Hi,

Somewhere I read that the Klipsch line because of the sensitivity (99db,Palladium) is well suited to tube amplifiers.  Most of the tube amplifiers that I see are in the 20-100 watt range... I'm looking at a Manley Labs 300B Pre Amp with a Cary 805 AE.... The Cary 805 AE is rated at 50 watts into an 8 ohm load.

I've also read a few articles on impedence matching... and the effects of lower impedence on tube amplifiers whereby the lower impedences cause the tube amp to have to produce more current... something they don't like to do... 

Also on the Klipsch site it mentions an amp should have  at least as much power in watts to be safe as the speaker is rated at (continuously).. in this case thats 400 watts for the Palladium.

My question is... with something like the Palladium  that is rated at 4 ohms and has a impedence fall off between the 100 hz and 400 hz range.. (I saw this somewhere on the Palladium site)... this is going to cause the tube amp to produce more current... is this a setup that can work OR is it too much (LOW IMPEDENCE)  for a SET Tube amp rated at 50 watts@ 8 OHMS  to handle...?

 Thank you...

Bob

hello

the cary should be set up for use with either 4 ohm , 8ohm, or 16 ohm speakers meaning you will have no issues using the cary with a 4 ohm load ( i oun the cary 805,s and use them with a 4 ohm speaker with no issues

Joe

RobertZ:

Also on the Klipsch site it mentions an amp should have  at least as much power in watts to be safe as the speaker is rated at (continuously).. in this case thats 400 watts for the Palladium.

I would do what Klipsch says because they built them. Have you bought the $20,000 speakers or something in the Palladium line that is cheaper? How do you like them?

Cary will tell you their amp is the cat's whiskers!  

I think I would recommend a Cayin Integrated or McCintosh tube amp for the Palladium....mostly because I've heard both and they handle the impedance response just fine. The Manley gear is pretty nice too, but I've not heard them with impedance crazy speakers so won't comment there.

Edit, just realized you're talking about a Cary amplifier. Generally speaking, I'd say that "zero feedback" designs will trend towards higher output impedance and will therefore have a more difficult time with impedance. When you call Cary, see if you can't get them to tell you the output impedance of the amplifier and ask about how the output impedance varies with frequency (the output impedance of the amplifier, not the speaker impedance). Knowing the output impedance will let you predict how the amp will behave with the speaker.