Pioneer and McIntosh (all tube)- a good match?

[Soli528]

Good day to all-
First post here. I recently inherited and restored a couple of beautiful McIntosh pieces- MX110 driving a MC240 (both circa 1963-65). A friend who helped guide the process recommended vintage Pioneer speakers to complement the tube characteristics of the Mc gear. In looking around for availability, I've seen a lot of discussion of HPM series and the CS series- And now to the questions- Does anyone have experience with both of these, is one notably superior to another? What is the difference btwn CS-88's and CS-88a's? Are these a good match for an all-tube system putting out 40Wpc? Are there other Pioneer models that I should be looking at? Thank you all kindly for your time.
Best regards,
Soli

 

[jcmjrt]

I haven't heard that Pioneer speakers are particularly good with tubes. I haven't tried that combo yet so can't speak about it personally. Generally, one thinks of high efficiency speakers for tubes in order to take advantage of the watts available. Horn based speakers like the Klipsch Heritage series and the older Altecs (like model fourteen, nineteen, etc.) fit that mold well. Of course, some people like horns and some don't. If you prefer acoustic suspension speakers then you are usually looking at lower efficiency but there are certainly some great acoustic suspension speakers out there that will sound good with your system - look at some of the older KLH or Acoustic Research speakers. I'm running an MX110 and MC240 for my main system and am using Klipsch Cornwall speakers. I think they are fantastic but will say that the Cornwalls do take up some real estate! It's not easy to do necessarily but it's always best if you can audition speakers yourself with your system.