High efficiency speakers for SET

the professor

the professor

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I've been thinking about getting a SET set up over the last few months. What speakers should I look at?
 
I'm sure there are lots of highly efficient speakers out there but right now I can only think of one.

Klipsch Cornwall III. These would be a match made in heaven for SET Amps.
 
Jock,

I've been meaning to start a thread like this myself and I have been looking. I'll add more later but yes, The Klipsch Heritage speakers are great for the money. I have Cornwall III'S and love them. It would depend on your price range but the Vittora speakers I posted in another thread have me thinking. Devore 0/96 and 0/93 seem pretty awesome as well.

Line Magnetic has a reasonably priced field coil speaker I am looking at as well. The 755i I think.
 
Budget? Many to consider. Here is my response to someone who was enquiring about SET-friendly bookshelf speakers on another forum :D:

While you are right you do want a relatively high efficiency speaker ( I would say >= 92-93 dB) to play nice with an SET tube amp, I would say even more important is a bookshelf speaker with a nominal impedance of >=8ohms and flat withithout any dips below 6 ohms across the frequency spectrum. With those characteristics, I would suggest you look into speakers from Zu Audio, Coincident, WLM, Tonian, Teresonic, Sonist, Living Voice (only floor standers but very slim design), Klipsch, Horning (only floor standers but very slim design), Cain and Cain(only floor standers but very slim design), and Audio Note among others.

Here are some suggestions:

1) Zu Omen Bookshelf (Sensitivity: 98 dB, Impedance: 12 ohms nominal, Recommended power: 4-12 wpc, Price: $1,200): Zu Audio | A Revolution in American HiFi

2) Coincident Triumph Extreme II: (Sensitivity: 94 dB, Impedance: 8 ohms flat, Recommended power: 3-300 wpc, Price: CAD$2,999): Coincident Speaker Technology Total Victory

3) WLM Diva Monitor: (Sensitivity: 97 dB, Impedance: 8 ohms, Recommended power: 5-200 wpc, Price: $5,200): Diva - WLM Loudspeakers North America

4) Teresonic Magus: (Sensitivity: 98 dB, Impedance: 8 ohms, Recommended power: 1-100 wpc, Price: $3,985-$4,985): Magus

5) Sonist Concerto 2: (Sensitivity: 95 dB, Impedance: 8 ohm nominal and 6 ohm minimum, Recommended power: 2 -100 wpc, Price: $2,495): PRODUCTS

Then there are the slightly larger than bookshelf speakers but still standmount speakers from the likes of Audio Note and DeVore like:

1) Audio Note AN-J and AN-E speakers (Sensitivity: >94 dB, Impedance: ? ohms, Recommended power: ?-? wpc, Price: $?): Audio Note

2) DeVore Orangutan O/96 (Sensitivity: 96 dB, Impedance: 10 ohm nominal and 8.75 ohm minimum, Recommended power: ? -? wpc, Price: $13K I believe?): DeVORE FIDELITY Orangutan

Here is a useful resource for SET-friendly speakers: REFERENCE COMPONENTS-SPEAKERS
Click to expand...
 
Nice list Cyril. I have to give a shout out for my speakers of choice, Devore Fidelity. The Orangutan series have high sensitivity ratings and are getting very good reviews all around. My dealer raves about the O/96's and he does some of the larger audio shows with John Devore. For more budget conscience speakers there are the O/93's and the Gibbon series.

I run Devore Super 8's with a 22 watt Line Magnetic SET integrated and the sound is amazing. I guess it depends on how much power you're looking at getting as well. I remember you saying that even though your sig says "Oregon Coast" that you're not there too often, but my guy is in Eugene so if you want his info. just let me know.
 
Thanks Cyril.

Doug, I am sure Devore makes great speakers as well.
 
Big DeVore fan here too. I have heard the Super 8s, the Nines and the Silverback Reference speakers. All of them made me want to listen more. I am intrigued by the O-96s.

Professor...if you give us a sense of budget, we can certainly tailor the suggestions more in-line to suit your needs. Plus if you have a sense for what SET amplification you are interested in, that can also help tailor the recos.
 
cmalak said:
Budget? Many to consider. Here is my response to someone who was enquiring about SET-friendly bookshelf speakers on another forum :D:
Click to expand...

wow, I had no idea there were so many.

budget sort of depends, this is a totally new concept so I don't know what level I will be happy with. Lets say a amp/speaker combo for $10,000???
 
cmalak said:
Big DeVore fan here too. I have heard the Super 8s, the Nines and the Silverback Reference speakers. All of them made me want to listen more. I am intrigued by the O-96s.

Professor...if you give us a sense of budget, we can certainly tailor the suggestions more in-line to suit your needs. Plus if you have a sense for what SET amplification you are interested in, that can also help tailor the recos.
Click to expand...

I'm clueless on amplification also. I figured I would get an idea of what speakers I like to see how little power I need
 
dlb2 said:
Nice list Cyril. I have to give a shout out for my speakers of choice, Devore Fidelity. The Orangutan series have high sensitivity ratings and are getting very good reviews all around. My dealer raves about the O/96's and he does some of the larger audio shows with John Devore. For more budget conscience speakers there are the O/93's and the Gibbon series.

I run Devore Super 8's with a 22 watt Line Magnetic SET integrated and the sound is amazing. I guess it depends on how much power you're looking at getting as well. I remember you saying that even though your sig says "Oregon Coast" that you're not there too often, but my guy is in Eugene so if you want his info. just let me know.
Click to expand...

sounds like I should have ask earlier - I was in Eugene on Saturday and could have dropped by. I guess I'll drop by next time. does he have a store front or is it by appointment only?
 
From 6moons-
Here are speaker brands you should put on your list:
Audio Note UK | Auditorium 23 | Avantgarde Acoustic (Uno thru Trio) | BD Design Oris Horn | Beauhorn | Bottlehead Corp. | Brentworth Sound Lab | Cabasse (certain models) | Cain & Cain (all models) | Carfrae Loudspeakers | Cary Audio Silver Oak | Classic Audio Reproductions | Coincident Speaker Technology | Decware | Deep Audio | DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 8 | Dunlavy SC-III | Edgarhorn | Final Laboratory | Galante Audio | Hammer Dynamics | Horning Hybrid | Klipsch LaScala | Kochel | Living Voice | Lowther America | Merlin Music Systems VMS without BAM | Nola Audio Viper | Odeon Speakers | Omega Loudspeaker Systems | Pi Speakers | Proac Response and Tablette monitors | Reference 3A (all models) | Rethm (all models) | Rl Acoustique Lamhorn | Reimer Speaker Systems | Royal Devices | Shun Mook Bella Voce | Silverline Audio (select models) | Shindo Latour | Soliloquy Model 5.0 | Sonus Faber (certain monitors) | Sound Dynamics RTS-3 | Spendor (select models) | TAD Professional | Talon Audio Firehawk | Tannoy Classic Line | Triangle Acoustique (most models) | Von Schweikert (DB99) | Zu Cable (all models).


Here are SET brands you should put on your list:
Acoustic Masterpiece | Almarro | Antique Sound Lab | Art Audio | Audion | Audio Note | Audiopax | Berning | Bottlehead Corp. | Cary Audio | Cy Brenneman | Decware | DeHavilland HiFi | Diva Audio | DIY HiFi Supply | Don Allen | Fi | First Watt | Jeff Korneff | Kondo | KR Audio | Lamm Industries | Manley Labs | Mastersound | Ming-Da | Opera Audio | SAC Thailand | Shindo Labs | Song Audio | Sophia Electric | Tempo Electric | Tron | Unison Research | Wavelength Audio | Wavac | Welborne Labs | Wright Sound | Wytech Labs | Yamamoto Sound Craft | Zanden Audio.

6moons.com - industry features: Too set against S.E.T. to forget? Part 3.
 
Thanks Brian.

From that link we also have this:

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Gordon's personal top 10 speaker amplifier combinations:
[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]1/ Cain & Cain Walla Walla Wall of Sound for medium room, long-wall speaker placement, Pop Music: 300B for real dynamics.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]2/ Cain & Cain Walla Walla Wall of Sound for medium room, long-wall speaker placement, Pop, Jazz, Rock: 45 for real intimacy.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]3/ DeVore Silverbacks for medium room, short-wall speaker placement: 300B amplifiers for Pop, Jazz, Rock and small orchestral.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]4/ Avantgarde Trios & BassHorns for large room, short-wall speaker placement: 45 amplifiers for just about any type of music.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]5/ Cain & Cain IM-Ben for medium to large room, short-wall placement: 300B for everything; 45, 50 or PX25 for Pop, Rock and Jazz.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]6/ DeVore Super 8 for small or medium size room: PX25, 50 or 300B amplifier for just about anything.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]7/ Avantgarde Uno for medium size room: 45 or PX25 for intimate music or 50 & 300B for large-scale listening.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]8/ Cain & Cain Abbys with Bailey subwoofer in small to medium size room: 50 or PX25 or really just about any amp.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]9/ Merlin VSM or Reference 3A L'integral in small room using anything from a PX25, 50 or 300B amplifier for Rock, Pop or Jazz.[/FONT]
  • [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]10/ Always fun? ProAc Tablettes with REL Strata III sub: 300B or 50 for small room or work area on most anything for background music.[/FONT]
 
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