Oh it will work. Almost any pairing will “work” and make sound. It might even work well enough for some in some cases. But the pairing will never bring out the best in either component.
Speaker Efficiency
I have been listening to my Decware 300b tube amp for a few months now. At 8 watts, I have them paired with Klipsch Forte IV at 99db efficiency, and this set up has been sounding great. This morning I connected a pair of Sonus Faber Electa Amator speakers, 6ohms at 88db of efficiency. They sound fantastic, with more weight and depth. I understand there is a huge price difference in the two speakers, but aside from that, if I am getting 80db of volume at my chair, 8' away, what is the draw back of using lower efficiency speakers with SET amps, so long as the volume is sufficient? I did notice turn the Pre amp, the tube amp and the Roon volume towards the highest setting, it starts sounding terrible....
Showing 4 responses by mapman
@marktheshark of the sound is listenable the amp may be running hotter than optimal and producing more distortion. The volume attained and dynamics will level out. It’s like running a car engine. It’s always best to not make the engine work harder than it is designed to do for best results and longest life. With flea power amps you will get the best results with speakers that are easy loads to drive in terms of impedance. The if they are also efficient they can go louder and clear as well. I have looked at Fortes. Personally I would not chose them for a SET and expect best possible sound quality.
If you do not have to go very loud, I would recommend investigating Fritz speakers . These are generally designed to have benign impedance curves but are also monitors and efficiency is very modest. I have heard these at shows with flea power tube amps and was astounded with the results in a modest size room at least. Larger rooms are always a greater challenge but even in case adding a powered sub or two along with an active crossover to limit bass extension in the mains can address that
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Clipping is an amp thing and always associated with too little power not too much. Clipping means the amp is overdriven. Too much power can overdrive speakers and damage them but that is not “clipping”.
SET and most tube and Class D amps soft clip which is an advantage. It’s an easy And informative google search to read up on clipping and how it works. |
Distortion with SET amps in particular goes up quickly . My understanding is it’s best to not overdrive them which can happen easily with harder to drive speakers. Efficiency and how hard to drive are not the same thing. Efficient speakers may go louder but if impedance is low especially at lower frequencies they can still be hard to drive properly. The result is distortion. Set and tube amps both soft clip and introduce less offensive orders of distortion when overdriven so things may still sound very listenable and even good in some cases with some recordings. But bottom line you never want to overdrive any amp for best results . Flea power SETs are the most easily overdriven.
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