[dburna]

Hi,

I managed to pick up a pair of Aperiodic 8's recently.  They both look and sound fabulous.  I'm moving into a new house in a few weeks and these will be doing duty in a basement (second) system in a smallish (10'x12') room with somewhat low ceilings (7-7.5').  Right now I have them powered with an Audio Sector Gainclone amp and the sound is pretty darned good, if a little veiled.  When I hooked them up to my RWS Signature 30, I hear precisely what I was missing, however.  Much more open and alive, not as rolled off on the high end.

In short: the Gainclone is holding back the speakers a bit.  The A8's are certainly not the limiting factor.  Anyway, I wanted to know: what is the minimum power required for the A8's in a small-to-medium size room?  I am considering a low power SET/tube amp to replace the Gainclone and wanted to know how far down in power I can go?  8W?  4W?  Lower?

Thanks in advance,  -dB

[onemug]

We don't know how loud you like to go. I have A8s and have used them with SETs rated from 3.5 wpc to 16 wpc. Roughly speaking, whatever your Sig 30 can max out at, a 3 watt amp will play half as loud.

[dburna]

In a much larger room than I will be using them in, I ran the Sig 30 at about 12 o'clock (max) for a very short period of time.  Most of the time it was between 9-10 o'clock.  So I guessing I was probably pulling maybe 5-8W with perhaps some larger peaks.

I was figuring that an amp with 4-8W would be enough in terms of volume, but I was wondering if that would be enough to handle dynamic peaks.

Has anyone else tried the A8's with single-digit watt amps?  If so, to what effect.

-dB (a unit measure of noise)

[lonewolfny42]

I to have a small room and own a pair of A8's. The lowest wattage I have used with them has been 8 watts....a Sophia Baby integrated amp.
And they sounded good.
 I've also run them with 250 watts....and they sounded even better....
They can take whatever you throw their way....and they still sound very good.
Once again....nice job Louis !!!!

[ZLS]

    I had a pair of Aperiodic 8's that morphed into the Revolutions. 
    I have run them with a RWA Dual Mono Clari-T (7 Watts) and a rebuilt Heath 151 running EL 84's in Triode mode (7 Watts).  The Omega's sounded terrific with each Amp. 
    I now run the Omega's with a 5881 (6L6) amp running in Triode putting out a mighty 15 Watts.  I am eagerly awaiting my RWA Sig 30 which will put out 30 Watts.  The Omega's sound better.  The speakers really "Open Up" with more quality power.  Why this is I do not know. 
    All of which is to say do not concern yourself with minimum power, concern yourself with the quality of power.  The Visaton B200 driver is very revealing.

[Louis O]

Hi dburna,

Great news and I'm very happy you like he RWA/ Aperiodic combo. They have amazing synergy.

Great posts and they are very easy on amp choices. I kind of like high power like Chris. I heard a great amp the other day and it's an amazing deal. The new Dynakit ST70. It goes for $695 as a kit and built for $300 more. The sig 30 attenuator will work as a passive so you wont need a preamp.

Thanks again,
Louis