a very benign phase angle which is important and you can read just about any of John Atkinson's speaker measurement reviews for an explanation.

These are the same reasons some Spendors are good matches for SETs even though efficiencies are rather low. Art Dudley first used his SETs on Spendors which were less efficient than my ProAcs. I'm pretty sure most if not all electrostats have difficult impedance loads and phase angles - I know my Acoustats from 19 years ago did. I needed 200 real watts just to make them "get up and go".

Thanks again for the offer, Paul.

D_edwards, I am not at all confused about Classe.

As you mentioned, they have sounded pretty much the same for the past decade. We are totally in agreement here. Where we differ is in what we hear.

What I was expecting to hear was power and assuredness of the large, muscular, solid state amps it has competed with when I have listened to them. The Counterpoints, Krells, Levinsons, and Rowlands of the respective time. They do not. Like I said, they ALWAYS sound a lot less powerful than their size or power ratings categorize them as. I was expecting sound along the Jeff Rowland line, powerful and assured, but on the refined and relaxed side. Again, not so. Instead I hear a nervous, threadbare, thin sound.

The speakers I have heard them with have not been cold, analytical, or bleached out. They were Maggies, Vandersteens, and Egglestons, all of which I would argue are the opposite of what I heard.

Again, we agree that these amps have been consistent, we diverge on what we hear.

I have the same problem here. I drive my SAP J2001 speakers (horn midrange 102db, 12" woofer 97db) with my Art Audio Jota (20-23W) that used the KR300BLX. I got no bass at all :(

hey, I take it back now. Just like magic, I finally got the bass. Thanks to the dedicate power line. Amazing!