Heresey to Cornwall tube amplification Question

[mstouks]

I currently own a 1982 set of Heresey speakers and will want to upgrade them to cornwalls before that happens I want to switch from SS to tube amplification. My room size is 15 X 28. My question is simple how much tube power do I need to maintain a great sound level in this room for both speakers. i listen to all types of music from claasic rock to Classical. Also the room is currently carpeted with 7 foot celings and regular plastered wall.

[Deang]

Power is power. How much do you need now? With Cornwalls, you will need less. Equally important questions are - how far off the speakers do you sit and how often do you like to lean on the volume. I think you'll need at least 30 wpc. An Ultralinear amp with EL-34s sounds nice, and gives you about 40 wpc. Craig's Monoblocks are killer sounding, and give you the option to run in triode mode, which sounds really nice (you get a choice between 30 or 60 wpc).

[KHORNLOVER]

Correct: Power is Power! But, you need "headroom" to make the speakers Kick ***[^o)] The more clean power you have on reserve so to speak, the more Deep Bass Punch you will obtain..and thats a fact[H]

[moray james]

the most powerful sounding amplifier I have heard so far is the SET2A3 mono blocks by Serious Stereo. Wattage will not ensure powerful bass alone but headroom is important to have. Some amps (many) just don't make good bass and bass seems to be a very easy thing for designers to get wrong and this applies as much to SS as it does to Tube amplifiers. Best regards Moray James.

[KHORNLOVER]

Very True...My 20+ year old YAMAHA MX-800 PRE AMP/AMP sounds absolutely great pushing my K-Horns..Would love to hear a high powered Mac with the K-Horns[H]

[garyrc]

"Powerful sounding" is not necessarily quite the same as powerful. And ... a few people still contend that a good tube amp of a given (RMS??) wattage can produce peaks up to 6 times the level as a good solid state amp ... but most people I've read say that a Watt is a Watt. I am not an expert on either of the areas, so I'll leave them to others.

Your room is just under 3,000 cubic feet. Conveniently, Don Keele, former chief engineer of Klipsch published a "power needed" table in The Dope from Hope (1977) for a 3,000 cu ft room, R = 200. To get 105 dB continuous Sound Pressure Level (room location unspecified, but probably at the apex of an equilateral triangle that also touches the center of the speakers) from a Cornwall you would need 18 Watts -- a Heresy would require 45 Watts to produce the same level. According to Keele, either of these wattages into the particular speakers specified would provide very brief peaks of 115 dB. The majority of people I have discussed this with either seriously doubt the peak figure, or say something like, "not with my peaks." THX measured 108 dB (110dB in the bass) infrequent, but recurrent, peaks in their dubbing stage for The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Paul Klipsch used to say you need 115 dB at your ears for peaks. I've seen a 120 dB figure, for peaks only. And things have gone a little crazy since 1977 and 1980. If you can afford it, and find a tube amp that could do it, why not build in a hefty safety factor and allow for 115 dB continuous? Using that level full out is not recommended, and would probably destroy your Cornwalls, but having the amplifier gracefully capable of it -- without clipping -- would be comforting. That would require 180 Watts into the Cornwall, but don't even think of actually feeding a Cornwall that. The briefest peaks are unreadable on most (all?) SPL meters.

[derrickdj1]

On the AVS forum they have a list of high spl / high efficiency speakers and all the Klipsch Heritage speaker could hit 105 db with a LP of 12 ft. with less than 30 watts. http://www.avsforum.com/t/1387083/list-of-reference-level-high-sensitivity-spl-speakers