High Efficiency Monitors - List

Reference 3A Dulcet
Reference 3A deCapo
Zu Tone

These speakers give you tweeters and therefore full harmonic representation of what's going on. Omegas are interesting but aren't wideband enough, IMO, to qualify as monitors. These three speakers will also give you decent bass.

Another borderline efficiency contender that is excellent, is the Silverline SR17-II. The Zu uses a full-range driver from 50Hz - 12kHz, with the tweeter rolled in on a high-pass filter above 12kHz. The Ref 3As have a similar topology, but the tweeter rolls in much lower, in midrange territory like most 2-ways.

Phil

The Reference 3A MM DeCapos are 92 db eff, have excellent sounding bass down into the low 40hz region, and have a very simple crossover that makes them easy to drive.

I've used mine with amps as low as about 1.5 w/ch and they were plenty loud in my smallish room. With 5-8 watts they play louder than I can tolerate.

The Reference 3A is a fine speaker and is very popular. Buy them used, try them and re-sell them for no loss if you don't love them.

BTW, mine are the non "I" version.

Enjoy,

TIC

Thanks for all the info so far. I was hoping to find something to use with one of Don Garber's SET amps. 9.5 watts was the particular one i was interested in. i'm looking for nice, lush vocals. Base isn't too important. My listening room is very small and bookshelf size speakers are really the only option...although they won't be in a bookshelf.

I thought a thread like this could be helpful in the future for people looking for similar match ups.

Zu Tones will be easily driven by the Garber SET, and the midrange is undisturbed by split duties between drivers. They are 95/96 db/w/m in real circumstances but play a little more dynamically than that.

Ref 3a dC or Dulcet should be fine too. I once used 8/8w SET with Dilverlines and SPL was fine in a small room.

Phil

Check out this model by Coincident:

http://www.coincidentspeaker.com/tri_sig.htm

Cheers.