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What speakers for 300B S.E.T ??

Hi,

Recently i heard a 300B based Audio electronics SE-1 SET amp + AE-3 pre with Lowther Academy speakers & was quite impressed with the immediacy,dynamics,soundstaging
& basically the whole presentation.

Now i'm very keen to try this to see if this is the kind of sound i would enjoy for a long time.Only way to know this i guess is to try it at home for an extended period of time. My previous exrerience has been with high powered SS .
( For ref : Supratek Chardonnay tube pre + Mac MC352 + TDL Ref studio monitors ) This is my first venture into low powered SET. I love the sound of my present sys. but the SET is a different experience.

Un fotunately my present speakers( 87db ) would not support the 7 watts the AES is capable of. The Lowthers are too expensive to experiment with. My goal is to keep the costs
low as possible . I shall very much appreciate your recommendations for high-sensitive monitors or small floor-standers ( HORN ??? ) preferably under $1K . This could very well end up as a second sys or it could go further.....

So what does everyone use with less than 10 magic watts ????
dilly

Showing 2 responses by beavis

beavis
272 posts
 
If interested in monitor (bookshelf) speakers, check out the Omega line. Have no experince with, but look very interesting. He uses a bass-reflex design to save money on complex backloaded horn enclosures.

I have an 8 wpc tube amp & use with 87db/w/m monitors. As long as you keep the volume reasonable, tube amps are fine. It should be noted I live in small apartment & listen about 87db max.

Don't be BSd into believing you are limited to speakers above 8 ohm impedance. What do you think 4 ohm taps are for. Just stay away from speakers with wild impedance swings. However, my research leads me to believe tube amps DON'T like impedances below 4 ohms very much.
beavis
272 posts
 
1. You want to stay away from a complex crossover (ie, first order &maybe second order, no third or fouth order). This is probably priority no. 1 as complex crossovers use quite a few watts.

2. Ideally, you want a speaker to be a flat 8 ohms (just like a resistor) but since this is next-to impossible, get a speaker w/o a wildly fluctuating impedance that stays above 4 ohms minimum. (In my experience, tubes do not like to be run using less than 4 ohms.)

3. Keep the volume level reasonable (tubes do have less severe clipping charicteristics, but none-the-less, they do clip). Medium efficientcy speakers driven with tubes DO NOT like to party.

My speakers are Spica TC-60. A good review is in December 1994 edition of Stereophile.

I have no experience with TDL speakers & couldn't find TDL website.
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