best 5-20K speakers for high-end tube amp?

Hi No Slouch,

Sounds like you have some excellent electronics there.

Much as I like Maggies, I don't think they'd be a good match for an 845-based tube amp. Their sensitivity is rated at 85 dB for a 2.83 volt input, and since they are a 4-ohm load (and 2.83 volts into 4 ohms = 2 watts), their efficiency is only 82 dB for a 1 watt input. That's pretty low.

How important is a wide sweet spot to you? How important is dynamic contrast? Imaging? How important is the physical appearance of the speakers (size and cosmetics)? Any particular sonic qualities that you especially want to have? Any particular sonic anomalies that you especially want to avoid?

By the way, your English is probably better than mine (you don't even have an accent!). Where did you learn it?

Cheers,

Duke

Szutinglee,I'm Not a fan of Avantgarde speakers but totally agree with your recommendtion of Acapella"s,their great speakers. My only concern would be $ because to get to their speakers that really sing, because of their one of a kind plasma tweeter, would take No slouch way out of his budget. I believe you have to go past,at least new, the 20 grand mark which goes over his stated budget limits. If I'm wrong please let me know.

Nice sounding amplifiers!

The Maggies would not be at their best with the low power...it would work, but not near their best. Coincident's Total Victory may be a great match to consider, and just as good if not better would be the Avante Garde Duos.

Good luck.

Audiokinesis, I'm not sure I can describe what I'm looking for exactly, but my reasons for going for a tube amp over SS is that I prefer sweet, warm vocals and midrange over the ultimate in clarity/transparency. Having said that, I wish my current system had better soundstaging and overall detail (it sounds muddy now). The general tonal balance is there, but not nearly as refined as what I heard in the store (which sounded perfect enough to me that any desire for a particular sonic quality was just icing on the cake, as oppposed to a necessity as I feel now). Right now I feel not enough of the sweet sound is coming through.

I have a set of Feet of Silence, which improves the sound clarity remarkably under both my Levinson CD player and preamp. I only have one set, but plan to get an isolation rack. I didn't get one before, since I'm new to audio and wasn't convinced in isolation until I experimented with the Feet of Silence. I may even be convinced that isolating all my equipment would solve my problem..

As for the English, I'm Canadian-Chinese :-)

I'm going to Hong Kong next week, where many speaker brands are sold, that's why I'm hoping to get a list of candidates. I'll definitely check out the AvantGardes, Coincidents, and Acapella. I'll also listen to the Maggies, since I hear a lot about them on this site, even though they may not be right for my present situation.

Speaker size, appearance, and weight is somewhat important to me. I like the Coincident Total Victories for their slim size, and some of the Acapellas look stylish. The AvantGarde Duos' appearance may be an issue, however, especially the bottom half and the side pillars. I guess if they were only marginally better sounding than a great looking and space-economical speaker, I may choose the better looking ones.

Any further recommendations would be greatly welcome.

I agree with the comments made about Magnepans. I own
1.6QR's which I had been using with a Mark Levinson 27.5
amp (200 W/Chan @ 4 ohms). The 27.5 is an outstanding
solid state amp, but sounded constricted at higher volumes.
It didn't have enough juice to drive the Magnepans. I sold
it and got a Levinson 335 (500 W/Chan @ 4 ohms) and the
speakers opened up. I love Magenpan speakers, but they do
require a quality high-powered amp to sound their best.