Gone are the days of the great audition.

Not likely 16 manufactuers really want their babies in that much head to head battle, if you had to pay for the speakers you'd need an awful lot of auditions.

Rocker...that is where i was heading. I'm wondering if there is a business model there. I would gladly pay 100 bucks for a few hours of listening with no pressure from salemen.
I'm sure audiofests are similar, but you have to wait and wait for them to come every year!
I'm still waiting to hear suggestions for the perfect speaker that will expose the high fequencies on my prima luna prologue 5. A local dealer offered to let me bring it in and try it out with some of his Linn,Vandersteens and Sonus Fabers...

02-16-13: Jmacinnis
So what type speakers would be "unfriendly" with a 40-60 watt tube amp then? Sensitivity below x???

With tube amps it's more than just a power thing; it's an output impedance/damping factor thing as well.

First, with the power, it's a combination of speaker sensitivity and room size. 36 wpc may be plenty for a speaker of 87 dB efficiency and up in a mostly enclosed room up to--say--14x18. If it's a much bigger room or open architecture and you listen to big band, metal, and/or largescale orchestra, the power may not be enough. If you listen to more acoustic small ensemble music it could be fine.

The other part is that some tube amps have a high output impedance, which means they need to see a load of 8 ohms or more. Some speakers also require a higher damping factor (related to the amp's output impedance) to control woofer cone excursions. These factors comprise what is often meant by "tube friendly. That is, a speaker with a higher average impedance and no great requirements in damping factor.

In the case of your PrimaLuna, however, it has large enough output transformers to offer 4-ohm taps, so that part of the "tube friendly" equation is taken care of. Your amp is very highly reviewed internationally. Still, for a floorstanding full-range speaker the GoldenEar Triton series have built-in amplifiers to power the low bass drivers. This provides an easier task for your PrimaLuna to shine where it's best--the upper bass and above, especially the magic you get in a tube-driven midrange. And there are two locations in Greater DC where you can audition them.

Thanks johnnyb53....hitting the goldenear dealer tomorrow. They also sold me the amp so they want me to bring the amp with me. Now this might just be a great audition. Vinyl preselected!

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Jmacinnis & Rocker, I have given your idea some thought.. I thought about approaching mfgs to use my place as a demo room for their speakers that don't have a dealer in my area (LA)that stocks the speaker....no sales from me, just a demo fee. The demo fee is credited back to the customer if he purchases from the mfg or a local dealer that doesn't stock the auditioned speaker.
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