Building the Audio Note Kit 1 SET amp...

Rwbadley,
Our posts just crossed "in the mail." Seems we are thinking alike here. :-)

Those Coincidents are small and likely not extended in the bass, which is a good thing for a SET with small speakers. It still might be enough for a small room, depending on expectations. If expectations are to have it all, you could very well end up with a sub in any case in lieu of larger more expensive very high efficiency horns or something along those lines. Just more food for thought. You might not like the idea of adding complexity with a sub, but that price you pay might be small in relation to the benefits of cutting to the chase faster and doing it with the stuff you already like a lot making most of the music.

It wouldn't hurt to pick up a sub used somewhere locally and try. If it does not work, you can sell, loose nothing and be no worse off than currently.

Powered subs are almost always the least expensive way to have it all when needed, with most any speakers or amps. If you can build an amp kit, I suspect you will be able to get the sub mixed in adequately in a reasonably short period of time. I've done it. It can be no more complicated than trial and error with various settings and placements while listening to various reference recordings along teh way. Kinda fun in its own way, just like building the kit. Plus you have the ability to tweak as needed without replacing. Not too shabby!

Bass will ALWAYS be the achilles heel of a low power amp (and/or smaller speakers, especially more efficient ones in genral). Powered subs let you address the issue once and for all without having to change the rest. Its the most practical solution if you are already liking what you hear and just want to address the power for the bass issue. If the amp is clipping and distorting audibly on some tracks, and teh bass is not as tight and articulate as it might be otherwise, there may be other more subtle negative effects at play as well as a result of asking too much of the amp. If you ask less of it and let it do what it does best more effortlessly, you should be sitting about as possible.

Sitting about as pretty as possible, that is.

First, let me state that I love the blog, it inspired my wife as well. This discussion has been a most enjoyable thread, as was your thread that started this one on best bargain SET. These threads are amongst the best type that Audiogon has to offer with knowledgable friendly posters' (you know who you are).

Keep in mind that most of us are truly well-intentioned, want the best outcome for you; we understand that your choices will likely be different than our own, but we make an attempt to guide you to good possibility, to narrow choices from our personal experience, or something promising that we came across.

What I found frustrating more than irritating was that I thought we were operating in a parameter of suggesting/finding a speaker that would play well in a small room (11x10), with the type of music you typically listen too with limited budget ($2,000 or so). So, given that the conversation started drifting to upwards of $3,000 I felt I wasted a good deal of time working with the above parameter since higher price points bring more options to the table; hence, wasting my time banging the drum for a particular speaker, at a price point that performs as well or better than many speakers at $3,000 or above. Yeah, it was frustrating, because in my case I was looking for the reviews, cutting and pasting, attempting to bring points of view from some industry professionals to back my suggestion. It wasn't merely a extemporaneous respone, try speaker A, it's good blah, blah...there was some corroboration and research, plus I own the speakers. Then we are talking about speakers costing much, much more, hence the wasting my time comment.