The sensitivity rating is not the only thing to consider when matching a speaker to single ended amplifiers. The impedance, number of drivers and the complexity of the crossover are other major factors.
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Check out the Tannoy Prestige line. |
Granted, they're quite a bit under your budget, but they may work for you. The GoldenEar Triton Two towers have a rated sensitivity of 91 dB and are only $3K/pair. HOWEVER, they have built-in powered subwoofers and a single pair of speaker cables supplies signal to the whole thing. The most telling thing is that the designer/co-founder, Sandy Gross, co-founder of Polk and Definitive Technology, uses a SET to power his personal pair at home. When you have 1200 wpc built-in to power the bass, you may find that 91 dB sensitivity for the rest of it will be enough. Another possibility is the Zu Definition Mk IV. It also has a built-in powered sub, but sensitivity is spec'd at 101 dB and they're priced at $12,500/pair. However, the Definition Mk III is also in production, also has 101 dB rated sensitivity, built-in bass amp, and they're $7500/pair. It's also my understanding that Zu structures their impedance curves to be friendly with low-powered SET amps. |
To get the best results out of an SET, unless its fairly high powered, the speaker should really not be less than about 97 db. Otherwise the amp will be making a lot of distortion, meaning that it will not sound as transparent and will also take on a harsher quality. Typically efficiencies 10x higher than stated in prior posts (101 db to 109 db) are preferred- with these higher efficiencies the distortion of many SETs becomes unmeasurable. This is why horn systems like Altec, JBL, Klipsch, Electro Voice and others have held their value so well. But in general, you want either a horn system or a high efficiency single-driver full range speaker like a Lowther, PHY or similar. Now if you are in a small room the lessor efficiencies may work. As in many cases, YMMV. |
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