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Tube amps and speaker ohms

In your opinion , do push pull amps work better with 8 ohms or 4 ohms. .I am under the impression the lower the ohms, the more power is demanded from the amp....Another question, are there low powered SET amps ,and high power SET amps?
I'm looking at a 40 watt 845 tube amp for my 8 ohm, 89 db speaker.. just cked the Thor has a 86 db W18 midwoofers(2 per cabinet) and a 88 db tweeter. Will an 845 amp rated 40 watts be able to drive the 86/88 db speaker? With authority, bass, mids, highs, in dynamic sound stage? Synergy? Or poor match?
bartokfan
pauly
1,012 posts
 
Hi Divad. I tried to post before, but I cannot see the post so here goes again.

First off, I am a very pro tube guy, but I would advise you very strongly against going tubes with your speakers. Your speakers are not suited for a tube amplifier.

You may get them to “work” by using a big tube amp, but it is never going to be a good match and neither your speakers nor the tube amp will be sounding their best. You’ll be much better off with a solid state amp.

If you really want to try tubes, you need to ditch the B&Ws.

Regards
Paul
Post removed 
divad68
6 posts
 
Hi Paul. Thanks for your comments. I really do want to switch to tubes and will move away from B&W's. Probably shortly after receiving my first all tube amp!

Sticking with floorstanders that have a healthy bass output and are not bright or overly forward sounding, can you suggest any manufacturers/models I should potentially be shortlisting?

Cheers
David (have to invert my name and use divad as david is always taken as a username!!)
Post removed 
pauly
1,012 posts
 
David, the best advice I can give you is to talk to a few speaker builders/manufacturers. They will be able to give you very good advice. There a couple on the BB like Audiokinesis who I am sure will be happy to talk to you. A few others are omega, decware, coincident etc.

I have speakers rated at 88db/1watt/1mtr sensitivity that I drive to very loud levels with a 12wpc tube amp. The bass really pounds and I can measure it down to the mid 20’s (albeit at –10db). I can do that only because my speakers are very tube friendly. Some other poster mentioned his 200wpc amp is barely capable with 96db rated speakers – somewhat ridiculous no? If I hook up my 22wpc SET I can blast the doors down.

Regards
Paul
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