Valve amp speaker recomendations.

[karl530]

Hi folks,

This the first time I have posted on here and I am sure this will have been covered on previous post but, I have just been bought a chinese valve amp and I am looking for some nice speakers either new or used but I am not sure where i should be looking i am thinking that 3 way floor standers may well be better than standmounters.

This is because the amp sounds better with my old B&O Beovox 3800 speakers that are 4 Ohms that it does with my new B&W 685 that are connected to my Roksan Kandy K2.

The amp is EL34 and produces 40w per channel and here is a link http://www.hifiandaudio.com/e34i.htm to the site selling it, the room they will be used in is 12ft by 14ft approx. i am willing to spend around 800 on them.

Any help would be really appreciated, at least I will have some idea what to audition!

Many Thanks Karl

 

[Don Guess]

Living Voice would be my choice. You can pick up a second hand pair of LV Auditoriums for £500 on fleabay.

 

[karl530]

just had a browse of fleabay and the cheapest lv's I could find are 2695! but im not very good with the new ebay search all the pages are different.

Any other recomendations?

 

[Don Guess]

The ones you found are 0BX-R2s. They are three models up the range from the cheapest.

Auditoriums do come on ebay occasionally.

How about some Vandersteen 1Cs.. £850. Alternative Audio has them.

They go well with Valves.

 

[a91gti]

Valve amps work best with speakers of high sensitivity. There are lots of speakers that will do your amp justice, find some you like the look of, find out their sensitivity and go from there. My Sony`s are 90db and work well with valves.

 

[Anonymous]

The Vandersteen 1Cs look interesting.....anyone actually heard them?

 

[karl530]

I will definatley be looking out for any living voice audiotorium, anybody know what these cost new? Kef seem to do some quite high sensitvity loudspeakers around the 90-91db level would these be any good?

 

[Anonymous]

I'd say 90-91db/wm is the absolute minimum you should ever consider for a 40w valve amp. You'd be much happier with more like 100db/wm which is the kind of thing you'd get out of horn speakers.

It's a 40w amp, but into what load? 4ohm or 8? if it's on the beefy side you could get away with less sensitive lower impedance speakers I suspect.

 

[Anonymous]

Check out the offerings from Proac. I think some of those are quite sensitive.

 

[Don Guess]

Mr_Poletski:I'd say 90-91db/wm is the absolute minimum you should ever consider for a 40w valve amp. You'd be much happier with more like 100db/wm which is the kind of thing you'd get out of horn speakers.

It's a 40w amp, but into what load? 4ohm or 8? if it's on the beefy side you could get away with less sensitive lower impedance speakers I suspect.

I can't agree with that unless you've got a huge room or you want to listen at crazy loud levels.

30 Watts of EL34 or such like will drive 90db speakers to killingly loud levels in the average living room

 

[karl530]

ProAc seem to make some lovely speakers but how do they sound? has any one got any info on the studio 140?

 

[Anonymous]

I'm in....but only cos my quad 40s are due to arrive today. I was looking at Proac 110 or 130. 130s are at the top of my list but not too sure if the 130s will be a bit ott given the size of my toom....12' x 14'. Maybe have to stick with standmounts.......

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I was reading AN Other magazine and it came to my attention that these speakers could do the job.

http://www.russandrews.com/product-Russ-Andrews-SP-1-loudspeakers-4579.htm

95dB sensitivity. Standmounts. £390. 8Ohms. 14 day home trial.

They are modified Focal speakers.

Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

karl530:
I will definatley be looking out for any living voice audiotorium, anybody know what these cost new? Kef seem to do some quite high sensitvity loudspeakers around the 90-91db level would these be any good?

Latest price quoted today for Auditoriums was 2700.........for other models...add some.....