Tannoy Stirlings on the way!

@trentmemphis,

"I'll be interested to hear where you land with the stands. I'm still trying to figure that one out, myself. Have you experimented with rake at all?"


I don't think it's worth sweating too much over such things as there's unlikely to be one position that works optimally with all recordings.

Personally I think height is the big one, and then getting the fastest tightest bass, and then it gets really tough..

I have always considered that speaker placement was for the best position across recordings.  I likely won't mess with rake, however will continue to increase toe-in.  

I finally added some rake because I constantly felt like I was peering *down* into the soundstage.  I had to get it up to ear level somehow, and I didn't have a good option for stands.  I just experimented till I found something that worked for me.

"“The Stirlings are rated 91, which in my room should make the Zen sufficient on the wattage front.”

I would not recommend any amp with <30watts in pure class A. Bring in the Zen, you’ve got MC152 on hand for comparison. No doubt you would appreciate tube’s rich harmonics and intoxicating mid-range through Stirling’s but you may crave for more power in the low end region. 

It’s a journey you will figure it out :-)"

Trent probably isn't still thinking about the Zen amp, but I'll chime in...

I came across this thread as a result of wanting to read about the Sterlings. I own the SE84UFO2 and have been looking at a "final" speaker choice. I've had four different sets of speakers connected to the little Zen, and I've done some tube rolling.

Currently the speakers are two pair of stacked Large Advents, wired in parallel. I'm in a pretty small room (~10'x11' w/ 9 foot ceiling) with the equipment along the long wall.

Depending on the gain of the source unit and/or preamp, the Zen can play the Advents plenty, plenty loud.  DECware has a trial period.  

The Sterlings are a bit more sensitive than the Advents and my *guess* is more efficient.  I would be very surprised if it weren't a good match. The Zen is a great little amp and punches way above its output, weight and cost.

Hey, thanks, @edunbar. I still like the idea of trying a Zen amp.  I'm just not comfortable doing business with a company that doesn't answer its email.