Tube Amp Speaker help please

Sprags

Sprags

Well-Known Member
Speaker sensitivity. I have a VTA ST-120 built by Bob Latino from Tubes4HiFi. I originally powered Polk Audio LSiM 703' with. The music sounds nice but it seems that a lot of tube amp owners drive speakers that are much more sensitive.

So today I visited a HiFi store in Chicago and told them I'm I interested in efficient speakers for tube system to listen to jazz and classical.

The had an old pair of Thiel CS2.2's that sounded nice. They were painted black so they looked bad.

So they suggested I give new CS 1.7's a try. They sounded nice too. They had demo models for less than half of msrp. I see the efficiency of these is 87dB vs 88dB for the LSiM 's ....so now I'm thinking maybe the Polk Audio's wouldn't be so bad after all.
 
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IMHO id look for a vintage EV or JBL 2 or 3 way with 12 inch woofer or better yet 15 inch with a horn .I run a pair of EV interface D's @ 98 db sensitivity with my tube amps and for my ears its an excellent combo.Ive ran the EV's with SS for yrs and they were my top speaker,when I went to tubes it lifted them to another level.
 
My VTA Dynaco / Dynakit MK3s do very well with my 93 dB JBL 4430s. (At the moment they're biamped but I was running just the tubers for awhile.)
 
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if you had a flea power amp you would need to look at very efficient single-driver setups. with 60 wpc you should be able to drive a lot of speakers w/ no problem. maybe not maggies or dq10s but the vast majority of speakers are in your range.

usual questions: how big a room, what kind of music, how loud?
 
Sprags said:
Speaker sensitivity. I have a VTA ST-120 built by Bob Latino from Tubes4HiFi. I originally powered Polk Audio LSiM 703' with. The music sounds nice but it seems that a lot of tube amp owners drive speakers that are much more sensitive.

So today I visited a HiFi store in Chicago and told them I'm I interested in efficient speakers for tube system to listen to jazz and classical.

The had an old pair of Thiel CS2.2's that sounded nice. They were painted black so they looked bad.

So they suggested I give new CS 1.7's a try. They sounded nice too. They had demo models for less than half of msrp. I see the efficiency of these is 87dB vs 88dB for the LSiM 's ....so now I'm thinking maybe the Polk Audio's wouldn't be so bad after all.
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Thiel in Chicago, sounds like Saturday Audio. Andy, the owner, is extremely knowledgeable and respected in the industry, I buy from him and he has never pushed on me a product because of it's price and his recommendations have always been right on target.

Your amp is no flea amp, we are talking of a very well built 60 WPC tube amp, that sounds beautiful. Though the Thiel are 87 dB they should be a good fit with your amp, if you are not the kind of person that wants to blast the ceiling with sound. See if the store might loan you a demo pair to audition at home. To get the performance of those Thiel's you would have to spend more $.

The CS2.2 is a better match for your system than the CS1.7. As per factory recommendations, the CS2.2 does best in systems with a min. of 50 WPC and a max. of 250 WPC, while the complete line of .7's, CS1.7 included, have a recommendation of min. 100 WPC.
 
I have a pair of Ampex monoblock amps that put out about 12 or 15 Watts. They sound beautiful with my B&W DM601's.
 
To me Thiels and tubes don't play well together.
They are power hungry beasts.
Sure, you can power them with anything you want, but they want power to truly do them justice.
I've had CS2.2's and recently CS3.7's.
My Latino M125's were not enough to drive the best out of the CS3.7's.
For vintage speakers I'd pick ADS 1290's, 1590's, or Klipsch Cornwalls, Klipschorns, or if you have room some great Altecs.

Al. Wise
 
To me it seemed that the Thiels wouldn't be a good speaker for tube amps either. 87 dB. And I even told him I was looking for something more efficient than the speakers I already gave rated at 89 dB.

They did sound nice though.
 
Sprags said:
Actually I'm going to check some Heresy's.
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I have a friend who runs a pair of Heresys with a 3wpc tube amp and a large pair of Altec Voice of the Theater horns speakers with dual 18wpc Altec tube amps. Both sound great. You might like the Heresys with that VTA ST-120 amp.
 
I've settled in with a pair of SpeakerLab 6(s) from the late '70s with my Jolida 302B system… 12" woofer, mid and high horns and can't imagine anything much better in my space and budget. So I think the directions you're being pointed in with the Klipsch and other "horned" speakers is worth investigating.
Mike
 
You want to stay with speakers that are over to 95 db 4 ft 1 watt sensitivity, unless you are in a very small room. Heresy would be my first choice, Altec model 14 would work in a smaller room. But there are plenty of others from JBL, EV, Frazier, Stevens, Tannoy come to mind, But I'm sure there are more. Bozak run around 94 if placed against a rear wall.
 
twiiii said:
You want to stay with speakers that are over to 95 db 4 ft 1 watt sensitivity, unless you are in a very small room. Heresy would be my first choice, Altec model 14 would work in a smaller room. But there are plenty of others from JBL, EV, Frazier, Stevens, Tannoy come to mind, But I'm sure there are more. Bozak run around 94 if placed against a rear wall.
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What amp you have? Why he wants to stay with 95db+?

You, as well as others, might be missing the point that his tube amps are not low power SET with 1.5 or 3 WPC, his amp is 60 Watts Per Channel of pure tube power...Plenty of power to move with aplomb speakers with 89dB and maybe 87dB. If he had a 3 WPC tube amp, even a 15 WPC amp, I would understand your statement. Personally, for many years I used a Heathkit SA-2 EL84 with 15 WPC with 91dB speakers (PSB Image T45) and never had the need to play past 5/8 of it's volume capability; and it was pretty loud in a 16' x 22' living room. These days I have a Conrad Johnson MV75 (75 WPC) with KT90's until recently with PSB B15 bookshelves 91dB, and in the same room I have never had the need to go past halfway on the volume of the McIntosh MX113 Pre.
 
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I vote for Klipsch.

Particularly Cornwall. If you have the space get Cornwall. Cornwall is in a different league.

After I heard Cornwall, I realized that Heresy, and other smaller Klipsch are not even close (and they are very great speakers that tough to beat, but no one can beat law of physics).
 
Old speakers are like old beer. Old and worn out even if the crossovers are rebuilt is not good regardless of name brand.

Factory built speakers are just not worth it anymore. Waaaay overpriced too.

You want a great set that pull great on any audiophile grade tubeamp, build the TriTrix kit.
 
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