Tube amp for "difficult" speakers,,,

Tvad, in the case of the Consequence, power does seem to be a main issue, but perhaps your comment was to Robtym (my speakers don't sound tipped up, just 'dead', if they don't get enough power). The Consequences are harder to drive than the monitors discussed here (dipping to 3.6 in the lower frequencies, plus a tweeter and supertweeter arrangement that probably is also demanding for the amp).

Robtym, this sounds much like my experience with the Cayin + Dynaudio 140. I would check it in triode mode. And why listen for problems if you like the sound. On the other hand, I also have noticed that the grass is not always so green on the tube side of the fence (yes the midrange is great and voices lovely, but after awhile...) - and i agree with your comments regarding s-state.

Dmailer, thanks, very interesting. Perhaps it would work in my present system also. I have mailed Speltz and will check this out.

Some good news - 8 Cerapucs arrived today, bought for a reasonable price from a user in Sweden. Compared to my DIY graphite / cones / bike inner tire solutions, they make a definite improvement (so far, under my record player and speakers). Some of what i thought was s-state grunge wasn't (honours to Krell). Probably more to come in this direction.

I am experimenting with grounding and have started a separate thread on this, cf. "Grounding the system" under Amps and preamps.

Oystein

If you can find Music Reference Rm 9 Mk 1 or 2,it would give you plenty of power and very good sounding.

The Consequence is not that hard a speaker to drive. We've had customers who have had good luck using our MA-2s. That's 220 watts of triode power FWIW.

What is the definition of diffcult speakers? My Focal JMlab Alto Utopias have a rating of 91 db/w/m and have a nominal load of 8 ohms. However, they can go down to 3.2ohms. People told me that my speakers are easy to drive. However, my Melody KT88 monoblocks (50wpc) don't have sufficient bass even using the 4 ohm taps.

Yea, the MA-1's are great, but I hate moving a guy into that many tubes if I don't know him better; as in, can he handle the maintenance and pain-in-the-arse resale.

There are some good comments above. Yea, again, the RM-200 is a great amp and no trouble on resale, but what about all of that biasing? A Defy 7 anyone?! :0)

If I was moving a guy from SS to tubes on an amp and he liked Dynaudio (detail, dynamics, fast and relatively hungry), I'd look at a Berning...It will take hold of Acoustat 2+2's. Its reliable as a tank. Tube rolling is cheap if he wants to and there are plenty of guys out there to talk to him about the amp - knowledgable guys to boot. And, its, um, "nuetral" for a tube amp, so someone moving from SS feels comfortable with it. And on resale, if he wants to later, he barely feels it.

Just an idea...