Tube Friendly Speakers - Down to 30Hz - $3000?

Something you might consider. I'm driving my Gallo Reference 3s to stentorial levels with a pair of 12-watt SET amps (845 output tubes). They'll only go down to 40 Hz, though, so you need the Gallo SA subwoofer amp to drive the second voice coils, which it does with great whomping success in my system. Used Ref 3s go for $2K or below, and the subwoofer amp sells for $900 new. Good luck, Dave

Silverline or Coincident offerings are worth a listen. Easy high impedance load & highly efficient made for tubes. I'm probably not telling you anything that isn't in the archives sorry. Myself & several friends are quite pleased with ours matched with lower power tubes although we have alittle more power right now. good luck & happy listening.

Hi Tvad,

Well you like to push the envelope, don't you! Given that I'm sure you've done quite a bit of investigation on your own, you've probably found that what you're looking for is a fairly tall order.

Chances are I don't have anything that would meet all of your requirements, but let me toss out some ideas of what sort of characteristics you might look for.

First, in order to get deep bass in a small-footprint box yet retain high enough efficiency to work with a 15 watt tube amp, you'll have to cheat.

Two ways to cheat here: Corner loading, and using a powered woofer section. Either one will enable you to get a lot of bass from a fairly small-footprint enclosure, and might meet your 30 Hz target.

If my feeble memory serves me, you heard a speaker of mine with a built-in powered woofer section at the VTV show in Pasadena last November. The upper range drivers on that speaker present a roughly 16 ohm load at 93 dB efficiency. I had to redesign the woofer section when my woofer supplier discontinued the model I was using, and I'm pretty much abandoning that project as the parts cost have gone up to too much for me to be confident that the speaker is competitive in its new higher price range.

If you opt for placing the speaker in or near the corner, a reflex enclosure would be my choice over a sealed one. At first glance that seems counter-intuitive, but if you tune the reflex enclosure lower by increasing the vent length, it will probably work well in the corner. If you can't change the tuning, then any speaker not designed for corner placement will sound way too boomy when placed in the corner.

Another consideration is midrange coloration from corner placement. Basically, the walls of the room will act like a big 90 degree horn, and redirect side lobe energy forward toward the listening position, altering the tonal balance. A speaker with a uniform radiation pattern largely confined to a 90 degree forward arc would have a much better chance of not being colored in the midrange by corner placement.

Could you live with a roughly 15" by 15" footprint? If so, I might have something under development that could be tuned to work well in a corner and thereby meet your requirements.

Best of luck to you in your quest!

Duke

"If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough" - Gene LeBelle

I pretty much agree with Duke...except I think your room may be to wide for corner placement.

"fully driven without compromise by tube amplification with as little as 15wpc"...30hz? and fairly small foot print?...HeHeHe, I'm going to follow this thread.

Interesting, you may need a sub...check out horn loaded designs if you go with a small horn loaded floorstander.

http://www.decware.com/WO32/wo32.htm

Dave

If I had that situation, Id be listening to the Tyler's or Legacy Focus 20/20.( I know, both are more than the $3K) What amps are you using?