I think a very reasonable argument can be made for low-power amps, along the lines of “the less you mess with the signal, the better.” So assuming you select a well-designed amp, you simply find a speaker that pairs well with it. I have a couple of Pass diy amps with 15 to 25 watts. I’ll call that low power in today’s market. So to go with the 15-watt amp (at 8 ohms) I built speakers with 95db efficiency. Nice sound, really sweet midrange in a 20x20 family room. The 25-watt amp is a little more flexible. It makes 40 watts at 4 ohms. And I like Magnepans, but they’re 86 db and 4 ohms. I tried it and liked it. Volume probably tops out in the low 90s db range in the large room they’re in, but it’s a living room, not my music room, so fine by me. I’ll add that among the high efficiency speakers I have hear at stores and with my local audio group, they have a dynamism I find appealing, really lively. But I value timbre above all, and that usually leads me to Maggies.
How important is the efficiency of a speaker to you?
I went to an audio meeting recently and heard a couple of good sounding speakers. These speakers were not inexpensive and were well built. Problem is that they also require a very large ss amp upstream to drive them. Something that can push a lot of current, which pretty much rules out most low-mid ( maybe even high) powered tube amps. When I mentioned this to the person doing the demo, i was basically belittled, as he felt that the efficiency of a speaker is pretty much irrelevant ( well he would, as he is trying to sell these speakers). The speaker line is fairly well known to drop down to a very low impedance level in the bass regions. This requires an amp that is going to be $$$, as it has to not be bothered by the lowest impedances.
Personally, if I cannot make a speaker work with most tube amps on the market, or am forced to dig deeply into the pocketbook to own a huge ss amp upstream, this is a MAJOR negative to me with regards to the speaker in question ( whichever speaker that may be). So much so, that I will not entertain this design, regardless of SQ.
Your thoughts?
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- 178 posts total
- 178 posts total