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Impedance Matching - Tube Amp/Speakers

Hi, I am not technical guy, so excuse my questions. This weekend my friend did check bias on my VTL ST-85, which I recently did buy, and he also measured my speakers Dunlavy SM-1. Multimeter showed him that they are 4 ohm spekares (althought, on paper, they should be 6 ohm). He told me that this is not good combination - 4 ohm speakers and tube amp. So, is it safe using VTL ST-85, or tube amps generally, with 4 ohms or 6 ohms speakers? I am really confused because I like sound, but also dont want damage my amp or speakers.
arzach
unsound
7,329 posts
 
FWIW, in my conversations with the late great John Dunlavy, he had a strong preference for ss, and especially Class D amplification.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
SS has better bass control, speed and transients, but I expected that. Maybe better preamp could cover this area.
While I am a big proponent of building a system around a great pre-amp, IMO, you are not going to get significant improvements in the areas you mentioned unless you change amplification. V. good tube amps can provide all of those elements, w/o sacrificing the good things that tubes do. This is all theoretical. I've never heard your amp and the speakers only once. YMMV.
arzach OP
4 posts
 
Is there someone who has experiences with some Dunlavy speakers and tube amps? I did buy ST-85 with EL34 tubes Electron (made in China), I dont know if they are good ones or not, so maybe some tube rolling could improve dynamics and bass, if preamp not. I also read that valve amps with EL34's will always struggle with bass.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,761 posts
 
If the load is right, bass will not be a problem- that has nothing to do with the amp using EL-34s!
ts0711
91 posts
 
You’re safe…

Back in the day, I had Duntech Marquis and had lots of fun using QuickSilver Silver 60’s (KT88’s) and the Silver 90’s but those were big 3 way, time aligned speakers that really needed solid state to sing. They sounded very good with tubes but they were unstoppable when bi-amped with 2 McIntosh 7270’s .

The bass coming out of the ST-85 should be very good, although EL34’s are considered leaner than some other tube types (i.e. 6550’s), however there is always a trade-off. I currently have a VTL IT-85 (same amp section as the ST-85 using EL34’s) driving Dynaudio Special 25’s ( 4ohm, 88db) and the bass is killer.

It could be the source and or wiring.
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