Legacy Focus 20/20 Speaker amp

I demoed a pair of 20/20's using a CJ Premier 11a in my home. Although the speakers are rated 96dB/W/m, they like power to control those 12" drivers.

The 20/20's sounded wonderful w/ the CJ @ lower volume. When pushed, the CJ started to break up a bit.

Hope this helps.

Hat

Hat's experience makes sense. Although the 20/20s are efficient, they really thrive on current (amps) which tubes don't typically deliver. At least this is my experience.

I have the 20/20s, and each amp improvement I have experienced seemed to coincide with big current delivery. I started with a Bryston 4B NRB, then a Legacy (Coda) Powerbloc2, then Legacy (Coda) Ultra Monoblocs, and now a McIntosh MC-352. Each step was an improvement.

I did try an Art Audio Concerto II once (a valve amp). And although the mids at low level were very nice and believable, I couldn't push the volume very hard before clipping.

The Focus is a great speaker, but its impedance dips make it sometimes challenging for amps. I guess it all depends on what you value more…your amp, or the potential sound from the Focus 20/20s.

You could always bi-amp with the CJ up top and a SS amp for the Bass.

Best of Luck!

I have to disagree. With my experience a good amplifier with 120 watts is more then enough to drive these at rock levels. I went from 600 x 2, to 120 x 2 and didnt notice any lack of bass,dynamics. And I still drove them till they hurt my ears at 11 ft away. I finially moved to a all ayre system with the v-5xe amp. Still sounds wonderful and powerful. I havent tried a 70 watt tube, but I would imagine unless you want rock concert level, it would do fine. If you cant use tubes on 96db speakers, what can you use them on?