The Audio Alto R101 : A special speaker for SET amplifiers and small acoustic spaces

Guys,

As the US representative for Audio Alto, I think Terry really did capture the essence of these amazing little speakers. Thank you, Terry!

I must also say he has an impeccable taste in music as well :)

If you're at all interested in this speaker, please contact us, as we're able to offer in-home auditions. These really do need to be experienced by more folks!

cheers,
Alex
Alma Music and Audio

If you love tube based SET amplifiers or low power Solid State amplifiers (think Pass Labs XA-25) ***and*** have a relatively small acoustic space this might be a great speaker for your system.

Emphasis added: the low sensitivity of this speaker makes it unsuitable for SETs unless in a smaller room! In most rooms a sensitivity of about 15dB higher is required to really hear what SETs do.

I've looked at this driver a few times,  nice, inexpensive and well built.  Although this looks like it may be a slight variation on the stock driver.  Looks like Audio Alto did a nice job on the cabinets,  But to reiterate what Ralph said.... You need a minimum of around 95db sensitivity to use a small tubed set amp and 100 is better.  These are rated at 85

Hey atmasphere and timlub,

Normally, I would agree with both of you regarding having to have a higher sensitivity for a speaker to really have a SET amplifier "shine" in it’s performance. However, when I ran the experiment in a medium sized acoustic space with my Triode Lab 2A3 SET amplifier (maybe three watts per channel) during the reviewing process, the R101s with this superlative "flea watt" amplifier sounded terrific and I got the volume levels I wanted with no attenuation or distortion at all.

Unlike Terry, we didn’t try a true SET on them, but I can tell you that an 8W Luxman SQ-N150 was able to drive it properly, and a 32W Air Tight was absolutely effortless.
They do respond to more power, but more importantly, for the proper frequency balance, the manufacturer recommends an amp with reasonably low damping factor.

Hi Terry,
Read your review.....how does the R101s compare with the Tekton Perfect Set? "Articulate bass" usually means detailed but lacking a full-bodied mid-bass and slam....is that the case here?
Thanks,
Phil

Hey lula,

Your asking me to compare" applies" to "oranges" with these two wonderful performing speakers.

1) The Perfect Set has a 12" woofer, so it will go deeper and produce more bass then the single driver R101.

2) The R101 is not lean in the upper bass/lower midrange region. Therefore, it is surprisingly good at presenting the power band of the music for such a small single driver design.

3) The Perfect Set is not a small footprint speaker. The R101 is quite minute and would fit into and sound better in a much smaller acoustic space.

Both are excellent speakers, but serve different design goals and space requirements.