recommended speakers for SET amp?

Mmccoy: The only affordable (in this case) speakers that come to mind, with efficiency and dimensions such as this, are the modern Klipsch models (probably get a better deal used) and also a speaker kit from hammerdynamics.com that retails for around $600. With the kit you have to supply the materials for and build the cabinets yourself (or have them built). There should be quite a bit of info on both plus many other possibilities at audioasylum.com, which also has a high efficiency speaker forum. Bottlehead also has speaker kits available, but I am not very familiar with them. If you are using the Zen amp from Decware (there are two Zen amps) I found that the earlier model seemed to do very well with 4 ohm speakers when I tried one out for a weekend. I do not know if this is true of the later versions though. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that the specs (efficiency & impedance) do not really tell you how a speaker will perform within a particular setup (sometimes those with less favorable specs perform better than ones with great specs). So, other than setting up auditions at home, you are doing the second best thing that you can do by hitting the forums. The SET amp that I have is not commonly used, and hopefully you will have better luck finding owners of your particular amp to share info with.

I am currently auditioning a paid of Zen Sig. mono-blocks and am mightily impressed with not only the sound but the build quality and customer support from Steve and everyone else at Decaware. I think you are being a bit generous with the 5wt rating, Steve told me the actual RMS is around 3 watts max. However!! I am using 86db Proac Responce 2.5s and these damn little things and driving them amazingly well. The Proacs have an easy impedance load but Decware says the important thing with their amps is the sensitivity of the speaker. I can hear the problem my Proacs are giving the amps, too insensitive. If I keep the Zens I'll have to get new speakers, and on and on it goes, this desease of ours. By the way, the Zens, at 3 wts, drive my speakers better than a highly regarded 2A3 monblcok with 5wts and almost as good as a 35wt push/pull design I'm also auditioning.

I don't have any advice on SET speaker matching, but I do have the full-sized maggies, and I can predict that these would be poor canidates for SET. I tried to drive my MG3.5R's originally with an amp I love for more efficient speakers- the single-ended [transistor]PASS Aleph 5 and they just couldn't produce bass or dynamics. I'm now running BiAmp'd Bryston 4B'(thats 2-200wpc amps) and although noticeably better, still can't seem to get enough dynamics and am looking for more power or other speakers.- The magneplanar approach would appear to favor much more power than I think you will be able to deliver with the Zen.

The sensitivity of the SIlverLine Audio "Sonata"is 95db as well as there "Sonatina speaker is 94db and they work great with set amps