Shakeydeal

If it sounds good, nothing else matters….

So I haven’t listened to my EL84 amp in quite a while. I put it in last weekend and it sounded so good I left it in for a while. For a minute there I questioned the money spent on the more expensive 300B amp. So last night I put it back in. It didn’t take long to hear the results of the extra money spent. The less powerful amp actually has better bass control and a bigger, bolder sound. The 300B amp is 5x the cost of the EL84 amp. It doesn’t sound five times better, we know that’s not how this game works. Even though I could live with either of them, the improvement justifies the cost for the better (and much less powerful) amp.

It’s ok, some people want quantity over quality, and that’s certainly the theme for you. I could never live with a crown amp. Call me an audio snob if you will, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

Heresy @ 96 db would be fine with a low power SET in a small room with moderate listening levels. For movies or head banging, probably not. But for lascalas and khorns, high power is wasted on them. And unfortunately, unless you are willing to break the bank on an amp, as the power goes up the quality usually goes in the other direction. It's much easier and less cost prohibitive to build a high quality low power amp. And it's with low power that these extremely high efficiency speakers shine, IMHO.

Low power will clip earlier when paired with the wrong loudspeaker. With 104 db speakers you will never clip an 8 watt amp at any level you could withstand for any amount of time. It's all about pairing the right amplifier with the right speaker. If you don't get that part right, all bets are off.

I have two amplifiers. One is 8 wpc (300B) and the other is a whopping 15 wpc (EL84). Neither one comes close to clipping in my system when cranking any music I desire. A lot of this is because of well designed power supplies. Not all flea watt amps are created equal. Once you hear one with some balls, you'll understand. I don't give two s&*ts about home theater. Not in my room.

I agree with “good, solid, high end” part. But we part ways with the high power part. My 300B amp sounds bigger and bolder than amps with 10 x the power. Of course it would fall square on its face with the wrong speakers.

I think you've got a good handle on it. Speakers that are easy to drive and present a benign load don't usually benefit from more watts. Now when I say "easy to drive", I don't mean speakers with less than 95 db sensitivity. I mean speakers like the Heritage series and comparable ones. I still maintain what you are hearing is that you prefer the sound of the more powerful amp, and not because it's more powerful. Because it just sounds better. This may be for several reasons. 1) You like the sound of tubes over transistors 2) The Fisher has better parts and a better circuit design 3) The Fisher has a more robust power supply Or some combination of all of the above. But I don't think output power is what you are hearing.

Increases in gain don't equate to more power. This just means that the amp can be driven to clipping sooner or later depending on the output voltage of the source. Amps that are designed as a push/pull amp usually don't sound as good when switched to triode. Most manufacturers will agree. This just gives the owner more flexibility. Then again, as in most things audio, this is subjective. You may like a pentode amp better when switched into triode. My take is different.

I think this is more of a novelty than anything. Every tube amplifier I've owned that had this functionality never sounded better in triode. Yes, you get a lusher midrange, but at the expense of everything else. The only way to do triode is with a triode tube. Not a pentode.

I think you are hearing the difference between technology AND topology. You aren't trying to drive a pair of Wilsons or Martin Logans which can have wild impedance swings. Klipsch speakers tend to have a benign impedance variance, so even the less efficient models are not hard to drive as most other speakers. A better experiment would be pitting two SS or two tube amps of different power ratings against each other on your Fortes. I tried a 150 wpc VTL and a 12 wpc Aric Audio amp on Cornwall IVs. I couldn't hear any improved dynamics or bass control with the VTL, but preferred the Aric for it's tone and imaging. Both sounded equally powerful after adjusting for any gain difference.

I had to use my Google Fu on this one and this is what I found.

If you heard a good implementation of an OB, you’d get it.

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