Need at least 900wpc in 4ohm

The Snell AIII was a good speaker in its day. It was about the only thing out there that competed with the Fulton Premiere systems. But that was 1984. Snell made a speaker call the B that I found preferable to the AIII- easier to drive and more detailed (still went to 22Hz).

Since the time of the B, there have been a lot of other speakers that have appeared that are easy contenders. If you want something on the scale of a speaker like that, with a reasonable price that is also easy to drive, check out the Audiokinesis Dreammaker, which got a Golden Ear award a few years back. I would take if over a set of AIIIs in a heartbeat- especially if you have a larger room- you need the efficiency.

The reason you need the efficiency is the simple fact that there are no particularly musical amplifiers that also have power in excess of 500 watts. Sure, there is lots of stuff that sounds like good HiFi, but if you want it to sound like real music, that amp does not exist in those power levels, tube or transistor. So you have to get the efficiency going. You might also consider that fact that if you really push a +500 watt amp into those Snells, you will toast them but before that they will be highly compressed.

Sorry to break it to you this way but there is no way to change the laws of physics. If you go with a smaller room you will have a lot more option with that speaker. Of course, if you only plan to play at lower volume levels maybe you will be OK. Personal preference *does* play a role in that regard.

Ddd1, 500 watts is by no means the magical number. In fact the common 'wisdom' in this regard is 60 watts. That is to say, most amplifier topologies go downhill if the topology is built to be able to produce more than 60 watts or so.

Now most of you know that I am a tube advocate, but what you may not know is that I don't think tubes are the final answer, just that it is much easier to get them to sound like music. I've been designing and building amplifiers since the mid 1970's and I have built many transistor amps and serviced hundreds if not thousands (I used to run an audio repair operation).

So you may not agree, but you will understand when I say that I don't take most transistor amps seriously, particularly the high power ones. The best transistor amp I have heard was zero feedback, class A and made 100 watts, costing $100,000. It was made by Ridley Audio in Atlanta. It was so smooth and detailed it put most tube amps to shame, let alone all transistor amps.

Transistor amps that need not apply will be class AB and use negative feedback. I'm not quite like Julian Hirsch in saying that these amps will sound pretty much the same; there are variances depending on the power supplies, whether its bipolar or MOSFET, but in general such amps make trace amounts of odd ordered harmonic distortion which causes them to sound bright and take on a harsher character than is natural. Essentially I consider them to have a coloration, and an unpleasant one at that.

So for me the field is thus limited to tube power if we are talking 500 watts. I can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of tube amps that are contenders. Its unfortunate but that is the way it is.