Quad 2905 amp matching

I have a pair of 2805 and I drive them with the Mac 2102, which has 100 watts. The pre amp is the Mac 2200. I have yet to hit the protection circuit, and I have driven to levels that are to loud for my 16 xs 20 room. Quad reccommends no more than 100 watts. Additionally, I have a pair of Threshold SA 2, which provide 100 watts and about 65 amps of current. I had no problem driving the Quads, but the Thresholds were significantly darker than the Mac. A more modern solid state amp may be a good match, but there is something about tubes and electrostatics.

I have the Quad 2805 speakers and use a Mc275 (75 wpc) and a Rogue Cronus (30 wpc in triode). Both drive the Quads great although the Mc275 fills my 20 X 40 listening room better.

When I had a smaller listening room, the 30 wpc Cronus did just fine.

Dave

I heard the 2905s being driven by 12 watts of pushpull triode power. They sounded terrific. Like any good speaker, the quality of watts delivered matters, not just quantity. This is not a head-banger speaker anyway, so the emphasis should be on the quality of the first few watts where 99% of listening will take place.

I feel safe in predicting that 50 watts is more than enough for any application where these speakers would be suitable. If you need more volume, you need a different speaker.

As far as I know Pass amps can drive anything... Not as familiar with Threshold, but after 2 minutes of web reading it seems they also focus on similar goals as Pass and can deliver power to super-low Ohm loads. I would be shocked if the Pass 350.5 or better can't drive anything to super-high levels and/or blow 70% of speakers altogether with a high-gain pre-amp if they have no protection circuitry.

It would actually be fun to take some X1000.5s and see how many speakers (yes, even super-high end) can't be destroyed with it. I suspect very few would survive, including 86 db sensitivity speakers.

According to Quad a max of 100w is required. Am using a CJ 70S rated at 70wpc(configured for 8ohms) with the 2905s. Quite often with the preamp( CJ CT5)showing a gain of 60db,the self protection circuit kicks in and one of the speakers shuts off. This is easily overcome by reducing the gain by 1 or 2 db. In other words the Quads don't play really loud and don't like or require loads of power unlike the MLs or Maggies. My earlier speakers, the ML Odysseys would'nt sing at less than 75wpc. Sam Tellig was quite right in his review(Stereophile 06/07)that 50wpc is enough for the 2805s.
Cheers

Want to follow this only because I know that while plannars like Maggies or electrostatics going to very low oh loads like Martin Logans can require mega amps amps I thought the Quad could be damaged by too much power.Isn't the Quad amp a 40 job?
Chazz