Highly efficient speakers to pair with my SET amp

The best match with an SET amp will be horn speakers. I second the Klipsch Cornwall recommendation - I bought mine here on audiogon for only $600. If those are too large for you, you could try the Heresey's. You can still find things in the Klipsch Heritage series for very reasonable prices.

I’ve just had the chance to read through the responses to my post, and at risk of sounding less than sincere by offering a large-scale thank you, I wanted to send some real appreciation to all who took the time to offer advice.

I’ve chased down links for many of the sources you suggested, and – at your prompting – have thought a bit about the kinds of music I listen to, my ideal listening volume given the proximity of a decidedly non-audiophile neighbor, and the nature of my listening space. The result has been fun and educational: just what a neophyte might hope to learn from her first Audiogon thread. As our local parlance would have it: thanks – for reals.

Because switching out my Paradigms has the potential to represent a pretty major purchase for me, and because my ears seem to be getting more and more choosy over time, I’m fairly sure that I’d like to listen before buying. I’ve had very limited experience with horns, and hope to find some locally to take for a spin. In the meantime, I’m leaning in two directions – inasmuch as that’s possible.

First: happily enough, there’s a chance that my Friend with the Seductive System (FSS) and I will audition some close-to-local Coincidents with the Almarro this weekend. Doing so will let me hear the Total Eclipse flavor of efficiency with my amp for the first time, and I suspect that the experience will be enlightening.

Second: I have more than a passing interest in the Zu Druids. FSS reminded me that they’re crossoverless; that would be new territory for me, so the suggestion to try the 60 day in-home trial for the refurbished version seems especially right on (thanks, Gsm18439, and those who mentioned this by email). I heard these once and didn’t fall for them -- but the setting was less than ideal, and I don’t think they were playing to their strengths. I’m more than happy to give them a real chance.

Can't wait to test these waters; if successful I may never leave the house again (heh). As for whether FSS will visit me more often, Mrjstark? Not sure; he just got a new CD player, has tubes en route, and even has some new power cords to try. I might be out of luck. :)

Thank you again to all for your suggestions and advice.

Betsy

Betsy (Fangirl....I am guessing),
no worries about your friend and his never ending pursue of "Audio Nirvana"........which but away, blinded him to the point that he's missing the chance of..........finding the real "treasure". :)
If you ever decided to go with Single Driver horns....just let me know and I am sure that something can be arranged to suit your taste and preferences.

Mariusz

Keep an eye out for 'Oris' horns that appear every now and then on here and are very reasonably priced. You could do a lot worse than the offerings Johnk (KCS) has to offer.

18 watts and tube watts at that, is not flea powered, many conventional speakers are eminently suitable. My 22 watt SET for example, drives my 89db acoustic ZEN adagios, with better grip than the 180 watt SS amp I also used. In addition to the above suggestions, I would include some other small US names, Silverline and if you can find them Reimer, now sadly no more and Daedalus. If you are talking horn speakers, then the Cain and Cain Abby looks and sounds wonderful.