high-efficiency speakers for low-power tube amps (<10 w/ch) for <= $6k

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bakufu



A solid 90 lbs. each!    $4999 / pair

https://voltiaudio.com/razz/

You can't go wrong!

My $0.02,
Pete

now that is an interesting option.  thanks pete.

sunnydaze

Solid rec by Pete!   :thumb:

If I were shopping "easy to drive" at that price point I'd definitely be looking at Volti as well as Spatial and DeVore "O" series.

bakufu

Solid rec by Pete!   :thumb:

If I were shopping "easy to drive" at that price point I'd definitely be looking at Volti as well as Spatial and DeVore "O" series.

i owned a pair of clayton's pre-spatial open-baffle speakers -- the emerald physics cs1.3's.  i have a review here on audiocircle. 

as a software engineer who works in the vector language space i am totally in sync with clayton's minimalist aesthetics.  a friend has had the x-3's for a year or so, and they are spectacular.

Tom Bombadil

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Solid rec by Pete!   :thumb:

If I were shopping "easy to drive" at that price point I'd definitely be looking at Volti as well as Spatial and DeVore "O" series.

I would give some serious consideration to the Spatial X5, even though it is $7K.

https://www.spatialaudio.us/xseries/x5

radarnyc

Omega if you’re into single driver crossover-less speakers. I’ve had them before and really liked them. I did go to Spatials this year and I’m not sure what would make me go back to boxed speakers.

rbbert

Solid rec by Pete!   :thumb:

If I were shopping "easy to drive" at that price point I'd definitely be looking at Volti as well as Spatial and DeVore "O" series.
Daedalus are easy to drive, have a very different sound than Klipsch, but new models are well out of your price range

bakufu

nice to see so many spatial owners here.  part of the fun of hifi (at least for me, and i suspect, for many others as well) is experimenting with different technologies.  hence my latest foray into low-power tube amplification.  i've owned three sets of dipoles over the years - martin-logan, apogee, and spatial, and i am fully acquainted with their virtues and their limitations.  at the moment, based entirely on reviews, i'm leaning in the direction of offerings from volti, possibly even at the cost of busting my budget (so what else is new?)  but my mind is still open, so further recommendations welcome.

sunnydaze

Daedalus are easy to drive, have a very different sound than Klipsch, but new models are well out of your price range

Did you mean to say "DeVore are easy to drive....." ?

In the past 2 years I've seen several used pair of the Orangutan O/93 in the 5 to 6k range.

Available in NYC right now:

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisa6ig2-devore-fidelity-orangutan-o-93-speaker?refsource=hifishark

opnly bafld

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Did you mean to say "DeVore are easy to drive....." ?


No, he mentioned (actually provided a link to their forum here) Daedalus in his first post.

sunnydaze

No, he mentioned (actually provided a link to their forum here) Daedalus in his first post.

Then why did he quote my post?  I said nothing about Daedalus. 

opnly bafld

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Then why did he quote my post?  I said nothing about Daedalus.

Not sure other than, "easy to drive".

Stercom

ah well, there's the rub.  the room (my studio) is 50' x 25', and three stories high, nearly a right-angle triangle, with the short end truncated.  my hifi is on the short end - i think of the space as forming a giant horn.  my desk is at the other end.  my current setup is a 6 w/ch integrated tube amp and a pair of klipsch rp600M speakers.  contrary to what you might expect, sonics are pretty good, up to the limits of the 600M's.  (i was surprised to learn that the 600M's have been measured at only 89.6 db sensitivity, well short of the advertised 96db.)  the sound-stage has good width and depth, and instrument placement is also pretty good, improving if your listening position is about 10' from the speakers.  this is why i mentioned the cornwall IV's, since they probably move enough air to fill, or at least challenge this space.  but i'm not sure if i care so much about that, since most of the music i play while i'm working is instrumental and small-ensemble jazz.  the big orchestral stuff i reserve for my main system.  since my new amp (line magnetic 210ia) is on the way, i've also been looking at the lower-priced LM speakers, which are at, or just beyond the limits of my budget.  but man are they beautiful!

Seems like you have a huge "studio" area at 50' x 25' and three stories high! Wow! You may have to change your positioning of the speakers but I would suggest you listen to a pair of Tektons with the double arrays. Yes, on paper, the arrays shouldn't work well (comb filtering/phase issues) but once you hear them you won't worry about it. The Moabs are well within your budget and if you stretched it a little you could get a pair of Encores. The Line Magnetic 210ia would work really well with either of those speakers.

Tyson

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If it were me, I'd do a smaller main speaker and go for the Klipsch Heresy IV.  Then I'd supplement that with 1 to 3 powered subs.  Here's the reason.  With the Heresy, your 6 watts will only go to powering the highs through the upper bass, while the subs will take over for the mid/low bass. 

This will allow your 6 watts to play much bigger because you've relieved them of the bass load.  And you'll end up with much better bass overall because a good servo sub like the stuff from Rythmik are WAY better at bass than any tower speaker I've heard, regardless of price. 

sunnydaze

If it were me, I'd do a smaller main speaker and go for the Klipsch Heresy IV.  Then I'd supplement that with 1 to 3 powered subs.  Here's the reason.  With the Heresy, your 6 watts will only go to powering the highs through the upper bass, while the subs will take over for the mid/low bass. 

This will allow your 6 watts to play much bigger because you've relieved them of the bass load.  And you'll end up with much better bass overall because a good servo sub like the stuff from Rythmik are WAY better at bass than any tower speaker I've heard, regardless of price.

Interesting well thought out approach for a large room.  One that I tend to agree with.  Would you let the Heresy play full range or would you high-pass them?   I'd think the latter would give even better results when using low wattage as amp would be relieved of the strain of producing the LF (with subs doing below the cutoff), resulting in a cleaner, louder and more dynamic output from the mains.  No?

I guess my point is that simply adding subs to supplement the bottom does not relieve the main amp of anything if the Heresys are allowed to play full range, and not high-passed.

I would also say that in such a large space one would need to do near or mid-field listening.  Energizing a room that large for distant listening is near impossible.

Tyson

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Interesting well thought out approach for a large room.  One that I tend to agree with.  Would you let the Heresy play full range or would you high-pass them?   I'd think the latter would give even better results when using low wattage as amp would be relieved of the strain of producing the LF (with subs doing below the cutoff), resulting in a cleaner, louder and more dynamic output from the mains.  No?

I guess my point is that simply adding subs to supplement the bottom does not relieve the main amp of anything if the Heresys are allowed to play full range, and not high-passed.

I would also say that in such a large space one would need to do near-field listening.  Energizing a room that large for distant listening is near impossible.

Yep, high pass the output from the preamp to the Heresy amps.  It's very simple, just put a capacitor in-line between the preamp and the amp, on the positive leg of your RCA (single ended) connection.  All you need to know is the input impedance of your amp, and they have calculators on line so you can put in the precise value needed.

For example if the input impedance on your amp is 100,000 ohms and you wanted to roll off the bass below 80hz, you'd just go here and plug in those values:

https://electronicbase.net/high-pass-filter-calculator/#rc-high-pass-calculator

That gives you a result of right at 20 nanofarad, which is the same as .02 microfarads (the values that most stores sell them at is microfarads).  So just go to a good audiophile capacitor seller, buy a pair of .02 uF audiophile capacitors and put them on the positive leg of your RCA cable connecting to your amp. 
« Last Edit: 2 Dec 2020, 08:06 pm by Tyson »

shooter

Not .2 uf, it is .02 uf for 80hz 100k input impedance.

Tyson

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Not .2 uf, it is .02 uf for 80hz 100k input impedance.

Doh, decimal error on my part.  Thanks for pointing it out, I've fixed it in my original post now.

sunnydaze

Thanks Tyson.   :thumb:

I'm having trouble visualizing......
How do you actually connect the cap to the IC and amp connectors?       :scratch:

Tyson

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I usually build a small in-line connector.  It consists of 4 parts total.  A female RCA plug, wire, the .02uf cap and a male RCA plug.  Wiring it is very easy.  Connect the .02 uF cap to the positive pole on the female and male RCA connectors and connect the plain wire to the negative pole of the female and male RCA connector.  I also use some heat shrink to re-inforce it to give it more strength. 

sunnydaze

I usually build a small in-line connector.  It consists of 4 parts total.  A female RCA plug, wire, the .02uf cap and a male RCA plug.  Wiring it is very easy.  Connect the .02 uF cap to the positive pole on the female and male RCA connectors and connect the plain wire to the negative pole of the female and male RCA connector.  I also use some heat shrink to re-inforce it to give it more strength.

Gotcha...thanks so much.  I figured it would be something like that.