What speakers sound better with tube amps?

sonix

sonix

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,

I wanted to know some opinions on what speakers sound good or best with tube amp equipment.

From my personal research I came to somewhat of a conclusion that high efficiency and preferably horn type speakers sound the best with tube amplifiers.

Because most tube amps don't push to many watts per channel high efficiency speakers makes it easy and acurate to drive these speakers. Low distortion is also a product of this combination.

And I horn type speakers, from what I read seem to produce a more linear and undistorted sound because there are no moving parts. The recoil of the woofer has a sertain loss to sound. Horn drivers may seem a little bright for some people. I think they are very natural in sound.

Anyway, enough said on my part. I would like to know what you guys have experienced and what you think. I am open to all opinions.

Lets all have fun and escape really through some quality sound!:music:
 
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You didn't mention price, so

How about Zu products:
www.zuaudio.com

I have the Druids with Mini-Method sub and I love them - others may (do) feel differently, as you will find in this hobby.
 
for me, I find the best speakers for tube equipment are speakers designed in the same era . . . they usually present an easy load for the output transformers, and are more efficient than modern speakers . . .

for example, with my vintage Magnavox 6V6 and 6BQ5 amps, I like using high efficiency (fullrange) console drivers (isophon, jensen, RCA, ampex), usually on open baffles . . . second in line, mainly because they aren't as efficient, would be early KLH stuff . . model 14's, 6's and 17's . .
 
You pretty much nailed what sounds best on tubes.. at least in my opinion too... Hard to beat bottles and horns... such a natural sound. It is possible to keep horns from being shouty or too bright..

I love my Altecs, and wouldn't trade them or my tubes for anything..
 
I would love to try tubes on my JBL S2600 speakers. I just do not know what brand to pick. Any suggestions?
 
Personally, I've found QuickSilver to be very good sounding amps, and within reasonable pricing used, especially considering the power some of them put out..
 
I'm certainly no authority and hold the opinions of my friends on this site in very high regards. In my opinion if you are talking a low wattage tubes then go with the high efficiency speakers as mentioned. However if your gear is say 50 watts plus a side you may want to try some conventional box speakers from Thiel (or is it Theil?), Tannoy and others which sound very nice with tubes and are efficient. If you have more watts then that than you need to hear some panels as well. The Magnepan, Quad and other speakers we've lusted after but couldn't afford when they were new are very affordable in the used market and sound just lusty with a larger wattage tube amps.

If you give the AKers a little more info I'm sure you will have a nice list of speakers to look for.
jim
 
You are right Jim. I thought about that after I have posted my thread.

So here goes, I am currently using my Sansui 1000A intergrated tube amp. According to specs it puts out 40Watts per channel. Four power tubes are 7591 EH.

I am using Sansui sp-3200 and sp 2700. These have a few horn drivers. I dont think they are as efficient as they should be eventhough they sound pretty good. They are 89db. 100w and 90w.

Over all not a bad setup.
 
sonix said:
Hi everyone,
And I horn type speakers, from what I read seem to produce a more linear and undistorted sound because there are no moving parts. The recoil of the woofer has a sertain loss to sound. Horn drivers may seem a little bright for some people. I think they are very natural in sound.
Click to expand...

Horn speakers have a moving diaphragm, similar to that in a dome tweeter. Furthermore, horns can add a lot of undesirable resonance. However, the high efficiency of horns is well suited to the low power of class-A tube amps.

Tube amplifiers are not friendly to inductive or capacitative loads, and require a very specific impedance. As such, speakers with complicated crossovers or an impedance that changes heavily with frequency will not work well.

High-quality PA-stype compression drivers are likely the way to go - B&C, Eminence, and Selenium all make a wide variety of very nice drivers with very high efficiency. I haven't read it yet, but the Econo-Waveguide thread looks to have some interesting information. Alternately, if you like the sound (I don't!), consider some single-driver speakers using drivers from Fostex or Audio Nirvana, possibly with a helper sub.
 
QUAD ESL57's as long as you don't exceed 40W rms. Yamaha NS-1000(M)'s if you do. :thmbsp: :yes: :D
 
I can't address what's "best-" I don't have the omniscient point of view that would require. I can say my Paradigm Phantoms and Titans sounded better than I had EVER heard when I hooked them up to an Eico HF-81.
 
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