Speaker Impedance, Tenor OTLs, and Watt Puppies

Hayden, one thing you need to remember is that the Tenors only output 55 watts into 4 ohms, but 75 watts into 8 ohms. then if that is reduced to 3 ohms you are probably looking at less than 50 watts. so the output power of the amp is affected by the impedence.

then the stability of the amp is affected by the change in impedence since there is no output transformer to regulate and stabilize output.

think of impedence as the size of a garden hose. high impedence is a very thin hose....it doesn't take much water to fill and pressurize the hose and it is easy to keep up the pressure. now consider a very large garden hose which is like low impedence....to keep up the pressure it takes lots of water and power to drive the water. without trying to explain the whole impedence picture; an OTL amp is like a water pump designed to work ideally in a medium size hose but that struggles with the bigger hose. also, this pump has a hard time changing speed of flow if the hose changes size.

as you already know, the Watt/Puppy 6's sound great on the Tenors....they just have limited dynamics and can get hard on the peaks or go into soft clipping if pushed. so a marginal match still works with the Tenors....but why have a marginal match when speakers exist that are a very good match with the Tenors?

adsal, i did read that review.

Hayden, the choice of which comes first, the chicken (speakers) or the egg (amps) is classic. my 2 cents in this case is that for the closest to the musical event an OTL is the best amplifier and no matter what speakers are used only an OTL offers the level of musical satisfaction that i want, especially the Tenors.

in my experience 3 or 4 different speaker systems that are quite a bit different all sounded their best on the Tenors.

Tekunda, i refuse, on general principle, to buy anything called "Double Kronzilla".....the name is just too "out there". i couldn't brag all over the web on my great "Double Kronzillas".....the name "Tenor" sounds much more classy and dignified.

i, of course, am joking....eventually i will hear a better amp than the Tenor 75Wp....could be the Double Kronzilla....heck, some people prefer the Lamm ML2. my opinion is that ON THE PROPER SPEAKER, the best OTL can't be bettered.....and at this moment, the best OTL to my ears is the Tenor.

maybe out there is someone who has heard the Double Kronzilla (could they have come up with a sillier name?) and the Tenor on speakers correct for the Tenor, and they could share with us their opinion.

one last point, the Prodigy is an electrostat that is not OTL friendly. it would be the last speaker to compare OTL speakers on. the Prodigy is 4 ohm and drops to one ohm. any conclusions reached on the Prodigy regarding the Tenor are not meaningful to me. also, even though the Prodigy is an excellent speaker (i know you own them), the dis-similar driver designs limit the potential coherence of this hybrid design, and render meaningless the Tenor's top to bottom excellence. with the Prodigy you need horsepower, and lots of it. don't get me wrong, i like the performance of the Prodigy, it has earned it's awards. but find an OTL-friendly speaker to compare the Tenor and the Double Kronzilla.

Tekunda, art is art, and sound is sound. make sure if you spend big bucks for amps (even with a great discount), that you get solidly engineered amps (which the Krons may well be).

i have done "biggest and baddest" before, i had the Mark Levinson #33 monoblocks, 365 pounds each of muscle. the 33s literally dwarf any other amp. while i have nothing bad to say about them, i have heard 5 amps in my room since then that i preferred to them. none of those amps had the visual majesty and "wow" factor of the #33s, but i can say i won't ever own the #33s again.

your Wolcotts are an excellent choice for your Prodigys.

i think your intention to get a vinyl setup is great, go for it!!