Audio Research and Martin Logan Montis
I would be wary of any tube amp with these speakers to make them perform at their absolute best. As at 4khz they give a nasty 3ohms and -55 degree phase angle. Which would be more like a 1-2ohm load as seen by the amp. An amp that "almost" doubles it's wattage for each halving of load impedance down to 2ohm would be the amp to look for. EG: 8ohms - 100watt 4ohms - 200watt 2ohms - 400watt http://www.stereophile.com/content/martinlogan-montis-loudspeaker-measurements Cheers george |
"03-02-15: Georgelofi I would be wary of any tube amp with these speakers to make them perform at their absolute best. As at 4khz they give a nasty 3ohms and -55 degree phase angle. Which would be more like a 1-2ohm load as seen by the amp." Shouldn't be a problem regardless of what the specs are. I drove my SL-3's with my VAC amp that puts out 32watts/channel. Also, if you'll remember back when these speakers were current, Stereophile put together a recommended system with the ML Aerius powered by an ARC VT-50. The Aerius was a little easier to drive than the SL-3, but still, they weren't too far off. And the VT-50 had half the power of the 100. |
Zd542 The Montis is a harder load at 4khz. than most other ML's I'm not saying good tube amps won't drive them Zd, and they may sound very good. But if you want to get 100% drive capability and sound out of them then tubes will struggle a little at the presence region of 4khz as I outlined above. Frequency (Hz) Octave Description 2048hz to 8192hz 8th to 9th octave. Gives presence to speech/music, where labial and fricative sounds lie. Cheers George |
Bfin3 It may sound very good with your 80w tube. But with this statement for the measured Stereophile tests, it maybe not at it's "best" with tubes. "Stereophile: Either way, that this speaker is a difficult load for the partnering amplifier to drive is compounded by the high electrical phase angle. The shape of the impedance trace will result in the Montis's top octaves shelving down when the speaker is driven by a tube amplifier having a high source impedance." Cheers George |
