$9000 speaker Orangutan or speaker + amplifier

Mapman, thanks for your response. What you say makes a lot of sense, am experiencing it (I think) right now. With Aleph 3 powering my Vienna Acoustics Haydn.

Arh, I once made the mistake of electronics later, speakers first. Never again. My haydns sound sooooo much better with 6K upgrade in electronics.

Hence my question: Am trying to understand if the Devores are so much better than Harbeth that it might beat a great tube amp + Harbeth, while being powered by Aleph 3.

Swampwalker, are the Dragons that good ? Have you heard them.

I have only heard of them.

Esrand realize also that tube amps will usually "soft clip" meaning that things may well still sound pretty good even when clipping, whereas most SS amps (not all) tend towards "hard clipping" meaning sonic effects of clipping are interpreted more as an unpleasant form of distortion.

I think you would find the clearest difference in performance between the two combos with pop/electronic/rock type music played at higher volumes. This is a listening scenario where soft clipping may often be clearly interpreted as a disadvantage versus no clipping at all in play, with either a suitable SS or tube amp.

NEt result is many get by fine with a lot fewer tube watts than SS, especially for mostly acoustic music played at lower to moderate volumes.

Of course there are many other factors that go into the sound besides clipping, but clipping is no doubt public enemy # 1 for most in terms of threat to achieving excellent results all the time, personal preferences aside.

The Orangutan is intended to be moderately high efficiency and an easy load for tube amplifiers. A transistor amplifier is not likely to show them off properly- I suspect that the design may not work properly with transistors. (for more on why, see http://www.atma-sphere.com/Resources/Paradigms_in_Amplifier_Design.php.)

Given what I have seen of them, to really make them sing you will want some power, of course a lot depends on your room!

Tube amp + Orangutan (very cool name for those speakers BTW) is likely a very good match, but I would still lean towards 30 w/ch Pass SS amp with 90+ db efficient Orangutans rather than any 30 w amp, tube or SS with 86 DB efficient speakers, Harbeth or otherwise, for best performance overall, given the choices, but personal preference in individual cases is probably the deciding factor in the end. None of the combos should sound bad, especially at low to moderate volumes. It all depends. THat's what keeps this stuff interesting. You often never know for sure until you try. Specs and technical designs only tell part of the whole story.