What speakers are good for tube amps??

[Rob.capone]

Hi i'm new to this stuff and I need some help. I am getting ready to build a system, my first and I am going with a push pull 6v6 tube amp.

I already ordered 2 HH Scott 8" mids and 3 inch tweeters with crossovers and I still need woofers.

I'm looking at a couple of Utah 12 inch and a pair of KENWOOD KL-999X 16" WOOFERS.

Are either of these a good choice??

can anyone recommend brands to look for, not too expensive!

Thanks,
Rob Capone

[anatech]

Hi Rob,
Are you just buying different drivers and hoping to simply stick them together? That is no way to get anything good going on.

You might want to buy the speakers completed. What tube amps "like" to see is a relatively constant impedance. Most systems would have been corner loaded horns or large bass reflex types. The smaller systems used open back boxes. You also want something that is efficient. You will have 10 ~ 12 wrms at your disposal, possibly a touch higher (we are talking about fractions of a dB here).

Some people like single full range speaker systems. His means that that one speaker is more expensive.

-Chris

[Richard Ellis]

Hi Rob,
Are you commited to using these specific drivers for your project?
If so, you should have checked the SPL (Sound pressure level) rating and noted the frequency range of each for a degree of overlap.
"Tube speakers" should be SPL rated as high as is possible for high fidelity. Anything less than 98DBa might be a stretch for common tube amps.........However, volume is relative, do you like ear bleeding volume levels as in a full on Rock concert? Do you like cozy club jazz at moderate levels?
Check the specs of the drivers you have now & we all can go from there.
____________________________________Rick.........

[Ap]

You ordered what? Its not 1960 & most modern tube amps will drive a 90db / 8ohm (nominal) with ease. I would add make sure the spaeker has reasonably flat impedance (zobels etc).
Andrew.

[Rob.capone]

OK Guys, "ordered" was the wrong use of language.

I won on eBay the following:

HH Scott Model S8 Loudspeaker systems complete with the 8 inch wide range and a 4 inch tweeter hand soldered to the cross-over board.

No cabinets included I am going to build an old design that I found in a 1960's copy of Electronics Illistrated.

Are any of you familliar with these? Did I make a mistake?
Do I even need anything else?

[anatech]

Hi Rob,
Don't go and build a design. Now that you have the woofers, design the proper box for them.

All the information you need to do this can be found in books by David B. Weems. Please get a copy and read it before you do anything else. Even an old used copy. They were called "How to Design, Build, & Test Complete Speaker Systems", the first one anyway. TAB is the publisher, #1064, 3274 and 3374. All these have different titles and one was sold through Radio Shack also.

What you will do is figure out the T/S parameters and design the box. With these values known, you can use other design methods to design a different box. I normally go for sealed or B4 ported, depending on the parameters.

-Chris

[jerluwoo]

Rod Elliot also goes over how to measure unknown speakers over on the ESP website ,if you can not find the book mentioned above, this is a good way to get close to the t/s params needed to design a box.

[Rob.capone]

Hi all,

Thanks a lot! I found the book at Amazon for $5.59 shipped!. can't wait to read it.

Boy am I glad I found this forum. this stuff is quite a departure from working on shortwave and Ham gear. I really appreciate the help. I will update you on my progress.

Take care,
Rob

[anatech]

Hi Rob,
Good luck with your project.

-Chris

[Ap]

In keeping with the theme of the speakers I would recommend getting some Seas 25F-EW (as used in old Dynaco) they are paper cone & designed for sealed box.

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/pro...roducts_id=817

If you want to keep the tweeters You may want to also consider adding super tweeters as I doubt what you have will do much past 10k. You will probably require an L-Pad as most super tweeters are horn types & very efficient.

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/PDF...vers/ft17h.pdf

In the end you will have a big old style 4 way - woohoo!

Andrew.