HIGH Efficiency speakers for a 3 watts Amplifier

[bmichels]

What high-Efficiency speakers can you suggest for my Eddie Curent headphone/speaker Tube Amp ? For speakers, it output ONLY 3 Watts !

thanks in advance

 

[DaveC]

What room size and budget?

If you have a large budget there are lots of very efficient horn speakers to choose from.

 

[bmichels]

What room size and budget?

If you have a large budget there are lots of very efficient horn speakers to choose from.

less than 10.000$, small room.

 

[JackD201]

Interesting amplifier. It has output taps for both speakers and headphones?

 

[LL21]

What high-Efficiency speakers can you suggest for my Eddie Curent headphone/speaker Tube Amp ? For speakers, it output ONLY 3 Watts !

thanks in advance

What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have any particular priorities for the loudspeaker? (eg, must have propulsive sub25hz bass, etc)

 

[bmichels]

What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have any particular priorities for the loudspeaker? (eg, must have propulsive sub25hz bass, etc)

LL21: I listen to Blues, Classical, Piano, Pop, rock. No need for sub25hz

JackD201: Yes, HP tap in the back

 

[LL21]

LL21: I listen to Blues, Classical, Piano, Pop, rock. No need for sub25hz

http://classicaudioloudspeakers.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?fs=2&upper=27&content=28

Can your amp drive any of these? There is a review of their flagship on AVShowrooms. But they have several models.

 

[DaveC]

Omegas are amazing but would be somewhat volume-limited with your amp as would any speaker in the mid 90 dB sensitivity range. Still, plenty of folks love them with 2 wpc SET amps.... ideally you'd have a speaker that's over 100 dB sensitivity for the amp you have but finding a speaker you like may be challenging... good high efficiency designs can get really expensive. My top choice out of everything I've listed would be the Lamhorns and they are right at your budget, but may be too much bass in a small room. You can lift them off the floor a couple inches to cut down on boundary reinforcement though, the drivers are mounted low enough this can work out...

www.omegaloudspeakers.com

Sonist are pretty nice too:

http://sonistaudio.com/

dc10's bookshelf models would work, these are an unusual design but they sound really good.

http://www.dc10audio.com/

Lamhorns with AER drivers would be ideal for that amp but maybe unsuitable for your room size, you could get a custom bass reflex cabinet made for the AER drivers though...

http://www.rlacoustique.com/lamhorn.htm

Same with Feastrex, they have great sounding drivers but you'd need a cabinet

http://www.feastrex.com/products.html

 

[bmichels]

Thanks for all those advices

I am also considering those: the teresonic integrum (sensivity 101.5dB, List $ 12.000/pair).

Any comments on them ?

 

[DaveC]

I've heard a lot of BLH cabinets and the Lamhorn cab has been the best by far. Usually the BLH design the horn bass output seems separate, out of focus and lagging behind the rest of the music, the Lamhorns are the only BLH I've heard that sounds well integrated. Also, the AERs likely have a more even frequency response vs the Lowthers, but I am guessing based on hearing both... Lowther had a peak in the high treble around 7 kHz which is responsible for "Lowther Shout" and AER did not. Lowther drivers can sound good at first and later be fatiguing. Some people love them, but if you are not familiar with the Lowther sound you are taking a big risk with them imo.

You need to consider whether a BLH is the right choice for your room, they may have too much bass output for a small room and it may be the case that a simple bass reflex cabinet would suit your room better, I can also say that the Omega single drivers are certainly in the same league as any other single driver in the world regardless of price and the cabinet designs may suit your room better, the only issue is it would be nice to have 6 dB better sensitivity for your amp... but this won't matter at all if you don't listen at high SPLs.