Flea SET amp for Shindo Aurieges

Dark: My basement room is relatively small, 13' x 17' but with only a 6' ceiling. I never could get a subwoofer to blend properly with my main speakers, do you C&C subs work well with your speakers?

When you say I need to spend a lot of money, how much are you talking about?

I admit it is a balancing act and not easily done.
With your room dimensions it looks very do able. You just may pull it off. The Brines Acoustic LT-2000s may work well in that room.
Bass down to around 30Hz. Efficient enough to be driven by a few watts.

And yes you get REAL bass.Transmission line loaded SDs can't play at extreme levels(meaning over 105 dB)before things go down hill,but what they do within their capabilities is quite amazing.

Once you hear horn loaded or transmission line bass done right it will be hard to listen to anything else. Just like when you get that SET sound in your head and expect every thing to sound like it... only to be disappointed.

One of the attributes you'll notice is balance. You'll get good underlying bass even at moderate sound levels. You don't have to crank it to get that full bottom end feeling.

I find many speakers need to be cranked hard before the bass appears. In some cases it still never appears. lol

To be honest the SET sound has ruined me. I only want to hear SS in Home theater now. There's something missing when it come to music if quality tubes aren't involved now. So I feel your pain.

Good luck with the hunt

As Jaybo so succinctly stated, when making your first venture into SET-land, start with your speakers and they will dictate your amp choices.

BTW, "flea power" to most people means anything under 20wpc, but to SET fanatics, that usually means 2wpc or less - the lunatic fringe. (joke)

One thing you have working for you is a (relatively) moderate sized room. Getting tight deep bass will be much easier with decent-sized hi-eff speakers.

do you C&C subs work well with your speakers?

Yes, but my room was nearly twice the volume of yours and opened on one side down onto my dining room of equal size. The advantage of two subwoofers is that they tend to cancel out a lot of problems caused by a single sub, though setup can be a bear to get right.

When you say I need to spend a lot of money, how much are you talking about?

Shindo makes really high quality components, getting amps and speakers of equal performance/quality will cost you, or, take some serious homework and patience to achieve at a lower cost.

Also, "Slam" is something that SET systems don't do particularly well at any cost. Getting bass equal or similar to what you are used to with the Gerschwins will not be easy. SET is a system of tradeoffs, a little less bass production can get you a lot more of everything else, musically.

Audio Note, Omega, and Zu are great speakers, but there is no way you will ever get the same level of bass output as your Gerschwins with higher powered amps without far larger cabinets(excluding Zu's Definitions which have built-in bass amps/subwoofers). We are talking about smaller drivers and/or smaller cabinets with less power, simply no way.

So, I really, really, suggest that you look into hi-eff speakers before buying an amp. See what the benefits and limitations are first. Decide on a size appropriate for your room and musical tastes, then look for amps. Otherwise, you may end up unable to drive your speakers well enough to satisfy your musical needs.

Once you get that settled, there is quite a large selection of high quality SET amps we can help guide you through.

Dark: I agree with your advice, I will look into HE speakers first to make sure I like the sound.

Gmood: the Brines you recommend look very interesting! The prices also seem very reasonable, if I can get them shipped here to Toronto it would be great. I notice you have some mods on your speakers, did Brines do these for you or did you do it yourself? What are the benefits of these mods? I would hate to buy them unheard though, wonder if its possible to audition them here in Toronto first. If not, is there another speaker with a similar sound, eg Lowther? so that I can be sure that I like the SD sound?

Thanks

the classic marantz can be bettered by a mac mc275 and a host of other push pull designs that are more articulate(but jeez, its an 8b). the speakers however are pretty incredible too. going to the ones you've mentioned just to accomodate an amp, may be fun for awhile, but the gershmans will haunt you in years to come.