SET Friendly Bookshelf

[was ist los?]

I'm looking for a bookshelf or monitor that will work in a 11x10ft room. I'd like to use my Ladyday 300Bs. I'd also like the performance to be comparable to high end monitors and bookshelfs and still be within a reasonable cost and easy to build. Preferably, i'd like a kit.

[rcavictim]

What you described is what everyone would like but it goes contrary to the laws of physics. In order to make full-range bookshelf (small) speakers the designers accepted the accompanying huge loss of efficiency. The high power, low cost per watt solid state amps came to the rescue. Whether the result was hi-fi is debatable. To get high efficiency and low frequencies to run on just a few watts from a valve SET amp (because you are obviously after hi-fi) you cannot fool physics, the cabinet has to be comparable in size to the wavelengths of the sound. That means big cabinet.

[joensd]

Maybe one of the Adire kits?
http://www.adireaudio.com/Files/HE10-1Plans.PDF

[was ist los?]

Do my options open up if have the efficiency as low as 89-90dB?

[Stuart Easson]

Hi,

Joensd is quite right, I have a pair of the he10 and 2 pairs of the he8 kits from adire, they are very neutral sounding, quite dynamic and very efficient. The crossover is impedance compensated, so they sound great with SET, Zen and other highish impedance amps. The horn loaded tweeter has just been upgraded, I've not heard them yet, but since the price is the same, it's kind of hard to argue with any improvement. Since the plans, schematics and bare drivers are available you can use crossover components and cabinets of any quality that takes your fancy, though the components in the kit are pretty good.

A nice side effect of using semi-pro drivers, the woofer has a thermal rating in excess of 250w, so there is almost no thermal compression at 'normal', ie sane, listening levels. Basically I've never heard or measured better speakers for the price, especially given the high efficiency requirement.

Have fun,

Stuart