Recommend Speakers For Yamamoto

Rocky,

There are plenty of high efficiency owners in the Bay Area. I suggest you post a request to listen to someone's system in Audio Asylum's High Efficiency forum or SET forum. Just explain post that you are interested in making the jump to SET/high-eff and would appreciate listening to few different systems before making the jump. Say you are open to Single/fullrange & true compression horn speakers and any type of SET they've got.

Another great resource to finder help is the FullRange Driver Forum. Somewhere between those two forums, you will probably find 5-10 people willing to let you come over. I got priceless advice and experience from owners in around Los Angeles.

Please take your time and listen to as many varied systems as possible before purchasing any components or speakers. Just diving in blindly without any reference point or knowledge is a recipe for serious frustration and wasted money.

There is a huge difference in sound and character between 100+dB Edgarhorns, 100dB vintage JBL, Cain & Cain fullrange single drivers(FR's), The Horn Shoppe FR's, Omega, Zu's, and every other speaker made. Finding which are right for you is a long, long, term journey unless you get lucky by sheer chance.

The one good thing about Zu is that they have a 30 or 60 day trial money back guarantee. I don't know of any other speaker maker that does that. Just realize that Zu speakers, like all others, are hit & miss as to who will love them and who will not. I personally like them a lot even though I own a totally different type of fullrange driver system that I love.

I may have misunderstood. For some reason I was under the impression that you already had the Yamamoto. If you have not bought it yet, consider this as a better alternative for your office. http://redwineaudio.com/Signature_30.html
It will be excellent with ZU.

Rocky,

While I don't know of any places to listen to the Yam/Zu combo, there are places in the Bay Area to listen to SETs and high efficiency speakers.

There are several dealers in the area that have SET amps.

try Pitch Perfect Audio in SF, Taurus Tube audio in Newark, and Witch Doctor Audio in Oakland.

You should be able to get a feel for the SET sound.

Also, the Bay Area Audiophile Society is having some kind of Zu demo in October.

I'm with Microjack on this one. I was under the impression that you already owned the Yamamoto amp and were looking for speakers to match. Since that is not the case, personally I would recommend a different approach.

I've heard several 45 based amps and they can sound very good with the right speaker. However, you are greatly limited in the speakers you can use because of the very low output power of the 45 tube.

Specifically about the Yamamoto, I'm not too thrilled with the way it is made. Take a look at this one which just sold on AudiogoN:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstube&1159237527

Screwing the legs into a thin wood panel, near the edge, is an accident waiting to happen. A small bump on the end of the leg, or if the box gets dropped in shipping, is going to cause the unit to become physically damaged like the one shown in the photo.

Personally I would look for an amp with somewhat more power. There are some great 2A3 SET amps out there. For instance, take a look at some of the ones from Larry Moore at Ultra Fi Times. They are extremely well built and sound great! Also, the designer and builder is the same person.

Enjoy,

TIC

I am with all your valuable suggestions. Sorry for not making myself clear in the beginning. I will make some arrangement to hear some of the SET amp setup before jumping the boat. I am a person that don't change system often especially when is come to Amp and Preamp. That is why when I selected my main system is the best out there IMO. So if even it cost a little more than my planned budget I would rather save and wait a little longer. As for the source that is a different story a few months ago I added the Squeeze Box because of the convience than keep changing CDs :)

Again thank you,
Rocky