2. speakers
  3. 188737-976

How important is the efficiency of a speaker to you?

I went to an audio meeting recently and heard a couple of good sounding speakers. These speakers were not inexpensive and were well built. Problem is that they also require a very large ss amp upstream to drive them. Something that can push a lot of current, which pretty much rules out most low-mid ( maybe even high) powered tube amps. When I mentioned this to the person doing the demo, i was basically belittled, as he felt that the efficiency of a speaker is pretty much irrelevant ( well he would, as he is trying to sell these speakers). The speaker line is fairly well known to drop down to a very low impedance level in the bass regions. This requires an amp that is going to be $$$, as it has to not be bothered by the lowest impedances.

Personally, if I cannot make a speaker work with most tube amps on the market, or am forced to dig deeply into the pocketbook to own a huge ss amp upstream, this is a MAJOR negative to me with regards to the speaker in question ( whichever speaker that may be). So much so, that I will not entertain this design, regardless of SQ.

Your thoughts?

daveyf

Showing 3 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
8,071 posts
 

@dhite71

 

+1

 

There has been this old adage of tube watts being more powerful than solid state watts. For most of the last fifty years I used mammoth high powered solid state amps. Then about five years ago switched to Audio Research Reference amps 160m monoblocks and 160s. I run the 160s in triode mode… so only 70wpc and they are ferociously relaxed and powerful, absolutely no lack of muscle… but they don’t flaunt it… it is just there, rock solid at any volume.

 

I also have a friend with a pair of Wilson Puppies and an Audio Research VT80. They drive the Wilson’s to incredible loudness without any sign of running out of power or dynamics, rock solid. I really cranked them last weekend.

While I haven’t recently tried to put 70wpc tube power up against solid state but I am pretty sure it will stand up against two or more times the SS watts. So, I had figured the old adage of the difference between tune and SS was really subtle. It isn’t and still seems to be there..

ghdprentice
8,071 posts
 

My point of view is that it is a challenge to find speakers that perfectly match your specific sound quality values. It gets much harder by restricting yourself to a subset of speakers. 

ghdprentice
8,071 posts
 

The most important thing to me is the sound quality of the speakers. They set the stage for what you are going to hear. That is it, no consideration of efficiency. Then I find the proper amplification to support them.
 

After a love affair with electrostatic and ribbon speakers for decades… which I supported with 150+ pound, massive high powered amps. I realized I really wanted natural / musical sounding system. So I found Sonus Faber speakers, which are mostly 90db efficient and them I found the best sounding amp to support them… so the wpc went from 350 to 70.

More to discover