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Dynamic speakers for OTL amps

Dear audiophiles,

I have a fairly large room (50m2), and plan to use a mid size (2x140 watts) OTL tube amp. I may be downgrading from a bigger system - depending on the results.

My question concerns what could be the best choice of dynamic speakers with this type of room and OTL amp, given a taste for dynamic music, e g rock music, that really fills the room (at 90-95 db but not headbanging levels). I am especially interested in speakers with single drivers or low sonic losses due to crossovers. With OTL, why not get rid of the crossover too, - "straight wire with gain" philosophy.

On my desktop, a small OTL amp running active single-driver speakers sounds superior (Audiotailor Jade OTL + Sony SRS-ZX1 active speakers). It is surprisingly easy to register. I can turn up the OTL part of the gain, and the sound becomes pure. Turn up the active speaker s-s amps, and it remains "stereo". However, this is different from a large living room requirement.

Therefore your advice is welcome. Are there single-drive or very-little-crossover type of speakers, that could be a match? Or other speakers, regardless of design, that would work well, in this kind of context?
o_holter

Showing 1 response by sbank

sbank's avatar
sbank
3,382 posts
 
Focus on speakers with easy to drive impedance, ideally not dipping below 8 ohms. While some might suggest autoformers to eliminate this concern, I would beg to differ and suggest that you avoid autoformers unless you listen to them extensively first, and decide they are for you. There are too many brands that meet this criteria to even list them.

Most single-driver speakers don't exactly plumb the depths on the low end, and aren't particularly suited for rock. I'd probably lean in the other direction.

Having owned multiple OTLs, I'd say you are in for a treat! Cheers,
Spencer
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