High Sensitivity Speakers that work best with SS

My feeling is that the less than ideal pairing between high efficient speakers
and ss amps is a consequence of the fact that many high power ss amps can't
do the first watt right. That is, high efficiency speakers require a very small
amount of power to sing (e.g. a tenth, a hundredth, etc. of a watt), whereas
most ss amp are simply not designed to do the first watt right, they are
comfortable when putting out more than 1 watt. I hope that Atmasphere can
shed some light on this. I thank you in advance Ralph.

Along the same lines, I always though that the 1st watt amps of Nelson Pass
were called like that because they were designed to do the first watt right.

Finally, as a few other have mentioned already, Avantgarde Acoustic speakers
are known to sing also with ss amps (not with all though).

Best wishes,
Paul

Unsound, of course "overdriving" an amp is also not good. But I have never suggested that. With normal speakers one most often uses a few watts (e.g 5 watts) for typical listening levels, whereas with very efficient speakers one most often uses between a hundredth and a tenth of a watt.

Unsound, no need for "with all due respect", my comment was certainly not meant as a definitive explanation. (I am in no way qualified to do that, I'm a theoretical physicist/spectroscopiest.) However, I am not saying that subsequent watts compromise the first watt, but rather I am wondering whether the designers of powerful ss amps (e.g. 100 - 200 or more watts into 8 ohms) pay always attention to get the first watt right. It is common sense to expect that an apparatus may not necessarily performed optimally when operating at only 0.01 - 0.1 percent of its capacity. Even the smallest perturbation may be significant in that situation.

I hope Atmasphere (or somebody else) can clarify this question of mine.

Paul

Unsound, with all due respect, please leave it at that. Let others with first hand experience in building and measuring tube and ss amplifiers answer my question. It is a perfectly logical question.

Hi guys,

Atmasphere, thanks for clarifying the situation. Before reading this post, I though it was common knowledge, but after seeing that nobody has pointed it out, I realize that maybe it was just my hunch. If you do not mind, I have another question about:

On higher efficiency speakers the distortion character in an amplifier that seems to be most successful is that where the distortion linearly decreases to unmeasurable as power is decreased. This is the realm of SETs, the Nelson First Watt designs and our own OTLs.

Is this intrinsic to these specific designs, i.e. it is simple not possible to achieve similar signal-to-noise rations when building powerful amps? Or, is this because in these designs the designers pay special attention to this (unlike most designers of powerful amps)?

Unsound, I do not thing either of us (or anybody else for that matter) has digressed. Understanding why a particular combination may not work is always beneficial. (Regarding the question mark it was not necessary as it was an indirect question, i.e. I am wondering ... )

Mapman, do you have in mind any specific combination of very efficient speakers and a powerful amp?