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Admittedly a bit lost

Folks

I am a long time music lover who is dipping his toes into high end audio for the first time. I have long enjoyed high quality headphones (Sennheiser HD650) and earphones (Etymotics all the time) but have not spent the big bucks (that I don't have) for high-end equipment. :)

However, I have recently acquired a Jolida tube amp (40W output) and am looking for good speakers to pair with them. I intend to go around listening to a bunch of speakers but I need to at least narrow down what sort I should ask my local dealers to have available for me to try. That is what this thread is about.

My constraints are thus:
- My musical tastes run the gamut from classical choral pieces (Bach's cantatas and mass, Arvo Part, Hilliard Ensemble's works etc - i.e. all mid-range frequencies) to experimental electronic music (Autechre, Aphex Twin, Flying Lotus etc - i.e. deep sub-bass and full-frequency spread music with absolutely zero traditional instruments and every sound is synthesized).
- My amp is a 40W tube amp
- I live in an apartment and so listen at volumes ranging from low to moderate.
- My budget for speakers is about $3K (slightly flexible).

With those constraints, my dilemma is that I don't know if I should be trying out high-efficiency speakers or low-efficiency ones? Should I look for 8ohm speakers or 4ohm ones? Something tells me that with low power tube amps, I should be looking at a high efficiency low impedence speaker. However, will that sort of speaker be able to navigate the high speed bass attack of electronic music when driven by an amplifier such as mine?

I am not sure where to begin, so I would really like some advise from folks here. Thank you so much!
badri

Showing 1 response by newbee

newbee
4,751 posts
 
Like Whart, with whom I agree, I believe you have some fundamental limitations in space and volume levels permissible, which will to a great degree dictate the equipment (in this case speakers) you will be able to use.

You don't want large bassy/boomy speakers. In fact speakers with a early roll off of bass, say below 60hz might be a good thing. Keeping smallish speakers off the floor on stands (no floorstanders perhaps) might also be a good thing to limit the transmission of 'thump, thump, sounds to your neighbor.

Another limitation in choices is that you will want to choose a speaker which sounds linear (especially in the bass) at low volume levels a reasearch project in itself. A lot of speakers only sound alive at medium to high volume levels (that is why the early audio gods created tone controls in their pre-amps etc, so you could boost the bass a tad, or provided a loudness contour).

I hope that helps you to focus a bit. But it is a pretty steep learning curve so take your time making decisions. FWIW I don't really believe in making decisions based on dealer demos with different equipment in different rooms. It will always be different when you get it home. So unless you know what you are chasing down you are likely to make some poor decisions (learn all you can about each products design, performance, synergistic equipment, etc. before you get caught up in the web.

Hope that helps a bit, but I think it is premature for me to be making recomendations. BTW, I think you should be able to match a pretty good speaker to your Jolida.

Good luck.
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