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What speakers for 300B S.E.T ??

Hi,

Recently i heard a 300B based Audio electronics SE-1 SET amp + AE-3 pre with Lowther Academy speakers & was quite impressed with the immediacy,dynamics,soundstaging
& basically the whole presentation.

Now i'm very keen to try this to see if this is the kind of sound i would enjoy for a long time.Only way to know this i guess is to try it at home for an extended period of time. My previous exrerience has been with high powered SS .
( For ref : Supratek Chardonnay tube pre + Mac MC352 + TDL Ref studio monitors ) This is my first venture into low powered SET. I love the sound of my present sys. but the SET is a different experience.

Un fotunately my present speakers( 87db ) would not support the 7 watts the AES is capable of. The Lowthers are too expensive to experiment with. My goal is to keep the costs
low as possible . I shall very much appreciate your recommendations for high-sensitive monitors or small floor-standers ( HORN ??? ) preferably under $1K . This could very well end up as a second sys or it could go further.....

So what does everyone use with less than 10 magic watts ????
dilly
dilly OP
113 posts
 
Thanks for the replies. I have read about Horn Shoppe.
How do they sound .

One of my friends recommended Klipsch KLF-30 (used). Would these sound good on Jazz, soft-rock ,classical etc.

Also has anyone heard LOTH-X horns from singapore. Are they any good?
jax2
3,031 posts
 
Any of the Klipsch Heritage series from the late 70's / Early 80's. In your price, LaScala for sure, Cornwall's, or Heresy's if wanting to keep the investment lower (though you will miss some bass authority here you should still get a very good sense of the SET/Horn experience).

If you are wanting to go the single-driver, purist route you could look for a used pair of Cain & Cain Abby's. I have not heard them myself, but reports I've read indicate they'd be a good match too. If your expectations are around the single-driver kind of sound (though the Academy uses two drivers) this may come closer to the sound you heard with the Lowther speakers. Used Abby's usually go for about a grand.

Nothing better than SET with horns to my ears so far.

Marco
beavis
272 posts
 
If interested in monitor (bookshelf) speakers, check out the Omega line. Have no experince with, but look very interesting. He uses a bass-reflex design to save money on complex backloaded horn enclosures.

I have an 8 wpc tube amp & use with 87db/w/m monitors. As long as you keep the volume reasonable, tube amps are fine. It should be noted I live in small apartment & listen about 87db max.

Don't be BSd into believing you are limited to speakers above 8 ohm impedance. What do you think 4 ohm taps are for. Just stay away from speakers with wild impedance swings. However, my research leads me to believe tube amps DON'T like impedances below 4 ohms very much.
boa2's avatar
boa2
1,555 posts
 
I was not crazy about the Loth-X horns, or the newer Klipsch variety. But hey, that's just me. If you are going the Klipsch route, go for the earlier models. As mentioned, the Cornwall (around $800 used) is also a great choice. If nothing else, I would recommend trying the SET/horn combo before jumping into a monitor. My wife said it best, I think. When we paired our SET amp with our $6500 floorstanders, she said, "It sounds commercial, whereas the horns make it sound real."

Let us know what you end up getting.
All the best,
Howard
s23chang
620 posts
 
The horn shoppe: Aside from bass cut off around 50 Hz, it should have a good tonal balance over all. However, placement and matching amps is tricky.
Loth-X: Have not heard their high end models but entry level ones were quite a disappointment.

Only recommend using 4 Ohm speakers if your SET output transformers are lower than 3K or else you might complain about lack of low frequency response. Keep in mind, most of the commercial version are 5K. The damping factor is very different from speakers to speakers. That's why matching amps is quite important. There is no BS like Beavis mentioned, it is all about science behind speaker and amp design.
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