Tube amp for a somewhat difficult load


My speakers are Hales Concept Fives rated at 86db/w/m 6 ohm.
I am looking for tube amps that will give me the tube sound, or is this futile for a speaker of this nature and am I just wasting my money? These speakers need a minimum of 100 watts with solid state. My room is 24 X 16, and I listen to mostly classical music.
128x128bohemian7

Showing 1 response by lornecherry

I drive my Kef Ref 4's (91 DB but 4 ohms)with Aranov 9100 monoblocks(110W a side via KT88s). I also have a Classe 301 (300W) that I've A/B against the Classe, and the SS does have a "firmer" bottom end, but not by much, and nothing that a good SS powered sub didn't cure (Rel Stadium). I also tried bimamping with the Classe on the bottom, but I just can't justify a $5K amp doing only woofer duty -- and the increase in improvement was incremental at best. Thus, I've settled on the Aranovs with the sub helping out -- it's not so much the low end, but rather the sub takes some of the worload off the tubes.

The nice part about the Aranovs is that they can be had for under $3K used. And I also found that biwired hi end speakers cables hepled a lot (HT Magic Woofer/Tweeter) --Lorne