Minimum Power Needed to Drive Klipsch Cornwall IVs? - Considering Erhard_Audio Ray

Big rooms need power.   My 300b is working in it’s comfort zone driving my Forte in a 13 X 15 X 8 room     It will fall apart if I play it loud.  
 

My 40 w Quicksilver amps are a much better match if I were to listen loud but I don’t.    

Unlikely that any flea powered amp can give good results in that size room.  Stick with your Rogue for now , get a feel for the Cornwallis , then try a few quality , moderate to higher powered tube amps.   So important to try your next amp with your speakers.   Would be a shame to sell a good amp like the Rogue and make a lateral move.   

 

Ok. Lots of differing opinions here and I'm realizing that the only way to know for sure if the amp will work in my space, with my listening preferences, is to try it.  I'm willing to take the risk.  I'm putting together a stereo system in my living room at home which is considerably smaller so in the event it doesn't cut it in my studio I'll use it there.

The most extensive review of a flea watt amp with Cornwalls I came across in a Steve Guttenberg video reviewing the combination of Cornwalls with a 2wpc Decware amp.  He raves about the combination...

I will report back with my findings once I receive the amp in a couple months.

Thanks for all the feedback!

In my 460 sq ft room with 8 ft ceilings, 3 watts of high quality SET is not enough, but 8 watts is more than enough and glorious.

@katokaelin Seriously, 2 Watts isn't going to work in your larger space although I'm sure the Decware will sound fine at lower volume levels.

My speakers are 98dB and 16 Ohms; very easy to drive. My space is considerably smaller than yours and I have 50Watts/channel which I've found to be a good amount. Less than that causes the system to be less relaxed- I get a very good 1st Watt from my amps.

Again, the mark of a good setup is it never sounds 'loud'. It should always be relaxed even when playing at 105dB at the listening chair. If it does not, it indicates you have a distortion problem somewhere.

My speakers are only 3dB behind yours and might be easier to drive due to the 16 Ohm impedance. So I could probably work with 25 Watts if I had your speakers (keeping mind I would never push the amps that hard since I want the system to sound musical and effortless), but now consider that your space is considerably larger than mine- and you're trying to make that work with 2 or 4 Watts?? I get the appeal, but an SET is only good for about 20-25% of full power (notwithstanding the remonstrations this comment is likely to get from any SET manufacturer, but if they are being honest they will be forced to agree, since every single one of them have gotten feedback from their customers about how 'dynamic' their amps are considering how little power they have) if you really want to hear what the amp is about.

(Above that power level distortion shows up on the transients in the music, giving it a 'dynamic' quality since the distortion is higher ordered harmonics used by the ear to figure out how loud sounds are. It is true that the smaller SETs sound better because they have more bandwidth, that is why the type 45 power tube has such an ardent following.)

So with 2 Watts total you really have only 0.5Watt of usable power! Not gonna work. Might be nice for some headphones though.

@atmasphere I don't doubt what you're saying one bit.  I am fully anticipating the amp ending up in my living room.  At which point I'll be back here asking for speaker recommendations!  But I do intend on trying the amp at my studio.  It will be fun to test everyone's hypothesis. : )

And, it's worth mentioning, I got another noise complaint today, so maybe the Ray is the throttle I need.  Hahaha.