High value, high efficiency speakers for SET amps
"I would put it that deep bass extension, efficiency, and compactness of cabinet size trade off against one another in the design of a speaker. Sacrificing deep bass extension and/or making the cabinet larger (not smaller) will work in the direction of enabling the speaker to have greater efficiency." That's a good way to put it. |
I recall the Tekton owner guy indicating a preference for SS amps with his speakers. Don't recall why. Always check those impedance curves, especially at the low end to help determine just how much more of a challenge more bass extension might be. One good strategy to help manage risk might be to only go with products that have been thoroughly and reliably measured by an independant source, like Stereophile. My Dynaudio monitors go down into teh 40s as well and do bass and dynamics quite well in a smaller room. My smaller Triangles do not and bass and dynamics is where they first fall short, though with my current placement near the floor for re-inforcement with slight upward tilt on isolating stands, the bass levels are just right now in a slightly larger and livelier room. You just never know until you try things sometimes. |
Rebbi, thanks for the nice words and for the clarification about size and positioning. Regarding: 04-22-15: RebbiI have no specific knowledge of the Lore, but a general word of caution about speaker bass extension specs: My perception has been, generally speaking, that those numbers stand a considerably greater chance of being both misleading and meaningless than sensitivity or efficiency numbers. For several reasons, including differences in the +/- db tolerances different manufacturers may use; differences in the distortion percentage the number may be based on; differences in the volume level the number may be based on (for a given distortion % and a given +/- tolerance bass extension can be expected to narrow at high volume levels); differences in the extent to which the specified bass extension takes room effects into account; and in cases where speaker impedance is significantly lower at low frequencies than at higher frequencies the possibility that the number may be based on the ability of solid state amplifiers to increase power delivery into lower impedances. And as you've no doubt seen it is common for bass extension to be specified without any of those things being indicated. Good comments by Mapman just above, btw, some of which relate to these same points. I note regarding the De Capo, btw, that although it is spec'd down to 42 Hz as you indicated, the measurements I linked to in my previous post show 3 db of rolloff at a bit above 60 Hz, and 6 db of rolloff at a bit above 50 Hz. And that is at a modest input level of 2.83 volts, roughly corresponding to 1 watt. In EE circles, btw, bandwidths are most commonly specified on the basis of 3 db of rolloff. Best regards, -- Al |
Al, Your point about the wide ranging standards regarding speaker bass specifications are well founded. I will say though that the Tekton bass performance seems to be verified by numerous reviewers and many owners of these speakers. So perhaps their stated specs are "reasonably" reliable/accurate. Charles, |
For what it's worth, I hadn't seen this before, but this is Tim Smith's review of the Mini-Lore on the Canadian site Wall Of Sound. He's the same fellow who loved the Coincident Dynamo 34 SE amp. |
