Tube Friendly Speakers - Down to 30Hz - $3000?

Reagarding amps Tvad,

I heartily suggest you choose the Almarro A318B over the A318A. I've owned both and there is no competition between the two. The "A" has noticeably rooled off highs in comparison and lacks the resulting clarity and air of the "B". I also felt the bass was significantly better with the "B".

BTW, both amps do far better(at elast in my home) with 90-94dB speakers than 97dB.The higher efficiency speakers seem to not allow the amps enough output to get into their preferred working range before things got too loud. As a result, the sound was never really as fleshed out and rich as with 90dB/4ohm speakers. The lower-eff speakers turned out to be a glorious match with the amps, though.

The A318B is a fantastic amp if you are looking for accurate amplification. It was far moe "literal" than my much more expensive 300B monoblocks and PX-25 amps. Not dry or colorless, just very accurate without embellishment.

Good suggestion Soliver,

The 90dB/4 ohm speakers that I mentioned working extremely well with the Almarro A318 "A" & "B" were Jean Marie Reynaud Twins mkII monitors. Their floorstadning models are equally easy to drive and provide greater low frequency response.

Easily my favorite line of moderately efficient speakers.

If you are considering Reynaud, then definetly look into Audiomat's integrateds.

Bob Neil, reviewer of the Solfege Reference, used Audiomat's during his series of reivewes covering the Reynaud line.

Prelude Reference review

Solfege Reference review

There are a couple of used Prelude References for sale here for $2,700.

I appreciate Sounds_Real's enthusaism for C&C speakers, but if Tvad is truly looking for "Speakers - Down to 30Hz", I'm not sure the Abby/Bailey combo is going to deliver that performance with sufficient SPL's.

Tvad's room and mine are almost exactly the same dimensions. I have the much larger C&C IM-Bens with two passive Balieys driven by an IcePower 500ASP module in mono and in my room it's -4/-6dB at 30Hz.

Granted my room is; a) untreated, b) accoustically insane with the room looking down onto the living room below. So, I am not getting all the room reinforcement possible.

But, I would be hard pressed to believe he is going to the kind of low frequency output he seems to desire with the Abby/Bailey combo.

One thing I will agree with you on is the tonality that can be had from the combo. It sounds very, very, good. Shockingly so, if you like high(ish) efficiency fullrange-driver speaks.

30Hz, "Reasonably small footprint", and "fully driven without compromise by tube amplification with as little as 15wpc" is a very, very, difficult demand.

So, it all comes down to which tradeoffs a person is willing to make, especially in the $3,000 or less range.

Yeah, "inquiring minds want to know"

It's been interesting following your system evolution, Tvad. Glad to see you've finally settled on a keeper. Let's hope the rest of us can reach that point.