Amplifier for Klipsch Cornwalls


I will be bying some Klipsch Cornwalls soon and will need an amplifier to drive them. Hoping to find something under $500. I have a Thor tube pre-amp and a Forte solid state pre-amp.
These will be in a second system primarily for home theater. But I will use them for music as well. I do like it loud sometimes.
holzhauer
Most high efficiency loudspeakers get their efficiency from tight gaps and precise construction. As a result they are highly reactive and are over-damped with anything more than a very moderate output impedance from the amp.

IOW, a tube amplifier will sound better; will play deeper bass and be smoother and more detailed overall than most transistor amplifiers. This is because a tube amp, especially one with no loop feedback, will not react poorly to the back EMF from the speaker, and will not present such a low impedance to the speaker that it is over-damped (if the speaker is over-damped you can loose as much as 8db of bass in the bottom octave).

I recommend some sort of lower-powered Push-Pull triode amplifier, maybe something with no more than 50 watts. You'll find the speakers doing things you had no idea they could!
a good place to start is a H H Scott, EL 84 based intergrated amp. A nice 222B, or 299B will do a great job with Cornwalls, and shouldn't cost over $500.
Go with SS. Those 15 inch woofers can sound slow and mushy with tubes. A tube pre amp is what you want in my opinion...