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Amp advice sought for Coincident Total Victory

I had driven my Coincident Total Victory II's with 100 W el34's. Now It's a 12 W 300b. I like the tonal accuracy and low level detail much more but do miss two things about the higher powered amp. One is the ability to occasionally turn it up. The other is the headroom needed to to accurately reproduce the fast rise of, for example, a piano or drum. For me, the TV II's are just below the efficiency needed for 300b amplification. Does anyone have experience with a sub $4k used tube amp or amplifier topology that would be a good compromise?

Thanks in advance,

Dave
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dbrewer12345's avatar
dbrewer12345 OP
16 posts
 
Thanks everyone, now I am more confused than ever:).

After reading the replies, I took some measurements. WIth full gain (0.7 V AC input) to one amp and the other turned off, my Extech spl meter (c weighting, slow response) read only 85 dB both at 1 m from the drivers in front and at the same distance from the side mounted woofers. According to my knowledge, if the speakers really are 97 dB, then at -12 dB, the speakers are only seeing about 1/16th of a watt. Under the same circumstances a voltmeter placed across the speaker terminal read about 1.4 V AC. The current through the speaker cable was about 0.05 A AC. I am not sure if the electrical measurements have any meaning, as they were taken with an ordinary multimeter and the AC settings may only work for 60Hz. Is this an indication that I am not getting the power I should be from the amps?

The amps are original version Cary Cad 300se's. From what I can find they are somewhere between 15 and 18 years old. All tubes are new with the exception of the rectifier tube. As far as I know, the rest of the parts are original.

I would appreciate any insights.

Thanks again,

Dave
dbrewer12345's avatar
dbrewer12345 OP
16 posts
 
After the above post, it dawned on me that I should be taking the electrical data while playing a 60 Hz test tone. The results with max gain from the preamp:

Voltage across the amp inputs- 3.7 V AC.
Voltage across the speaker terminals - 8.5 V AC
Current through the speaker cable - 0.7 mA AC or 0.0007 A AC
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