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Any thoughts on speaker sensitivity and vintage amplifiers

junkscience

junkscience

New Member
Any thoughts on speaker sensitivity and vintage amplifiers

My reference system amp has been sent out for repair. I have now rotated into the lead position, a vintage Marantz 8b, one of the great amps. It has previously been providing excellent sound in a secondary room, not my listen room. There it was mated with AR-4 speakers. The Acoustic Research speakers likely are somewhat inefficient with a sensitivity of 85dB and 8 ohms. Placed into my modern system with more efficient and 4 ohm speakers, the sound is good, but not quite so compelling.

Does the amp need to be driven with a larger preamp input, and thus a louder output? Are vintage amps best paired with vintage, lower sensitivity, speakers?
 
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That amp doesn't have a particularly high damping factor. It's about a 10 into a 4 ohm load. It's not going to tolerate a very reactive, low impedance speaker too well. It'll be soft and struggle to control the thing.
 
That wonderful 8b amp needs some vintage 8-16 ohm horn speakers
Altec,Jbl,Klipsch Tannoy’s,Stephens
 
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Yeah, but I can't suggest anyone buy Tekton after the owner lost his mind and threatened to sue the people he screwed over for talking about badly made products, crazy long delivery times, and products that simply never show up over on another audio forum.
 
interesting about Tekton, Not having ever heard them, anyone have them and care to share their opinions?
 
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junkscience said:
Any thoughts on speaker sensitivity and vintage amplifiers

My reference system amp has been sent out for repair. I have now rotated into the lead position, a vintage Marantz 8b, one of the great amps. It has previously been providing excellent sound in a secondary room, not my listen room. There it was mated with AR-4 speakers. The Acoustic Research speakers likely are somewhat inefficient with a sensitivity of 85dB and 8 ohms. Placed into my modern system with more efficient and 4 ohm speakers, the sound is good, but not quite so compelling.

Does the amp need to be driven with a larger preamp input, and thus a louder output? Are vintage amps best paired with vintage, lower sensitivity, speakers?
Click to expand...

It always just comes down to capabilities of the amp vs characteristics of the speaker, regardless of age.
 
Actually, vintage speakers of that era tended to be more sensitive than modern speakers. Watts weren't as cheap then.
 
Depends upon what era you are talking about, and what speakers. When acoustic suspension speakers took over the market in the 60s, sensitivity levels dropped in return for low frequency performance.
 
I have several tube amps. 5wpc, 7wpc, 10wpc, 17wpc and 35wpc. My 35wpc PP amplifier uses the same output tubes as the Marantz 8B.
I've been using 90db to 93db 2-way speakers with it for years. While the speakers can't be pushed to rattle windows, or knock things off the walls, they do get plenty loud and the amp pushes them just fine. The 5wpc single ended amp does very well with a pair of Marantz Imperial 6's at 93db. The small amp can't push them real loud, but still sounds good from the lows to the highs. I would look for more efficient speakers. I gave several pairs of speakers in the 84db to 86db range and even the 35wpc tube amp struggles to push them properly. Usually ok at lower volumes near field, but fall flat at higher volumes.
 
No, and not sorry.

A benefit of AS design is certainly smaller enclosures...especially when compared to preceding designs.

And yes, relatively "inefficient". Which was the point of my initial point.

Home stereo was becoming much more commonplace, and the mass market (vs audiophiles) wanted smaller speakers while maintaining good low end response. That was the need that drove its development...smaller footprint while maintaining good low frequency performance. Of course bass reflex goes lower...but until the advent of computer design, generally less accurate/linear.

Saving money on cabinetry? To my knowledge, this was not a stated goal on the part of Vilchur.

But if that's what some anonymous website claims, then I guess it must be true.
 
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My ADS L520's (metal grill version) are acoustic suspension. These are pretty large 2-ways with 8" woofers. Efficiency is 92dB and bass goes down to 35Hz (to 20KHz +/- 3dB) or 25Hz (to 20KHz +/- 5dB). It's definitely possible to get great bass with good efficiency from an acoustic suspension speaker. BTW, these mate very well with all the tube amps I've used with them ranging from 12 to 35 watts.
 
botrytis said:
Not really - the Old Advents were rated to 35 Hz -6 db. It is just there is a slow straight line roll off that type of design that makes the bass seems stronger than it is.
Click to expand...

Sealed cabs are notoriously inefficient. They're about the most inefficient design there is.
 
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