ned

By the way, I use a 2.5 watt amp with my Cornwall 4s. I get to 100 dbs long before any sign of stress. Except for the dog. She leaves the room around 90 dbs.

Klipsch speakers tell the truth about what they are fed. Try borrowing an amp from a friend so you can hear what a great purchase you made. You'll love the speakers, I am confident.

I am curious how you know you need more power. Is it a volume/distortion issue?

I worked/shopped in a record store long ago that ran everything through a single Klipschorn. It sounded great - like any proper record store would.

This is not scientific, just how my system is now - and I like it. I have KHorns and Cornwall 4s in my house. I have the UFO2 and a Parasound A23+ in service. I had the UFO on the KHorns for a while and found I was very aware of the squawker. Not in a good way. The CW has a great mid range whatever feeds it. I know have the SS on the KHorns and UFO2 on the CWs and it sounds perfect. great match for each - I've run the KHorns for 5+ years with the Parasound and I've always been happy. There are posts by me on the subject. I have not found the upper bound of high volume with the UFO2. they can drive a speaker just fine.

I have the 2, with the decorative meters. It is dead quiet...until its not! Sorry you are having this experience. You clearly have done and bought everything for great sound. I have the volume knob on the amp at ~75% for whatever that's worth

I'm running a UFO through KHorns without any issue or noise at all. Here is the stupidly obvious question - have you ruled out the preamp? If so, I think I would approach this in two ways - 1) unplug or turn off everything you can in the house and/or 2) use an extension cord to put your amp and pre amp on different circuits. I agree with everyone who mentions dimmers, LEDs, neons, fluorescents or anything that is using a transformer. Good luck. You should be enjoying amazing sound.

New Mexico delivered yesterday.

good question. Let me clear that up. I am high in the Rocky Mountains. I live at 7,000' above sea level

I see the Mcintosh in your system. That'll do it! I have a few mono push/pull amps (Fisher 200s) and they are sweet. too hot for summer and not warrantied for life. I'm enjoying the plug and play lifestyle and the SET sound.

Executive summary of a long post: the Decware SE84UFO sounds great through 1979 Klipshorns and 2021 Cornwall IVs. It sounds better through the KHorns. My system hasn’t changed in years apart from a cartridge here and there. And then suddenly it changed a bunch, all at once. I went onto the Decware list in September of 2021. A month ago, the Zen triode SE84UFO2 arrived. I hooked it up to my 1979 KHorns and it sounded great. Plenty loud, very open presentation - I could hear more distinction between instruments and very crisp starts and stops to notes like the crack of a snare or a dampened string. I hadn’t started to listen critically but I liked it from day one. Days later, a friend’s widow asked if she could store my late friend’s Cornwall IVs at my house while she makes some decisions. So, now I have a couple of amps, a couple of pairs of heritage speakers and a preamp that has outputs for two amps. The Parasound A23+ is fed through the balanced outputs, the Decware is fed by line. Yes, the balanced outputs are louder but it is easy to adjust the gain on both amps and I’ve got the A23+ dialed back. So, the Cornwalls went on the Decware and sounded great. The midrange was forward and clear and everything sounded as it should, although the room was not as sound-filled as I was accustomed to with the KHorns. So, I put the CWs directly in front of the KHorns and powered everything on. Wow. I was swimming in sound and it was clear and lovely. (Let’s not talk about comb filtering just yet). I lowered the KHorns a couple of dbs and it was the best sound I’ve ever heard. Mono recordings were brilliant, small jazz ensemble, opera, hip-hop, girl with guitar - all was wonderful. Loud or quiet. I powered on just the KHorns alone (through the A23+) and I felt like I was missing some life in the midrange. Since these are my forever speakers I was concerned. Then I switched amps. The KHorns alone through the Decware sounded better than the CWs through the Decware, they sounded better than both sets of speakers together. They sounded the best I’ve heard. I’m thrilled. By now the Decware has 100 hours or so on it. I believe in psychoacoustics. The mid horn on the CW IV is a thing of beauty - in fact the whole speaker is. The mid horn on a KHorn is a thing of utility. It does not excite the eye into thinking that magic would emerge. But it does. This is neither an amp or speaker review, It might be a wordy explanation of finding synergy between amp and speaker. I'm putting the CW IV in the bedroom. Boom chicka wow wow.

Welcome to the forum. Simplicity is not my strong suit, but it seems like you might consider getting a front end for your fine amp. A streamer like the Bluesound node (I haven't heard it; just an example) would serve as a DAC and is controllable from your phone. It would support bluetooth in and out which opens up some options also. There are lots of streamers around and it is a growing segment. A preamp such as a Parasound P6 would provide a good DAC that you can plug into via USB from your Mac laptop (as in my system, I think it's great) or optical which is good for a CD transport or bluetooth unit. A preamp will provide lots of options if you go down the rabbit hole into HiFi. It will also give your amp a consistent signal and a volume knob if you were to go with multiple inputs, home theater, etc. I listed a mid-priced model. There are zillions of choices. Your excellent speakers and amp are a foundation from which you could build whatever you like. You're very much on the right path starting with speakers and working up the signal chain. Enjoy!

Artto - thank you for the review and the wide range of music you've detailed. Somehow I trust your ears..... I went onto the list in September - 17 months ago - and hope to receive my UFO2.1 in the next couple of months. Your review will help me pass the time. I am not entirely clear on your various systems - are you using these to run your KHorns?

all is good. thank you for a nice clean sale. N

Sam already asked my question. Thanks