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8 watts 300B with Cornwalls/Cornscalas


EmilC

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New guy here

Should have my Cornscalas in about two weeks but no amp to drive them.

My room is 12 by 21 dedicated room. Listen to all types of music except classical. Do like to drop in some Led Zep from time to time.

I know the the CW/CS are efficient but can and 8 watt SET amp really control that big woofer?

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

Other amps on my list are the Quicksilvers and First Watt

Thanks for your help

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Hey Emil,

My room is in the basement and is just a little larger than yours, at 15' x 20', speakers on the long wall, appox. 10'-11' apart forming an equilateral triangle to the main listening spot.

I run my Cornscalas with 2 different amplifiers.

For extended, non critical listening sessions while I am doing other things I usually use my HK930 receiver which is vintage 60wpc SS power.

There is no shortage of power with the HK and can fill the main floor of my side split house from the basement, great while doing other chores through out the house!

For serious listening, I use my Almarro A205a mkII amp which is an EL84, 4.8 watt SEP integrated.

This amp sounds better to my ears that the Vintage SS and has surprising output.

It will not quite fill the whole house (but very close) like the HK930 does but has more than enough to look after the times that I get the "Led out"

IMHO, a 8wpc 300B would have more than enough output for any situation!

When I first got into Klipsch, my 1st pair where a nice pair of 86 Cornwalls and I drove them with a pair of Quicksilver Mid Monos (EL34 @ 40wpc).

This was a fantastic combo that I have thought about revisiting with my CSs... tons of power and I think you can roll in KT88s for a different tube flavor.

I briefly tried a Rawson F3 clone with a pair of KHorns, it was not bad but did not blow me away.

I would like to try another First Watt (a real one this time) but would probable lean towards a F5, J2, Aleph J, or maybe an older Pass Aleph amp.

Congrats on the new speaks!!!

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Im driving my 88 cornwall II's with a 12w class A SET El 34 amp and had the same concerns as you. I couldn't be happier with the combination, my room is a little larger than yours.

Im about to purchase another amp for some tannoy super red monitors I have at my place of work. These are less efficient, than the CW's, rated at 94db and have 15" woofers so I am considering a 18w version of the amp driving my CW's, this amp uses kt88's.

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I use 2A3 tubes on my La Scalas and wouldn't call them warmish or soft at all. Crummy recordings or masterings sound bad to nearly unlistenable, but the good stuff is, as Shakey says, magical.

As Chris has pointed out, checking out CDs listed on the DR database let's me know what will probably be good. If it isn't listed, you can download their utility and check them for yourself. Quite a revelation.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/

Bruce

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Guest David H

No experience with Cayin, but I have tried several 300B tubes.

EH-300B's were good overall, but my lease favorite in the line up.

JJ big bottle is a nice sounding tube overall and inpressive to look at, I prefered it slightly to over the Valve Art 300B

The Sophia princess Carbon plates excellent but $$$$ and speaker seemed speaker dependent. Great highs.

My overall favorite is the Sophia Electric 300B mesh plate globes, same as the TJ 300B tube I believe.

All of these tubes were quite good.

Dave

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disco no...jazz, country, pop, etc, 8 watts is plenty depending on where you fit within those spl calculators. I used a 1.5 watt se amp numerous times to demo klipsch speakers and had the listener stand 21 feet away. so yes, the 1.5 watt surprised me. using an 18 watt PP tube amp now, not so much for the power but because the 18 watt amp has an amazingly high sgnal to noise ratio of 95 db. I'm still not using more than a watt of power even with the 18 watt amp.

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