90db, 7ohm speakers: tube amp recommendations?


HI,

I have the new Tyler Acoustics Decade D1's, and they sound very, very nice (still breaking in, but so far, couldn't be more pleased). I was considering a tube amp with them, would be paired with my McCormack ALD-1 Revision Gold+. I was thinking about a lower-powered push/pull design, something with over 20 watts obviously, but I don't need a ton of power for these. Room is around 400 square feet. Any good ideas? Budget is $2000 or so (used). Saw a Canary 301 that had been upgraded (22wpc, lots of current capability) but it sold very quickly. I was also considering higher powered KT-88 designs, but have been told that I may do better with a a bit lower powered amp, vs, say a ARC VT-100 MKii.

Looking for a fairly full, musical sound, but not too bloomy or warm. These speakers are extremely transparent yet musical, and I want to continue in that direction; a bit of tube fullness, but with no loss of soundstage or detail. It will be more or less to try: my upgraded (by SMC) McCormack DNA-125 amp currently sounds superb, but it would be nice to try something else for a bit.

dawgcatching

Showing 2 responses by newbee

'90db 7ohm' (nominal impedence) is an oversimplified description of your speakers impedence when you are considering proper amplification. You really need to know what the impedence curve looks like, or at least where the major deviations are and how big they are, especially the dip's. It would not be unusual for a speaker with a nominal impedence of 7 ohms to have a droop to 2 to 3 ohms in the bass making it a tough load for a lot of amps. IMHO, proper impedence matching is probably a bigger issue for you than the difference between a medium v high power amp. FWIW.
I really don't know much about your pre-amp at all, but apart from that small bit of ignorance and considering your attraction to the potential tonal balance of the ARC amp I would recommend that you consider the Quicksilver V4's (although they might cost a bit more than 2K they have good resale value). They might have a slightly warmer tone but are still fairly uncolored, and not nearly as problematic matainance wise as ARC amps can be. FWIW.