System assembled; only a final decision about speakers remains


Thanks to many posters on this forum, I have nearly completed assembling an audio system.

Because I started off my questions on this forum regarding speakers, I’m posting my outcomes here. I’ve not finalized speaker choice. While I took "Speakers first" to heart and attempted to do things that way,  slow production times and the virus prompted me to research and purchase in multiple areas. I wound up getting everything but speakers first.

I am enjoying my system with some loaners at the moment (review to come), and then (if the cosmos allows) I will seek synergy between this system and speakers. My hope is that the speakers ordered (Salk SS6M) turn out to be keepers, but they'll have a 30 day trial period. No idea when I will receive them. Oh, and I need to do some additional thinking about power and wiring, etc. And furniture.

So, to the various posters who chimed in with suggestions and information (I took extensive notes and you are now part of my informal library), here’s what I assembled:

SPEAKERS
  • SALK SS 6M — these are being built (well, after the shutdown is lifted) and then I’ll TRY them for 30 days to see if they work. Others are being considered. Opinions are welcome.
  • Sub: REL 328
AMPLIFICATION
  • QS Linestage
  • QS 60 Monos amp
SOURCES
  • CD transport: Cambridge CXC
  • Streamer: Bluesound Node 2i
  • DAC IT (peachtree) — older; just to tide me over
  • DAC ORCHID — this is my keeper

CABLES

  • Toslink: for CD player
  • Coaxial digital: Analysis Plus Digital Crystal & Audioquest Forest
  • Interconnects RCA: Analysis Plus Copper Oval
  • Power for sources and amps: Pangea Audio AC 14 & 9 SE MKII
  • Speaker cables: Analysis Plus Oval 12

POWER

  • Conditioner: Panamax 1500

128x128hilde45
IF: you have a 60w tube amp with a damping factor of 20,
THEN: make sure you get a speaker that is, at least:
___ sensitivity
___ ohms nominal
___ ohms curve that looks like [insert description]
___ other metric(s)?

Having a rough and ready chart like this could help me rule out of bounds any number of speakers.
A lot depends on the room- a bigger room will mean that you need greater efficiency. A chart would be nice but you don't really need one.


A flat impedance curve is nice but not mandatory. What's important for a tube amp in the bass is that the impedance is benign. As a general rule of thumb I avoid speakers with dual woofers as they tend to be nominally 4 ohms, and that's going to be a lot harder to drive. You need to make the most of the watts you have; a 4 ohm woofer array for a tube amp is like using a poor lubricant in an engine- it won't make as much power and the tubes will wear out faster.


The more feedback the amp has the more peaks it can tolerate in the impedance curve. If the amp has no feedback then the speaker has to be designed to accommodate that. Since the ear tends to favor tonality induced by distortion (brightness of solid state, 2nd harmonic warmth of tubes) over actual frequency response, this can be important. There is more information about that at this link:
http://www.atma-sphere.com/Resources/Paradigms_in_Amplifier_Design.php

IME 50 watts is a bit lean in the power department if the speaker is only 90dB. My speakers are nearly 98dB and I find 50 watts is pretty nice on that; that would be like running a 300 watt or so amp on a speaker that is only 90dB. Now you can see how important speaker efficiency actually is!

One further note- since the industry has gone over to voltage measurements rather than power, you can run into important issues when trying to suss out speaker efficiency! In the old days a speaker was measured at 1 watt/1 meter to get a certain output (Efficiency). Nowadays a voltage measurement is used (Sensitivity) which is 2.83 volts/1 meter. 2.83 volts into 8 ohms is 1 watt but 2.83 volts into 4 ohms is 2 watts. The difference there is 3dB, a doubling of amplifier power. Now tube amps don't double power as impedance is halved; this is why Efficiency is a more important and useful spec when sussing out speakers. But since Sensitivity is used you always have to do that math. For example, if a 4 ohm speaker is 90dB, subtract 3 dB off the Sensitivity to get the Efficiency value; its actually 87 dB 1 watt 1 meter. Conversely if a 90dB Sensitivity speaker is 16 ohms, add 3 db to get the Efficiency.


So beware of that! IMO, in most average American rooms, 93dB and 8 ohms is a good place to start if your amplifier power is 50-60 watts. One other thing to watch for is some speaker manufacturers are more conservative about these ratings than others, depending on what part of the efficiency curve (bottom or top) the speaker's rating is derived.



@kenjit I could ask Jim what makes his speakers better, but my guess is he'd do what anyone who makes good equipment would do — shrug and tell me to try them and return them if I don't like them. And I suppose if I ask for evidence of perfect phase coherence, I should use all caps — just to let him know I'm "on to his little scheme"? [I mean, dude — didn't I already say, right at the beginning — that this is simple? Buy, try, keep, or return? I can explain that to you, but I can't understand it for you.]
@atmasphere Thanks for your post and I'm copying a bunch of this into notes. I moved from a Salk 83 db speaker up to a 90db speaker after a conversation with Jim. The cost of the speaker went up, but my required amplifier power went down — and so did the cost. I thought I'd be safe with 60watts tube. At this point, I'll just have to try the 90db speaker and hope Jim was being conservative. Otherwise, it will go back and I'll keep in mind that figure of 93 db and the other good details about the 4 ohms, double woofer, and various ways of tackling the math.
@dill  D'oh! Newbie mistake. I shall channel Professor Housman and conduct a shrouding.