How to accurately gauge speaker sensitivity to match with tube amp?


I'm in the process of matching speakers to my amplifier and need a bit of advice. Most recently, I'm trying Focal 936 towers with my Quicksilver Mono 60w amp. They were sounding pretty decent until I experimented by hooking up my old Adcom 535L amp. All of a sudden, there was a giant jump in control, tautness in the bass, quickness in transients. The QS stuff was doing quite decently, but the Adcom really snapped these towers to attention. The mids and high ends, not to mention the soundstage, were worse with the Adcom — no question. But there was quite a difference with the other qualities just mentioned.

My question becomes one of sensitivity. The Focals self-rated as 92 db. Stereophile rated them as 89.5db. I realize that these are average measurements and a much bigger picture is told by the impedance graph (and other factors).

As I continue to search for the right match of speaker (I have a couple contenders), I'm sure one piece of advice is to look for speakers with higher sensitivity averages. But what else should I look for to help make a guesstimate about whether the amp will drive the speakers with the kind of control they are capable of? [Specs for this amp are here: http://quicksilveraudio.com/products/sixty-watt-mono-amp/ ]

I realize I need to hear speakers, in my house, with my gear, etc. to get a sense of them. I’m working in exactly this way. Your advice can help me eliminate candidate speakers that would pose similar challenges to my amp as these Focals have.

And I just bought the amp, so I don't want to change it.

Thank you for any thoughts. 

P.S. Anyone who has has had great success with this amp or similar, please shout it out.


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Showing 6 responses by djones51

Thanks for the information, just goes to show it's best not to repeat what one has heard for years. I read about 2 hours last night, articles on clipping and tweeter distruction. I think everything both almarg and ieales explained was mentioned though it's hard to remember everything I read. Anyway I apologize for hijacking the thread, back to speaker and amp matching. 
When the amp clips the current doesn't alternate but behaves like DC which the capacitor in the crossover will pass,  especially bad for tweeters.
@almarg  So the tweeter getting to hot from excess energy would cause failure?  If occasional mild clipping wouldn't cause any damage, how easily would it be to detect mild clipping in LF leaking into the HF area of the tweeter? Could this type of clipping be easier to not notice in lower powered tube amps causing not occasional clipping  but a lot? 
@nakam Yes you can mess up the tweeter if you drive the amp to clipping. The recommended amp range is an estimate the speaker company uses as a guide for consumers as long as you don't push the amp which means listening for clipping even in moderate listening levels at the transients.
OK thanks, I never listen that loud anymore the last time I blew a speaker had to be 1974.