Goldenear Triton One.R - can it be driven with low power tube amp?

Both are future possibilities, but I may be perfectly happy with the Upgraded SLP-05 and Pass XA60.5s.
Cary is backlogged. So the upgrade could take a few weeks. 

I now believe that almost any amps will drive the Tritons, and that the low freqs will be handled well by the internal subwoofer amp.
The ultimate sound quality can be tweaked to your liking by choosing an appropriate preamp/amplifier.

I’m sure that having a built-in 1.5 kwatt amplifier is responsible for behavior very different from purely passive speakers.

I have access to a Manley Stingray II in another system. Have been reluctant to move embeddd equipment around, but I may switch in the low power tube amp for a trial this weekend. I’ll report on the results.

Good to know. If the designer can drive the References with 8 set watts, then anything should work. I’ll try tubes, just to see how it affeccts sound quality. Should be interesting, as the internal woofer amps use entirely different technology. Bass crossover issues, maybe?

Swapped the Manley Stingray into the system and did a couple of hours listening to three configurations driving the GE Triton One.Rs:
1. Stingray in Ultralinear (40 watts)
2. Stingray in Triode (20 watts)
3. Cary Audio SLP-98p Formula 1 mod with Pass Labs XA-60.5 monos, my normal set-up with the Tritons.
Listened to vinyl only. Initial impressions:
All 3 sounded excellent. Bass was identical in all 3 configs. 1 and 2 sounded slightly sweeter or more natural on voices, with 2 being slightly more pleasing.
In config 3, the sound was more evenly robust or full, but not quite as appealing/ natural on vocals.
Bottom line - low power tube amps can drive the Tritons easily, and quite nicely.
The sound quality differences, slight though they were, were probably due more to the character of tube/solid state vs the all tube integrated amp.

I’m happy that my initial query on this thread, and the stimulating ensuing discussion has occurred. The experiment with the Stingray driving the Tritons has given me insight into future mods that I may choose for this system.
For now the Stingray is not available, as it is the heart of another system - one that sounds even better, btw.  Were I to replace the ss amps in the Triton system, I would probably opt for SET tube amp(s) of at least 20 watts. Also, the Cary SLP-98P preamp is a temporary installation, and is soon to be replaced with my Cary SLP-05 that is currently being upgraded at the manufacturer. I don’t expect it to change the sound significantly though, as the 98P is excellent.
Life can be good.

One caveat to my discussion:
My listening “test” was brief - just a few hours.  Perhaps long term listening would lead to different conclusions. At any rate, were I to replace my ss amps with low power (not fleawatt) tube power amp(s), I would probably favore something greater than 25 watts, and would have to do some longer term listening with the new amp(s).

Georgehifi,
You are correct. I have limited technical understanding of EPDR. I understand that a loudspeaker is not a resistive load. It is reactive and the reactance varies with frequency, as the phase angle varies with frequency. And the phase angle is the sine wave angular offset between the voltage and the current waveforms at the given frequency. I have no idea how to calculate EPDR, however.
Nevertheless, using the data from KH, can I assume that the amplifier current draw at 92 Hz will be approximately equivalent to the current draw, for the same signal (voltage) level, into a purely resistive load of 1.30 ohms?Just trying to understand these measurements a little better. I think I have already determined how to select an amplifier for these particular loudspeakers.

Charles, George, and other contributors,
Thanks for your inputs. They were informative and useful.

Stereophile’s Nov 2019 review of the Triton One.r has a few differences from the Keith Howard review.
Measurements indicate that the impedance between the critical 80 to 200 hz range is between 4.1 and 5 ohms. And at the 80 Hz crossover approximately half the power is being delivered by the internal amp.
Speaker sensitivity is 92 db. So about 1/2 watt at 80 Hz should get you to that loudness level.
Manufacturer recommends amps that have a range of 20 watts to 650 watts. 
From these measurements, the manufacturer recommendation, and my listening test, I have no qualms about using a high quality SET of at least that power level, that is spec’d for 4 ohm performance.