I disagree big-time with the Ian Masters article linked above, and not just
because he disses tubes. In some 50 years of serious listening I have come
to find that power output wattage, per se, is almost meaningless. No, you
can't run a Wilson speaker with a 3-watt SET amp. But the quality of the first
and subsequent watts is far more important than their quantity. I was
astonished when a friend who designs and builds SET amps brought over a 6
wpc amp that not only drove my ProAc speakers as well as the 140 wpc amps
I had been using, but sounded a bunch better. I'm now using a pair of 12
wpc SET monoblocks (same designer) to drive Gallo Reference 3 speakers in
an 18 x 40' room, with an "L" off the 40' length, and have never
come close to running out of steam and sound glorious. Yes, I'm powering
the Ref 3s' second voice coils with a powerful SS subwoofer amp, but half the
time I forget to turn it on.
Bottom line: forget the output wattage specs. Listen.
Good luck, Dave
PS- A good friend has your speakers. He drives them VERY successfully, in a
large room, with a 22 wpc tube amp.
because he disses tubes. In some 50 years of serious listening I have come
to find that power output wattage, per se, is almost meaningless. No, you
can't run a Wilson speaker with a 3-watt SET amp. But the quality of the first
and subsequent watts is far more important than their quantity. I was
astonished when a friend who designs and builds SET amps brought over a 6
wpc amp that not only drove my ProAc speakers as well as the 140 wpc amps
I had been using, but sounded a bunch better. I'm now using a pair of 12
wpc SET monoblocks (same designer) to drive Gallo Reference 3 speakers in
an 18 x 40' room, with an "L" off the 40' length, and have never
come close to running out of steam and sound glorious. Yes, I'm powering
the Ref 3s' second voice coils with a powerful SS subwoofer amp, but half the
time I forget to turn it on.
Bottom line: forget the output wattage specs. Listen.
Good luck, Dave
PS- A good friend has your speakers. He drives them VERY successfully, in a
large room, with a 22 wpc tube amp.