$$$Sensitive Speakers with $$Amps?

The short answer is yes. If your speaker is high efficiency, you can get by with less power. Tube power in particular is expensive so this can have a huge effect on the price of the amp.

Our amps only have one stage of gain. Hard to get simpler than that. In general its been my impression that cost is less important than the simple fact that some amps sound more like music than others. So my answer is now 'depends' as there are expensive amps that do deliver.

Trelja's experience flies in the face of what our other Horning customers report, but it might have something to do with Joe's amps being 12-15 years old without any updates (its clearly time, Joe- you know the warranty reactivates with the update, right?). Most of our Horning customers have much newer amps.

From what I can make out on the Horning website, the specs and design notes confirm what our customers report: the speaker is an easy load.

The efficiency is what I would call verging on high efficiency. 96-100 db or so depending on the model- you will want some power with this speaker, a 7 watt amp will not do it unless you are listening near field in a very small room, at least if you expect the system to play anything- Black Sabbath to string quartets. My speakers at home are 98 db and I find that I do appreciate having more power, 60 watts is nice, very hard to clip. My room is 17' x 21' with moderate damping and solid walls.

Charles1dad, I think I did that last post pretty poorly! I meant to confirm most of Joe's comments. I was editing my post and deleted that part, then forgot about it. What I was commenting on really only applied to the M-60s he is using, which are pretty old (if I recall right his set was built about 1997).

I do tend to play things louder than most audiophiles do though, if my experience at shows means anything. Its not uncommon at home to listen at 105db or more (my system is very relaxed at those volumes); my 300b amp won't let that happen, although it sounds great at lower volumes.

Charles1dad, its not like I listen to those levels all the time! But there are certain LPs, that in order to sound life-like, have to be allowed to do what the composer and musicians had in mind.

The Verdi Requiem (RCA Soria edition), side one track 2, is an example. The music goes from ppp to ffff (for those of you not into music, very very quiet to as loud as can be played) and as far as I can make out, the LP is not compressed. It will bring most stereos to their knees very quickly! Its just not convincing when the system is playing the quiet portions at the right level and then craps out/compresses/gets harsh when the music demands it. So its nice to have some dynamic range available, even if it does not get used all that much.

Here's couple of others:
Decca/London Das Reingold (Solti cond.) side 6. Amazing. (I'm not much of an opera fan but I make an exception for Wagner.)
Black Sabbath Paranoid Vertigo 'white Label' UK edition. Astonishingly well-recorded. The energy in the grooves is un-playable on many systems.

Joe, seriously, we've not been sitting on our hands in the last 8 years. Get that M-60 in here- I think you will be pleasantly surprised... Now I am wondering about this horn/transmission thing. As you know I had some of Bud's speakers as well (still have his big subwoofer) and our amps have always found them a very friendly load. But I've had a lot of horns too and have found them to be friendly loads too. But you have been very consistent in your comments about rear horn loading, which flies in the face of our experience/feedback. So I am wondering if there is something in particular about the speaker model that you have or what. There's not yet enough data to be conclusive.