2. amps-preamps
  3. 188725-188736

Minimum Power Needed to Drive Klipsch Cornwall IVs? - Considering Erhard_Audio Ray

Hi,

I'm new to the the hifi world but have taken up the hobby with alacrity. I recently purchased a pair of Cornwall IVs to go with my Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum 2. At the time I purchased the speakers I had no idea what speaker sensitivity is. Now that I do, I realize that I have a lot of interesting options when choosing an amp. I have been toying with the idea of getting an Erhard-Audio Single-Ended Ray along with their Aretha pre-amp. The amp is only 4W/channel. I'm highly skeptical but I've been told that 4W is plenty to drive a 102db speaker and that the sound of an SE amp is amazing.

Wondering if anyone has experience driving Klipsch Cornwall IVs (or other high sensitivity speakers) with a low wattage amp. I'm also interested in experience with SE amps.

My system consists of the following:

Technics 1200G
VAS Nova cartridge
VAS SUT
Rogue Audio Triton 2 phono pre-amp
Bluesound Node
Musican Pegasus DAC
Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum 2

My room is 15' x 30' with 14' ceilings. It's a photo studio in an old mill. I'm often moving around so I need the sound to fill the space. BUT I've gotten noise complaints from my neighbors so...

Musical preference is all over the place. Today I'm listening to Dire Straits, Sturgill Simpson, Paul Simon, Miles Davis, Tycho, Post Malone, Taylor Swift, Michelle Gurevich etc.

katokaelin

Showing 2 responses by corelli

corelli
945 posts
 

@katokaelin   Obviously many diverse opinions here.  One qualifier to my prior comments.  The system I use the Ray in, with my significantly less efficient speakers, provided plenty of juice for all of the music I used that system for BUT when I had full scale works I used my larger system.  I would wager that for the vast majority of your music you would be quite happy.  Also, I did not mention, the amp is very quiet. No hiss or hum in my system.  Lastly, my system is CD based and, via a short pair of IC's,  I was able to bypass the need for a preamp using the optional volume pot.  Just a thought.  If you do go with a separate pre, and find you need more power for that 10% of the time you need to really rock it, you could always get a second PP amp. Variety is the spice of life right?  But SET amps are special and I was shocked how well 4wpc worked for me.

corelli
945 posts
 

I have the Ray in a secondary system driving Omega monitors in a larger room and it has plenty of punch. I never felt it lacking in wattage or limited in that regard.  

I use the built in passive pre and have done some upgrades with Miflex coupling caps and upgraded binding posts/RCA's.

This is a beautiful little chunk of an amp.  Louis at Omega finished my monitors beautifully in Padauck to perfectly match the cabinet of the Ray.  As you know the Ray uses very high quality Lindahl transformers.  It's sound is very neutral.  It is not slow, does dynamics well, images beautifully and has good "color saturation" if you follow my analogy.  Many affordable tube choices.  Highly recommended.

More to discover