High Efficiency Speakers and Large SS Amplifiers

High Efficiency Speaker Asylum

Need speakers that can rock with just one watt? You found da place.

Posted by Mister Pig (A) on February 28, 2010 at 08:13:01

Recently acquired a pair of Sachiko double horn cabinets, the plans of the speaker can be found at the frugal audio site. The speaker is originally designed for the Fostex FE206E, however I located a pair of Fostex 208 Sigma, and the designer of the cabinet has indicated that this cabinet will work for the Sigmas.

The plan is to find another SET amplifier to use with the Sachiko, as I no longer have the Electra-Print 300DRD amps that I had awhile ago. I do have a couple of modest amps here, one a 2A3 SET, and another a 6L6 SEP. Both sound decent on these speakers, but not really a long term match.

One afternoon, I decided to see what my Jeff Rowland Consummate pre-amp and Model 5 amplifier could do on these speakers. I have often said that these pieces have many tube like qualities, and are extremely nice sounding SS electronics.

OK I got them hooked up, these pieces stay idling in my rack, so they are well into their warm up curve. Played a few well known tracks, the sound was interesting, but not what I was looking for. I swapped out the Monarchy OCC speaker wire I was using, and dropped in some silver ribbon speaker wire, this was the wrong choice! Ugh. I suffered for awhile, but ultimately out came the silver. then I inserted a run of Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker wire, and things got interesting. The tonal balance is quite nice, lots of low level detail, very good imaging, nice dynamic contrasts.

Really there is very little to fault to this pairing. The big class AB amplifier is producing some fine sound on these speakers. It doesn't have quite the presence and liquidity of the best SET amps, but it is on par or better than an inexpensive SET. I suspect a traditional tube push-pull is going to be hard pressed to surpass it. I suspect that a bit more fine tuning with interconnects and power cords can close the gap in terms of midrange performance. I currently have two sets of silver ribbon interconnects in the system, and the power cords are a copper/silver hybrid. So there may still be some incremental improvements that can be found.

The only issue I do have is volume control. The Consummate uses a relay/resistor volume control, although the steps are not terribly large. However the amp is 150 wpc, and when combined with high efficiency speakers it becomes difficult to fine tune volume. Possibly a pair of in line attenuators will alleviate this issue. Thats the next step in this journey.

The lesson I learned is that high efficiency speakers do not absolutely require SET or even low powered amps to sound good. Yes I love the sound of a good 2A3 or 300B, or a well designed chip amp. But it appears that a well designed Class AB solid state amp can bring the goods too.

Regards
Mister Pig

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Topic - High Efficiency Speakers and Large SS Amplifiers - Mister Pig 08:13:01 02/28/10 (17)

The Speaker's Horns - Inmate51 13:21:47 03/1/10 (3)

RE: The Speaker's Horns - Mister Pig 07:37:09 03/7/10 (2)

RE: The Speaker's Horns - Inmate51 10:03:14 03/8/10 (1)

RE: The Speaker's Horns - Mister Pig 16:10:27 03/8/10 (0)

RE: High Efficiency Speakers and Large SS Amplifiers - Steyr 07:41:13 03/1/10 (1)

RE: High Efficiency Speakers and Large SS Amplifiers - Tom Brennan 10:13:09 03/1/10 (0)

I've heard some surprisingly similar results with Horn Shoppe Horns - 1973shovel 04:16:53 03/1/10 (0)

One bad experience, - M3 lover 17:31:12 02/28/10 (2)

Maybe This Is an Exception - Mister Pig 18:59:51 02/28/10 (1)

RE: Maybe This Is an Exception - SETdude 16:07:27 03/1/10 (0)

I'd rather have a great speaker and a poor amp, rather than the other way around.......nt - Cut-Throat 15:28:46 02/28/10 (0)

RE: High Efficiency Speakers and Large SS Amplifiers - SETdude 13:30:28 02/28/10 (0)

One of my worst "audiophile" experiences ... - Paul Joppa 10:52:25 02/28/10 (3)

A friend still talks of a similar experience with Klipschorns and a Phase Linear 700 - 1973shovel 04:01:22 03/1/10 (0)

RE: One of my worst "audiophile" experiences ... - SETdude 13:33:09 02/28/10 (1)

RE: One of my worst "audiophile" experiences ... - dwkurfman 18:08:40 02/28/10 (0)

I know someone who runs a Forte amp with Fostex horns. Very nice...nt - tweakk 09:30:22 02/28/10 (0)

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