High Efficiency Speakers

Hi! The site that Lak referred to is "Best speaker for 2A3 amplifiers" (Thread 968284191), which I had started. I have used both Coincident Super Eclipse and the more efficient new Silverline Sonata speakers with a Don Garber Fi Super X 2A3 stereo amplifier. The Coincidents (now sold) at 92 dB were a little difficult to control in the base. I have found the Silverlines (95 dB) to be excellent speakers: good frequency response through out the range, good soundstaging, and good transparency. However, in large-scale orchestral music, I find that there is not quite enough dynamic headroom, but this may be a limitation of the amplifier design or the output of the 2A3 tubes. My current feeling is that you will need an amp with slightly more power for 2A3's, perhaps something using 300B's, and that if you want to keep the 2A3 amp, then you need to go to efficiencies above 100 dB. This will pretty much restrict you to horn speakers. However, horn speakers do have a different sound and a much smaller sweet spot and you should audition carefully if you are interested. I understand that there are a number of ways to go: these include something of the Avantgarde (price of entry is more than $15K for the DUOs) or Oris (about $4K in kit form from Wellborne) variety, or something like the Lamhorns (about $6K and $9.5K) (www.rlacoustique.com), which have received some outstanding reviews recently.