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How much power is enough when going to a tube amp?

These are 90db speaker. I've heard Triangle speakers long time ago and I remember them to be excellent.
I suppose the room you are playing them is not that large, so even a small EL84 amplifier with 12/14 watts will do.

I use often my little 12 Watts Acrosound 20-20 with less efficient speakers (87db), in a semi large room and it is plenty loud.
You'll be surprised how loud a small tube amplifier can be, coming from a SS world.

Of course you can go EL34, KTxxx, 6L6 amplifiers and it will work perfectly. But if course if you want the boom boom, you'll need bigger speakers :)
 
I would suggest PP EL84 for a few reasons as an entry to tubes. Relatively inexpensive, adequate power for most speakers/situations, most sound very good, and many will be cathode biased making reliability and maintenance on the simpler side. A fixed bias 6L6 amp has a lot more potential for meltdown which is a lot easier to deal with after some tube experience/familiarity. One might also have a better idea whether that power is really necessary or desired after living with 15W for a while, and if not one might be better with an EL84 amp anyway.
 
Jbsound said:
Hi. I'm a solid state guy looking to add a tube amp but not sure how low I can go in output power (watts) for my speakers. I am using Borea Triangle 3 ways with double 6 in. woofers. They are rated at 92 percent.
I don't need to shake the walls but I also want to drive the speakers nicely.

How does 15 watts per channel sound for a tube amp. Can I even go lower?
Thanks.
Jim
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Two questions:
what kind of music do you mostly listen (acoustic vs. electric vs. electronic)?
what is the size of the room (like is it 10x12 feet or 18x24)?

The range can be anywhere between 10 and 100 watts of power based on the answers.
 
I have a Jolida JD502 CRC amp, using 6550/KT88 tubes (60w/ch - 85w peak) and find its plenty of power for my Heath/Altec Valencias
(which have the Bass Enhancer that eats 10db), even when playing The Who, Stones, and other music that wants to be played louder.
It's also plenty of power for the JBL L212s and Von Schweikert VR-4s that I use sometimes.
 
Listen to what @trainbuftony said. I am running Triangle Borea 3 bookshelves (90 db) with a Sherwood s5500. This is a push pull 7868 amp that claims 40 watts per channel. Probably more like 32. But it has plenty of juice for these speakers. I have them on the 4 ohm tap.

I have run these speakers on my beefy NAD 7155, and the Sherwood certainly holds its own.
 
Hajidub said:
The man stated he didn't need wall rattling power, but everyone seems to think 20+ watts. Under 20 should perform perfectly for his situation, I run 12wpc on 96db speakers and if it's half way up the neighbors can sing along with the music. Price point is a big consideration, going above 20wpc, with a tube amp can get expensive.
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Yes, I was thinking a PP EL84 might be just the ticket. SE KT88 might be just fine but I think the PP might be a little more forgiving.
 
StepheK said:
And note than MANY if not most of the China made amplifiers grossly over-state their actual power.
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I'm sure it's possible there are examples of "over-stated" but that's a bit relative too, not necessarily absolute.

For example, I've seen specs be accurate, but not in very familiar terms, so to speak. The Class D chip amps are often like that. Maybe it's a 50 watt amp @4 ohms, 1kHz, 10% THD, and with 24V power supply. But, at 8 ohms, 20Hz-20kHz, 0.1% THD with a 12V power supply it might be a 10W amp. Both specs are accurate and describe the same amp, just under different conditions.
 
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plenty of vintage amps had "hopes and dreams" power ratings too, so this isn't a new or import amp thing. My Fisher TA-600 made in New York in 1960 claims to be a 40 watt amp. Stock it made about 10 per channel with both channels driven, or 18 per channel single channel driven. They were claiming it to be a 20+20 watt amp, which it just is not.

It also depends what power rating system you want to use exactly what an amp is going to make on paper. A Dynaco ST-70 will make a pretty honest 30-35 per channel, but by FTC standards I want to say its only a 20 watt amp? Someone will post the graphic but David Hafler wrote an article about it and showed both the current and new rating for the same piece of equipment. Its a very different number depending how you want to measure it.
 
Fits?
Will it set the protection relay?
Will the thermal overload sensor shut the unit down?
Or will the reflected impedance change be negated by the global feedback loop and the fact that tubes dont mind at all dumping some juice into half impedance for half a second...
You aren't going to damage a tube amp with an irregular impedance curve... You may not be getting the most from it, using those speakers but it isn't going to damage the tube amp.
 
The best speaker pairing I ever had with a tube amp had a very low but very flat impedance.

Bot, do you have a point with the B&W graph, which has nothing to do with the OP's speakers?
 
whoaru99 said:
I'm sure it's possible there are examples of "over-stated" but that's a bit relative too, not necessarily absolute.

For example, I've seen specs be accurate, but not in very familiar terms, so to speak.
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My experience with three popular China amps, the Nobsound 6P1, the Reisong A12 and the Bouurange A50 all overstate their output in a way that isn't "relative". They all go into heavy clipping at 1/10 to 1/5 of their rated power and it's impossible for them to put out their rated power even at 100% distortion under any operating condition as they simply flatline. You can see it on a scope. I believe they base the published power off of what the tubes used should be capable of, as I have been able to get close to their rated power after modifying them.

I'm not saying that other manufacturers haven't done the same, but the OP seems to be looking for a specific power recommendation, and I don't want him to get burned assuming all published specs are real or consistent.
 
StepheK said:
My experience with three popular China amps, the Nobsound 6P1, the Reisong A12 and the Bouurange A50 all overstate their output in a way that isn't "relative". They all go into heavy clipping at 1/10 to 1/5 of their rated power and it's impossible for them to put out their rated power even at 100% distortion under any operating condition as they simply flatline. You can see it on a scope. I believe they base the published power off of what the tubes used should be capable of, as I have been able to get close to their rated power after modifying them.

I'm not saying that other manufacturers haven't done the same, but the OP seems to be looking for a specific power recommendation, and I don't want him to get burned assuming all published specs are real or consistent.
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Two are under $500, the third is very likely the cheapest 300B amp on the market. Also two of the three are made by the same company (which doesn't offer a single product over $1,000), and all three are sold on Amazon. These are bottom of the barrel amps, that is the common factor that relates to performance/specs.
 
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