Hi All,
I have octave V80 SE amplifer and am looking to test a few speakers over the next few months<assumption is that budget is good, though not the criteria>. Currently own qAcoustics concept 500.
Have been suggested:
1. Devore o96
2. ProAC K6 Signature
3. Avantgarde Uno XD
Listen to a lot of Film Music, Rahman and carnatic music. But would like it do a good job of Left and right channels of Hometheatre as well.
Are there some brands and lines for me to consider and audition?
Hello,
My speaker suggestions for you :
Start off on the right foot. Speaker
rule one : Seek a HORN loaded speaker - which has an efficiency of 100dB / Watt minimum.
An example : Your initial post's third suggestion, an Avantgarde Uno XD, with two horns per enclosure, would get you there, it has a rated sensitivity of
107 dB. The German firm has been in business
for a long time ( I think they started out with their
all-horn "
TRIO", which
is well known as being GOOD ).
They do generally know what they are doing.
Why select
only a
horn system ??
There are a multitude of most basic and truly great reasons !!!!
1) The horn speaker allows use of our world's best performing amplifiers.
1a) It will be a special tube amp, which in 2022 can readily outperform all
known to me solid state amps, very easily
1b) It will be low powered , which outperforms high powered tube amps, usually ten Watts or less....... is best
1c) It will be Single Ended, which
when at the fringe - edge of audio tube performance, out-performs
slightly, push-pull tube circuits.
1d) It will importantly use
ZERO NEGATIVE FEEDBACK circuitry, which is a total necessity for any serious music listener
1a) to 1d) is what it takes for the maximum in performance and excellence, based on all I know.
Compared to other speakers, a well implemented horn speaker will have
2) lower audible distortion, especially on brass instruments and on orchestral crescendos !!!
3) It can also have
seemingly instantaneous dynamic response and superior dynamic resolution, missing speaker-wise everywhere else in audio !!!
Your existing and lovely Octave V80 SE amplifier ( KT-150s Push Pull ) looks fantastic to me, I like it on many many design levels.
Note : ( I would consider an Octave V80 SE to a
wise amplifier choice, for people who didn't get their speaker selection correct, to start with !! )
But my point to you ( and most reading ) is ,
WHY should you be in that group ( that gets speaker selection wrong according to this post ?????? ) to start with !!??
I generally like and applaud the Octave V80 SE design, but sadly,
it misses on three out of four of the key above-listed design goodness parameters : ( missing....... 1b) 1c) and 1d), ..........) ?? !!
I have heard great things about
one manufacturer's KT-150 amp. That KT-150 tube is used inside a zero NEGATIVE FEEDBACK modern ( 2021-22 ) tube circuit - Single Ended.
Back to the Avantgarde UNO XD, the only possible negatives ( to my view ) could be use of DSP circuitry, and the bass section - being non - horn loaded. I have few long term doubts about the two middle and upper horn sections they used.
Other decent horn speaker systems exist, on the new and used markets, at reasonable to high price levels. Forum private-mail or phone me, and I would be happy to share with you my now 54 year journey into high efficiency speakers. I made lots of goof-ups along the way. You can benefit from all my mistakes in audio.
Jeff Medwin
Here below is a EXPENSIVE ARC P-P amp owner, and low efficiency ( Polk Monolith ) speaker user's letter to me. It is from only 10 hours ago. A single KT88 tube, a DIY SE amp build he just completed - , his first build ever, heard on borrowed pair of 1983 Klipsch speakers . Fellow is 60 years old - a mechanical engineer :
Jeff/Eric,
I owe you guys an update. Sorry for the e-mail but I am still working today before having family come in for Thanksgiving.
For a quick update, I am blown away at how good this SET amp sounds with high efficiency speakers. I am more excited about audio than I have been in 20 years.
I have a pair of stock 1983 Cornwalls hooked up with zip cord cables. These speakers have cheap steel screw posts and the only thing that worked for the functional test was cheapo wire I had laying around.
I am ready to put my expensive push-pull ARC and my beloved vintage Polk 1.2TLs to the curb. It’s crazy! The way I feel right now, is that I will only pursue high revealing systems with high efficiency speakers.
If I get rid of the Polk monoliths, that frees up real estate for VOTTs!!
I am so pumped that I actually built this thing with my own two hands!!
More to come later.
Rick