Goldenear Triton One.R - can it be driven with low power tube amp?

Hi mocean, 
You did the right thing by trying your 20 watt solid state amplifier driving the Tritons and the outcome wasn’t satisfactory. One can rightly conclude that the Vista Audio Spark amplifier wasn’t a good match. However cakids had a Much better outcome. One could conclude that the Manley Stingray is much better suited for this speaker than the Vista. Both scenarios confirm the importance of listening.
Charles

cakids, 
In your case George is putting the cart before the horse. You've done the ultimate test by using your Manley Stinray and finding "excellent " sound driving your Tritons. George hasn't done this and yet proclaims low powered tube amplifiers such as yours won't work well. So it is your own ears versus what he says the measurements will predict. Which of the two is more logical and reliable?

Do you now doubt what you've heard in your system? Educating yourself with regard to  measurement interpretation is fine and useful to a degree. The opportunity to listen is even better. Does your listening experience correlate with his warnings? It doesn't appear that way to me.
Charles 

The supposition is not the reported test bench measurements of two published reviews.  My use of the term refers to reaching a conclusion based on those measurements without the benefit of any listening experiences with speaker and amplifier to confirm an assumption (Lower power tube amplifiers are insufficient to drive the Tritons).

It makes little sense to ignore the listening accounts of cakids and those mentioned regarding Sandy Gross (who plays the 'mere' role as the Tritons designer and also owns a pair for personal use). Perhaps these are inconvenient data points. Anyway, certainly two different viewpoints presented in this thread. 
Charles 

"Life can be good" indeed.
I believe that you will experience further improvement with insertion of the Cary SLP-5. 

20 watt SET ?  Are you considering parallel 300b SET  or 845/211 tubes?
Charles 

George,
To be very clear I am not disputing the very daunting speaker impedance measurements you have cited. Those numbers are factual, no argument. However the person who designed these speakers and is obviously responsible for their subsequent load characteristics nonetheless chooses to listen to them with his 8 watt SET.

He clearly enjoys what he’s hearing (With intimate knowledge of the speaker’s impedance behavior!). He also has a solid state amplifier but for his purposes prefers the SET for listening pleasure. I have to reasonably conclude that it sounds very good to him. However I acknowledge that this  amp/speaker combination may not sound good to you. Just common sense as nothing pleases everyone.

In this circumstance I give more credence to someone who not only has heard this pairing but who created the speakers!!! Compared to some who hasn’t listened to it and is making a case solely on provided measurements. This is my only point.

Real world actual listening versus speculation based on reported measurements. Again George I don’t believe that anyone reading this thread will find it misleading or confusing. People can appreciate real listening encounters versus supposition.
Charles

Good point and perhaps Sandy Gross utilizes an 8 watt SET that has output transformers up to the task. After all these speakers are his creation. If anyone knows them it would be him. 

We do know that the Manley Stingray in triode mode (20 watts) has no problem driving the Tritons per cakids account. So a robustly built 300b SET with high quality output transformers isn't an unimaginable stretch. It would be quite interesting to know more about Sandy's particular 8 watt SET. There is certainly a pecking order amongst the wide variety of these types of amplifiers in the marketplace. 
Charles 

Jperry,
Thank you for your very kind comments. They are much appreciated.

George,
I don’t disagree with your comments, you do have to judge each speaker individually in its totality. All things considered load impedance and associated phase angles are factors that deserve consideration. It seems that Sandy Gross uses an 8 watt SET that suits ’his’ desires with the speaker ’he designed’ . Granted what satisfies him may not satisfy you.

You make my point in referencing the Wilson Alexa speaker. Very similar load impedance measurements, no doubt. Yet there’s more to that story.
As cakids rightly noted the built in powered subwoofer of the G.E. Triton is a significant variable. The Alexa lacks a powered subwoofer so one might expect a different outcome match with similar amplifiers chosen to drive them.

Certainly cakids experience using his Manley Stingray demonstrates excellent compatibility with the Triton. I did not extrapolate that this would be true for all challenging speaker load impedance scenarios, hardly. My main point is you have to listen in most (Not all) cases to get a true assessment.

An example of where listening wouldn’t be a necessity, my 8 watt 300b SET amplifier matched with the Wilson Alexa. On the other hand the Tritons might be worth a listening session. Again, the LM 805ia heard by jperry would definitely be a major contender with the Tritons in my opinion.

I don’t believe that folks reading this thread will have any problems making distinctions of the information discussed here.
Charles

Jperry, 
Knowing that Sandy Gross and cakids are both very pleased with their respective tube amplifiers driving the  G.E. Triton. I have no doubt whatsoever the Line Magnetic 805ia would sound  "great" as you mentioned.300b as driver for the 805 output tube, nice!
Charles 

Hi cakids,
Thanks for posting your listening impressions. You can get dozens (Hundreds) of opinions on what will or won’t work based on this or that reason. Actually listening to the audio product in your own system is hands down the superior approach.

Given that Sandy Gross is very happy using an 8 watt SET amplifier, it isn’t completely surprising that you achieved excellent sound quality and natural tonality (A strength of good tube amps) using the Manley Sting Ray, I’m glad that you took the time to give it a try.

Very interesting and successful outcome for you in light of the challenging speaker impedance measurements provided by George. You really do have to listen as bench testing doesn’t yield the entire picture, just a partial perspective. Ironically the bass frequency region was a concern yet you report excellent bass results with both triode and Ultralinear modes of the Manley.
Charles

cakids the designer of these speakers prefers 8 watt SET amps and this is obviously a reflection of his taste and how he hears/listens. Your listening biases may be similar to  his or possibly quite different,  who knows?

You have a good quality el 84 pentode push pull tube amplifier that's switchable between 20 (Triode) and 40 (Ultralinear) watts.  Definitely exercise your curiosity and insert this amplifier into your system.  I look forward to your impressions.
Charles