recommended power tube amplifier for vivid kaya 45 speakers

@joecasey OK, nice to hear it , thanks it helped me a lot !

OP, what preamp are you using? This would would have a fairly important impact on which of the amps you may want to go for. I use the Jadis JA30Mk2's with a CAT and find that to be a wonderful combo. Depending on room size, you have some great options.

@haimra The Vivid Kaya 45 appears to be a poor match for tube amplifiers. Its impedance is a low 2.8 ohms at about 130Hz; from the Stereophile measurements its clear that this speaker is designed for an amplifier that can behave as a voltage source. A good number of tube amps can do that, but no tube amp is going to strut its stuff into a low impedance where power is demanded.  

Further complicating matters is the low efficiency of this speaker, which is meant for solid state power which is inexpensive. Quality tube power isn't cheap! When you correct for impedance this speaker has an efficiency of only about 85 dB.  That means in most rooms with a tube amp you'll be wanting 400 watts to prevent clipping of the amp at lifelike levels.


Seriously, and this is coming from an amplifier designer, if you want to really see what tubes can do, consider replacing the speakers first.  When looking for a speaker, pay attention to how the woofer or woofer array is set up. You want something that is nominally 8 ohms in the bass region, usually meaning that only a single woofer is employed. You may encounter some speakers that have dual woofers (wired in series) where the impedance is high- like 10-16 ohms instead of 8; such speakers are rare but they will work great with tubes. Avoid any speaker that is 4 ohms or less in the bass (which is what you have).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but if you invest in some of the higher powered examples suggested earlier in this thread, you won't get the performance out of those amps that their prices suggest!

Atmasphere makes some great points! There are a ton of speakers on the market today that are an absolute bear to drive..even with a ss amp! For example, the recent review by Jason Victor Serinus of the Jadis JA200Mk2 amps exemplifies what atmasphere was talking about. JVS used a pair of Wilson Alexia’s as his speaker of choice with the JA200Mk2’s! This speaker has a impedance drop to nearly zero ohms at lower frequencies, as a result it is known to be severely problematical with any number of amps...and basically tube amps need not apply. JVS in his infinite wisdom had no clue about this... and as such gave the Jadis a luke warm review, complaining of a number of issues that he failed to realize were the direct result of his horrible amp/speaker mismatch!
I have another friend who bought some new speakers at a big price point, basically blowing his budget on them...only to find out that the speakers required a ss amp with tremendous stability into basically a short! His low powered ( well flea powered!) tube amps were not cutting it...and his budget didn’t allow for the monster ss amps required to drive his new speakers...:0(

I am listening to the Kaya 45s at the moment using Art Audio Opus 4s.  The thing to note is that I am in a small space and sit 7' to to 8.5' from the speakers and the wall is right behind me so it takes very little power to hit reference levels.  Can't deny bass sounds muddy compared to the AVM.  

I normally don't turn it up that much and at lower levels it is fine.  Higher levels, undeniably a bit muddy.  

If I wanted to maintain more of a tube sound, I would go with an AVM tube hybrid like the Ovation SA 8.3 or MA 8.3s.  The latter I have a pair of demos available.