Best 3 options for SET amps

Well, there are quite a few excellent choices these days. Your three listed choices are vastly different in their approach to high(ish) efficiency, so it is hard to offer suggestions. The Conicidents are 97dB 3-way, the Royals are small 92dB 2-way monitors with minimal crossover, and the Cabasse line runs the gamut of everyhting.

I have 97dB Cain & Cain I-Bens that I think are fantstic, but it really depends on what you are looking for - fullrange single driver, compression horns, multi-way dynamic driver. So here's are wide range of options:

Audio Note's own speakers
Cain & Cain - Single or I-Bens
Edgarhorns
Silverline
Von Schweikert
Zu Speakers
Dali Speakers
Beuhorn

If none of those look interesting, let us know.

Thanks Nutella/Dark for your suggestions.

I like full bodied, flesh-out kind of presentation, wuth a little higher than normal volume.
I have read good things on the Cains and Edgarhorns, but my space is quite limited, that is why the Reference or the Cabasse could be an option.

Regards

Fernando, if you are limited in space, the Cain Abbys do have a fairly small footprint and can be placed failry close to walls. The size of the speaker is not necessarily correlated with the space they will need to sound good. From recollection of the 3A De Capo, I do think the Royal Master might need a lot more room to breath.

Also, another option not mentinoned so far are traditional horn speakers like Klipsch, Altec, etc. They usually do require large space though.

All these speakers have a very different design and as result very different sound with different tradeoff. Listening to a couple should help making up your mind.

Good luck,

Rene

My short list would include:

- Fab Audio Model 1 or Stonehenge. I have the Model 1 and think they are extremely hard to beat.

- 3A De Capo i. In the smallish room of a friend they are total magic with a KR18 SET integrated.

- Coincident Victory. I had the Total Victory but they were too much for a low-powered SET to drive to my satisfaction. The new Victory should be much better.

- Audio Note speakers go without saying. I've never heard them, but I've never read a bad word about them, and who should know SET-friendly speakers better than AN?

Other speakers I'd be very interested in hearing would be the Zu Definitions and the Von Schweikert db99.

Speakers that would NOT make my short list include:

- the Coincident Total Victory - maybe the new Mark II model is better, but the original didn't do it for me. Likewise the whole Eclipse series.

- the C&C Abby - IMO these are toy speakers with a number of flaws that make them unsuitable for serious use (flame away). The bigger Ben series may be better, but I've never heard a pair.

- the Lamhorn 1.8 - a bad experience trying to drive a pair of these with my PX25 amp (and my ownership of the Abbys) has left me very skeptical about single driver backhorns in general.

Gliderguider,

You bring up and interesting observation that I noticed but never really gave much thought. I loaned my PX-25 amp and I-Bens to Paul Lim of Imagine HiFi for the VTV Show in LA 4 months ago or so.

I was surprised when he told that preferred the Abbys w/ the Almarro A205A instead of the AA PX-25. Actually, my pride was a little dented considering the cost difference between that $850 and $7k PX-25.

But, he was right, the Almarro is a fantstic match with the A205A. There was something not right when driven by the PX-25. Just a bad combo.

I do feel that both the Abby's and Ben's really need subwoofers to sound fully fleshed out.