Speakers that are good with tubes

@carlsbad @charles1dad

It does seem like transformers are a bit far away from the OP’s question.

I went there because there was an assumption that a fairly narrow range of speakers are tube-amp friendly.

What I think has been established is that there is

(a) a wider range of speakers friendly to tubes than assumed.
(b) a need to understand what a specific speaker’s performance is regarding impedance
(c) a need to understand the capability of a given tube amps' performance.

My  comment about transformers relates to (c) which bears on (a).
In other words, if the OP had found a speaker with reasonable impedance performance, then the question would become how well can a given amp perform? Part of answering that question would depend on (c).

Of course, the OP may be perfectly happy or stuck with their amp, in which case they could assess the quality of the transformer on it in order to see how variable their speaker choices are.

@hide45  Good summary.  Hopefully the OP hasn't bougth or at least married to a tube amp yet.   To me they should be bought as a pair, however, there is a lot of wiggle room in choosing both.  For example, I recommend an SET.  However, my current primary amp is not an SET, it just sounds like one (Decware ZMA).   A lot of people like horns, I've never found them to suit my preference.  I am currently listening to a very well designed pair of 4 way speakers with a high sensitivity, very flat frequency response, and excellent phase performance.  Midrange to die for. 

But in general my suggestion is less than 10 watts in an SET, and the best deisnged high sensitivity speakers you can find.

Jerry

@hilde45 

To be clear, I agree with you on the importance of capable high quality output transformers. Equally important is the amplifier power supply robustness and quality. The OP is a bit vague and general. I believe posters are just trying to abide and explain what parameters determine speaker “friendly to tube amplifiers “.

Charles 

Not sure what amp you have, but if it is a good quality amp and you want to hear the music as it was recorded, Magneplaners are the only choice.

If you don't really care about that, pretty much any quality box will do.

Cheers!

@carlsbad I have some buddies here in Denver area with that low-watt, high efficiency approach. It’s pretty magical, and I’m tempted, myself. But that’s a much more difficult path for me at the moment, as it would require getting rid of all my amps and speakers and starting over. I’m moving incrementally, and am currently pretty happy with my non-SET amps (Mono 60’s are great with the KT77s, and the Pass XA25 is really nice, too).

@charles1dad Agreed. Sometimes these threads are like rivers which develop tributaries. Perhaps that’s where I floated!

@richopp Would you say Magneplanars are the only choice -- above and beyond GR Research, Spatial, and others of a similar ilk? Curious as to how you arrived at this very exclusive conclusion.