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In Reply to: RE: Legend Monoblock PSE 300B posted by ianm0 on April 02, 2013 at 16:34:10
I think they would drive them depending on size of room and musical tastes but you would not be able to take full advantage of the single ended sound - you might want to look at the L4 EL34i which has sparkling single ended like sonics along with the slam and at 35W would be tons of power for these speakers! Brian
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My listening room is about 250 sq ft. Musical taste: classical. Don't care much for gut-wrenching bass and screechy treble.
Probably a bit marginal for big orchestral pieces?
Hello ianm0 (A)
I have an Audio Note based system with the Conquest MonoBlocks (AN UK) at 18 watts.
I have bought a few Audio Note Kits units as well (DACs), and have found they are excellent.
Prior to me getting the Audio Note Conquests, I ran a big SS power amp into 86db Kef 107s.
It was fine, as when I heard Single Ended, I was hooked. I got the Conquests first and was in love with the midrange and vocal, the treble was so realistic. The only failing was the bass was there, but was a bit loose on fast electronic or dance music.
So, soon after that I sold the Kefs and bought some tube friendly Zingail horn hybrids, and now I am in heaven.
If you have heard and liked the SET sound with 300b tubes, I would go for it, regardless of your existing speakers. The thing is, try not to get dead ended with inefficient speaker designs, or you may not get the SET sound and be stuck in compromise higher power tubes amps or stuck with SS.
OK you can get EL34s or Push Pull amps which may be good, but for me they miss something in the music. And you will notice it if you like Classical and vocal music. These designs are really produced to service those big USA built speakers, and it misses the point.
I would say go for the Interstage Monoblocks twin 300b versions at 20w per channel. It will be fine and later you can sell on your speakers and get some tube friendly ones to fully get the SET sound. Those monoblocks are as good or better than my Conquests. You will love the sound, trust me.
That's music to my ears. I do have the Interstage Monoblocks on my radar.
A SET will work with them but you probably want to get a 211 or 845 which are bigger more powerful sounding SETs.
I heard the Meishu here yesterday with AN Es and really loved it - much better than at Audio Shows. But the E HE SPe is much easier to drive than Harbeths.
That said AN makes excellent push pull amps (hush hush).
Still like you the Single Ended sound is where I want to stay and keep going. I like the Harbeths - If you can - try a set of AN K/Spe - they're sealed so a different bass flavor than all the other AN speakers - some people actually like the K the best and it's $3k. This speaker is happy with 5 watts in a fairly large room. I used a Tripath class T amp with them on a demo.
So it depends on how tied you are to the Harbeth. If these are you rest in peace speakers then you want to make sure you have enough power - if you see yourself trading them down the line for an AN speaker or some other SET friendly speaker then the lower power will get you buy until that time I'm sure.
I auditioned the Magnepan 1.7 and B&W N801 with low powered SET amps and those speakers never sounded better. You just could not play them at very loud levels. Still the quality was a cut above hearing those same speakers with 500 watt beasties.
I don't know the kits too well - maybe they have a 300B SET in parallel which would provide 18 watts - that would probably solve the problem. The production model is called Conquest - perhaps the kits have a version available or will come up with one.
Very surprised, pleasantly, by your experience with SET + the captioned speakers. The Magnaplanars are notoriously hungry for power. If you heard good outcome as you said, it should have little problem with the Harbeth - for me. I seldom listen at SPL over 80 db.
The dealer Soundhounds in Victoria British Columbia http://www.soundhounds.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=2
carries Bryston, Sim Audio, Classe, and Ayre so it was surprising to go into a room and see an Audio Note amp hooked up (it was however the Single Ended Soro) so I made a mistake - still this is not a very powerful amp but it is about double the power of the 8 watt 300B.
The point though is that they and I prefer the 1.7 with the AN than with the mammoth power SS speakers. It's not about sensitivity it's about a flat impedance and Magnepan does present a flat impedance so contrary to the myths of audio forums - it does not require a high watt amplifier. It requires a good amplifier. I also think that people are often dissatisfied with the dynamic ability of virtually all small/medium sized panels and so they think that by throwing lots of power at them it will help.
A lot of stereos just are not very good (contrary to the 5 star award winner and Stereophile class A lists) many stereos you always feel the need to turn the volume up up and up to make things out clearly. Using volume to compensate for poor low level resolution (something SET amps are masters at). With the SET you hear the information and it doesn't require volume to make things out because they're being made out at normal levels. Listening to the Meishu and the AN E/HE Spe herein Hong Kong I did play them fairly loud - but it didn't seem loud because it was so clear. (which is actually somewhat dangerous cause if it had been B&W and Bryston it would have bothered me and I would turn it down - or off).
They had the OTO push pull amp running the Quad 2905 electrostatics as well.
Terry the owner of Soundhounds sells a lot of gear - has sold most every big name audiophile brand over the last 40 years. I was kind of amused that in every system whether Audio Note or not he had an AN DAC in all of them to "fix" the sound. B&W and Classe with Soolos - he puts a DAC Zero in the chain. Sim Audio and Sonus Faber - got a CDT 2.1 in the chain.
Actually Soundhounds also sells Harbeth - It would be interesting to hear the combination - unfortunately I won't be in Canada until mid July.
Ok I just read the Hi-Fi Choice review - this SHOULD be a dead easy speaker to drive - in fact it should be just as easy to drive as the Audio Note J/Spe. Hi Fi Choice measured it and got 91db sensitivity and the speaker never drops below 5 ohms. The AN J/Spe is 89.5db and 92.5db in corners according to the same magazine. So apples to apples this is pretty much the same - both speakers are nominal 6ohm loads and neither goes under 5ohms - the AN E is actually harder to drive - it is 94db sensitive but dips to 3.6ohms through a large portion of the bass region.
http://www.harbeth.co.uk/uk/uploadfolder/shl5%20hifichoice%20oct2002.pdf
The review I found is from 2002 but still - many British brands conservatively spec their gear so it is possible that your speakers are conservatively speced (Hi FI Choice got 91db in the real world). Harbeth's website suggests 25 watts but it's still 6ohms and that is probably accounting for most SS users so 25 SS watts. I know some say watts are watts but it kinda isn't with the way amps clip.
If listening at under 80db then it should be more than fine.
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