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Question about amp & speaker ohms

MKF said:
Unfortunately that option is out of my price range.
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There are other options. But you know what to look for. The more you want out of your speakers and the higher the spl you want to do it at, the more critical amp choice becomes. With these speakers, I would not take the easy way out with amp choice. That’s me though. You need to make your own choice.
 
justjed2 said:
I'd look for a vintage 125wpc@8 ohms class AB MOSFET amp. Pro amps are good solid performers, often with as good, if not better, specs than similar home audio pieces. My example of this is a Soundcraftsmen A2502. Mine is more than 40 years old, and had been butchered internally by a previous owner. It was rebuilt by MTX, who had the service contract for Soundcraftsmen at the time, and later had a complete re-cap by a trusted local technician. It works the crap out of a pair of 6 ohm, 86dB@1W/1M speakers, at serious volume levels(big room/ small speakers), and without getting more than mildly warm. Any of the big home audio names from the 70s-90s should be more than up to the task, Pioneer, Kenwood, Technics, etc. Even one of the Sony ES series amps would do the job you're asking quite nicely.

Amps should be the easiest component to get right, in my opinion. You just want to amplify the signal, not add anything to it. And yet they all sound just a little bit different from one another. I think MOST of this has to do with the power supplies, however.
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Unfortunately, when you want to drive 4 ohm speakers properly, it isn't as easy as you think. My brothers best friend dropped by my place once to check out a system I had for sale. He wanted much more. Then he heard my system, and said he wanted a sound just like that! I had my Kef 105s and a pair of Tangent RS8s hooked up to my system at the time. I told him the Tangents were for sale, but they weren't cheap. He didn't care as long as it sounded like mine. So I started looking for a good amp, and did try out a number of respected receivers and amps. Unfortunately, that meant I had to buy a prospective amp and test it out with the Tangents. I had just finished reducing my collection when I started the hunt, and it took me a year, and the best I could do was a Pioneer SA-1000 Integrated amp as the Preamp, and a Yamaha P2100. Plus I had a few other pieces of audio gear that couldn't cut it. It was just enough to properly drive the Tangents. He picked up up a bit over a year after I showed him the speakers, and he still loves that system.

A lot depends on your market, and your budget. If the OP can split the Luxman amplifier/preamplifier sections, I would use that paired with an inexpensive Pro Amp until he could find an amp that he would be proud to display. I know Pro amps don't have that look we all love, but it could be hidden away and not even seen. Just my two cents. Carry on.
 
MKF said:
Is this the correct graph (if I did this correctly it should be attached)?
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I did find this from a review:

http://www.hifi-classic.net/review/kef-model-104-2-477.html

"The 104.2's sensitivity was almost exactly as rated, with a 91-dB SPL measured 1 meter from the speaker when it was driven by 2.83 volts of pink noise in the octave centered at 1.000 Hz. The impedance varied only between 3.3 and 4.6 ohms from 20 to 20,000 Hz. . This was not only the most uniform speaker impedance we have ever measured, but its very uniformity attests to its almost purely resistive nature. "
 
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z-adamson said:
In my opinion, the “ohms rating” on the speakers means very little.

Look at an impedance graph instead. The graph is something you can actually get useful info from.
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Some speakers will have the nominal impedance marked on the back, along with the minimum impedance. That is *almost* as good as a graph, and for some folks, easier to read.
 
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