Now, I will wait to hear results with Triangles and SET or SEP, if you are still inclined to take things even further in that direction. The EE amp seems pretty sweet already. Its one I have considered as well from time to time.
63 responses Add your response
My Triangle Titus have been the bomb for several months now in my wife's 12X12 cathedral ceiling sunroom, running off the 500 w/ch Bal canto ref1000m Class D amps in the basement below (via in-wall speaker wires I had run when the house was built). So when I throw a flea powered tube amp at them some day, the other end of the amp spectrum essentially, it will be very interesting. They are the only speakers I own that might sound even better perhaps with just a few pure watts of tube amp power, but they are hard to fault as running currently even. |
Way to go, Mapman! A speaker that is a **true** 90 db/1W/1m/8 ohms driven by 8 watts should be able to generate SPL's in the mid-90's at a centered listening position about 10 feet from the speakers. Which would certainly seem likely to be adequate for the majority of chamber recordings. The problem that often seems to occur, though, as Duke mentioned early in the thread, is that the specs are inaccurate and/or misleading. One commonly seen example of a spec being misleading even if it is accurate would be a spec such as 90 db/2.83volts/1m for a 4 ohm speaker, or for a speaker that is spec'd as having a higher impedance but which is more accurately characterized as a 4 ohm speaker. The 90 db in that situation corresponds to just 87 db/1W/1m, since 2.83 volts into 4 ohms is 2 watts rather than 1. In this case, though, it would seem that the 90 db figure is an honest one. Best regards, -- Al |
AL just a gut estimation but I suspect the 90 db estimate to be reasonable based on the relative volume I achieve off the Titus compared to the other speakers I run off the same amp, dynaudio monitors and the Ohm Walsh both of which are generally rated a few db less efficient. The Titus are significantly more efficient and go louder much faster. The tradeoff for their size is the last octave of bass or so which helps make them a good match to a flea powered amp despite their small size. As mentioned they also employ a very simple crossover I seem to recall. Also as Schubert mentioned they use a lightweight paper cone bass driver and are very fast and detailed. They were the speakers that succeeded in weaning me off Magneplanar a number of years back. |
Map, I just put small Herbies fat dots under the 202's at each corner. Big jump in instrumental separation and placement, at 5 bucks a piece I know of no better tweek. I could go on and on how great they sound but nobody would believe me . The 6bm8 sounds tad better than the EL84 which sounds better the EL34. The little EE is excellent . |
I have Isoacoustics stands under my Triangle Titus. The difference was huge, night and day in detail, soundstage, imaging, bass articulation. Herbie dots are a similar product to help isolate speakers from floor and room acoustics I believe so similar results not surprising. One would never know what the Triangles are capable of in my house without addressing the acoustic isolation issues. |
Ironically, I was looking at those Mapleshades and almost jumped. Then I found the Isoacoustics that appeared to address the same issues for 1/3 the cost and with many rave reviews on Amazon. Much different aesthetics though. isoacoustics are designed for pro use. Will be interested to hear about the Mapleshades. |
For what it's worth, I did a 4-part series of articles on my audio blog about speakers for SET amps. The first article is right here. I purchased a pair of Omega Super Alnico monitors, with the 6-inch hemp cone driver with alnico magnet motor. I'm still tweaking my system and breaking them in, but at some point I'll likely post a review. |
