High Sensitivity Speakers that work best with SS

Atmasphere, I doubt you have ever had the opportunity to actually measure the Daedalus speakers or do a direct A/B measurement with Duke's 95 db speakers so your comment appears to be based on sonic memory.

these speakers have been tested in a sophisticated, professional lab and my specs are solid.

you may note that in 2011 Galibier showed in the large 11th floor room at RMAF using his pair of Ulysses and 1 watt SET amps!

check Scott Faller's 2011 RMAF show review: in
Enjoy the Music

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/rmaf_2011/faller/page2.htm

Greetings all,

I was pointed to this thread and the reference to our room at the 2011 Audiofest.

One thing has become clear to me is that the Daedalus speakers will mirror what you throw at them.

Having had extensive experience with the Atma-sphere MA-60's and the 1 watt Serious Stereo amps driving them, I can honestly say that both amplifiers serve the speakers well, albeit slightly differently.

One watt 'll do ya, if you don't have a huge room and don't listen to death metal or Wagner at "proper" volumes.

At the other extreme, there's the absolute control you get from 200 watts of s-s, but depending on the amp, you may give up some of the harmonic envelope that we perceive as tone color.

Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice. Nothing new here.

I've always been a tube guy and so my leanings are toward the Serious and the Atma-spheres. Having said that, the ModWright designs convey the musical sensibility of a designer who knows what real music sounds like. They get the harmonic envelope right, and I can easily understand why they are Lou's amplifier of choice.

At the Newport show 2 years ago a friend dropped after hours, and brought with him a Who album. He wanted to see how close to concert volumes we could get with the ModWrights driving the Daedalus. Well, I put my 25dB musician's earplugs and we let 'er rip ...

The Deadalus' didn't flinch.

You see ... both Lou (Daedalus) and Ralph (Atma-sphere) come from a pro-sound background where two key parameters to be met are high sensitivity AND power handling (in speakers), and of course, reliability.

I find myself gravitating to guys with this philosophy - especially the sensitivity and reliability part. Same thing goes for Duke, for whom I have the utmost respect.

So, unlike many speakers, your amplifier choices for Deadalus are limited by your imagination. How often can you say that about a hi-fi component?

Disclaimer ... I know and like all the folks referenced above.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

I`m not surprised the 1 watt SET amp sounded good(within limits). The Daedalus is a good speaker and will reveal the quality of that low power amplifier rather than mask it. I`ve heard them with the Modwright SS amp and the result was pretty good. However every time I`ve listened to them driven by a quality tube amplifier they just were better,more alive,engaging and natural.The tubes seem to bring out the music`s emotion in these speakers to a higher degree.
Regards,

My feeling is that the less than ideal pairing between high efficient speakers
and ss amps is a consequence of the fact that many high power ss amps can't
do the first watt right. That is, high efficiency speakers require a very small
amount of power to sing (e.g. a tenth, a hundredth, etc. of a watt), whereas
most ss amp are simply not designed to do the first watt right, they are
comfortable when putting out more than 1 watt. I hope that Atmasphere can
shed some light on this. I thank you in advance Ralph.

Along the same lines, I always though that the 1st watt amps of Nelson Pass
were called like that because they were designed to do the first watt right.

Finally, as a few other have mentioned already, Avantgarde Acoustic speakers
are known to sing also with ss amps (not with all though).

Best wishes,
Paul

I paired Pass Lab XA 30.5 with Zu Omen Defs (rated at 98dB) and the combination was fantastic. With the 30 Watts from this amp you could easily drive many medium or high efficiency speakers.