Tube amps and speaker ohms

65 wpc might be enough to drive the B&W804S in the frequency where the 3 ohm load is located.

I recently drove my VR4 Gen III HSE loudspeakers with a 55 wpc Rogue Cronus tubed integrated amp. The combo was surprisingly very good. Lots of bass and heft. The VR4 Gen III HSE are 89db/1w/1m, 6 ohm nominal load, with a dip to 3 ohms.

Divad i had a chinese KT88 amp very close in specs to the one you are looking at. I can only speak for my speakers, the amp did not have enough power. Manufacturers can say "amp has X amount of watts". but are they quality watts?
My Jadis Orch Refer rated at 40 watts, blew out the water a Rotel ss amp rated at 100 watts. Go figure. The quality of trans and specs of the tube is everything. In my experience the KT88 tube is better for higher sensitivity speakers.
I only like KT90 and 6550's,. Well I'll hear the 6550 first time in 2 weeks.
Good Luck
Paul
Baton Rouge
btw not a fan of B&W..too british

05-27-07: Bartokfan
In my experience the KT88 tube is better for higher sensitivity speakers.
I only like KT90 and 6550's,. Well I'll hear the 6550 first time in 2 weeks.

This experience based upon the author having never biased any of the tubes.

Properly biasing tubes in a non-biasing tube amp means everything to the proper sound of the amplifier. Without having ever biased the tubes, one cannot legitimately comment on the highs, lows...or any other aspect of a tube's sound.

Sorry to beat this into the ground, but as long as you continue to share your experience listening to tubes in a tube amp which was never biased, then I will continue to caution new readers to take your comments with the appropriate perspective.

Frankly, I very much look forward to the first post you author after you have biased your amplifier. I suspect you will experience such a revelation in good sound that you will be physically shuddering with giddy enthusiasm.

True i did swap the KT90's for th eKT88's w/o biasing. But also had a KT88 NEW intergrated for demo purposes. The amp did not perform on 88 db speakers. Divad may have better luck with his KT88. Both are chinese. Though cayin is chinese I consider that line on european standards. Ming da, and Melody are alos of european standards. The one Didad is refering to is not.

05-27-07: Bartokfan
True i did swap the KT90's for th eKT88's w/o biasing. But also had a KT88 NEW intergrated for demo purposes.

Was the new KT88 amp a Cayin? If so, it requires manual biasing. Tubes and tube amps require biasing whether they are new or not.

If the person from whom you obtained the Cayin did not bias the tubes before you received the amp, then it was not performing properly. I demo'ed a brand new Rogue Cronus last week, and I had to bias all the tubes after the initial warm-up (as mentioned in the manual). After running the amp for a half an hour, and before biasing the tubes, they were WAY out of bias.

Lastly, a tube amp paired with speakers that dip below 6 ohms may very well not work. On his product page, Tyler doesn't list impedance specs for most of his speakers, including the Linbrook Signature monitors, so it's impossible to determine why the KT88 amp you tried did not work to your satisfaction, but I suspect it had to do with a low impedance dip somewhere.