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What speakers work with low wattage class A amps
Hi everyone. I am setting up a system and have been really impressed by some low volume listening I was able to do through a class A amp. Class A amps usually have lower watts in a given price range, and are not as practical for big power. What speakers have sensitivity that would make sense for an amp with 25 Watts or less (eg some of the entry level class A options from Pass Labs)? Are we limited to horn speakers? The speakers I have are said to require “high current amps”. Is this a factor as well? Thanks for your help.
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Reference3A DeCapoI. No crossover electronics that waste power. Just a high pass cap for the tweeter, The Midwoofer is allowed to roll off naturally. Relatively large cabinet for a stand speaker. And the midwoofer also is relatively large. Both characteristics combined yield excellent bass. I drive my DeCapos with either a 25wpc OTL tube amp or a 35wpc Musical Fidelity Class A. Sound magnificent, most musical I have ever heard except for ProAcs. But the ProAcs need a lot of power and the DeCapos do not. |
The lower the amp wattage, the more limiting choices of speakers. There’s a big difference between what speakers will drive 25amps vs a flea watt amp such as 4watts. I have a 300B 8watt amp which necessitates that I have a very sensitive speaker - 100db Volti Rivals. Do you care if the speakers are bookshelf of floorstanders? Floorstanders generally yield much better bass. Do you care if your speakers are neutral- it’s much harder to find in very high sensitivity speakers? I do because I plan to swap out components and want as neutral a system as possible to evaluate the components so I chose Volt Rivals. I’ve heard the lower model Volti Razz twice and it sounded fantastic. Klipsch, while very musical, seemed significantly less neutral. Speaker sonic preferences are subjective. It’s always best to demo them yourself. A budget for your amps and speakers would be very helpful in narrowing your choices. I’m assuming you have the preamp and cables budgeted if needed. Generally speaking, tube amps have a pleasing magical midrange (some may call it coloration), less extension on the frequency extremes (bass and treble) and are less dynamic than SS amps. However, there are s a few SS amps that have this pleasing midrange designed seemingly designed to compete with tube amps such as First Watt, Krell, GaN-FET type amps like from AGD, Atma-Sphere, Peachtree.
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@arhgef What is make and model of the Class A amp and speakers that you demoed and liked? It may help us to narrow your choices. |